Pandemic leads to entrepreneurship, as some turn creative passions into businesses

When she was just 7 years old, Madily Hernandez says her grandma taught her how to crochet. What started as a simple chain and double crochet stitch turned into a full-time business 20 years later. In March 2020, Hernandez, 27, and her family had to leave the house they rented and moved into an RV in Sacramento, California. While her husband was juggling three jobs, she worked as a production line worker at a factory, but it only brought in around $700 a month. In her spare time she would sell crocheted beanies and toys online. Then, a friend’s joke led her to make her first crocheted pillow shaped like a penis. In January, her business making phallic pillows was born. “I was kind of the first one to make that design,” she said, adding that her company, Little Lady Crochets, now has 100 orders and a wait list for new pillows. ►Inflation: Consumer prices rising in South and Midwest amid recovery, threatening low-cost appeal►Employment: How to find and keep your best employees – and surefire ways to lose themHernandez is just one of many women who left the workforce and created their own business during the pandemic. McKinsey and Oxford Economics estimate that women have accounted for nearly 56% of workforce exits since the start of the pandemic, despite making up just 48% of the workforce.“We were stressing about money for so long and it was just something that was so hard on all of us,” said Hernandez, a mother of two daughters, who was able to quit her job. “We were borrowing money from my parents and now we can be free and just be able to relax.”Since January, Hernandez’s business has brought in over $50,000 including $22,000 in April and May alone. Her husband is now working only one job and their family has been able to move into a new home. She expects hundreds more purchases when she is able to accept new orders.►Workers: Delta Air Lines to charge $200 monthly to workers who refuse COVID-19 vaccines►Schools starting: COVID-19 pandemic amplifies school bus driver shortage concernsCreative passions paying more than corporateEven though there were 943,000 jobs added last month, the largest gain since August 2020, many people have found more happiness and income helming their own business ventures. Business applications have been surging according to the U.S. Census Bureau. Bryce Gill, an economist at First Trust Portfolios, an investment management firm, says that the pandemic has really jump started entrepreneurship.“People’s consumption preferences changed significantly during the pandemic and this created endless opportunities for creative entrepreneurs to fill those needs,” Gill said.►Cyrpto news: Millennial parents join the crypto craze. Should you? Here’s what experts say.►Social media: It’s not just Facebook and Twitter. TikTok is ‘hatescape’ for racism and white supremacy, study saysJazmine Garrison, 29, had a job in marketing in Churchville, Pennsylvania. But soon after starting, she knew she wanted to do more with her marketing degree and experience.“I feel like I always, always knew without a doubt that I was never meant for corporate America,” she said. “I never fit it and I always worked for smaller businesses.”She always had her own businesses on the side, but it wasn’t until her Stella Candle Company  took off that she decided to become her own boss full-time. The company, launched in October, 2020, surpassed six figures in revenue in February and Garrison is making 10 times the amount she earned in her marketing job.“It’s what you do with it that matters,” she said. “I turned it into something that could be longer lasting.”Like Hernandez, Garrison started seeing the money roll in with the help of social media. After her first video got 700,000 views, “everything has been different since then.”►Disney Store closings: Is your closest location holding a liquidation sale? See new closures list.►Beauty rewards 101: Sephora at Kohl’s and Ulta at Target bring extra perks for buying makeupThe power of TikTokLike many success stories nowadays, TikTok has paved the way for successful business ideas. A simple scroll through your “for you” page and you’ll see the creative works of millions of people around the world. Vivian Xue, 30, started her own nail art company, Pamper Nail Gallery in Fremont, California after leaving her job as a software engineer.She had to close her salon in April, 2020 because of the pandemic, but she shifted her business online, with TikTok helping to spread the word. With some of Xue’s videos getting over 13 million views, she and her artists are now getting nail requests from around the world and earning between $15,000 to $25,000 a day. ►Low employment: Three Chick-fil-A restaurants close indoor dining amid worker shortages►Free donuts: Krispy Kreme sweetens COVID vaccine deal for a limited time. Here’s how to get two free donuts“It was just kind of one big whirlwind of my dreams being destroyed and then assembled into something better,” she said.While questions linger about how the pandemic may have permanently changed the workforce, Hernandez, Garrison and Xue say it gave them a chance to not only start their own businesses, but make more than they ever did at their prior jobs. “I’m blessed to be able to say that I’m able to do all of this and just know that I’m growing something,” Hernandez said. “I can say ‘Yeah, (I) started all this from an RV.’”►TikTok impact: Oreo Cookie Shake coming back to Applebee’s after Walker Hayes’ song goes viral on TikTok►OnlyFans: Suspends policy change banning sexually explicit content


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