Six-hundred-thousandUS companies – almost 10% – had to shut down a year on from the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. But with over four years gone by since bars, restaurants and other businesses had to shut their doors, has entrepreneurial optimism made a return?
Interested in where small business owners were bouncing back, Wix.com analysed historical business application data from the US business census to find out which state’s residents are finding the confidence to make their mark on the market post-COVID.
Four years since the start of 2020, Wyoming’s business ownerstake the crown for the most optimistic.
Prior to the pandemic in January 2020, the state saw 1,773business applications – but this has almost tripled to 5,260in December 2023.
Confidence to kickstart a new venture is significantly higher in Wyoming than neighbouring state, Idaho,where this increase is only 40%: just two-thirds of the national average.
On the East Coast, Delaware reigns as home of the most confident entrepreneurs. The state has seen a 133.4% increase in new business applications since 2020, doubling from 2,074to 4,840.
South Carolinais the only other state on the East Coast to scratch the top 10, with a 74.0%increase in new business applications: almost 60 percentage points fewer than Delaware.
Montana takes the bronze medal at 98.4%, just short of doubling its business optimism since pre-COVID, rising from 1,094 to 2,170. Just 0.5 percentage points behind is New Mexico, with an increase of 97.9%.