I read a scary article about how 50% of the workforce could be freelancers within ten years. Now, being a freelancer and advocate of small businesses everywhere, you might think that I’d be happy about that.
I’m not. I think it’s terrifying, and I’ll explain why.
Why A Mass-Shift Towards A Freelance Economy Is Not As Great As It Seems
When big business decides that everyone becoming a freelancer is a great thing, it’s almost certainly not. You’ll hear the sales pitches and praises:
“Freedom to fit your work around your schedule!”
“Potential to start your own business!”
“You don’t have a boss!”
But ultimately, if you think that corporate conglomerates care about those things, then you’re probably being a bit naïve.
The average person who has a steady job, good benefits and the ability to switch off their PC, leave their cubicle and go home to watch Game of Thrones without having to worry about tomorrow might look at the above list and say, “Yeah! I want that freelance dream life!”
Often, they do say that. You see news articles about the gig economy and people will throw in their comments about how companies like Uber and Amazon are helping people become free.
Those people are turkeys voting for Christmas.
Here’s what a CEO sees when they think about a freelance workforce:
- No pension plans to pay
- Pay workers when they’re needed and not when they aren’t
- Lower salaries and less obligation for steady work
- Higher competition among workers
- Fast scaling
- Products that you can sell without actually creating yourself
- Employees without employee designation or rights
When you see big corporations saying freelancing is great… that’s what they’re really saying.
But Jamie… You Advocate Freelancing
I advocate freelancing and business creation to people who are suited to business creation. Not everyone is suited to starting a business, running a business or freelancing. They just aren’t.
Also, different people have different life situations. What I recommend for someone like me – a single guy in his twenties with no debt or particular obligation – is completely different to what I’d recommend a single mother of 5 in her forties with a solid career.
I think that if you’re a 22 year old guy, just out of Uni with no particular career path in mind who wants autonomy at the expense of hard work and is willing to push himself to build a business, then great. You’ve got nothing to lose and a whole lot of upside. Quit your job (possibly) and build a business.
If you’re fifty years old with a family to feed, then you can’t just quit your job, even if you hate it. I’m not saying don’t start a business, but I am saying the gamble is harder, your overheads are higher and you have to plan a lot smarter than the 22 year old guy does.
Now, 50% of the workforce becoming freelance means that those fifty year olds won’t have a choice. This isn’t a good thing.
However we’re getting dangerously close to useless political discussion here, and that’s the antithesis of this blog.
So in a world where freelancing is going to be thrust upon everyone and evil corporations are trying to commoditise humans, what do you do?
Navigating The Gig Economy… Or Not
If you have a business now, you need to do two things:
- Keep up to date with advancements in your field. Everything will become more competitive.
- Develop offers and infrastructures that can’t easily be commoditised
Companies like Amazon and Uber want to turn you into a cog in their machine, and they want everyone else to be a cog in their machine too. Like The Matrix, but with sort-of humans instead of machines.
You need to prepare your business so that it can’t be swallowed up or copied. This is crucial and it’ll become more crucial if we shift towards a gig economy more. Examples include:
- If you have a dropship store and you sell only on Amazon… Amazon is in control. Build your own store and have exclusive products that Amazon can’t get their hands on (And neither can other competitors. This means unique designs, assembly, etc.)
- If you offer a service that can be automated, one of two things: 1. Automate it yourself, 2. Change it so it’s hard to automate. (This requires being on top of developments in your field.)
Many people are going to fall into the guru traps. “Anyone can start a turnkey operation which you don’t even have to be there to operate!”
That’s a trap. Build yourself into your offers. You are a resource that can’t be delivered by anyone else.
If You’re Not Already In Business
If you’re not already a business person or a freelancer, and you want to be part of this new economy, here’s what I recommend:
- Develop as many skills as possible (Online/Offline, Business/Not Business, it doesn’t matter)
- Invest and plan multiple routes for security – you won’t have it as a freelancer
- Start thinking about a second and then third source of income
- Start offering services to people as soon as you can. Don’t count on these becoming a new career
- From the offset, build human interaction and unique designs into your business offers. This is hard work but it’s what’ll save you from being copied and buried
- Never and I’ll repeat never let anybody become your de facto boss. Not Amazon, Ebay, Etsy, Upwork, Fiverr or some business owner who outsources work to you.
If you are happy with your career but worried about the future, then you’ll want to follow the same steps. Also, be especially vigilant of the changes in your field and continually update your skills and values for your employer or potential future employers.
People talk about automation as though it’s some coming event where one day millions of people will all be out of work. That’s not how it’ll happen. In fact… it’s already happening. Jobs are disappearing and getting automated all the time. It’s always wrapped up in cool language;
“Hey… look how easy this new software makes it to archive information.”
In your career, you need to think about at-risk occupations and skills and make sure you’re not in one. The danger will come from robots but also outsourced work. This will change as the economy progresses.
Final Thoughts
We’re going through a new industrial revolution. Some people will read this article and think, it’s alarmist nonsense. Others will think I’m some sort of super-anti-corporation hippy and some might take offense to me saying not everyone’s built for freelancing.
Whatever.
I’m not trying to advocate any particular solution outside of pay attention and take steps to manage your future prospects.
Regardless of your stance on anything or your situation, you can do that. The economy is unstable due to the tech revolution, and you want to be a ship that floats as opposed to one that sinks.
Massive corporations aren’t going to help you float and your government probably won’t either. Even if we do end up in a tech utopia paradise, you’ve lost nothing from thinking through potential pitfalls and modifying your course accordingly.