Covid-19 hurts many small businesses. It opened doors for some entrepreneurs.

But the struggles of some companies offer opportunities for new ventures. Landlords are reluctant to leave storefronts, offer more affordable leases, and increased stress over the past year has led to increased demand for services such as facials and guided meditation, business owners said. Some entrepreneurs, fired at the start of the pandemic, decided to pursue long-cherished dreams of running their own businesses.

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

A spa in Brooklyn

Sisters and registered 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 such as chemical peels, IV hydration, facials and Botox, quickly became inundated with customers. They are now booked through June.

Mrs. Nelson and her sister appreciate their rapid success with the strong support of the Midwood community and social media marketing. They also opened up a few months after the murder of George Floyd by the Minneapolis Police Department, saying customers were happy to be Black-owned.

Still, they struggled to access capital when they got started and now they want to expand. The big banks turned them down, and the only loan they managed to get was for $ 3,000 from a local black-owned bank. The sisters invested their savings in the business and turned to friends and family, including Mrs. Nelson’s husband, who drained his 401 (k).

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

A barbershop in Queens

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

Mr. Campos had long wanted to have his own business and decided to do business with his hairdresser. The partners quickly found an affordable spot on Roosevelt Avenue in Woodside and opened Bibi & JD’s Barbershop last September.

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

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

Mr. Campos, who is in training to earn his hairdressing license, recently sold some of his stake to his partner and opened a small clothing store in the barbershop, which he hopes will bring more income. He is in arrears with rent for his apartment and said the stress caused him to lose sleep and weight.

He is considering selling food from his apartment to earn some extra money. His mother, sensing he needed support, flew in from her home in Houston a month ago and is ready to start making large batches of tamales.

A Thai restaurant in Manhattan

Sommy Putthida, 35, moved to New York City to live with family last spring after being fired from 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 company for $ 100,000 with her savings and money borrowed from her family. It reopened in late May under new ownership and Ms. Putthida has focused on digital marketing and strengthening Pro Thai’s online ordering platform. She built outdoor seating with the help of a program from New York City Economic Development Corp. that works with partners to provide pro-bono design services to small businesses.

She has managed to keep all the employees of the previous owner’s East Harlem restaurant on the payroll, but not all of them work full-time. She hasn’t paid the rent in four months, and she may need to take out a loan to keep the business running, she said.

Business services in the Bronx

Alicia Corso, 36, spent four years earning her accounting degree while working as a tax clerk at a tax prep company and as an office manager at a personal injury law firm. 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,” said Ms Corso.

She saw an opportunity in real estate when she learned that the owner of her daughter’s hair salon in Morris Park was going out of business. The landlord didn’t want the space to be 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 such as tax filing, notarization and translation. Corso is fluent in Spanish and her partners speak Arabic. Her main focus at the moment is to get customers in.

“Little by little, it’s starting to pick up,” she said.

A wellness center on Staten Island

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

The company’s 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, a salt room that Ms. Lafer says offers breathing benefits.

“We have growing pains,” she said.

She owes her success in part to social media marketing and a strong demand for indulgence after a difficult year.

“The main cause of our customers coming in is stress,” said Ms. Lafer. “We provide healing, self-care, and self-love assistance, which is what people need right now.”

Write to Kate King at [email protected]