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 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 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

JANUARY 6, 2021

Both the New York Times and the BBC have recent articles claiming that flying cars, in the form of flying taxis, will soon be common.  And it could be true this time. The reason we say "this time" is people have been predicting flying cars will soon be in the air for over a century.  So far, they've been wrong. Both Ford Motor Company and the Curtis Aircraft Company built flying car prototypes as early as 1915.  The picture below is from a 1917 newspaper article and

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Small Business Labs

JANUARY 5, 2021

Last week MBO Partners released their annual future of work predictions for the coming year.  Their forecast themes for 2021 are: Ten : Dip & Climb   Nine : Happiness & Health   Eight : Gen Z Arrives   Seven : It’s All About Control   Six : Exports Not Imports   Five : Make It A Trillion Four : Side Hustle Nation   Three : 

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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 25, 2020

The U.S. Census started a COVID-19 impact survey back in April to measure how the pandemic was impacting small businesses.  The weekly surveys ran until the end of June. Unfortunately, the pandemic wasn't over by then.  But after skipping 6 weeks, they're back  with what they are calling phase 2 of the surveys. Things haven't improved much over the 6-week layoff according to the small businesses surveyed - 34% of the respondents said the pandemic has had a large neg

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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 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 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 24, 2020

The Effects of the Coronavirus on Hours of Work in Small Businesses , from Yale's Tobin Center for Economic Policy, shows the pandemic's dramatic and ongoing impact on small businesses.  The study uses data from Homebase , which provides scheduling and time tracking tools for small businesses, to measure the change in overall hours worked by small business employees.

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Small Business Labs

MAY 26, 2020

Lots of work from home (WFH) surveys have been conducted over the past month.  And one of the most consistent findings of these studies is most people want to continue to work from home, but most of those only want to work from home part-time. For example, the Global Workplace Analytics Work from Home Experience Survey found that "U.S. employees want to continue working from home an average of 2.5 days a week (2 days/week globally)." And as the Harris/Zapier survey chart below show

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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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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

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 20, 2020

OK, it's well known that Internet advertising has been growing rapidly.  But even knowing that, the chart below (click to enlarge) is still stunning.   The chart is from Adage's Marketing Fact Pack 2020 and shows that the internet's share of U.S. ad spending has increased from just 6.4% in 2006 to over 50% in 2020 and is forecast to reach 60% in 2022.

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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

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 22, 2019

We'll be back in 2020.

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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

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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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 15, 2019

WeWork released its S-1 this week, which is the legal document a company files prior to going public.  WeWork going public is a bit of a watershed moment for the coworking industry. It's the first of the new wave of coworking spaces to do so. It's also a highly watched and controversial company, particularly due to its high private valuation and steep losses.

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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 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

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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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 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 18, 2019

McKinsey's Bias Busters Collection covers how are decisions are often affected by cognitive and/or organizational biases.  These include being unwilling to cut back on an under performing asset or activity, getting too distracted by shiny new initiatives, sticking with numbers or projections that are out of date or likely incorrect. But our favorite was what they call taking an "outside view" of a project or forecast.

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Small Business Labs

FEBRUARY 21, 2019

It's been an interesting couple of weeks in the food delivery industry.  Controversy swirled around grocery delivery company Instacart and their policy on tipping, witch many called wage theft. While this led to Instacart changing their policy, other food delivery companies so far are continuing with their tipping practices despite complaints by both drivers and customers.  The furor over tipping overshadowed a lot of news showing that the food delivery industry continues to boom

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Small Business Labs

FEBRUARY 12, 2019

"Job crafting" describes the ways in which employees redesign and customize their jobs to foster greater work satisfaction and engagement. This is done by breaking a job into tasks and then deciding what to do less and more of.  The New York Times article How to Make Work Better covers job crafting and suggests greater use of it by those with traditional jobs would make work much better.  It also points out that the academic researchers who came up with the concept were "

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Small Business Labs

DECEMBER 20, 2018

We'll see you in 2019.

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