SCOTTSDALE, Ariz., July 28, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Everyday
entrepreneurs and their millions of ventures in the U.S. were
resilient in the face of the punishing economic climate of the
first two months of COVID-19, according to new data from Venture
Forward, GoDaddy's [NYSE: GDDY] multi-year research project that
demonstrates and quantifies the impact that ventures have on local
communities and the U.S. economy.
The new data reveals that these micro-businesses helped
communities withstand the economic impact of shuttered shops and
lost jobs during March and April. Also, in communities that
have more ventures the data shows that average growth in median
income for everyone is higher, unemployment is lower and recovery
from prior economic downturn is faster. A venture is defined as a
discrete domain name with an active website, representing a
business, service, non-profit, cause or idea.
"This new data from the COVID-19 pandemic not only reinforces
previous research on the impact of micro-businesses on local
economies, but also affirms that ventures play a critical role in
buoying communities during difficult times," says Karen Mossberger, Professor, Arizona State University School of Public Affairs.
"Venture Forward provides valuable insights for local policymakers
into the importance of nurturing micro-businesses, whether
supporting entrepreneurs who use technology to quickly adapt in the
new stay-at-home world, or cultivating the success of existing
ventures who have remained nimble and resilient in the face of
change."
GoDaddy's Venture Forward initiative quantifies the impact of
everyday entrepreneurs and their ventures on the U.S. economy
throughout the nation's 900+ metro-/micropolitan areas, 3,100+
counties and 30,000+ zip codes.
Venture Forward Updates
- Ventures are associated with helping reduce the unemployment
rate. Adding 1 new venture per 100 people is associated with
reducing unemployment by .05 percentage points.
- Ventures stay resilient and agile during COVID-19. The
new data shows that between February and April, while the number of
small businesses closures increased nationally, the number of
ventures remained steady and relatively flat.
- Small businesses and ventures together can offset
unemployment for low income jobs, despite the fact that small
businesses saw greater low-income job loss overall and were hit the
hardest during COVID-19. After controlling for other
factors, counties with a higher density of small businesses had the
largest job losses in April; however, counties with both lots of
small businesses and lots of ventures were hit less hard
than those counties with lots of small businesses but fewer
ventures.
- Ventures and broadband work together to offset job loss.
Counties with high broadband penetration didn't display
meaningfully lower job loss than counties with lower broadband
accessibility, but counties with high broadband penetration
combined with high venture density did.
- Conclusions from Venture Forward data help civic leaders
find ways to focus on ventures. Leaders in Gilbert, Ariz., and Denison, Texas, have both implemented programs
focused on helping individuals start and grow micro-businesses as
an acknowledgment that ventures have unique needs apart from small
and large businesses.
"Amid a global pandemic, everyday entrepreneurs are finding ways
to create business opportunities to benefit themselves, their
families, and their communities," said GoDaddy CEO Aman Bhutani. "The impact of these
micro-businesses is collectively very large and represents a
critical – if often overlooked – contributor to local economies and
the national economy."
The research was conducted in partnership with social scientists
at the Univ. of Iowa and Arizona
State Univ. as well as economists at UCLA Anderson Forecast Center,
and combines information about 20 million US ventures built off
GoDaddy web domains – a customer could (and often does) have more
than one venture – with data from the Census Bureau, Bureau of
Labor Statistics and similar sources. The latest findings are
updated with 2020 data and analyzes both the impact of ventures
during COVID-19 and the impact the pandemic has had on changes in
the number of ventures.
Venture Forward's mission is to bring into focus the benefits of
building a more inclusive economy for communities by providing
valuable information on the impact of ventures, which are often too
small or too new to show up in traditional methods of capturing
economic data. The Venture Forward research is available to
download and to explore with data visualization tools at
www.godaddy.com/ventureforward.
Methodology
The research team used venture density
(the number of ventures per 100 people), and then a subset density
of highly active ventures, to model effects on economic outcome
measures like regional prosperity scores, change in annual
household median income and recovery from the Great Recession at
the county, city region, and zip code levels. These predictive,
multivariate regression models controlled for many additional
variables including broadband subscriptions, educational levels,
age cohorts, demographics, population, occupational data, poverty,
and other relevant economic indicators.
About GoDaddy
GoDaddy is empowering everyday
entrepreneurs around the world by providing all of the help and
tools to succeed online. With 19 million customers worldwide,
GoDaddy is the place people come to name their idea, build a
professional website, attract customers and manage their work. Our
mission is to give our customers the tools, insights and the people
to transform their ideas and personal initiative into success. To
learn more about the company, visit www.GoDaddy.com.
© 2020 GoDaddy Inc. All Rights Reserved.
Source: GoDaddy Inc.
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