An increasing number of U.S. employees are creating supplemental income by becoming entrepreneurs while also working a full or part-time job, a trend known as “moonlighting.” The e-commerce platform Bigcommerce.com analyzed data over a three-month period in 2013 and found an unusually large amount of work being completed by “indie” online retailers outside of regular office hours.
Bigcommerce co-founder and co-CEO, Eddie Machaalani states, “The data paints a new picture of the modern day entrepreneur. Through daily conversations with our clients and monitoring this trend over recent years, we understand that many of these small business owners are pulling long hours to run their business and work a full or part-time job on top of that, but these numbers provide us with hard stats and evidence.”
Nearly 20,000 of U.S. Bigcommerce stores was sampled and it was discovered that roughly 30-35 percent of all activity took place between 6 p.m. and 8 a.m. CT, with a surprisingly large amount occurring after midnight.
The information shows that at noon nearly 80 percent of online retailers were found to be working on their stores— the peak time for activity on Bigcommerce.com. There were still more than 49 percent active at midnight, and at 3 p.m., nearly half of online retailers were working. At 3 a.m., 25 percent were still online.
Machaalani believes a greater number work late because they are busy during the day indicating those running e-commerce sites have another job requiring longer hours to be worked by business owners to manage their entrepreneurial endeavor.
The breakdown of moonlighting employees is as follows:
- The data found that 33 percent are based in Southern states (with Florida, Georgia and Texas having the largest number of workers).
- 27 percent are based on the West Coast (led by Arizona, Colorado and California).
- 24 percent are in the Northeast (led by New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania and Washington, D.C.).
- 15 percent are located in the Midwest U.S. (led by Michigan, Illinois and Ohio).
“Opening an e-commerce business is relatively easy in today’s marketplace,” explained Machaalani. “These days, all you need is a few minutes, a credit card and an Internet connection to get a fully operational online store up and running. These passionate entrepreneurs show that it’s possible to start and grow your own business while also maintaining an additional source of income.”
If you are one of the entrepreneurs described by this research, you are probably overwhelmed with all the work you need to do to manage your business. Call us for bookkeeping assistance and get peace of mind knowing professionals are supporting you. 310-534-5577 or contact@abandp.com.