Small Business Labs

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Study by U.K. Think Tank Finds Gig Workers Satisfied With Their Work

Small Business Labs

The Social Market Foundation is an independent, non-partisan, non-profit think tank based in the U.K.   They recently released Rides and responsibilities: Understanding the needs and preferences of those who work in the gig economy , a study they conducted that focused on the attitudes and motivations of food delivery riders who work with Deliveroo.

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Telehealth for Pets

Small Business Labs

Forerunner's Pet health is going the way of human health; our investment in Dutch covers the reasons the VC firm has invested in the pet telehealth startup Dutch. The main reason is fairly obvious. The pandemic accelerated the already growing trend towards pet ownership.   According to the ASPCA, 23 million American households acquired a dog or cat during the pandemic.    And as the article points out, the increases in pet ownership came with increases in the demand f

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Gig Platform Workforce in England and Wales Nearly Tripled Over the Past 5 Years

Small Business Labs

The U K's Trades Union Congress (TUC) recently released a study that found that about 14.7 percent of workers in England and Wales - about 4.4 million workers - regularly perform work via an online gig platform.  They also found that 22.6% of workers in England and Wales have used gig platforms to find work at some point. This is up from 5.8% who performed work via online platforms regularly (at least once per week) in 2016.

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Social Commerce Forecast to Boom

Small Business Labs

One of the hottest investment firms is Ark Investment Management.  Their investment focus is on firms creating disruptive innovation and their stable of exchange-traded funds has around $40 billion invested in them. Their recent article Social Commerce:  The Next Wave in Online Shopping outlines why they're forecasting social commerce to boom over the next 5 years.

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The Number of Digital Nomads Surged Again in 2021

Small Business Labs

The pandemic-driven seismic shift to remote led to continued strong growth in the number of American digital nomads in 2021. The MBO Partners 2021 State of Independence research study found that 15.5 million American workers currently describe themselves as digital nomads, increasing 42% from 2020 and 112% from the pre-pandemic year 2019 (click on the study chart below to enlarge).  The main reason for the growth is that traditional job holders have been unleashed from their offices and ma

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Retirees and the Gig Economy

Small Business Labs

According to the American Enterprise Institute's (AEI) The age re-retirement: Retirees and the Gig Economy , 20% of retired Americans also work in the gig economy. The article lists the usual financial reasons for working in retirement.   But more interesting is their description of some of the non-financial reasons.  Key quote: Ninety-six percent of over-65 workers reported that an enjoyable job is essential or important to living a fulfilling life.

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Small Business Applications in May 2nd Highest Ever

Small Business Labs

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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