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

AT&T 260

AT&T UPS 260

Small Business Labs

APRIL 20, 2021

By late last summer, it became clear that most companies would likely move to a hybrid working model , which combines increased levels of remote work with in-office work. The Washington Post's recent article T he hybrid office is here to stay. The shift could be more disruptive than the move to all-remote work covers the growing number of companies announcing they're going hybrid.  Key quote: "The post-vaccine   workplace is taking shape, and for many it’s going to be a h

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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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2021 256

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

Legal 181

Legal Holidays Expenses 181

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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International Finance 232

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 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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Yahoo 2019 Finance Forms 204

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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Health 2020 Interviewing 2011 265

Small Business Labs

DECEMBER 10, 2020

The global marketing agency Wunderman Thompson's article Ghost Kitchens covers the growing popularity of delivery-first dining and the related growth of ghost kitchens, which are also called cloud kitchens. Ghost restaurants are delivery only, online restaurants that skip storefronts and deliver food straight to the customer.  And one reason we're covering this topic is yesterday the food delivery firm Door Dash went public in spectacular fashion , ending the day worth a stunning $

Restaurants 199

Restaurants Agencies UPS 199

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.

UPS 196

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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Health AT&T 272

Small Business Labs

JULY 27, 2020

The COVID-19 pandemic has led to a substantial increase in mental issues.  According to a Kaiser Family Foundation study : "Over half of U.S. adults (56%) report that worry or stress related to the coronavirus outbreak has caused them to experience at least one negative effect on their mental health and wellbeing, such as problems with sleeping or eating, increased alcohol use, or worsening chronic conditions." Several online marketplaces are trying to make it easier and cheaper fo

Health 231

Health Yahoo Finance Expenses 231

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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2016 Retirement 278

Small Business Labs

MAY 19, 2020

The U.S. Census has created a Small Business Pulse survey to track and measure how small businesses are faring during the COVID-19 pandemic. They released their first set of findings last week (the data was collected between April 26th and May 2nd) and, not surprisingly, they found small businesses are struggling.   As the Census chart below (click to enlarge) shows , 51% of the small businesses surveyed reported that the pandemic was having a large negative effect on their business.

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Payroll Policies 187

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.

Restaurants 260

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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2020 AT&T 179

Small Business Labs

APRIL 10, 2020

Starting today, April 10th, independent workers (self-employed, freelancers, independent contractors, etc.) can apply for Paycheck Protection Loans (PPP), which are part of the federal CARES Act stimulus package.  The loans allow independent workers to access to up to $10,000 in forgivable loans to cover payroll or wages they pay themselves over the eight weeks following the signing date.

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Credit Card Payroll UPS 118

Small Business Labs

APRIL 1, 2020

Congress passed and the president signed the massive Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security Act (CARES Act) economic stimulus package last week.  The legislation contains a number of provisions aimed at helping independent workers (the self-employed, freelancers, gig workers, etc.) weather the economic storm caused by the coronavirus pandemic.

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Payroll Expenses Agencies Filing 152

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

Policies 227

Policies 227

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.

Agencies 161

Agencies Policies UPS 161

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

Expenses 130

Expenses Forms Phones UPS 130

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

OCTOBER 22, 2019

12 months living as a digital nomad , from LinkedIn, describes how a GE talent development executive spent a year as a digital nomad. The key quote describes what she did when she finished her year as a digital nomad: A point of culmination of this experiment is when I had the opportunity to pitch my experience to the CHRO of GE and so I have presented my learnings about this aspect of the future of HR, painting an image of digital nomads and flexible work at GE.

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2019 Policies Travel Google 113

Small Business Labs

SEPTEMBER 26, 2019

MBO Partners this week released Digital Nomads: Leading the Shift to Remote and Distributed Work. The key finding of this study is 7.3 million Americans identify as digital nomads.  Digital nomads are people who choose to embrace a location-independent, technology-enabled lifestyle that allows them to travel and work remotely, anywhere in the world.

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Lifestyle Travel AT&T 128

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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Legal Travel AT&T Policies 110

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.

UPS 168

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 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).

Lifestyle 119

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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Social Media Confidence AT&T 105

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.

Legal 114

Legal Policies 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

MAY 13, 2019

Deloitte has become, in our opinion, one of the key go-to sources of information and analysis on the future of work. Their recent article Redefining work, workforces, and workplaces is a good example. In a relatively short article, it nicely synthesizes and explains "multiple converging trends and how they are already fundamentally changing all aspects of work."   As the article chart above shows (click to enlarge), they focus on three main areas: work, workforce and workplace.

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Skills Management 242

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

AT&T 170

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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2018 Customer Service 2019 Management 119

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

2019 214

2019 Learning UPS 214

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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2019 2018 AT&T 183