2021: New Entrepreneurship Opportunity?

Everyone is hoping for 2021 to bring better times. Will this be the year to start a business? COVID-19 has created a business market with very low-interest rates, thousands of people looking for jobs, more people working from home and new challenges for people savvy enough to overcome problems with innovative solutions, argues Fast Company.

Winston Ibrahim, CEO of Hydros, recognizes three areas of opportunity for 2021, which he published on Minutes, that entrepreneurs can take advantage of to create a successful business in the future:

1.  THE RISE OF AT-HOME HEALTH PRODUCTS AND REMOTE WELLNESS

These areas include home fitness, supplements, at-home testing and skincare. These products have seen an increase in demand over the course of the pandemic. Ibrahim mentions that the pandemic has taught people that many things that people went out of the house to do, such as working out or shopping, can also be done at home. This does not change the behavior of all consumers but enough for them to see the benefits of doing certain things from home when it is more convenient.

2. THE DIVERSIFICATION OF SUPPLY CHAINS

There has been tremendous innovation and investment in manufacturing automation.

3. THE ACCELERATION OF E-COMMERCE

E-commerce is establishing itself as one of the best and easiest ways to launch a product or a business. It is much more effective to engage with customers online as everything becomes much more direct. Starting online for many entrepreneurs allows for more ways for people to reach your products.

Juan Montoya, Chief Co-Build Officer at Rokk3r, wrote an article for MBN, where he mentions the lessons he learned from the 2008 economic crisis and the ways growth has come for many entrepreneurs since. “Today’s pandemic and resulting recession maybe like no other in its speed, depth and intensity. Although its full long-term structural effects remain to be seen, one of its most salient legacies will certainly be the millions of people and businesses forcibly coming online, particularly in geographies with proportionally lower digital penetration, such as Latin America. There is pressure to create better and more efficient digital channels and trends like the ‘gig economy’ and self-employment, fueled by an ever-increasing number of online platforms, will continue and intensify,” he wrote. To Montoya, the current challenges the pandemic poses could, in the future, provide an engine for recovery and economic well-being that could transform the region.