The study discusses the reasons why entrepreneurs in the semi-peripheral country of Hungary see a positive and new opportunity in COVID-19. The study is about the factors that determine entrepreneurs’ ideas about starting a new business as a result of a pandemic. In our study, the Partial Least Squares Structural Equation Modelling (PLS-SEM) method is applied to a nationally representative sample, the data of which were provided by the data of the Global Entrepreneurship Monitor (GEM) international survey on Hungary. Our results show that the willingness of small and medium-sized enterprises in Hungary to start a business was not significantly affected by the COVID-19 pandemic. This is because positive perception can be traced back to past influences, such as individual characteristics, positive perceptions of the majority society, and the respondents’ perception of the Hungarian government’s COVID-19 related measures.