Wonder

Research Outline

Prepared for Michael A. | Delivered June 21, 2020

Marketing - Cost of Staff Turnover

Goals

To determine the amount lost on advertising spend when a marketer leaves a job.  This should be determined by the following formula: average company size in the US + average marketing employees in those companies + ad spend (or advertising spend in general) on average for these companies = attributing cost of marketer departure.  This information will be used in an investor deck.

Early Findings

Average Company Size in USBusinesses with less than 100 employees have the greatest share of small business employment.
Small business employees 58.9 million Americans or 47.5% of the workforce.
Businesses with less than 500 employees account for 99.7% of US businesses. Businesses with fewer than 100 employees account for 98.2% of US businesses, and those with less than 20 employees account for 89%.
There were 5.6 million small employer businesses in the US in 2016.
Based on these figures the average company size is 10.5 employees (Number small business employees/Number of small businesses).
Average Marketing Spend of Small BusinessSmall businesses spend on average $400 per month or $4,800 per year on marketing.  46% of the budget is spent on digital advertising, with Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter being the first choices of most.
Summary We have spent our first hour of research looking for the information required to determine the answer based on the formula provided.  Some of the information is not readily available to calculate the answer based on the formula.  We are concerned that estimating averages further (to account for the missing values) will result in an answer that is meaningless.  After looking at the available information, we do not believe that the value can be calculated in this way.  We suggest the following next steps may produce an answer that is meaningful.