2020 on track to shatter record of new Ohio businesses
COLUMBUS (WCMH) – 2020 was a record-breaking year when it comes to new business ventures in the Buckeye state.
Secretary of State Frank LaRose said the entrepreneurial spirit is strong, and he’s expecting more than 160,000 new business filings to close out 2020.
Betsy Tiano had been working in the restaurant industry for years, but she started 2020 with twin babies and uncertainty with work. She knew with the help of her sister, they could make their business dreams happen.
Baking rainbow cookies is a family tradition that brings Tiano joy, but now she does it for the Columbus masses with Angie’s Rainbow Cookies.
"We’ve always, always wanted to open our own restaurant or bakery or some food establishment and I was craving rainbow cookies and all of sudden, she came over and I said, ‘We’re going to start a business,’” Tiano said about how the idea got started this summer.
A new business venture in the middle of the pandemic. She used the time to get her kitchen licensed with the Ohio Department of Agriculture and to create branding and, of course, delicious treats.
"You see that good things do come from bad things, you know,” Tiano said about the COVID-19 pandemic. “You always have to look at the positive side, I’m always telling that to my husband and my family and friends. You have to find that positive to every negative situation and that’s really what we’ve done.”
Tiano is not the only one. LaRose said 2020 is one for the record books when it comes to business filings.
"A lot of us thought we would see new business filings just drop off,” he said. “Who would be so courageous to go out with all of this uncertainty and start new a business? The answer is Ohio entrepreneurs are doing exactly that."
Here are the numbers of business filings over the last three years:
2019 - 130, 621
2018 - 125,204
2017 - 117,429
LaRose said 2020 numbers have already surpassed 2019’s total.
"Passed that in October and so in the month of October, we have already created more new businesses in Ohio than we had in 2019,” LaRose said.
He estimates the state will process paperwork for 160,000 new businesses by the end of the year.
Tiano hopes Angie’s Rainbow Cookies will soon help sustain her family.
"The entire month of December was out of control,” she said. “From the second we launched our Christmas menu, we just got order after order after order."
LaRose said there is still time to file for a new business here in 2020, adding this is the busiest week of the year. He estimates his office is processing around 1,000 requests per day.
Click here to learn about Tiano's new business Angie's Rainbow Cookies, named after her grandmother.
Check out the link here to learn more about filing for a businesses in Ohio.