The opening of small businesses in the country hit a record last year, according to a survey released by the Brazilian Micro and Small Business Support Service (Sebrae). In 2021, more than 3.9 million entrepreneurs formalized micro and small businesses or registered as individual microentrepreneurs (MEIs).
The number represents a growth of 19.8% compared to 2020, when 3.3 million businesses were opened. In relation to 2018, the expansion reaches 53.9%. That year, 2.5 million national registrations of legal entities (CNPJ) were created.
According to Sebrae, at the same time that the pandemic forced many people to go into entrepreneurship out of necessity, it also stimulated the search for this livelihood as an opportunity. The agency assesses that the growth trend will continue in the coming years.
In 2020, the Global Entrepreneurship Monitor (Global Entrepreneurship Monitor) report estimated that 50 million Brazilians who were not yet entrepreneurs had plans to open their own businesses in the next three years. Of this total, a third would have the pandemic as their main motivation, but two thirds have a “natural” tendency to undertake. The report was prepared by Sebrae and the Brazilian Institute of Quality and Productivity (IBPQ).
microentrepreneurs
Sebrae attributes the increase in business openings to the reduction in bureaucracy provided by the Economic Freedom Act of 2019, the integration of commercial boards and improvements in the simplified electronic registration of new companies. The main highlight was the consolidation of the legal figure of the individual microentrepreneur (MEI), which accounted for 3.1 million businesses opened last year, 80% of the total. In 2018 and 2019, the category represented 75% of the businesses created.
In 2021, 682,700 micro-enterprises were opened (17.35% of the total), with revenues of up to BRL 360,000 per year, a record in the historical series for the segment. 121,900 small companies were created (2.65% of the total). The category includes companies that earn from R$360,000 to R$4.8 million per year.
The opening of micro-enterprises has increased consistently over the years. From 540,600 in 2018, the number jumped to 579,300 in 2019 and 579,500 in 2020. Regarding small businesses, the total increased from 75,000 in 2018 to 94,300 in 2020.
