Whether it’s job loss, furlough, or a desire to join the Great Resignation, digital marketing entrepreneurs share their experience of starting their own business during a pandemic.
UpCity, in conjunction with Pollfish, released a survey assessing the journeys of digital marketing experts to start and run their own digital marketing-focused agencies amid the pandemic.
The Digital Marketing Entrepreneurs Post-Covid Survey collects insights from 600 digital marketing agency owners across the United States to dig deeper into reasons for starting their own business, digital marketing training, business launches, as well as agency offerings from these new entrepreneurs and operations.
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Statistical highlights include:
- 34% of respondents received a digital marketing certification before starting their business.
- 42% of respondents started their digital marketing business while working full-time for an employer.
- 60% of digital marketing entrepreneurs initially operated their business as freelancers and/or consultants.
- 57% of respondents have a business partner and call themselves a co-founder.
- 39% of respondents originally served small businesses as their primary customer type.
Heidi Sullivan, senior vice president of product and marketing at UpCity, says it’s another sign that the pandemic has caused such disruption that people can no longer live their lives by the traditional playbook.
“For many of our respondents, the decision to start their own business was less of a decision and more of a forced necessity to survive layoffs and job losses to keep a roof over their heads, as there was little jobs in a highly competitive market in the early days of the pandemic,” Sullivan said. “We saw that change quickly and saw the reverse happen. The pandemic forced a lot of people to prioritize what really mattered to them, people refused to settle for outdated office policies and start their own business so they could set their own rules.
Sullivan continued. “No matter your reasoning, as a small business ourselves, we understand no one can do it alone and that’s why we’re happy to provide resources that can help our new entrepreneurs enter the digital marketing sphere. .”
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