Worcester Business Journal

wbjournal.com | February 21, 2022 | Worcester Business Journal 11 Continued on page 12 800-262-1001 | iccreditunion.org Insured by NCUA We've got your business covered. Small to large and anything in between – Business Solutions I haven't started a new business Have you considered starting a new business in the last two years? The number of new businesses started in Central Massachusetts last year spiked 15% from 2020 and was the highest annual total in at least the last five years. When polled online, 95% of WBJ readers said they weren't among those who started a company during the coronavirus pandemic. F L AS H P O L L Yes, although I haven't actually started it yet. 30% No, I like my current job. 38% No, I founded my business before the pandemic and don't want to start a new one. 27% 5% Yes. I founded my business after the pandemic began. Courageousness & challenges is entrepreneurial attitude is true even for people who retain their current jobs, as is the case for Stephanie Ramey, president of the Worcester Railers Hockey Club. While she remains in that position, 2021 was the year she stepped out on her own, launching e O Shop on Richmond Avenue in Worcester. e lingerie store opened in July. Ramey had always wanted to start her own venture, especially aer working closely with the region's small business owners in her previous job as executive director of the tourism agency Discover Central Massachusetts. "I always admired their courageous- ness and the challenges they faced," Ramey said. She describes herself as someone with an intense entrepreneurial spirit. But even with that spirit, she's still a per- son with a separate career and a lot of responsibilities. e pandemic provided some unexpected space to more fully digest the idea of starting a company. She doesn't know if she'd have had the band- width or internal drive, otherwise. "ere was more time for reflection and, maybe, just to get inspired," she said. She floated the idea by friends and colleagues for several months. When she bought the domain name for the store, and the P.O. box, though, the proposed business suddenly felt tangible. And despite economic uncertainty brought on by the pandemic, business is doing well. Ramey credited this, in part, with consumer desire for one-on-one, personalized human interactions – pre- cisely the kind of thing limited by needs and rules around social distancing. "We are hungry for it and will proba- bly continue to be thirsty or hungry for human interaction aer this," she said. Finding happiness It's not all business startups, though. For some, it's been a year of business expansions. Rocco's Doughnut Co. is one such example, opening its third store and first Worcester shop on Feb. 9, on West Boylston Street. Owned by Joseph Astrella, who said his father was one of the original Dunkin' franchise owners in the 1950s, he opted to grow his business aer orig- inally putting 2020 plans for a Worcester shop on hold because of the pandemic. Aer two years of adapting operations in Millbury and Westborough, including maturing the Rocco's online ordering system and continuing to serve some- times as many as 350 customers in a single day, the timing fell into place. For those familiar with the doughnut shop's history, this might not come as a surprise. When it comes to taking the risky plunge into small business ownership, Astrella is no stranger. When he opened the first Rocco's at its flagship location in Millbury in March 2018, he'd just le his job in the corporate world, where he'd worked for more than two decades and was, at the time, commut- ing two hours a day for a career he said he just didn't enjoy. His kids were fully grown, and it was time, he decided, to try something new. "If you hate what you do, don't waste your time," he said. "Do something else." He's full of similar plucky advice for

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