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Everybody loves lists — or at least, everybody who reads blogs, so we are told. I don’t do lists very often because it never seems that the information I write about fits well into the format.  This month’s Research Roundup post breaks the mold.

Lists take up a lot of space, though, so I’m only going to give you two of them. On the other hand, they’re two good ones. Besides, it’s pleasant to offer you some research that is not all about how badly we small business owners are doing.

The Rise of the Independents

Ego fodder is always a good thing and a recently released study ^[2] by MBO Partners ^[3] documents and quantifies a whole slew of things I first wrote back in 2004 in my white paper The Entrepreneurial Economy.

The MBO study is all about independent contractors, and my only beef with this study at the moment is the way MBO seems to underestimate their numbers. MBO says there are 16 million independent contractors; the Census says there are more than 21 million nonemployer businesses.

Can anybody tell me what the difference is between a nonemployer business and an independent contractor?  I didn’t think so.

In any event, here are MBO’s key findings:

• 75 percentof independent contractors say that doing something they love is more important than making a bucket of money;
• 74 percent of independent contractors say that making a difference in people’s lives through their work is more important than making a bucket of money;
• 79 percent of independent contractors say they are satisfied or highly satisfied with their work situation;
• 55 percent of independent contractors say it was a proactive choice rather than a case of not being able to find a traditional job that made them become indies;
• 63 percent say they will continue to work as independent contractors, while only 12 percent plan to grow into employer firms;
• Indies are spread across generations: Seniors (over 65) make up 10 percent of independent contractors, Baby Boomers (50-64) account for 30 percent of them, GenX (30-49) are the largest group, making up 48 percent of them; and Millennials are 12 percent of independent contractors;
• Independent contractors are most seriously challenged by uncertain income streams (56 percent), concerns about retirement (46 percent) and concerns about lack of job security (41 percent); and
• MBO predicts that the number of independent contractors will increase by 25 percent  within the next two years.

Makes me eager to see what the nonemployer numbers do over the next couple of years.

‘Tis the Season for Ca-Ching

One of the nice things about research, data and numbers is that sometimes, in addition to telling you things about yourself and your peers, research tells you useful things about your customers.

If, for example, you are a retailer, then you don’t need me to tell you how critical this time of year is for your bottom line. And, as usual, there are all sorts of predictive numbers out there that you might find useful from our friends over at the National Retail Federation ^[4].

1. The average shopper is expected to spend $704 this holiday season on gifts and related stuff;
2. In November and December, retail sales are expected to post a reasonably healthy $465 billion;
3. Overall, holiday retail sales are expected to increase this year by 2.8 percent over 2010 numbers;
4. Half of all gift receivers say they would prefer to receive a gift card rather than a gift (so you might be helping yourself quite a bit by figuring out a way to approximate the handy-dandy gift card for your retail outfit);
5. 152 million holiday shoppers are expected to visit stores and websites on Black Friday weekend;
6. Expect more spending in so-called “discretionary” categories this holiday season, including home furnishings and decor, sporting goods and leisure items, personal care and beauty products, electronics and computer accessories, apparel, toys and food. (What’s left?)
7. Americans plan to spend money this holiday season, but they don’t seem to want to go into hock to do it. Forty-four percent say they will use debit cards, 24 percent will use cash and 3 percent will use checks. Everybody else (29 percent) will use credit cards;
8. Online holidays sales are expected to grow by around 15 percent this holiday season;
9. In addition to all those gifts, the average holiday shopper is expected to spend $130 or so taking advantage of seasonal sales and promotions to buy things for themselves; and
10. Retailers beware: The retail industry is expected to lose approximately $3.48 billion to return fraud.

Image from Dmitriy Shironosov ^[5]/Shutterstock ^[6]