‘Light bulb moment’: spike in new businesses during Covid-19

Covid disruption has seen a boom in new business registrations, as thousands of stood down and underemployed Australians embrace their inner entrepreneur and open their own operation.

Matt Wilson set up his own plastering business after being made unemployed. Picture: Chris Pavlich

The revolving door of lockdown restrictions and Covid disruption has seen a boom in new business registrations, as thousands of stood-down and underemployed Australians embrace their inner entrepreneur and open their own operation.

Last month, 34,868 new businesses were registered in Australia, up from pre-pandemic levels in the same period in 2019 when just 24,802 were registered, according to ASIC figures.

When the pandemic struck late March last year, new registrations tumbled to 13,358 in April, though by June it bounced back to 26,804 and 24,017 in July.

Many small operators have forgone the expenses of a shop front and opted to advertise online with marketplace and e-commerce platform WorkApp, where thousands of businesses and sole traders advertise services, reporting a 110 per cent spike in listing in the past 18 months, with 280,000 downloads this year.

“Thousands of businesses have come on in just this lockdown and not just Sydney, this happens every time a lockdown happens,” chief executive Shane Wallace said.

“And it’s proving to be all kinds of business listings; small businesses, hairdressers, service- based businesses, accounting firms … it’s a mixed bag.”

Glenmore Park father Matt Wilson, 45, lost his job in sales six weeks ago because of compli­cations from the pandemic and set up his own plastering business, Patch It Up, after a fateful trip to visit his brother on a worksite that gave him the idea.

“It was a big sense of relief, a bit of a light bulb moment,” he said. “I was lacking a sense of where to now … when we made a decision, it was a big relief and excitement at the journey ahead.”

Australian Small Business and Family Enterprise Ombudsman Bruce Billson has heard many accounts of employees who lost work because of the pandemic starting a new business or becoming a contractor or sole trader.

“We’ve been hearing accounts of that … we’ve also heard if businesses were uncertain about their future prospects, some of them were really going quiet lean and cutting back to core business and core staff,” he said.

“Covid has triggered a rethink of what’s important and for some, the rethink that you live to work rather than work to live has been challenged.”