It has been a tough few years for the economy, and high-profile businesses ranging from Smith & Caughey to GrabOne have closed their doors.But that isn't putting some people off starting up something new.Data shows that there were 62,061 companies incorporated in the year to July, the highest number since 2021.Before that, the last time more than 60,000 were incorporated in a year was 2007.About 5000 were trustee services and residential property investment companies.But there were also 1890 construction firms, 1171 business consultants, just over 1000 cleaning companies, 889 computer software development companies, 612 restaurants, 601 clothing retail companies and 462 takeaway food companies.Stats NZ data showed that in June there were 603,549 businesses across the country, up from 596,124 a year earlier.Auckland Chamber of Commerce chief executive Simon Bridges said it was a bit surprising. "But then when you think about it, I can certainly see it... it's a relatively tough time but it's variable. There are some businesses going well, some not so well."He said some people who were starting businesses could be "buying themselves a job"."They're setting something up, a restaurant, retail, that sort of thing where perhaps they aren't satisfied in their work or they've been made redundant or don't have a job so they're giving something a go."I don't think that's a terrible thing, provided they're not investing too much capital, they're prepared to fail fast. I actually think as a generalisation New Zealand could do with a bit more entrepreneurial chutzpah, people getting on and having a go at something."He said he had noticed new restaurants opening when he walked around Auckland.Restaurant Association general manager Nicola Waldren said hospitality always had a lot of movement."The great thing about hospitality is that there are always people keen to pursue an opportunity within the industry. Despite the challenges of the current trading environment, it continues to attract people who want to own and build a business."Not every opening will represent someone coming into hospitality for the first time. Some will be experienced operators opening another venue - a sign that some confidence may be returning - or a business changing hands or a new business replacing one that has closed. So we see the figures reflecting the ongoing movement of our sector."Retail NZ chief executive Carolyn Young said there was an element of churn happening as businesses changed to new owners.ANZ economists noted apparel spending was up 10 percent year-on-year in July after a "brutal" time in the past four years.Hnry chief executive James Fuller said his organisation was seeing strong growth in the number of people starting on their own as sole traders. "Creative, hands-on service-based businesses," he said."Activations in the construction sector of sole traders is actually up 48 percent year-on-year."He said the number of people who were new to self-employment in cleaning businesses was up 26 percent, musicians were up 25 percent and there was 20 percent growth in agricultural operations."What we are seeing is a broad range of people who are all coming into sole trading businesses."He said people were often looking for more work-life balance, or control over their work and remuneration.Fuller said when people were being made redundant during the Covid years, there was a spike in self-employment. "At the moment what's really interesting is we're not seeing the side hustle story. We're not seeing people who have salaried income start to pick up self-employment on the side."The proportion of first-time self-employed who also have a salaried job has fallen year-on-year from 40 percent to 37 percent."We're seeing more people going 'look my salaried life is behind me and I want to be self-employed, I want to be a sole trader'. We're not seeing a Covid-level spike in the redundancies ... it's definitely more a general sense that people want to take back control."People aged under 25 were particularly interested in self-employment, he said, which could reflect it being harder for them to find work. "Increasing from 16 percent to 21 percent of all first-time sole traders year-on-year which aligns with the youth employment stats out there."Simplicity chief economist Shamubeel Eaqub said as businesses closed, it created an opportunity for other things to open up. "It's the creative destruction thing... New incorporations have been increasing for the last three years so it's not a new thing per se it's more than when you look at most surveys people were hoping that this year would be really good but our hopes have been disappointed."Lots of businesses will start on the expectation of what might happen in the future rather than what's actually happening. I think what we're seeing is people are thinking surely it can't get any worse."There's a whole bunch of people starting things and new businesses are risky... it's exciting but risky."Sign up for Money with Susan Edmunds, a weekly newsletter covering all the things that affect how we make and spend money.