WAKE COUNTY, N.C. — North Carolina is seeing a boom in new businesses as a record number of people hang their shingle out.
According to the Secretary of State's Office, businesses grew 40% last year in comparison with 2020, with more than 178,000 new entrepreneurs in the state. That number outpaced every other year on record.
What You Need To Know
- New business creations in 2021 outpaced every other year on record in North Carolina
- Business creation filings for 2021 grew 40% in comparison to 2020 with 178,300 new businesses
- That number is double the amount registered just four years ago when there were fewer than 84,000 new businesses created
Bonnie Hall owns Bonnie's Blooms in Raleigh. She preserves flowers from different occasions in people's lives, from weddings to memorials.
"There really is nothing other than the photography that extends beyond the wedding day," Hall said. "And flowers' lives are so short-lived, so to know that I am helping people to preserve their wedding memories and in a way their love story is really neat."
Hall started her business in 2018 after she couldn't find someone to preserve her wedding bouquet. So she took on the project herself. Now, she creates one-of-a-kind picture frames for her clients. She says she loves owning a business, even though it requires her to wear many hats.
"As challenging as some days are, because I am doing every role possible from designing, to shipping, to the accounting, everything," Hall said. "It's just so rewarding."
Hall makes up a growing list of entrepreneurs in North Carolina, as more people register new businesses.
In 2021, the Secretary of State's Office surveyed new businesses created one, two and three years ago. It found that 90% of those businesses are still in operation and that more new business creators were minority-owned, women-owned and a younger age.
