Covid-19 has injured many small businesses. For some entrepreneurs, this has opened doors.

But the difficulties of some businesses have offered opportunities for new businesses. Homeowners reluctant to leave storefronts empty are offering more affordable leases, and increased stress over the past year has led to increased demand for services such as facials and guided meditation, owners said. business. Some entrepreneurs, laid off at the start of the pandemic, have decided to pursue long-held dreams of owning their own businesses.

Here are the stories of five new businesses – one in each borough – that opened during the pandemic:

A spa in Brooklyn

Sisters and nurses Carla Nelson, 36, and Wendy Jules, 39, opened the doors of Fleur De Lis Beauty & Esthetics on Flatbush Avenue last July. The spa, which offers services like chemical peels, IV hydration, facials, and Botox, was quickly inundated with customers. They are now reserved until June.

Ms Nelson and her sister credit their rapid success with strong support from the Midwood community and social media marketing. They also opened a few months after George Floyd was murdered by the Minneapolis police, and said customers were keen to support black-owned businesses.

Yet they struggled to access capital early on and now as they look to expand. The big banks turned them down and the only loan they managed to get was $ 3,000 from a local black-owned bank. The sisters invested their savings in the business and turned to friends and family, including Ms Nelson’s husband, who emptied his 401 (k).

“We have the skills, we just don’t have the funding,” said Nelson. “This is our number 1 challenge, and our only challenge.”

A hairdresser in Queens

José Campos, 39, was fired from a Manhattan retail store at the start of the pandemic. For a few months, he cooked and sold traditional Salvadoran dishes in his apartment. It was a skill he had learned as a child, when he accompanied his mother on her tamale tours in a grocery cart through the streets of Maryland, where the family lived after immigrating from El Salvador.

Mr. Campos wanted to own his own business for a long time and decided to go into business with his hairdresser. The partners quickly found an affordable location on Roosevelt Avenue in Woodside and opened the Bibi & JD hair salon last September.

Six months later, the company pays its bills but is not making a profit. Attracting customers is a major challenge, said Campos.

“There is still a lot of fear in the Covid community,” he said.

Mr Campos, who is in training to receive his barber’s license, recently sold part of his stake to his partner and opened a small clothing store inside the barber shop, which he hopes , will generate more income. He is behind on the rent on his apartment and has said stress caused him to lose sleep and lose weight.

He plans to sell food from his apartment to earn additional income. His mother, feeling he needed support, flew away from her home in Houston a month ago and is ready to start making big batches of tamales.

A Thai restaurant in Manhattan

Sommy Putthida, 35, moved to New York City to live with her family last spring, after being fired from her job at a tech startup in San Francisco. Her cousin took her to a Pro Thai restaurant on Lexington Avenue, and she learned through a local Thai Facebook group that the owners wanted to sell.

“I saw it as an opportunity,” she said.

She bought the business for $ 100,000 using her savings and the money she borrowed from her family. It reopened under the new owner at the end of May and Ms. Putthida focused on digital marketing and strengthening Pro Thai’s online ordering platform. She built outdoor seating with help from a New York City Economic Development Corp. program. who works with partners to provide free design services to small businesses.

She was able to keep all of the employees at the former owner’s East Harlem restaurant on the payroll, but not all of them work full time. She hasn’t paid rent for four months and she may have to take out a loan to keep the business afloat, she said.

Business Services in the Bronx

Alicia Corso, 36, spent four years obtaining her accounting degree while working as a tax partner at a tax preparation company and as an office manager at a law firm specializing in damages bodily. She realized that in working-class communities, especially where many people speak English as a second language, there was a need for ad hoc business and tax services.

“Not everyone can afford to have an accountant,” Ms. Corso said.

She saw a real estate opportunity when she learned that the owner of her daughter’s hair salon in Morris Park was going bankrupt. The landlord didn’t want the space left empty, and Ms. Corso and her three partners were able to get a good deal on a lease.

In January, Ms. Corso opened AYAM Multiservices on White Plains Road. The company offers services like tax preparation, notarization and translation – Ms. Corso is fluent in Spanish and her partners speak Arabic. Her main focus right now is getting customers in.

“Little by little, it starts to accelerate,” she said.

A wellness center on Staten Island

Cheryl Lafer, 40, had thought about opening a holistic wellness center in 2019 and even designed the logo, but it wasn’t until the pandemic struck and she saw so many people suffering from stress and of anxiety that she decided to pull the trigger. She found a basement on Lamberts Lane in the Mid-Island neighborhood and opened Heal & Prosper Holistic Wellness NYC last July.

Company services include reiki, guided meditation, yoga, sound baths, and wellness coaching. The business is profitable and Ms. Lafer is looking for a larger space and plans to add services including facials and halotherapy, which is a salt room that Ms. Lafer says offers respiratory benefits.

“We have growing pains,” she says.

She attributes her success in part to social media marketing and a high demand for care after a difficult year.

“The root cause of our clients’ arrival is stress,” said Ms. Lafer. “We offer healing, self-care and self-love help, and that’s what people need right now.”

Write to Kate King at [email protected]