There are few things that make Parker resident Michele MacPherson smile more than baking.

As a teenager that hobby turned into a passion as MacPherson and her mother would bake pies, cookies, cakes and anything that gets any food lover’s stomach growling.

But when the coronavirus pandemic hit, the opportunity to share pies, cookies and baked goods with friends, colleagues and her husband’s coworkers suddenly stopped.

“Since COVID hit, I had no one to give (my baked goods) to anymore, so I thought I’d start my own business,” MacPherson said.

On Nov. 1, MacPherson launched Ahh Crumb Bakery. And she isn’t alone in getting an entrepreneurial craving.

More than 38,000 Coloradans filed new business licenses throughout 2020’s third quarter, according to the Colorado Secretary of State’s Office Quarterly Business and Economic Indicators report.

Filings were 40% higher than the previous quarter, which made it the largest spike recorded since 2007. At least 70% of those new businesses are considered limited liability companies, according to the filings from the Secretary of State’s Office.

Brian Lewandowski, the executive director of the business research division at the University of Colorado Boulder’s Leed School of Business, said that although each individual case is different there is no one answer to why this is happening.

“We know that during recessions people tend entrepreneurial, maybe because they are forced to be as they lose their job, so they start their own venture,” he said. “Or people just see an opportunity to open a business, or opportunity costs are lower which allows people to pursue their own venture.”

Prior to the third quarter, new business filings and growth in employment had always fluctuated in unison —  rising and falling since the 2008 Great Recession. In 2019, both categories showed their slowest growth since that event, Lewandowski said.

Now, with the rebound in new business filings, employment growth has also spiked.

“We’ve seen a rebound in employment and we’ve seen a rebound in new entity filings, so it’s kind of neat to see that relationship continue to hold up,” Lewandowski said.

These trends are being witnessed not only in Colorado, but nationally. As of Thursday, there has been an increase of 31.8% new business filing, according to the United States Census Bureau.

“I think what we’re seeing is truly a phenomena,” said Chris Brown the director of policy and research at the Common Sense Institute, a Denver-based business policy think tank.

“At the end of the day the changes are occurring rapidly and the volatility is still occurring at a pace that you haven’t seen in previous sessions, so there will be a lot more to come and to learn.”

While Colorado has had a major increase in business filings in the third quarter and the entire year, neighboring Nebraska (50%) and Kansas (32%) have had an even steeper jump, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.

And while researchers have their suspicions as to why more business fillings are happening, Terra LaRock, the founder and CEO of Mindful Mama, said Coloradans have an uncanny ability to adapt to any situation.

“There’s that saying that if you don’t like the weather in Colorado, just wait 15 minutes and it’ll change,” LaRock said.

“We’re all kind of primed that the only constant is change, so whether we’re talking about a snowy day turning sunny, or someone who loses their job and starts a businesses; Coloradans are always willing to change.”

Mindful Mama, a phone application aimed to deliver mindfulness and self-care practices to mothers, launched on March 25, the same day Gov. Jared Polis issued an executive order putting the state on lockdown.

Although LaRock is an Arizona native, she says while living in Colorado, she’s picked up the “Colorado resilience” that has helped push her through tough times.

In the same way, MacPherson used the stay-at-home order to indulge her love of baking and turn it into a business. Her dream is to become a full-time baker and she says she will keep on pushing, like other Coloradans.

“For me personally, I would love to transition out of sitting all day at a desk job and would love to bake as my full-time job because it really is my passion,” she said.

Someday soon I hope that my dream will become a reality, but until it does, I’ll keep giving it my all.”