It's been two years since England's first Covid-19 lockdown and according to new analysis, St Albans has seen a large percentage growth in the number of new companies starting up. As this has also been a very challenging period for business, how have they thrived and why did they choose the cathedral city in Hertfordshire?and it has become known as an ideal commuter town due to its position just north of the M25, with fast - if rather crowded - rail links to central London.
"So I started my website and [lockdown] also gave me the time and space to build a good base and set up my social media which I'd not really been on before." Anna Venetico from the St Albans Chamber of Commerce said lockdowns led to people looking at "that arduous commute" into the capital and taking that leap to set up on their own."We're seeing more of the creative-type marketing industries opening.
She had left the corporate world in 2015 for better work/life balance and had already been working from home for a franchise. Ms Kepinska-Smith, who has lived in the city since 2009, says: "You don't have to scratch the surface long before you find an ex-London person who has left to do their own thing and is well connected so people can make anything happen.
She teaches businesses how to use all the features of Instagram and helps them make a content strategy, so after transferring all her business online, she did regular Instagram posts and had a very successful year."It was cheap and accessible so it got a lot of interest and my online training has grown."
Rachel Brown and her husband Stuart started their young children's gift box website An-Edit a year ago, while still holding down retail jobs as employees.