COVENTRY and Warwickshire has seen an increase in the number of people becoming self-employed throughout the pandemic.
The local Chamber of Commerce says more people have set up businesses during the pandemic after finding themselves unemployed or having time throughout lockdown to pursue their dream of self employment.
The rise in local start-ups was recognised during an international celebration of entrepreneurship.
It was held in partnership with Coventry University on Thursday (November 19).
Among those to speak at the event was Gemma Deane from Rugby who sells reusable sanitary pads through her company Floating Lotus. She wanted to create the product to become more eco-friendly and cut down on pollution.
Chamber operations manager Keely Hancox said: “This region has always performed well when it comes to starting businesses and through the support we offer at the Chamber, we’ve seen a marked increase in the number of people looking to set-up during lockdown.
“There are a couple of major reasons for that which we will explore in more detail. The first is that many people have found themselves unexpectedly unemployed. Many posts that would have been safe back in February have suddenly become redundant because of the economic fall-out of covid 19.
“Secondly, we’ve seen individuals have more time on their hands during lockdown and they’ve taken that time to decide to pursue their dream of self-employment. We sometimes see a pick-up in enquiries for start-up support just after Christmas for the very reason that people have had time to think. Over the past six months, that time has been multiplied many times over.
“This event was a great opportunity to find out a bit more about the support on offer and also hear from local entrepreneurs to find out how they’ve gone about establishing their own business and some of the challenges involved with that.”
