Big rise in small business owners

Kyle Huddy is a new American entrepreneur, having recently started his own business, Bespoke Garage Designs.

“We are a one stop shop for all of your garage storage solutions,” he said. “We do everything from 3d design to installing cabinets, slatwall, overheads, racks, epoxy floors.”

Huddy became his own boss during the pandemic.

“Before I started this business, I was the director of sales at a hotel out here in the desert,” he said. “With covid and everything, I basically had to look at what the future entails for me and my family.”

Huddy’s career move as an entrepreneur made him one of the record-setting number of Americans that filed for business licenses in the past few years.

“This is not surprising and also very encouraging news for our economy,” said Qingfang Wang, a professor of public policy at University of California, Riverside.

Wang says more Americans are embracing entrepreneurship.

“There are more than 33 million small businesses in America,” she said. “The most recent years have seen a record-breaking new business application in the United States.”

A new report from Babson College shows nearly 1 in 5 adults have started or in the process starting their own business in the past 3 ½ years. This is the highest level since the survey started in 1999.

“The reason that it has increased partially is because there are actually new opportunities,” said Mahdi Majbouri, PhD, a professor of economics at Babson College.

Majbouri says being your own boss can be rewarding. However, inflation and high interest rates are creating new risks.

“If an entrepreneur is facing higher costs, they’re less likely to be profitable,” he said. “They’re more likely to have losses and they may not survive as much.”

For Huddy, being an entrepreneur is opening new opportunities. He’s now offering his clients even more services.

“We decided to go into closets as well because there was a demand for it,” he said. “We have the contacts we have the ability.”

Bespoke Garage Designs is expanding, with Huddy embracing his new career as an American entrepreneur.

“It’s much more rewarding to be able to own your own business and to make your own money,” he said. “But it’s also much more stressful.”

This story was written and reported by Kai Beech.