Originally written by Anna Jordan on Small Business
A massive 770,000 new businesses were created in 2020 – an all-time UK record.
Figures from Tyl by Natwest reveal the number of start-up businesses grew by 30 per cent compared to 2019. Aside from April, 50,000 new businesses were created every month in 2020.
In a year of mass closures across the high street, entrepreneurs turned to the digital market to set up shop. This made online and mail order the most popular sector of creation in 2020.
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There were 305,608 online and mail order businesses created in 2020 compared to 13,615 in 2019. Buying and selling property was the third most popular source of new businesses created, growing by 40 per cent compared to 2019. The number of takeaway shops created increased by 33 per cent in 2020 compared to 2019.
The pandemic hit the female workforce particularly hard, with job losses affecting women 1.8 times more than men. So, women had to find new sources of revenue, such as Etsy. A massive 81 per cent of sellers on the platform identify as women and 69 per cent consider their Etsy shop a business.