Out-of-date and inaccurate workforce data hinders key decision-making for small-business entrepreneurs and early-stage startup founders, who drive job creation nationwide, and civic planners focused on economic growth. As partners, SourceLink℠, a national program based out of the UMKC Innovation Center at the University of Missouri–Kansas City, and SourceLink Nebraska, a program of the Nebraska Business Development Center (NBDC) at the University of Nebraska at Omaha, produced an innovative entrepreneurship digital dashboard, enabling decision-makers to gain insight into entrepreneurship development in their community and more capably act. The dashboard can be adapted and used in any state or region.
First of its kind in Nebraska, the dashboard gathers, visualizes and reports key entrepreneurship data, such as the number of firms with one employee, average wages for firms by size and age, and breakdowns of different types of companies (for example, microenterprise, main street, innovation-led, and second stage), all of which is difficult or expensive to source. Founders at early-stage startup companies as well as civic planners now have access to accurate real-time intelligence about the Nebraska small-business ecosystem.
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“Existing entrepreneurship data is frequently inaccurate for new and young firms, even though those firms account for all job creation. Available data often lags five or more years,” says Rob Williams, Director of SourceLink. “Virtually no reliable sources exist for self-employed data, except through expensive paid databases, or proprietary and difficult-to-access sources. Given that nearly all net new job creation comes from early-stage firms, the need is critical to understand what is happening within that part of the entrepreneurial stack, so that leaders can build and improve upon the conditions that allow more startups to grow and thrive.”
SourceLink’s solution was to extract data using Quarterly Workforce Indicators (QWI) Census data and present it in an actionable dashboard. Instead of static reports or lagging indicators, the dashboard provides a living view of what types of businesses are in Nebraska, the breakdowns of who is employed and how much they earn in wages, and segments by business sectors. For instance, one key insight for Nebraska is that microenterprises and Main Street businesses make up 97% of firms operating across the state, underscoring the critical role entrepreneurship plays in economic strength, community vitality and long-term workforce growth. The data also reveals a sharp increase in employment within Nebraska businesses after age 24, highlighting an opportunity to capitalize upon existing work-based learning frameworks and entrepreneurial career pathways that better engage younger talent to help retain the next generation of Nebraska’s workforce and future business leaders.
“For Nebraska, this dashboard creates an opportunity to move beyond assumptions and better understand how collective entrepreneurial support efforts contribute to economic growth across the state. By identifying where new businesses are forming, who they employ, and how wages change over time, communities and leaders can make more informed decisions around entrepreneurship, workforce development, talent retention, and entrepreneurial career pathways,” says Scott Asmus, SourceLink Nebraska Program Director. “We are excited about the potential for this tool to help local leaders, economic developers, community partners, and statewide organizations strengthen collaboration, improve planning, and support more coordinated strategies for entrepreneurship and long-term economic growth across Nebraska.”
Expanding the model developed for Nebraska, SourceLink’s latest entrepreneurship dashboard can be adapted by other economic development institutions across the United States. SourceLink is a national leader in building entrepreneur support systems for economic development. Its online platforms and dashboards have served more than 165,000 requests for business help and facilitated nearly one million connections nationwide.
To learn more about the dashboard and how SourceLink can work with your community, contact Krista Markley, kmarkley@joinsourcelink.com.
To explore how the new dashboard can support local entrepreneurship development in Nebraska, contact Scott Asmus at SourceLink Nebraska, info@sourcelinknebraska.com.
