What Your Business Needs to Know About the Gig Economy
The gig economy has created nothing short of a revolution, one that continues to redefine key aspects of businesses growth, planning and organization. Access to a scalable workforce that can be more easily adapted to meet the needs and demands of each specific project or situation helps to reduce overhead and can provide businesses with the greater agility needed to remain competitive in today’s marketplace. Learning more about the many ways a freelance workforce may be of benefit ensures that businesses will be better able to leverage all that the gig economy has to offer.
1. Maintaining a Smaller Staff
The expenses of hiring and maintaining a large staff can place considerable strain on a business’s financial resource. The gig economy can provide a more flexible and cost-effective alternative, one that allows businesses to make due with a smaller staff in order to minimize their overhead costs and operational expenses. Hiring a freelancer rather than creating a new full-time position can be an especially attractive option for smaller businesses who are working with a more limited budget.
2. Access to Critical Skills and Expertise
Even the most versatile permanent workforce can only draw upon a finite number of skills or range of experiences. The gig economy can allow your business to seek out the specific skills and expertise needed to complete a project, resolve an issue or to better capitalize on a potential opportunity. Freelancing solutions provide access to skilled workers without having to organize or manage a formal hiring process.
3. Assistance with Time-sensitive Projects
Lacking the skills or raw manpower that may be required to finish a project on deadline can be a serious liability. The scalable nature of the gig economy means that dealing with deadlines and time-sensitive projects or issues may be done with far greater ease. Seeking freelance help ensures that businesses are able to pursue a wider range of opportunities than they might have been able to manage when relying solely upon the abilities of their in-house staff.
4. Eliminating the Need for a Hiring Process
From marketing and promotional efforts to the delays involved in screening applicants and onboarding new employees, a conventional hiring process can often be an expensive, cumbersome and lengthy undertaking. Choosing to rely on the gig economy rather than hiring a new associate can lower overhead costs and help to minimize delays, allowing work to begin on a critical job or project within a matter of days or hours rather than weeks. For businesses who are under deadline, the greater ease and flexibility afforded by freelance labor solutions can often make all the difference.
5. Superior Results
Results are important and poor-quality work can tarnish a business’s brand, damage its reputation or sour relations with a customer or client. The gig economy is a meritocracy, and freelance professionals who fail to perform or to meet expectations rarely last long. Businesses are also able to draw upon a workforce without having to make a long-term commitment. In the event that a specific worker or professional fails to perform or proves to be less than an ideal fit for a specific job or project, remedying the situation can be done with far greater ease.
From finding extra help to complete a project or to better handle the demands of their busy season to minimizing staffing costs in order to trim overhead, the gig economy can have many advantages. Freelance labor solutions often play a major role in optimizing the growth of a new startup, venture or a small business. Being able to draw upon the specific skills and expertise of a dedicated professional in order to deal with a specific job, project or situation may also be of benefit. The superior agility of a freelance workforce and the scalable nature of the gig economy are having a tremendous impact on the business world, one that companies both large and small can no longer afford to ignore.
