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The Freelancers Union and Elance - oDesk released a study showing that 34% of the American workforce freelances in some form. According to the study, 53 million Americans said they engaged in some form of freelance work in the past year. The study breaks these folks into 5 segments: "Independent Contractors" (40%, or 21.1 million) don’t have a traditional employer and do freelance, temporary or supplemental work on a project-to-project basis. Moonlighters” (27 percent, or 14.3 MORE
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. MORE
Blog powered by TypePad Member since 01/2005 « More on the Growth of Small Farms and Local Food | Main | Corporate Speed Dating Opportunity with Intuit » June 24, 2010 Please Take "The Organizational Use of Video Storytelling" Survey The Organizational Use of Video Storytelling is a new research project by the non-profit think tank Society for New Communications Research (SNCR). As Click Here to Take the Survey. MORE
The 2015 MBO Partners State of Independence survey results , which we worked on with MBO Partners, shows that most independent workers report being happier (79%) and healthier (59%) working on their own. Our recent coworking survey, which was done in partnership with the Global Coworking Unconference Conference , also show most coworking facility members report being happier (89%) due to coworking. MORE
" The reason hybrid work is winning is surveys consistently show most workers and their bosses think hybrid is the best way to go. MORE
Census has created a Small Business Pulse survey to track and measure how small businesses are faring during the COVID-19 pandemic. The pulse survey is scheduled to run weekly through June, so the survey will be very useful in tracking how small businesses are doing over that time period. MORE
The Freelancers Union is conducting a survey on how freelancers work and live. The goals of the survey are to better understand how freelancers are changing the definition of success and how they are working with one another to improve their business outcomes. If you are a freelancer - which for the purposes of this survey is most everyone who doesn't have a traditional job - please click here to take the survey. MORE
So we're just getting to a survey on side gigs that CareerBuilder released in September. Key quote from the survey press release : According to a new CareerBuilder survey, 29 percent of workers have a side hustle, a trend that is especially strong among the millennial demographic. The CareerBuilder survey is simply yet another of many studies illustrating this. MORE
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." MORE
Interesting survey resluts from Bankrate on side hustles. According to their findings: nearly half of working Americans (45 percent) surveyed reported having a side gig in addition to their primary job. 48% of millennials, 39% of Gen Xers and 28% of Baby Boomers reported having side gigs. side giggers worked an average of 12 hours per week. side giggers earned an average of $1,122 per month. MORE
Although 2020 was the 3rd year of MBO Partners' ongoing digital nomad study, it was the first year specific survey questions on VanLifers were included. VanLifers are people who travel, work and live on the road in vans, RVs, and other vehicles. MORE
The Forbes article Survey Says Americans are Losing Their Appetite for McDonald's, Taco Bell and Burger King covers a study showing that consumers - and especially Millennials - are choosing fast casual restaurants over fast food places. Key Key quote: Most Millennials surveyed (89%) seek out fast, casual food they deem healthier, tastier and “more customized” than fast food, and they’re willing to pay more for it, the survey revealed. MORE
A recent survey shows that most rideshare drivers prefer being independent contractors instead of employees, including a slight majority of full-time drivers. We did this and found that overall the study and survey questions were well constructed and methodologically sound. MORE
I wasn't familiar with InboxQ until I saw a reference to a survey they'd done in Entrepreneur's Why Savvy Businesses Field Customer Questions on Twitter. " Because of our blog, we get sent a lot of surveys to review. But the big problem is not survey methodology, it's how the results are presented. It was a non-scientific online survey, which I think is fine given their goals, objectives and market. MORE
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. But after skipping 6 weeks, they're back with what they are calling phase 2 of the surveys. MORE
Gallup's Diverse Small Business Owners Share Their Experiences covers a series of surveys of different segments of small business owners. The surveys asked about the motivations and challenges among Asian, African-American, Hispanic, Women, LGBT and Veteran small business owners. This means some small businesses with less than $10,000 in revenue were included in these surveys. MORE
As part of the broader Big Data for the Little Guy project, Intuit surveyed 500 small business owners to learn more about how they view big data and its potential. The survey asked for their top reason, but I'm sure if they had been asked to list all the potential barriers most of these would be listed by most of the respondents. MORE
In our work we've learned survey questions asking aspiration questions or questions on hot topics often result in a large number of false positives. MORE
They are conducting a national survey of small business owners to help them develop programs and incentives to help small businesses save money grow while increasing their sustainability. This survey is part of a broader, Green America project project to identify and quantify “green” opportunities for small business. We at Small Business Labs are excited about this project and are looking forward to the survey and study results. MORE
Bankrate recently released a survey showing that 37% of Americans have some sort of side job. The survey was of adult Americans , of which there are about 250 million. This means the survey found about 92 million Americans have side hustles. We don't have access to the survey questions, so we' don't know how they defined "side job" But it must have been a broad definition to get to 92 million. MORE
You many have noticed that different surveys show very different small business social media usage rates. For example, the Wall Street Journal article Facebook Tops for Small Business reported on a survey that found small businesses quite positive about social media. Key quote on the survey results: "About seven in 10 small-business owners say they “strongly agree” that social media is important to their business." MORE
Their article Five Truths about International Business in the Middle Market covers survey research on the exporting and importing by U.S. Barlow Research is one of our go-to sources on all things related to small business use of financial services. MORE
According to the Wall Street Journal's Economic Forecasting Survey, 70% of economists think the recovery will be swoosh shaped. It's looking much less likely the U.S. will experience a sharp, V-shaped recovery. MORE
Our friends at Deskmag have released the 3rd annual global coworking survey. Last year over 1500 people from 20+ countries filled out the survey. So if you work or have worked at coworking space please take 5-10 minutes and fill out the survey. Click here to take the survey. We'd like even more this year. The data is extremely useful for everyone associated with coworking. And, of course, Deskmag will be making the results public. MORE
Getting somewhat lost in the debates around the results from the BLS's 2017 Contingent and Alternative Employment Arrangements survey (CWS) are several interesting findings about independent contractors. The BLS defines independent contractors as someone who is self-employed and their primary job is as an independent contractor, independent consultant or freelance worker. Key findings for this segment include: 1. 79 MORE
of the respondents of our annual independent worker survey. To the best of our knowledge, this was the first time coworking blipped on a national, statistically significant survey of any kind. This survey was conducted a few months after our survey. But these surveys reflect populations of 17 million in the case of our independent worker survey and roughly 22 million in the case of the micro business survey. MORE
Intuit recently did a survey of small business owners. A key finding was 64% of small business owners surveyed said they started their business with less than $10,000 in invested capital. Our surveys of independent workers who work on their own as freelancers, independent contractors, etc. Equally interesting is that only 13% said they spent more than $50,000 starting their business. MORE
According to an NPR survey and covered in their article Nearly Half Of U.S. There's much talk these days about a K-shaped recovery. MORE
According to a survey by the HR consulting firm Mercer , 73% of the firms surveyed plan to implement a hybrid work environment that includes both in-office and remote work. And a Gartner study found that 82% of executives surveyed plan on allowing employees to work remotely at least some of the time. MORE
Our research on small business formation shows about 9% of those who say in surveys they plan to start a small/solopreneur business over the next 2-3 years in our surveys end up doing so. MORE
Morning Consult's In a Robust Job Market, Gig Workers Satisfaction on a Par With Wider Workforce covers the results of their recent survey of employed Americans. Morning Consult also provides their questions and a detailed set of survey crosstab results. MORE
This study is another example of cloud-based, digital data being used instead of traditional survey methods - something we are doing with increasing frequency. We're not suggesting that traditional methods (surveys, interviews, focus groups, etc.) MORE
One of the more interesting findings from our recent survey of coworking members is how many reported they had learned new skills - or improved their existing skills - due to their coworking space membership: 69% of the respondents reported they learned new skills. MORE
In our work, we've learned surveys asking aspiration questions or questions on hot topics or things that sound like fun result in a large number of false positives. And survey questions about becoming a digital nomad are a good example. MORE
Census Small Business Pulse Survey for the week of June 14th to June 20th shows small businesses continue to struggle. 43% of the small businesses surveyed reported a decrease in revenue from the prior week while only 21% reported an increase. The U.S. MORE
The NLC survey shows that 74% of cities have started to cut their budgets, with 20% reporting across-the-board reductions. According to the National League of Cities (NLC) , 65% of cities are being forced to delay or cancel capital spending and infrastructure projects due to COVID-19. MORE
The reasons we like it so much is the article's 8 insights for freelancers are all things we regularly hear in our interviews and survey research. MORE
The RideShare Guy released their 2017 Survey Results: Driver Earnings, Satisfaction and Demographics. This confirms something we see across all our survey work on the gig economy. It has lots of interesting data on those who drive for services like Uber and Lyft. One of the most interesting findings is Lyft drivers are much more satisfied than Uber drivers. More MORE
Last week the results from the spring coworking space member survey were released at the Global Coworking Conference Unconference (GCUC). Emergent The key results from the survey illustrate this. Emergent Research (that's us) partnered with GCUC and Jacob Sayles of Office Nomads on this study. The key finding is while coworking spaces are definitely workspaces, they are also much more. They are places where members work, network, learn and socialize together. MORE
Census Pulse Survey of Households. over the 10 weeks the surveys have been conducted (they started the end of April) the number of self-employed Americans has increased from 13.5 According to the U.S. MORE
This the 16th year WEF has issued a global risk report and the results come from an extensive risk survey of a wide range of risk related professionals. MORE
Marketing Charts, one of our favorite data related websites, covers a recent Constant Contact survey in their article Types of Data Used by Small Businesses. Since this data is based on a survey of Constant Contact customers, it's no great surprise that the data source listed most often is email marketing reports. The chart below is from the survey E-Book , which is also well worth reading. MORE
Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) caused quite a stir yesterday with the release of their 2017 Contingent and Alternative Employment Arrangement (CWS) survey results. workforce was slightly smaller than they reported the last time the survey was done, which was 13 years ago. This, of course, is much lower than what pretty much every other survey or study done on the gig economy over the past 5 years has found. The U.S. MORE
In our most recent survey of people with 2nd jobs, about 20% of these "side giggers" said "learning new skills" was the reason they had a 2nd job. We don't have historical survey data on this. The chart below, which shows a decline in employer-provided and on-the-job training in recent decades, has been making the rounds in the economic blogs. MORE
Survey Related Topics Small Business Labs
JULY 16, 2020
Census Pulse Survey of Households. over the 10 weeks the surveys have been conducted (they started the end of April) the number of self-employed Americans has increased from 13.5 According to the U.S.
Small Business Labs
MAY 8, 2013
of the respondents of our annual independent worker survey. To the best of our knowledge, this was the first time coworking blipped on a national, statistically significant survey of any kind. This survey was conducted a few months after our survey. But these surveys reflect populations of 17 million in the case of our independent worker survey and roughly 22 million in the case of the micro business survey.
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Small Business Labs
MAY 19, 2020
Census has created a Small Business Pulse survey to track and measure how small businesses are faring during the COVID-19 pandemic. The pulse survey is scheduled to run weekly through June, so the survey will be very useful in tracking how small businesses are doing over that time period.
Small Business Labs
JUNE 30, 2020
Census Small Business Pulse Survey for the week of June 14th to June 20th shows small businesses continue to struggle. 43% of the small businesses surveyed reported a decrease in revenue from the prior week while only 21% reported an increase. The U.S.
Small Business Labs
AUGUST 25, 2020
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. But after skipping 6 weeks, they're back with what they are calling phase 2 of the surveys.
Small Business Labs
SEPTEMBER 8, 2014
The Freelancers Union and Elance - oDesk released a study showing that 34% of the American workforce freelances in some form. According to the study, 53 million Americans said they engaged in some form of freelance work in the past year. The study breaks these folks into 5 segments: "Independent Contractors" (40%, or 21.1 million) don’t have a traditional employer and do freelance, temporary or supplemental work on a project-to-project basis. Moonlighters” (27 percent, or 14.3
Small Business Labs
MAY 15, 2014
The Freelancers Union is conducting a survey on how freelancers work and live. The goals of the survey are to better understand how freelancers are changing the definition of success and how they are working with one another to improve their business outcomes. If you are a freelancer - which for the purposes of this survey is most everyone who doesn't have a traditional job - please click here to take the survey.
Small Business Labs
OCTOBER 24, 2012
Our friends at Deskmag have released the 3rd annual global coworking survey. Last year over 1500 people from 20+ countries filled out the survey. So if you work or have worked at coworking space please take 5-10 minutes and fill out the survey. Click here to take the survey. We'd like even more this year. The data is extremely useful for everyone associated with coworking. And, of course, Deskmag will be making the results public.
Small Business Labs
DECEMBER 18, 2012
As part of the broader Big Data for the Little Guy project, Intuit surveyed 500 small business owners to learn more about how they view big data and its potential. The survey asked for their top reason, but I'm sure if they had been asked to list all the potential barriers most of these would be listed by most of the respondents.
Small Business Labs
APRIL 20, 2021
" The reason hybrid work is winning is surveys consistently show most workers and their bosses think hybrid is the best way to go.
Small Business Labs
JUNE 17, 2011
I wasn't familiar with InboxQ until I saw a reference to a survey they'd done in Entrepreneur's Why Savvy Businesses Field Customer Questions on Twitter. " Because of our blog, we get sent a lot of surveys to review. But the big problem is not survey methodology, it's how the results are presented. It was a non-scientific online survey, which I think is fine given their goals, objectives and market.
Small Business Labs
NOVEMBER 7, 2016
So we're just getting to a survey on side gigs that CareerBuilder released in September. Key quote from the survey press release : According to a new CareerBuilder survey, 29 percent of workers have a side hustle, a trend that is especially strong among the millennial demographic. The CareerBuilder survey is simply yet another of many studies illustrating this.
Small Business Labs
MAY 10, 2011
You many have noticed that different surveys show very different small business social media usage rates. For example, the Wall Street Journal article Facebook Tops for Small Business reported on a survey that found small businesses quite positive about social media. Key quote on the survey results: "About seven in 10 small-business owners say they “strongly agree” that social media is important to their business."
Small Business Labs
JUNE 24, 2010
Blog powered by TypePad Member since 01/2005 « More on the Growth of Small Farms and Local Food | Main | Corporate Speed Dating Opportunity with Intuit » June 24, 2010 Please Take "The Organizational Use of Video Storytelling" Survey The Organizational Use of Video Storytelling is a new research project by the non-profit think tank Society for New Communications Research (SNCR). As Click Here to Take the Survey.
Small Business Labs
SEPTEMBER 20, 2018
Morning Consult's In a Robust Job Market, Gig Workers Satisfaction on a Par With Wider Workforce covers the results of their recent survey of employed Americans. Morning Consult also provides their questions and a detailed set of survey crosstab results.
Small Business Labs
JULY 10, 2018
Bankrate recently released a survey showing that 37% of Americans have some sort of side job. The survey was of adult Americans , of which there are about 250 million. This means the survey found about 92 million Americans have side hustles. We don't have access to the survey questions, so we' don't know how they defined "side job" But it must have been a broad definition to get to 92 million.
Small Business Labs
JUNE 8, 2018
Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) caused quite a stir yesterday with the release of their 2017 Contingent and Alternative Employment Arrangement (CWS) survey results. workforce was slightly smaller than they reported the last time the survey was done, which was 13 years ago. This, of course, is much lower than what pretty much every other survey or study done on the gig economy over the past 5 years has found. The U.S.
Small Business Labs
MAY 13, 2011
They are conducting a national survey of small business owners to help them develop programs and incentives to help small businesses save money grow while increasing their sustainability. This survey is part of a broader, Green America project project to identify and quantify “green” opportunities for small business. We at Small Business Labs are excited about this project and are looking forward to the survey and study results.
Small Business Labs
JUNE 14, 2018
Getting somewhat lost in the debates around the results from the BLS's 2017 Contingent and Alternative Employment Arrangements survey (CWS) are several interesting findings about independent contractors. The BLS defines independent contractors as someone who is self-employed and their primary job is as an independent contractor, independent consultant or freelance worker. Key findings for this segment include: 1. 79
Small Business Labs
MARCH 8, 2021
Their article Five Truths about International Business in the Middle Market covers survey research on the exporting and importing by U.S. Barlow Research is one of our go-to sources on all things related to small business use of financial services.
Small Business Labs
MARCH 15, 2021
In our work, we've learned surveys asking aspiration questions or questions on hot topics or things that sound like fun result in a large number of false positives. And survey questions about becoming a digital nomad are a good example.
Small Business Labs
NOVEMBER 10, 2020
Our research on small business formation shows about 9% of those who say in surveys they plan to start a small/solopreneur business over the next 2-3 years in our surveys end up doing so.
Small Business Labs
FEBRUARY 23, 2021
The reasons we like it so much is the article's 8 insights for freelancers are all things we regularly hear in our interviews and survey research.
Small Business Labs
JANUARY 26, 2021
This the 16th year WEF has issued a global risk report and the results come from an extensive risk survey of a wide range of risk related professionals.
Small Business Labs
OCTOBER 14, 2014
Intuit recently did a survey of small business owners. A key finding was 64% of small business owners surveyed said they started their business with less than $10,000 in invested capital. Our surveys of independent workers who work on their own as freelancers, independent contractors, etc. Equally interesting is that only 13% said they spent more than $50,000 starting their business.
Small Business Labs
OCTOBER 26, 2020
In our work we've learned survey questions asking aspiration questions or questions on hot topics often result in a large number of false positives.
Small Business Labs
JUNE 15, 2020
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."
Small Business Labs
JANUARY 23, 2017
The RideShare Guy released their 2017 Survey Results: Driver Earnings, Satisfaction and Demographics. This confirms something we see across all our survey work on the gig economy. It has lots of interesting data on those who drive for services like Uber and Lyft. One of the most interesting findings is Lyft drivers are much more satisfied than Uber drivers. More
Small Business Labs
MAY 12, 2015
Last week the results from the spring coworking space member survey were released at the Global Coworking Conference Unconference (GCUC). Emergent The key results from the survey illustrate this. Emergent Research (that's us) partnered with GCUC and Jacob Sayles of Office Nomads on this study. The key finding is while coworking spaces are definitely workspaces, they are also much more. They are places where members work, network, learn and socialize together.
Small Business Labs
SEPTEMBER 15, 2014
The Forbes article Survey Says Americans are Losing Their Appetite for McDonald's, Taco Bell and Burger King covers a study showing that consumers - and especially Millennials - are choosing fast casual restaurants over fast food places. Key Key quote: Most Millennials surveyed (89%) seek out fast, casual food they deem healthier, tastier and “more customized” than fast food, and they’re willing to pay more for it, the survey revealed.
Small Business Labs
SEPTEMBER 14, 2020
According to an NPR survey and covered in their article Nearly Half Of U.S. There's much talk these days about a K-shaped recovery.
Small Business Labs
DECEMBER 15, 2020
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.
Small Business Labs
JULY 9, 2015
The 2015 MBO Partners State of Independence survey results , which we worked on with MBO Partners, shows that most independent workers report being happier (79%) and healthier (59%) working on their own. Our recent coworking survey, which was done in partnership with the Global Coworking Unconference Conference , also show most coworking facility members report being happier (89%) due to coworking.
Small Business Labs
JUNE 29, 2020
The NLC survey shows that 74% of cities have started to cut their budgets, with 20% reporting across-the-board reductions. According to the National League of Cities (NLC) , 65% of cities are being forced to delay or cancel capital spending and infrastructure projects due to COVID-19.
Small Business Labs
AUGUST 3, 2020
According to the Wall Street Journal's Economic Forecasting Survey, 70% of economists think the recovery will be swoosh shaped. It's looking much less likely the U.S. will experience a sharp, V-shaped recovery.
Small Business Labs
NOVEMBER 17, 2014
Marketing Charts, one of our favorite data related websites, covers a recent Constant Contact survey in their article Types of Data Used by Small Businesses. Since this data is based on a survey of Constant Contact customers, it's no great surprise that the data source listed most often is email marketing reports. The chart below is from the survey E-Book , which is also well worth reading.
Small Business Labs
JUNE 24, 2020
This study is another example of cloud-based, digital data being used instead of traditional survey methods - something we are doing with increasing frequency. We're not suggesting that traditional methods (surveys, interviews, focus groups, etc.)
Small Business Labs
MAY 19, 2015
One of the more interesting findings from our recent survey of coworking members is how many reported they had learned new skills - or improved their existing skills - due to their coworking space membership: 69% of the respondents reported they learned new skills.
Small Business Labs
MARCH 24, 2015
In our most recent survey of people with 2nd jobs, about 20% of these "side giggers" said "learning new skills" was the reason they had a 2nd job. We don't have historical survey data on this. The chart below, which shows a decline in employer-provided and on-the-job training in recent decades, has been making the rounds in the economic blogs.
Small Business Labs
OCTOBER 13, 2020
Although 2020 was the 3rd year of MBO Partners' ongoing digital nomad study, it was the first year specific survey questions on VanLifers were included. VanLifers are people who travel, work and live on the road in vans, RVs, and other vehicles.
Small Business Labs
MAY 28, 2015
Gallup's Diverse Small Business Owners Share Their Experiences covers a series of surveys of different segments of small business owners. The surveys asked about the motivations and challenges among Asian, African-American, Hispanic, Women, LGBT and Veteran small business owners. This means some small businesses with less than $10,000 in revenue were included in these surveys.
Small Business Labs
SEPTEMBER 24, 2020
According to a survey by the HR consulting firm Mercer , 73% of the firms surveyed plan to implement a hybrid work environment that includes both in-office and remote work. And a Gartner study found that 82% of executives surveyed plan on allowing employees to work remotely at least some of the time.
Small Business Labs
SEPTEMBER 8, 2020
A recent survey shows that most rideshare drivers prefer being independent contractors instead of employees, including a slight majority of full-time drivers. We did this and found that overall the study and survey questions were well constructed and methodologically sound.
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