Unemployment creates more home businesses

Hundreds of people in Middle Georgia are facing unemployment due to COVID-19.

Department of public health is encouraging people to continue washing their hands frequently and wear masks when going out.

Hundreds in middle georgia... are uemployed due to covid-19.

And those without jobs say... during this covid-19 pandemic ... they are looking for new ways to make money.

41nbc's peyton lewis explores how you can turn a hobby ... into a successful business.

According to the us chamber of commerce, 37 million people have filed for unemployment since february, including over 1.6 million in georgia.

"all of the restaurants were ordered by the governor to shut down.

This was right before the beer festival, the just tapp'd beer festival in macon.

So now with the festival being cancelled and restaurants being closed my husband is not working as much as he would have."

Kim evans says her company, lili cups, used to sell cupcakes.

Evans says lili cups is now lili crafts, a wreath and home decor business she created to try and make ends meet.

"in order to supplement and help out with the family, i decided to bring back lili cups but make it more just lili crafts to stick with the wreath making.

I'm in a local department store in the flower section picking up more materials to fill a few orders, and that's what we're doing to get by, just crafting as much as we can.

Unfortunately, right now though, nobody is working so nobody has a lot of extra money to spend on home decor."

Newtown macon is dedicated to helping small businesses succeed.

But the company says starting a home business can be difficult, especially during this time.

Emily hopkins, the director of place at newtown macon, shares a simple tip on how to be successful.

"consumer confidence is definitely a little shaky right now.

People are not sure what the future holds so people are holding onto their money a little bit more than they had been in the past.

So the thing we tell our business owners is that you need to be showing how you can solve a problem for your customers."

Hopkins says social media knowledge and tech savviness can be key.

"the key part of using social media platforms to sell these products is to make it as easy as possible for people to understand how they can actually purchase that item.

You want to make it very clear in any kind of post that you're writing that this is the call to action that c1 3 b13 you can purchase this item."

In macon, peyton lewis, 41nbc news.