{"id":367897,"date":"2026-08-10T23:40:55","date_gmt":"2026-08-10T23:40:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/367897\/"},"modified":"2026-08-10T23:40:55","modified_gmt":"2026-08-10T23:40:55","slug":"tampa-small-businesses-grow-as-applications-hit-record-high","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/367897\/","title":{"rendered":"Tampa small businesses grow as applications hit record high"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>TAMPA, Fla. \u2014 Small businesses are opening and expanding in downtown Tampa as business applications reached a record high nationwide in 2025, including two Sparkman Wharf retailers that grew from small starts into storefronts.<\/p>\n<p>The <a href=\"https:\/\/www.census.gov\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">U.S. Census Bureau<\/a> said the country saw a record 5.7 million business applications in 2025, a more than $2 million increase since 2019. Florida ranked third in the country for both business applications per capita and for the number of new businesses that were likely to employ multiple people.<\/p>\n<p>At Sparkman Wharf, Gabriel Santos is five weeks into operating his first storefront for <a href=\"https:\/\/engrainedapparel.com\/?srsltid=AfmBOopOmqkVKgeUdjerA2AcUqgy7Dvb2nHL-f0Pq4WTwMyyA7_6tzj6\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Engrained Lifestyle Apparel<\/a>, a brand focused on Tampa Bay-themed designs.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThere has always been a problem, in my opinion,&#8221; said Santos. &#8220;Finding a way to represent Tampa outside of your Bucs or Lightning or Devil Rays jersey.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Santos started selling his designs online in May 2024 before moving into in-person sales through local markets.<\/p>\n<p>Engrained Lifestyle Apparel is not the only Sparkman Wharf business that started as a temporary or smaller operation. Ben Prakobkit and his wife, Lisa, opened the second location of Modern Paws at the Wharf in 2020 after starting the pet shop company out of their apartment in 2015.<\/p>\n<p>Prakobkit said the business began after their dog had an allergic reaction.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe kind of went down the rabbit hole of more of a natural alternative to conventional medicine,\u201d said Prakobkit.<\/p>\n<p>Modern Paws now has several shops across the area.<\/p>\n<p>With multiple locations and employees, Prakobkit said the owners understand the work their staff members do.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAll of our staff understand that, you know, there is nothing we would ask them to do that we haven\u2019t done personally ourselves,\u201d Prakobkit said.<\/p>\n<p>The <a href=\"https:\/\/www.tampasdowntown.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Tampa Downtown Partnership<\/a>, which monitors businesses in the area, said downtown Tampa is also making strides.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cTampa\u2019s Downtown is entering its next phase of growth,\u201d the organization\u2019s CEO, Kenyetta Hairston-Bridges, said in a statement. She added that the group wants more retail small businesses and is \u201cdeveloping a Downtown Retail &amp; Ground Floor Activation Strategy.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Santos said he hopes more foot traffic downtown will bring more business. He is currently running the shop by himself and said he may eventually hire help.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI\u2019ve worked every single day since opening, so it is just part of the grind,\u201d Santos said. \u201cLike to me, I would rather gauge the traffic and see if I need to hire someone, when would I hire them?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>For now, Santos said he is working alone as he builds his brand in downtown Tampa.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"TAMPA, Fla. \u2014 Small businesses are opening and expanding in downtown Tampa as business applications reached a record&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":367898,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[2031,274,558,276,2200,115,275,135,137,136,278,2032,835],"class_list":["post-367897","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tampa","tag-app-local-business","tag-app-top-stories","tag-business","tag-hillsborough-county","tag-instagram-bn9","tag-news","tag-spectrum-news-staff","tag-tampa","tag-tampa-headlines","tag-tampa-news","tag-top-stories","tag-trending-topics","tag-vod"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/367897","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=367897"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/367897\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/367898"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=367897"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=367897"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=367897"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}