“I've had to revise my entire business strategy a couple of times — this year.” That statement, from Ron Gomes of Painted Stave in Smyrna, resulted in the following reply from me, “Ron, did you say this year?” I didn't hear him wrong.

Just like many other small businesses around Delaware, many have had to pivot multiple times to reflect the new realities of operating in a pandemic.  

To be clear, all businesses have had to be creative and make adjustments. If we ever had a year when it was vital to celebrate small businesses who are doing remarkable things to keep themselves viable during these protean times — and in normal times — it is 2020. 

The Superstars in Business application period ends this Friday. We are looking for terrific candidates for this high honor. Please consider applying or encouraging a favorite small business of yours to do so. The process is rigorous and fair, but the rewards and exposure cannot be beat!

This week we highlight companies on the CNBC Disruptor 50 list and look closely at numbers 15 and 16 on the list:

Better.com: This digital mortgage company has seen a 200% increase in applications since the coronavirus pandemic began in the U.S., funding $1 billion in mortgage loans in March and $1.4 billion in April. The New York City-based company was started in 2016 by Vishal Garg, a former analyst with Morgan Stanley, after a deal to buy a house for his family fell through. An all-cash buyer was able to beat the timing of his traditional mortgage lender, and that’s when Garg figured there had to be a better way. He used the down payment he had set aside to start Better.com. Learn more >

Grab: There’s an emerging group of companies calling themselves “super app” platforms, and Grab is among them. This Southeast Asian company delivers an array of digital services such as transportation, food delivery, hotel bookings, online banking, mobile payments and insurance services from its app — thus the “super app” title — serving more than 187 million users in over 330 cities across eight countries. Learn more >

This is a busy week for economic reports and data sharing. For example, today we’ll see job openings data from June. On Tuesday morning we’ll get NFIB small-business index information for July. Wednesday morning brings us consumer price index figures for July, and Thursday yields information about import prices. We close the week on Friday with July retail sales figures, and Q2 productivity and unit labor costs data.