The big fact

A four-year degree isn’t required for successful entrepreneurship. GoDaddy Venture Forward data shows that microbusiness owners with a college degree and those without contribute similar amounts of income to their household.

Digging deeper

A significant portion of microbusiness owners without a college degree make a six-figure income, regardless of gender. Over one-third (34%) of women without a college degree and almost half of men (47%) without one make over $100k pre-tax from their microbusiness.

Degrees are down, entrepreneurship is up

Fewer people are earning degrees these days, but entrepreneurship is increasing. Since 2019, 8% less men and 2% less women are earning degrees. At the same time, the number of self-employed Americans rose .7% from 2019 to 2022, according to Harvard Business Review.

Moreover, those with college degrees may be more corporate-minded and less entrepreneurial according to The New York Times. This is also reflected in Venture Forward data, which suggests that women without a college degree may be more entrepreneurial. 

• Women without college degrees have more long-term dreams. They are more likely to have started their business because they always dreamed of doing so (26%), compared to women with college degrees (20%). Women without college degrees are also 6% more likely to have started because they wanted to be their own boss.
• Women with college degrees are more community-oriented. They are more likely to have started their business to contribute to their community (24%), compared to women without a college degree (19%).

The research

GoDaddy’s Venture Forward research initiative analyzes more than 20 million online businesses with a digital presence (measured by a unique domain and an active website). Most of these businesses employ fewer than ten people, categorizing each as a microbusiness. While these microbusinesses may be small, their impact on economies is outsized even though they are often too informal or too new to show up in traditional government statistics. 

Since 2018, Venture Forward surveyed more than 50,000 entrepreneurs with a digital presence, making it the source for microbusiness data and insights.