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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AT&T UPS 260

Small Business Labs

APRIL 8, 2021

McKinsey's Global Energy Perspective 2021 suggests the global demand for fossil fuels will peak in 2027 and steadily fall afterwards.   As McKinsey's report chart below shows (click to enlarge), global coal demand peaked in 2014 and they are projecting oil demand to peak in 2029, and natural gas demand peaking in 2037. Other forecasts are even more aggressive.  A recent report by the International Energy Agency suggests oil supply and gasoline demand may have already pe

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Small Business Labs

APRIL 1, 2021

JungleScout provides a platform that helps small businesses find, launch, and sell products on Amazon.  They recently released their 2021 State of the Amazon Seller Report. This report covers who Amazon's small business sellers are, what and how they’re selling, how they are responding to the pandemic induced increase in ecommerce and their future plans.

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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 5, 2021

We haven't seen all the Super Bowl ads yet, but we know independent workers will be featured in two of them. Squarespace's ad (below) features Dolly Parton singing 5-9, a take off on her hit song and movie 9-5.  It shows a variety of side giggers pursuing their passions. Fiverr also has a Super Bowl ad, but we haven't seen it yet.  But no doubt it will feature creative independents.

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Small Business Labs

JANUARY 28, 2021

The number of people who have side hustles (also called side gigs) has been growing rapidly over the past 5 years.   The reasons for this growth - and how to start and run a side gig - are nicely explained in CNBC's extensive field guide The Ultimate Side Hustle Guide. Key quote on why more people are starting side gigs: "Starting a side business is one of the smartest financial moves you can make right now.

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2021 Budget UPS 266

Small Business Labs

JANUARY 19, 2021

Poshmark is a social e-commerce platform where people buy and sell secondhand goods, mostly used clothes.  It went public last week and closed its first trading day worth $3 billion.   In the Barron's article Poshmark CEO Sees Huge Market for Used Goods. Investors Agree  the firm's CEO described the trends driving their growth and opportunity.  Key quote: In a Zoom interview on Thursday with  Barron’s  from his office in Redwood City, Calif., Pos

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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

OCTOBER 26, 2020

One of the more interesting findings of the MBO Partners 2020 Digital Nomad study is the large number of Americans who aren't currently digital nomads who say they want to be. Key quote from Bloomberg's When You Can’t Work From Barcelona, Boulder Might Do , which covers the study: " there is a massive and growing reserve army of digital-nomad wannabes — people who tell the survey-takers they’re planning on going nomadic in the next two or three years, or at least thinking about it.&#

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Small Business Labs

SEPTEMBER 28, 2020

Desktop Metal , a leader in 3D printing with printers than can build metal parts, is going public.  Supporters of the company claim this is the beginning of a much more successful era for 3D printing, which they're calling 3D printing 2.0. As the Crunchbase article 3D Printing Investment Going Vertical As Big Exit Looms points out, 3D printing has been around a long time and, so far, has not lived up to its hype.  Key quote: Transformative technologies often get massively overhyp

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Small Business Labs

AUGUST 17, 2020

Farmers Business Network (FBN) provides a data and analytics platform that helps farmers - and especially family farms - with everything from seeds and planting advice to pricing and marketing. They recently raised $250 million and the company is valued at $1.75 billion.  According to their press release : FBN is an advocate for family farmers and ranchers and is committed to the premise that true price transparency levels the playing field for farmers – regardless of geography or size – a

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Small Business Labs

AUGUST 4, 2020

The Hamilton Project essay The Nature of Work after the COVID Crisis: Too Few Low-Wage Jobs is authored by MIT economists David Autor and Elisabeth Reynolds.  The essay covers four shifts being accelerated by the COVID-19 pandemic and their impact on labor markets.  And, according to the authors, all four potentially have significant, negative consequences for low wage workers, economic inequality and overall employment.  The four are: 1.  Telepresence : The essay points

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Small Business Labs

JULY 20, 2020

Last week we had an article on U.S. Census data showing a big uptick in the number of Americans who are self-employed.   s It's likely this increase is caused by people who have lost their jobs turning to self-employment.   Because of this, we found the recent MBO Partners' blog post How to Become a Consultant: 5 Steps to Starting Right to be very timely.

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Small Business Labs

JULY 14, 2020

The Pandemic Unemployment Assistance program (PUA) is part of the federal CARES stimulus act passed in March. The PUA extends unemployment insurance to the self-employed, independent contractors, gig economy workers, and others who typically don't qualify. It's clearly been a success, with about 14 million workers receiving aid through the PUA.   The chart below (click to enlarge) is from CNBC's Job losses remain ‘enormous’: Coronavirus unemployment claims are worst in hi

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Small Business Labs

JULY 13, 2020

According to U.S. Census data, the number of white Americans fell by close to 100,000 in 2016 and continued falling in 2017 and 2018.   As the Brookings' chart on this data below (click to enlarge) shows, the white population change in the U.S. has been declining for several decades.  But in the last 3 years, it fell. Key quote from the Brookings report on this data :  An important finding in the new census data is the decline of the nationwide white population for th

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Small Business Labs

MAY 18, 2020

MBO Partners recently released its 2020 Client of Choice study results, which found that 7.6 million independent professionals (freelancers, independent consultants, etc.) provide their skills to business clients.   And as the report chart below (click to enlarge) shows, the number of independent professionals in this space has grown rapidly over the past decade - increasing at almost 4 times the growth rate of overall employment during this period.  Independent professional se

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Small Business Labs

FEBRUARY 13, 2020

Landing recently raised $30 million to provide a "living as service" service.  The firm's founder describes this as : " an all-inclusive long-term living experience that allows a new generation of renters the freedom to choose where and how they live." Landing partners with property managers and apartment owners to offer apartments in 13 different cities in the U.S.  Renters join Landing by paying an annual fee of $199 a year.  This gives them the ability to

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2020 Networking Management UPS 172

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

JANUARY 6, 2020

Korn Ferry is a large, global organizational consulting and recruiting firm. Their research institute recently released their Top 10 Talent Trends for the New Year.    All the trends are interesting. But the one that jumped out at us is the rise of career nomadism. Key quote describing this group: " there’s an increasing amount of employees who actually want to make walking out the door a major part of their career.

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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

AUGUST 27, 2019

As we pointed out yesterday , working remotely is increasingly common for both independent workers and those with traditional jobs.  Two recent articles also point this out and add several new buzzwords to our remote work vocabulary. The Harvard Business Review's Is It Time to Let Employees Work from Anywhere? points out there is a new form of remote work emerging which they refer to as "WFA" (work from anywhere).

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Lifestyle Forms AT&T UPS 119

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

JULY 23, 2019

That side gigs - part-time or occasional work to supplement income - have become more common is hardly new news. Nor are the reasons behind the growing number of Americans with side gigs. Simply put, workers up and down the income ladder are finding that their compensation simply doesn’t keep up with rising costs, especially of education, health care, and housing.  Because of this, more Americans are turning to side gigs to help them make ends meet.

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2019 Health Skills UPS 114

Small Business Labs

JULY 1, 2019

It's been a busy couple of weeks for gig economy studies. Below is a list of 4 of the recently released studies. 1. Want Your Business to Thrive - Cultivate Your External Talent : The Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM) and Success Factors teamed up for study, which surveyed independent workers, managers who hire independent works and HR employees.  The goal of the study was to get a 360 view of external labor use by businesses.

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Small Business Labs

MAY 30, 2019

Essensys , which is based in London and describes itself as providing "The world's leading coworking software and technology to power your workspace business", went public this week on the London Stock Exchange. The company sold GBP28 million (about $35 million) worth of stock to the public and garnered a marketcap of GBP83.5 million (about $104 million).  The stock had a good opening, ending the first day of trading up 15%.  Essensys isn't a big company.

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2018 UPS 114

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 25, 2019

Gartner's Most Competitive Roles 2019 provides an interesting look at the jobs big companies are hiring for.  The key finding is there is a lot of demand for a relatively small number of critical jobs.  According to the report, "49% of all job postings by S&P 100 companies in 2018 were for just 39 roles. The remaining 51% were for 872 other roles." The report chart below (click to enlarge) lists some of the high demand roles.  Not surprisingly software developer

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Small Business Labs

APRIL 23, 2019

The Federal Reserve recently released its 2019 Small Business Credit Survey.  A key finding is the use of online lending sources by small businesses is rapidly expanding.  As the study chart below shows (click to enlarge), in 2018 32% of small businesses seeking credit applied to an online lender. This is up from just 19% in 2016. The top reasons small businesses say they turned to online lenders is their speed of decision making and the view that they had a better chance of being fu

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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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2019 Learning UPS 214

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 11, 2019

Quartz's Life coaches are the new personal trainer highlights a trend we've been tracking since 2008 , the growth of personal services.  These are what noted labor economist David Autor calls "wealth work"   A good example is the growth are personal trainers. Back in 2000 there were so few the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) didn't track them.

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Small Business Labs

FEBRUARY 5, 2019

Colliers International, a global real estate services and investment management company, recently released their 2019 U.S. Flexible Workspace Outlook Report. According to the report's introduction, its purpose is "to help office occupiers and investors alike to better understand: • The rationale behind using flexible workspace • Examples of leasing models • Types of experience models • The volume and characteristics of flexible workspace in leading U.S. markets • Key issues facing the se

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Small Business Labs

FEBRUARY 4, 2019

Rig Up , an online talent marketplace that connects oilfield workers who are looking for a job with oil and gas companies, recently announced it had raised $60 million in VC funding.  The company was founded in 2014 and it pre-qualifies contract oilfield workers and helps them find gigs quickly and easily with energy firms.  Thanks to fracking, U.S. oil and gas production has been growing steadily for the last decade, with oil production at an all time high.

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