Last month Venture Forward by GoDaddy released its national survey (and accompanying photo essay) that measured the impact of microbusinesses across the country.
Key takeaways:
- Increased optimism: 69% of entrepreneurs were optimistic about their businesses in July compared with 53% in July 2020. Optimism among minority owners significantly exceeded the national average—84% of Black owners and 77% of Hispanic owners expressed optimism.
- More startups by Black and women microbusiness owners during the pandemic: 17% of all existing micro bizzes were started in the last 16 months; Black-owned microbusinesses accounted for 26% of those new starts, and female-owned microbusinesses accounted for 57% of new starts.
- Low upfront costs, high rewards: Over 60% of respondents jumpstarted their businesses with less than $5,000, and 25% make at least $4,000 in monthly gross income.
- Shifting startup demographics: Women started half of all new microbusinesses up from 48% before March 2020; Blacks started 23%, up from 18%, and people without college degrees started 37% of microbusinesses vs. 34%.
- Employment status: Overall, 24% of microbusinesses are owned by people who would otherwise be classified as out of the workforce—people who were laid off, retired, disabled, homemakers, or students. Among microbusinesses started during the pandemic, 33% were started by owners who were not otherwise employed at the time, up from 22% of businesses started before the pandemic.
- Support needed from local policymakers: 43% of microbusiness owners cited access to capital as the most important area of assistance needed from their local governments to be successful. Marketing help was second at 38%, and tax incentives were third at 28%.
Microbusiness stock photo by David Tadevosian/Shutterstock