Women who Started Businesses During the Pandemic are Rewarded for their Risks

“Only those who will risk going too far can possibly find out how far it is possible to go.”
-T.S. Eliot

The COVID-19 pandemic has been a grueling and wearisome time for everyone. When so much about a potential future post the global pandemic was uncertain for so long, people had to reflect on what was most important to them. One way in which a lot of women did this was by realizing that they could not put off their dreams of entrepreneurship any longer. Taking big risks in one of the most precarious times in recent history has proven to return big rewards to the women who were brave enough to try.

In the recent Los Angeles Times article, “Dream of becoming your own boss? These women made it happen during COVID,” Samantha Masunaga features the accomplishments of several women who knew they had to take the plunge and finally establish their businesses.

Masunaga notes that the HR platform Gusto, “found that 49% of people who started businesses during 2020 were women, up from 27% in recent years, according to a May survey of about 1,500 business owners who used Gusto’s software.” This increase could be present as a result of the especially massive toll that the pandemic has had on women. As Masunaga explains,

“The pandemic has disproportionately affected women, with significant numbers laid off, leaving their jobs or reducing work hours to care for children being schooled at home or other family members. It had another effect too: Women, especially those who had never before started a business, took up entrepreneurship, spurring a wave of first-time business ventures that experts say is a pandemic silver lining worth investing in.”

The women entrepreneurs who responded with resilience and perseverance to the misfortune COVID-19 brought on have seen the big chances they took pay off. Several of these women are featured in Masunaga’s article, and two of the success stories are,

• Jessica Bruny started her mindfulness coaching business JessBeU in June of 2020 as a way of utilizing the virtual tools at our disposal as a result of the pandemic. She was able to “reach people when and where they were.”
• Alexa Stanfill needed a job after graduating from law school in December, and “had long thought about starting her own business, particularly in the horse industry…In January, Stanfill…started Esprit Equestrian Wear…an e-commerce company that started off selling low-cost horse-riding pants.”

Alexa and Jessica took big leaps, and their stories are proof that there is no day but today to invest in yourself and follow your calling.