20% of the US workforce is considering freelancing, marking an entirely new paradigm of power for ALL workers.
I recently encountered a fascinating article from Forbes reporting that more than 10 million workers in the US are now considering freelancing as a result of the freedom and flexibility they experienced in working from home.
This is 20% of the US workforce.
Business leaders are already planning how they can accommodate people’s new preferences--marking an entirely new paradigm of power for workers.
What this means for businesses if they choose to embrace the inevitable new future of knowledge work:
- Access to a bigger and deeper pool of skilled, talented, and motivated independent workers.
- Reduced overhead without needing to hire full-time employees.
- More agile project teams that get shit done without restrictive corporate bureaucracy.
And what this means for workers is that we’re about to have a lot more power in how we’re treated.
As more people see they can make way more money freelancing and not having to work on anyone else’s schedule, we’ll see companies scrambling to:
- Up their benefits packages
- Actually listen to people’s preferences for working from home
- Pay valued employees a lot more, recognizing that they can always leave to start their own business and make bank
- Treat their freelancers well, knowing that they’re now competing for people’s time
- Even build functions to manage freelance teams efficiently
All this to be said:
If you’re considering freelancing, now is an excellent time to pull the trigger (before markets saturate with others sharing your skills).
If you’re in negotiations with a company or want to make new moves, know that the people you’re talking to probably will have seen this article and may be starting to think a little differently about how they treat their employees and freelancers.
Come to the conversation knowing your worth and value as someone still open to a full-time, salaried role, OR as a freelancer that they can trust as a long-term partner.
