Business Applications Hitting Record Pace. Here's What to Know Before You Join Them.

Turns out, a lot of people are jumping into the entrepreneurial game this year. Maybe it's the job market, AI anxiety or people wanting to be their own boss. Whatever the reasons, they’re driving up the startup numbers:

→ Americans filed 531,423 business applications in June alone, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.

→ Total filings for the first half of 2026 exceeded three million.

→ We’re on pace to finish the year with more than 6 million new applications, up from about 5.6 million in 2025 (around 5.5 million is typical).

That’s encouraging news in an economy where rising costs, high interest rates and continued uncertainty could easily be keeping people on the sidelines. But filing an application, choosing a business name and setting up a website are the easy parts. The harder part is figuring out whether the business can attract customers, make money and survive long enough to grow.

Before you jump in:

→ Make sure someone needs what you're selling. Think hard about the individuals or businesses who need what you're selling, what problem it solves and why they'll pay you to solve it. Include people who actually have the problem in this exercise, and try to find out how they're dealing with it now (and what you can do better).

→ Test the idea first. Talk to prospective customers, offer a limited version or take advance orders before making a big investment. It's cheaper to adjust a small test than recover from a costly launch that doesn’t go as planned.

→ Run the numbers. Estimate your startup costs, monthly expenses and how long you can operate without a steady income. Most new businesses need time to build sales, but your mortgage, rent, utility bills and other expenses still have to get paid during that period.

→ Get the business fundamentals in place. Choose a business structure, open a separate bank account and set up a basic system for tracking income and expenses (there are lot of apps for this). Figure out how much income the business is bringing in, how much you're spending and what's left after the bills are paid.

→ Get in front of the right people. Make a list of prospective customers, referral partners, professional contacts and places where your target audience already spends time. Even the best product or service won't generate sales when no one knows it exists. Your socials are a good place to do some free test marketing on any budget.

Need more tips like these? The Swift Success Series walks you through how to plan, start, fund and grow a business from scratch.

Find it on Amazon → https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0G2T675VM