admin The rise of the gig economy in the contemporary period has transformed the entrepreneurial world in unpredictable ways. The culture of work is shifting in favor of the newly emerging trends associated with the fourth technological revolution. A certain degree of flexibility has become the preliminary element of employment opportunities in the present context. The convenience and multi-faceted nature of the gig economy have propelled its expansion and widespread acceptance. The gig economy is also changing the way entrepreneurs create jobs and hire workers. In the modern context, gig economies help connect firms to specialists who help them at specific junctures of the business process.
The reach of the gig economy is no longer circumscribed to the service and hospitality industries, but its rippling waves of transformation are acutely being felt across the business sector. Writers, graphic designers, web developers, accountants, and many more roles have come to be a part of the novel and ever-evolving gig economy. This development presents its own set of boons for entrepreneurs as they can now make their hiring and scaling decisions by capitalizing on the benefits of the gig economy.
Altering Recruitment Norms
The most conspicuous change in the standard entrepreneurship protocols can be noted in terms of the norms related to the hiring of personnel and the creation of jobs. Entrepreneurs have to now look at non-traditional spaces for employment. This also challenges the idea that an individual firm can exclusively hire full or part-time workers. Thus, now entrepreneurs have to be able to craft conducive job descriptions for freelancers. These vacancies have to be advertised on the new platforms –like Upwork- created specifically for the gig economy. Entrepreneurs must be able to tap into the ingenious freelancer networks that help make a firm capitalize on the abundance of talent in the gig economy. The stride of the contemporary marketplace can be described as a harmonious concoction between a set of core employees and a group of innovative freelancers.
Lucrative Up-Scaling
Entrepreneurs have embraced the gig economy as it allows them to grow and evolve start-ups on a budget. A recent survey suggests that around 70% of companies around the world are opting to hire freelancers as contractual employees rather than investing in permanent employees. This helps entrepreneurs save recruitment costs as well as the costs involved in covering the employee’s benefits. The impact of such a development on the workforce is highly debatable, however, the benefit of the same for the firm is quite conspicuous. This allows entrepreneurs to save enough capital that can be used to scale their ventures. Again to attain this objective they rely on the work and astute talent of the gig economy workers. It also helps them avoid the financial risk of employing a larger full-time staff as well as the risks of future retrenchments.
Undertaking Special Projects
The outlook of entrepreneurs towards specialized projects has also undergone a significant change in the context of the evolving gig economy. The gig economy helps an entrepreneur hire specialists and experts for new areas that the firm does not specialize in. For instance, an entrepreneur can hire a freelance expert translator from the gig economy to fulfill the demand of a client who requires marketing material in a language that is not known by the team at the firm. As soon as the project is completed, the entrepreneur can pay the freelancer and part ways until his or her services are needed again. Similarly, entrepreneurs can also turn to the gig economy for short-term technical projects. They can procure expertise from this talent pool for short periods of time, thereby remaining on a strict budget. They can use this as a way to test the waters in new business arenas without risking serious financial losses. In the larger scheme of business agendas, such a perspective helps expand the influence of the brand into hitherto unconquered arenas.
The advent and expansion of the gig economy have brought about unforeseen changes in the domain of the market as well as the employment landscape. Some of these changes have been beneficial for both the entrepreneurs and workers, while others have affected the security of employment that was a guarantee of the by-gone era. However, at the same time, it has also made work more flexible and liberating in most cases. Workers can now choose between the most innovative and interesting projects instead of simply adhering to the monotony of a single job. Whatever be the pros and cons of the gig economy, one thing remains certain that it is here to stay and entrepreneurs will inevitably have to embrace the protocols of this approach to ensure their growth and success.
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