Small Business Labs

JULY 7, 2021

May was yet another banner month for new business applications.  As the U.S. Census chart below shows (click to enlarge), 500,219 business applications were filed in May.  This was the second highest number of applications filed since this data was first collected in 2005. The recent surge in applications started last summer in July when a record 551,000 business applications were filed.   The surge has, so far, continued in 2021.

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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

APRIL 27, 2021

Most gig economy and freelance studies cover a broad range of independent workers, so it's interesting when someone does a segmented, vertical market study on a freelancers.   Vogue's Fashion's freelancer problem exposed covers a recent survey on the effects of the pandemic on fashion industry freelancers'    The survey results show that the pandemic had a strong negative impact on them, with 66% of fashion freelancers reporting their financial situation h

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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

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

JANUARY 25, 2021

The 2021 edition of the annual Wunderman Thompson Future 100 report was released last year.  It's one of our favorite trend reports.  Here's how Wunderman Thompson, a global advertising and marketing agency, describes the report: The Future 100: Trends and Change to Watch in 2021   highlights  emerging consumer  behaviors  with 100 trend predictions from Wunderman Thompson Intelligence.

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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

SEPTEMBER 9, 2020

A recent study by Colliers , a global real estate services company, found that 83% of those working from home due to COVID-19 would prefer to continue doing so after the pandemic ends. As the study chart below shows (click to enlarge), 45% said they'd like to work from home 1-2 days per week. Only 15% said they'd like to work from home full time.

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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 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 22, 2020

Thrasio is a large and fast-growing acquirer of small consumer product companies that are part of Amazon's Fulfillment by Amazon program (FBA).  They recently raised $260 million in a funding round that values the company at $1 billion.   Thrasio's business model is fairly straight forward.  They find and buy category-leading consumer product small businesses that operate on Amazon's platform.  Key quote from Crunchbase's article on Thrasio's rec

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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

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

JUNE 15, 2020

Gensler, a large global integrated architecture, design, planning and consulting firm, recently released its U.S. Work From Home Survey 2020 report. The survey was done between April 16th to May 4th and the respondents "were required to be working full time for a company of 100 or more people, to have worked in an office environment prior to COVID-19, and to be currently working from home."  In other words, Gensler's surveyed nicely captured the views of people who typically wo

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Small Business Labs

MAY 27, 2020

According to the  U.S. Census,  the number of   nonemployer small businesses increased to 26,485,532 in 2018, up 3% from 2017.  Nonemployers are businesses that have an owner but don't have paid traditional full or part-time employees (W2 employees). The data comes from tax records and you can think of nonemployers as solopreneur businesses (some exceptions apply - see below).

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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

MAY 5, 2020

According to the research firm Barlow Research Associates , the average small business owner is 60 years old. And as the Barlow chart below shows (click to enlarge), almost 40% are aged 65 or older.  This raises an interesting question.  How will older small business owners react to the pandemic? Will they continue operating their businesses, or will they shut them down?

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Small Business Labs

APRIL 7, 2020

Based on an industry by industry analysis (1), our base case estimate is 21% of U.S. employer small businesses will close in 2020 (2) (3).  This is about 1.2 million small businesses.   In our optimistic case, 14% close and in our pessimistic case, 34% close.   The table below (click to enlarge) shows the scenario data.  The scenarios are briefly described in note (4) below.   By way of comparison, the SBA chart below shows small business closure a

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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

FEBRUARY 27, 2020

The San Diego Union Tribune's Would you live in a van? Two San Diego women launch startup for boho traveler movement covers a new app - conveniently called The VanLife App - targeted at VanLife nomads. The article provides a good description of VanLife: "For those who haven’t heard of it, “vanlife” refers to a recent bohemian trend of people buying cargo vans, old ambulances, school buses and other boxy vehicles, and converting them into livable apartments on wheels (think of it as a do-

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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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Small Business Labs

JANUARY 23, 2020

Each of the past 6 years the trends group at the global advertising giant Wunderman Thompson has released an annual trends report covering 100 trends to follow in the coming year. Yes, they really do have 100 trends. And the JWt Intelligence Future 100 Report: 2020 takes 226 pages to cover them.  The focus is on consumers and the report covers trends across 10 sectors, spanning marketing, culture, luxury, beauty, travel and more.  Our favorite trend comes from the beauty section and

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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 17, 2019

Skift is one of our favorite publications. It covers the travel, dining, and wellness industries from a business perspective. Because of their remit, they report on a wide range of interesting trends. The recently released their 10 Business Travel Trends for 2020. The 10 are: The Power of Being There in Person. Designing Great User Experiences to Boost Adoption.

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Small Business Labs

DECEMBER 16, 2019

Quartz’s members-only article (meaning you have to be a paying subscriber to see it) The stars, teams, and investors turning esports into big business nicely covers the rise of esports. Key quote: “Tens of millions of viewers are tuning in to watch other people play video games competitively, and it’s becoming big business …  it is creating a new kind of sports star, and both the gaming industry and professional sports franchises have taken notice.”.

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Small Business Labs

OCTOBER 1, 2019

MetLife recently released The Gig Economy: Opportunities, Challenges, and Employer Strategies. Key quote from the study press release : The report’s findings demonstrate the fundamental impact gig work is having on the American workforce in the changing work-life world, as employees are increasingly drawn to the allure of flexibility, autonomy and desire for purpose in their work.

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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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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 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

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

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

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

JANUARY 3, 2019

According to a recent Job Creators Network Foundation survey , "Sixteen-percent of Americans say they are likely to start a new business in 2019."   This works out to about 32 million Americans. Most won't.  Over the past couple of years about 400,000 to 500,000 employer small businesses and about 2.5 million solopreneur businesses have been started each year.

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