{"id":704936,"date":"2026-07-22T08:53:19","date_gmt":"2026-07-22T08:53:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/704936\/"},"modified":"2026-07-22T08:53:19","modified_gmt":"2026-07-22T08:53:19","slug":"why-5-7-million-americans-started-their-own-business-last-year","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/704936\/","title":{"rendered":"Why 5.7 Million Americans Started Their Own Business Last Year"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>It\u2019s a good time to open a business. There were 5.7 million applications to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.entrepreneur.com\/starting-a-business\/need-a-business-idea-here-are-55\/201588\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">start new businesses <\/a>filed last year \u2014 the most in two decades of government tracking \u2014 and 2026 is on pace to beat it, the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2026\/07\/17\/business\/economy\/american-small-business-boom.html\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">New York Times<\/a> reports.<\/p>\n<p>What\u2019s behind the boom? That two-letter word: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.entrepreneur.com\/business-news\/the-6-step-playbook-for-building-an-ai-powered-startup-without-burning-through-cash\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">AI<\/a>. A University of British Columbia study found generative AI is \u201cspurring entrepreneurial activity\u201d by making it cheaper and faster to get a business off the ground.<\/p>\n<p>For example, Cassidy Winkler, a former flight attendant, used ChatGPT to help her build a business plan, name and logo for her Pilates studio, Revel Method Pilates, which now has three locations, 65 employees and a fourth studio on the way.<\/p>\n<p>But Winkler is an exception. Most of these new business applications are for companies that aren\u2019t likely to hire anyone at all. AI is letting more solo founders skip building a team altogether.<\/p>\n<p>It\u2019s a good time to open a business. There were 5.7 million applications to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.entrepreneur.com\/starting-a-business\/need-a-business-idea-here-are-55\/201588\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">start new businesses <\/a>filed last year \u2014 the most in two decades of government tracking \u2014 and 2026 is on pace to beat it, the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2026\/07\/17\/business\/economy\/american-small-business-boom.html\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">New York Times<\/a> reports.<\/p>\n<p>What\u2019s behind the boom? That two-letter word: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.entrepreneur.com\/business-news\/the-6-step-playbook-for-building-an-ai-powered-startup-without-burning-through-cash\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">AI<\/a>. A University of British Columbia study found generative AI is \u201cspurring entrepreneurial activity\u201d by making it cheaper and faster to get a business off the ground.<\/p>\n<p>For example, Cassidy Winkler, a former flight attendant, used ChatGPT to help her build a business plan, name and logo for her Pilates studio, Revel Method Pilates, which now has three locations, 65 employees and a fourth studio on the way.<\/p>\n<p>But Winkler is an exception. Most of these new business applications are for companies that aren\u2019t likely to hire anyone at all. AI is letting more solo founders skip building a team altogether.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"It\u2019s a good time to open a business. There were 5.7 million applications to start new businesses filed&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":704937,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[233820,84,4203,5029,33106,5487,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-704936","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-entrepreneurship","tag-americas-favorite-mom-pop-shops","tag-business","tag-entrepreneurship","tag-growth-strategies","tag-news-and-trends","tag-starting-a-business","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/704936","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=704936"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/704936\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/704937"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=704936"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=704936"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=704936"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}