Small Business Labs

JUNE 15, 2021

CB Insights is a technology analyst firm covering emerging technologies and tech startups.  They just released a creator economy market map , which is below (click to enlarge). CB Insights points out that digital content creators have had to cobble together various tools to build and monetize their activities.  This is quickly changing.  Key quote: " a slew of startups are looking to disrupt the way creators make content, develop their audiences, or grow their businesses be

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Small Business Labs

MAY 27, 2021

Deloitte and the MIT Sloan Management Review recently released Workforce Ecosystems: A New Strategic Approach to the Future of Work.    This research study found that most executives and managers today "consider employees and other workers who create value for the enterprise — including contractors, service providers, gig workers, and even software bots — to be part of their workforce." They also found about 1/3rd (34%) of the firms surveyed plan to increase their use of exte

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Small Business Labs

MAY 18, 2021

The new business application surge, which started last summer , continued in April, with about 488,000 applications submitted.   This data comes from the U.S. Census' Business Formation Statistics and based on IRS Employment Identification Numbers (EIN) applications.   Most of the applications are what the Census calls "applications other than high propensity" (grey in the chart; click to enlarge).  These are applications from businesses that are unlikel

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Small Business Labs

MAY 17, 2021

Over the past week, there's been a flurry of articles and social media posts on "geriatric millennials" This term refers to the oldest millennials, those born between 1980 and 1985.   One of the more popular articles is Today's Are you a 'geriatric millennial'? The new term defining a micro-generation.  Key quote: It's always been a bit confusing to figure out when Generation X ends and the millennial generation begins — and now a new cohort has emer

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Small Business Labs

APRIL 26, 2021

Apple recently announced AirTags , which they describe as: AirTag is a supereasy way to keep track of your stuff. Attach one to your keys, slip another in your backpack. And just like that, they’re on your radar in the Find My app, where you can also track down your Apple devices and keep up with friends and family. These use a wireless communications technology called ultra wideband, or UWB.   Like Bluetooth and Wi-Fi, ultra-wideband is a short-range, wireless communication protocol

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Small Business Labs

MARCH 18, 2021

After losing a U.K. Supreme Court case,  Uber this week announced it would be classifying its U.K. drivers as "workers."  This means Uber's 70,000 UK drivers will get a minimum hourly wage, holiday pay, pensions and other benefits.  Unlike the U.S., which has two worker legal classifications - self-employed and employee - the U.K. has three.   The "worker" classification is the 3rd, and "w orkers" get some, but not all, of the protections

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Small Business Labs

MARCH 8, 2021

Barlow Research is one of our go-to sources on all things related to small business use of financial services. Their article Five Truths about International Business in the Middle Market covers survey research on the exporting and importing by U.S. firms with between $10 million and $500 million in sales (midmarket companies). As shown in the Barlow chart below (click to enlarge), the key finding is that about one-third of firms in this size category conduct business internationally.

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Small Business Labs

FEBRUARY 25, 2021

In 2020 professional services applications from independent workers (freelancers, independent contractors, etc.) increased by 21% over 2019. Most of the 2020 increase came in the second half of the year and continued into 2021, with professional services applications from independents increasing in January by a stunning 51% over January of 2020. This data comes from Independent Workers Lead Recent Surge in Professional Service Business Applications , a research brief from MBO Partners that is ba

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Small Business Labs

FEBRUARY 18, 2021

Building the Business of You aims to help people "navigate the uncertain, post-pandemic world of work, while aligning personal purpose and professional advancement."  And it hits the target with practical, actionable advice on taking charge of and building a career in the new world of work. The central concept of the book is what the author calls the "career mashup"   This is a career where workers merge their skills, interests, passions, and experiences in a way that

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Small Business Labs

FEBRUARY 16, 2021

A SPAC is a special purpose acquisition company.  A good description comes from CNBC's SPACs used to be a joke in Silicon Valley — now they’re going mainstream. Key quote: In a SPAC, a group of investors raise money for a shell company with no underlying business. The SPAC goes public, generally at $10 per share, and then starts hunting for a company to acquire.

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Small Business Labs

DECEMBER 15, 2020

Last week, MBO Partners released its 10th annual report in the MBO Partners State of Independence research series. Emergent Research (that's us) worked with MBO Partners on this ongoing study across all 10 years. The research was based on surveys of over 23,000 independent workers, gig workers, and micro-business owners and was augmented by 1,500 in-person interviews throughout the decade.  Over the next couple of weeks, we'll be highlighting some of the key findings and insights f

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Small Business Labs

NOVEMBER 5, 2020

Proposition 22, a California ballot measure calling for the exemption of rideshare and delivery drivers being classified as employees, passed by what could be called a landslide - 58% for vs. 41% against.  Prop 22 passing is a major win for Uber, Lyft, DoorDash and other app-based rideshare and delivery firms.  It means they won't have to reclassify their drivers as employees, which would have been required had the measure failed.

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Small Business Labs

AUGUST 31, 2020

According to the National Human Genome Research Institute synthetic biology is: " a field of science that involves redesigning organisms for useful purposes by engineering them to have new abilities. Synthetic biology researchers and companies around the world are harnessing the power of nature to solve problems in medicine, manufacturing and agriculture." Synthetic biology is not a new trend.

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UPS 196

Small Business Labs

AUGUST 3, 2020

It's looking much less likely the U.S. will experience a sharp, V-shaped recovery. Instead, a growing amount of data is indicating a slower, "swoosh" shaped recovery is likely. The swoosh refers to the shape of Nike's logo and indicates a recession that starts with a steep decline and is followed by a gradual recovery. According to the Wall Street Journal's Economic Forecasting Survey, 70% of economists think the recovery will be swoosh shaped.

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Small Business Labs

JULY 2, 2020

Morningstar's 75 Must-Know Statistics About Race, Income, and Wealth covers a wide range of U.S. financial indicators by race.  Key article quote summarizing these statistics: "On average, people of color experience significantly lower levels of income, retirement savings, and rates of homeownership than white Americans. Those shortfalls contribute mightily to other ill effects: poorer healthcare outcomes, lower educational attainment, and shorter life expectancies, for example.

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Small Business Labs

JUNE 25, 2020

Regular readers know we cover retirement and the financial lives of baby boomers a lot here at Small Business Labs.  The reason is older Americans have the highest rate of self-employment of any age group. So if more people retire later and work longer than in the past, the more self-employed there will be.   Transamerica's Retirement Security Amid COVID-19: The Outlook of Three Generations study covers a wide range of topics and is loaded with interesting data.

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Small Business Labs

MAY 13, 2020

Yesterday we covered a series of recent articles saying it will take 2-3 years for the economy to recover to pre-pandemic levels. One reason for this view is almost all industries are being negatively impacted by the recession. Illustrating this is the BLS's employment diffusion index. This index is calculated by adding the percentage of industries with employment increasing plus one-half of the industries with unchanged employment.

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Restaurants 260

Small Business Labs

APRIL 16, 2020

On April 2nd we released a set of scenarios with estimates of how high the unemployment rate may go in 2020 due to the pandemic induced recession.  As our chart below (click to enlarge) shows, already the current estimated unemployment rate (18%) has likely reached our optimistic case (18%).   Last week's unemployment claims came in at 5.2 million, which brings the total unemployment claims over the past 4 weeks to 22 million.  22 million is a bit over 13% of working

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Small Business Labs

MARCH 29, 2020

Last week Congress passed and the president signed the CARES Act, a $2 trillion stimulus bill designed to help businesses and Americans weather the economic storm caused by the COVID 19 pandemic. Independent workers (the self-employed, freelancers, gig workers, etc.) qualify for a number of assistance programs contained in the bill.  We'll be covering these over the next couple of days.   But we want to specifically call out that under the bill most independent workers qual

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Small Business Labs

JANUARY 27, 2020

California's new gig economy law, AB5, is not being well received by independent creative professionals.  Freelance writers, musicians, actors, artists, and other creative professionals are finding the new law is damaging their livelihoods. Indie musicians are a good example. Key quote from the musician's Change.org anti-AB5 petition : AB5 will have a devastating and catastrophic impact on independent musicians, their livelihoods and the music industry in general in California.

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Small Business Labs

JANUARY 13, 2020

Quibi is a startup entertainment company that has raised $1.4 billion in venture funding to build a new content streaming service designed exclusively for mobile devices.  Founded by Hollywood titan Jeffrey Katzenberg and led by CEO Meg Whitman, a Silicon Valley titan, the company has additional star power because of who they've signed up to provide content.  According to TechCrunch : "Quibi has attracted big-name talent to help kick off its first year, including Academy Awar

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Small Business Labs

DECEMBER 10, 2019

HBR's Now to Negotiate as a Freelancer provides an excellent overview of this important topic.  Key quote on 3 things that tend to cause freelancers negotiation problems: First, they focus on the business aspect of the relationship to the detriment of building a personal rapport; second, they attempt to differentiate themselves from their competitors with price discounting, and third, they waste their negotiation time on the wrong clients.

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Negotiating 130

Small Business Labs

SEPTEMBER 24, 2019

California recently passed AB5 , a law that changes how workers are classified. AB5 establishes an “ABC” test to decide whether or not a worker is an employee or a contractor. The law starts with the assumption that everyone is an employee. To be considered an independent worker, a worker must: Be free of the hirer’s control; and. Do work that is “outside the usual course of the hiring entity’s business”; and.

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Small Business Labs

SEPTEMBER 23, 2019

WeWork's troubles seem to be going from bad to worse. They lowered their target IPO valuation from their last private funding round value of $47 billion to under $20 billion - and maybe as low as $10 billion. But after reading about WeWork's huge losses and highly questionable corporate governance practices in their S-! ,  even that wasn't enough to attract investors.

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UPS 168

Small Business Labs

SEPTEMBER 3, 2019

According to a survey from the National Foundation for Credit Counseling , military service members and their spouses are turning turn to the gig economy to supplement their income.  Key quote from the study site : The findings of this year’s survey are a clear indication that military households are turning to the private sector for supplemental income.

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Small Business Labs

AUGUST 8, 2019

SafetyPIN Technologies is a startup that has created a background check system and trust badge that lets people see at a glance if someone they met online - or elsewhere - is safe to meet offline. According to the company's website, SafetyPIN has: "developed a proprietary algorithm that draws on over 10,000 sources of data – and combines behavioral screening — to identify people you can trust the most – and assure them they can trust you, too." The algorithm checks an applicant's

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Small Business Labs

JUNE 25, 2019

One of the biggest shifts uncovered by the MBO Partners State of Independence study series is the increased use of online marketplaces to find work by freelancers and other independent workers. As the study chart below shows (click to enlarge), in 2012 only 3 percent of full-time independent workers reported having used an online marketplace to find work in the prior 12 months.

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Small Business Labs

JUNE 24, 2019

Last week Facebook announced Libra , a new cryptocurrency. It's designed for use in transactions and as an easy and cheap way to transfer money.  Expected to launch next year, Libra is what's known as a stablecoin - a digital currency built to avoid the large fluctuations in value that Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies experience.   And unlike Bitcoin, because the value will remain relatively stable Libra will usable as way to buy things.  While Facebook is the driving

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Small Business Labs

JUNE 13, 2019

Yesterday the CEO's of Uber and Lyft published an op-ed in the San Francisco Chronicle offering to support efforts to improve the working conditions, wages and rights of their drivers.  The offer is in response to a bill in the California legislature that would make it much more difficult for companies to classify workers as independent contractors.  The new legislation would codify a ruling by the California Supreme Court in the Dynamex case.

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Small Business Labs

MAY 20, 2019

The Axios article The American Baby Bust covers the latest fertility data from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control. Key quote: "The U.S. fertility rate has reached a record low, and the total number of births in 2018 was the lowest it has been in more than 30 years." As the article chart below shows (click to enlarge), in 2018 there were 59 births per 1,000 women ages 15-34.  This translates to a fertility rate - the number of babies a woman of childbearing age is expected to have

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Small Business Labs

APRIL 30, 2019

The Forbes article Breaking The Faustian Pact: What Motivates Professionals In A Gig Economy World? covers a study comparing the motivations of independent consultants with consultants working at big consulting firms. As the article chart below shows (click to enlarge), there are big differences. Key quote on the differences: " the freelancers emphasize the flexibility of when and where they work; their peers employed in big firms focus on financial security, personal development and having

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AT&T 170

Small Business Labs

APRIL 22, 2019

The 2019 U.S. version of the Global Coworking Unconference Conference Series (GCUC) happened last week in Denver. Over 500 attendees showed up to discuss the state of the coworking industry and learn from one another. It was clear from the discussions and presentations that the state of the coworking industry is excellent. The industry continues to grow at a rapid pace, niche and independent coworking spaces are thriving, and the big coworking chains continue to expand.  One thing that cau

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Small Business Labs

APRIL 15, 2019

Salon's Mike Schur's new sitcom "Abby's" is "Cheers" for the gig economy is an interview with the producers of a new NBC sitcom that takes places in a backyard bar.  The interview covers what a show set in an illegal backyard bar says about modern culture.  The interview explores multiple themes. But the most relevant to us here at Small Business Labs are the blending of work and life and break down between professional and amateur.

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Small Business Labs

APRIL 11, 2019

In case you hadn't heard, podcasting is booming.  According to The Infinite Dial 2019 , an annual survey conducted by Edison Research and Triton Digital, more than half of all adult Americans have listened to one. And as the report chart below shows (click to enlarge), 32% of all Americans aged 12 and older listened to a podcast in the last month.

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Small Business Labs

APRIL 4, 2019

The small and independent Brewers Association released their 2018 Craft Beer Growth Report. Key quote: In 2018, small and independent brewers collectively produced 25.9 million barrels and realized 4 percent total growth, increasing craft’s overall beer market share by volume to 13.2 percent. Retail dollar value was estimated at $27.6 billion, representing 24.1 percent market share and 7 percent growth over 2017.  We first started following the craft beer industry in 2006 because we felt t

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Small Business Labs

MARCH 12, 2019

MBO Partners recently released their 3rd annual Client of Choice study.  Like prior years, the 2019 study focuses on the growing group of highly-skilled independent professionals (freelancers, independent consultants, etc.) who provide services to businesses on a regular basis. And the number of independent professionals has grown quite rapidly.

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Small Business Labs

MARCH 5, 2019

The Kauffman Foundation recently introduced the Kauffman Indicators of Early Stage Entrepreneurship.  The indicators cover: Rate of new entrepreneurs : The broadest measure possible for business creation by population. Opportunity share of new entrepreneurs : The percentage of new entrepreneurs who created a business out of choice instead of necessity.

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