Small Business Labs

JULY 29, 2021

Regular readers know we like both new buzzwords and pet trends here at Small Business Labs. So it's no surprise we enjoyed Wunderman Thompson's article On-Demand Pet Care , which is a pet trends article (it covers new on-demand pet services) and has two buzzwords that are new to us - petrenthood and petriarcy. Even better, they are in the same paragraph in the article.  Key quote: Rover CEO Aaron Easterly explains that the company’s growth—as well as the growth of the sector—has be

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Small Business Labs

JULY 19, 2021

Sometimes we post articles on topics few people are interested in.  This is such an article.   But you should be interested because the economic and labor data collected by government agencies no longer provide the information we need to properly understand and manage the U.S. economy. Over the past week several sources explained the problems with government data collection efforts and made suggestions on how to improve them.

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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

JULY 6, 2021

McKinsey, which is best known as a strategy consulting firm serving CEOs and seniors executives at large corporations, recently released its top trends in tech list. They say the list was developed using a "unique methodology" that identifies the trends "most relevant to competitive advantage and technology investments."  The list is below (click to enlarge).

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Small Business Labs

JUNE 14, 2021

Last year early in the recession, there was quite a debate about what shape the U.S. economy pandemic recovery would take. The two candidates that got the most support were a V-shaped recovery and a swoosh-shaped one. A V-shaped recovery indicated a steep, but very short recession with a quick and robust recovery. The swoosh-shaped recovery was named after the famous Nike logo.

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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

MAY 11, 2021

Despite being widely attributed to Mark Twain, there's no evidence he said: "history doesn't repeat itself, but it often rhymes." But it sure sounds like him. And, in our opinion, this aphorism nicely describes how the recent surge of excitement about the creator economy "rhymes" with what happened with the sharing and gig economies back in 2012-2015.

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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

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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 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 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

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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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

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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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

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

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

APRIL 20, 2020

Vertical IQ is a leading provider of Industry Intelligence for those advising small- and medium-sized businesses such as bankers, accountants, and other SMB advisors.   They've put together a set of industry by industry analyses covering the impact of the pandemic and related recession.   The chart below shows their high-level industry sector coverage.

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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

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

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 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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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 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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Small Business Labs

JULY 22, 2019

Predicting the Next Tech Disruption from Big 3 Strategy Consulting firm Bain and Company discusses 4 forecasting tools (shown below) Bain uses to predict when disruptive technologies will be widely adopted. Two of the tools - experience curves and adoption curves - have been around a long time and widely used. For example, we use both - and especially adoption curves - in our forecasts.

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Small Business Labs

JUNE 25, 2019

One of the biggest shifts uncovered by the MBO Partners State of Independence study series is the increased use of online marketplaces to find work by freelancers and other independent workers. As the study chart below shows (click to enlarge), in 2012 only 3 percent of full-time independent workers reported having used an online marketplace to find work in the prior 12 months.

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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

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 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 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 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

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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Small Business Labs

JANUARY 24, 2019

According to a recent Intuit survey , about 60% of small businesses with fewer than 20 employees use outside accountants to help them with their taxes.  And as the study chart below shows, this saves the vast majority of them time, money and stress. This raises the question why don't the other 40% use outside accountants?  The study chart below shows the answers given by the survey respondents.

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