How the gig economy helps small businesses win big

MANY professionals today seem to love the idea of finding jobs online and working remotely, even if it means not having any job security. In many ways, it makes them feel like entrepreneurs and in control of both – their working hours and their destiny. They’re the new generation of workers in the gig economy, sitting on their sofas at home, in their favorite cafe, or on a beach they fell in love with, bagging jobs and delivering results, all on the world wide web.

Their employers on the other side are mainly small businesses and budding entrepreneurs who’re always on the lookout for great talent to do awesome things with, often at more than affordable prices.

There are umpteen examples of small businesses that have won big by leveraging the gig economy in some way. In fact, author Tim Ferriss, in his book the Four Hour Workweek, published a decade ago in 2007 made references to the gig economy.

Since then, he has mentioned how small businesses should make the most of platforms that facilitate the gig economy. In several of his podcasts, he emphasizes how 99Designs, a gig economy facilitator in the design space, can help business better define and create their identities with smart looking logos, collaterals, and packaging.

If you’re wondering how your business might explore this opportunity, we’ve got some tips for you. Here’s a list of platforms you can try, the kind of work you can list, and what you would ideally pay:

99Designs

This is an exclusive design platform, so you could also think of it as your personal design studio. Need a book cover, packaging for your new drop-shipped matcha tea, or just a logo and some brand collaterals? They have you covered.

Although they’re priced a little bit on the higher side (compared to other platforms), starting at US$ 299, most users seem to love the results and generally have a good experience.

Fiverr

Having started off as a platform that offered everything for US$5, it’s more comprehensive than 99Designs. The word on the e-street is that they’re better suited to handle your digital marketing and programming requirements, and often at prices that are less than half of what you’d have to pay to a full-time resource sitting in your office.

On an average, a ballpark figure would be US$7.5 per hour for creating and updating your social media handles and US$10 per hour for programming tasks. Of course, the more complex your requirement, the higher the charges. Generally, entrepreneurs love the fact that they have control over how much they spend on a platform like this, especially when they’re bootstrapping their venture.

Upwork

It’s the jack-of-all-trades kind of platform. You can get just about anything done here, so long as it can be done online. The platform is great if you’re looking for virtual assistants, web designers, accountants, customer service executives, you name it.

Obviously, the quality of work is only as good as the contractor you choose, but you’ll find several success stories on the internet about small businesses giving out different kinds of jobs to professionals on Upwork.

While these three are some of the best platforms out there, they’re not the only ones. However, platforms are only useful when they’re popular and have loads of professionals looking for jobs and giving out jobs simultaneously – and there’s never a dearth of work or competent professionals on either of these three platforms.

So, in 2018, if you’re thinking of starting your own venture or are looking for ways to boost productivity significantly, check out these websites and see if there’s something they can help you out with. An extra pair of hands can only make you more efficient.

 

---

---

---

---