ADVOCACY ALERT
I live near a place where history was made. Beginning on September 17, 2011, a large crowd gathered in a public park in the heart of Wall Street, the nation’s financial capital. Their numbers were hard to count but growing, pouring in from both sides of the political divide, with similar groups springing up across the country. Their name, Occupy Wall Street, spoke volumes to power: “We the people live here, too.” Their message, though disjointed, was clear: What brought us this far could not carry us forward.
These protestors were giving voice to long-standing economic and social imbalances that finally erupted in a frightening, roiling world economy as we entered the twenty-first century. Our times seem to defy explanation and prediction.
In that way, they aren’t so different from when we transitioned from agriculture to industry some 100 years ago. Then, too, unprecedented advances supposed to help us prosper expanded the wealth of too few at too high a human price. Workers toiled for limitless hours in unsafe conditions for subsistence wages, unable to afford proper medical care. Corruption was rampant, and the divide between the extremely wealthy and everyone else was vast and growing.
Then, too, it took a while for people to mobilize for change, and to know what change was needed. But eventually their outcry resulted in the New Deal laws that helped frame the new worker/employer relationship and that protect company workers today. It was a giant achievement. But what worked then doesn’t fit how we live and work now. In our grandparents’ generation and before, the norm was one job for life. In our parents’ generation, that changed to having four or five jobs over your career. The new reality? You’ll likely have four or five jobs at once.
Businesses have radically trimmed staff in order to survive in an economy where consumer demand shifts overnight. The self-employed population has exploded. It’s a type of work virtually unprotected by law, though taxed more. And, as their own bosses, freelancers have to buy their own health insurance, tide themselves through unemployment, and fully fund their own retirement.
Doing this successfully as an individual in the open market is a tall order even in a good economy. Fortunately, freelancers’ numbers are large enough now that they’ve become a force to be recognized and reckoned with. Technology is helping them work more efficiently, find new clients, and find and help one another. And while they’ve always had a lot to offer the economy, I believe the new economy and work world will have a lot to offer them.
The future economy will likely depend on independent workers:
• As the workforce is rebuilt post-recession, it’s estimated half will be independent or contingent workers.
• The temp workforce will grow at twice the pace of overall employment between now and 2018.
Maybe the real question is: How will work be disorganized?
I love business visionary Dee Hock’s view of the “chaordic” system—a dynamic fusion of order and chaos—as a way to think about the new world of work. If you can handle messy, scary, and wild, it’ll give you flashes of wonder. Here are some of the changes I think hold opportunity for freelancers.
What’s happening: There’ll still be company headquarters, divisions, and branches, but technology has made location largely irrelevant. Just as the life force of a tree can’t be found in any one part, so the life force of the organization won’t be found in headquarters but in all of its branches, down to the individuals doing the work. Growth will happen wherever there’s fertile soil (new markets and skilled workers). Management won’t be top-down so much as grassroots-up. The role of company leaders will be to tap into and support the intelligence and skills of this far-flung group.
What it means for freelancers: Companies are already decentralizing operations, engaging freelancers to do what staffers once did. The same technology that frees companies to be anywhere goes for freelancers, too. Increasingly, you can work from anywhere, live where you want (where the skiing’s great . . . where your family is . . . where there are no state taxes . . . where the health insurance is affordable), and structure your time, career, and life your way: “What I like best about freelancing is having the freedom to work where I want, when I want—with minimal meetings.”
What’s happening: The blistering pace of innovation, competition, and change rewards the nimble. Corporate giants stumble and crash while upstarts catch fire, with affordable technologies helping them control costs while they grow. Technology also lets businesses sense market changes minute-to-minute and quickly develop the means to meet demand. Companies with low overhead, little investment in protecting the establishment, and the ability to turn on a dime to anticipate and lead the new, will win.
What it means for freelancers: As a freelancer, you’re a master of nimbleness. You need it to survive. The good news: Now the rest of the business world also needs what you have. Companies are engaging teams of freelancers to leap in and do what’s needed, when needed. Building those relationships—with the businesses that need the teams and with freelancers who can be your teammates—will help you land Blue Chip clients and stabilize your income without the risk of tying your fortune to a single employer.
But solopreneurs today can also use technology and freelance teams to develop and launch their own new ventures. As you read this, the next Big Idea might be hatching in the mind of a solitary freelancer tapping away in a café or a coworking space. Now, more than ever, that idea has the potential to be more than just a dream.
What’s happening: We’re moving from the age of information to the age of influence. Businesses that genuinely connect with consumers get the buy. There’s a wish to know and trust the person behind the product. And with the proliferation of review sites and product discussion boards, there’s no place to hide from a gaffe or a flop.
What it means for freelancers: Even though it’s unlikely you’ll ever run an ad during the Super Bowl, thanks to the Internet, the world can be your customer. You can use it to build trust and a following for your information, products, and services. You can use it to crowd-source feedback for business ideas and even raise money instead of waiting for banks to become freelance-friendly lenders. And speaking of gaffes and flops, at Freelancers Union, technology helped us develop a grassroots movement to expose bad clients and praise good ones, in the form of the Client Scorecard.
The best freelancers are masters of connection. They’ve honed their ability to find mutually profitable connections with people and projects. They’ve got a smooth interface going between work and home life, where each benefits and builds the other. They’ve got their Brain Trust on tap for advice and support. Freelancers’ connection-driven lifestyle and habits position them to succeed in the age of influence.
What’s happening: Instead of competing, businesses will forge relationships in order to leave no profit unturned. The large, well-capitalized, and well-infrastructured will affiliate with the small, clued in, and inventive in cooperative ventures for mutual benefit. Alongside the old “win-lose” model will grow a mutualist “win-win” model.
What it means for freelancers: Freelancers can form partnerships to develop and launch their ideas. They can also build their own marketplaces such as Etsy (etsy.com), and collaborate on solutions to widespread professional problems. Our Freelancers Union Contract Creator is a shining example of a crowd-sourced solution to the common problem of unfair or nonexistent freelance contracts. And they can unite across professions to increase their bargaining power for freelance-friendly policies.
ADVOCACY ALERT
WHERE WILL YOU GET BENEFITS IN THE FUTURE?
Mutualist models hold promise for building portable, affordable safety nets for the new workforce that don’t rely on government programs or subsidies and don’t answer to profit-seeking investors.
Freelancers Union’s retirement plan and insurance company show how individuals can pool their numbers and dollars to build self-sustaining systems offering competitive benefits and retirement savings instruments. Systems like these could come together into larger federations to offer even greater economies of scale, services, and pricing.
The new independent middle class needs clout to bargain for better prices and better policies on safety net issues. Forming cooperative groups can help them exert leverage together that individuals lack on their own.
As for funding new ventures, our nation can’t afford to miss any opportunity to build profit in the new economy. Banks need to look at microloan models for incubating seedling ideas and microbusinesses. Independent workers should be judged by the quality of their ideas, not the consistency of their cash flow. Whether it’s a super-niche venture that deeply penetrates a market or a Big Idea that needs space and time to grow, no viable venture should be left behind.
As the economic infrastructure we’ve relied on for decades has crumbled, a paradox of opportunity and risk has opened up for all workers. Thrown back on their own resources, they’re creating nontraditional career paths, getting gigs, developing their own profit-making products and projects, and finding their own way. Independent workers, never adequately served by the existing systems and well acquainted with the risks of living off the work grid, understand the dynamics of this multifaceted way of living and working. They can benefit from the changes. And they can lead them.
Freelancers’ growing numbers concentrate their power in a new collective “I”: a large, diverse-yet-committed community seeking fair wages for honest work and a fair opportunity to make it on their own, doing what they love. By joining hands, they’re building the new scaffold for success in the twenty-first century, and asserting their rights as they do.
We freelancers, as fully contributing members of the workforce, do affirm the following rights:
1 The right to recognition for our economic contributions
2 The right to a fair wage for a fair day’s work
3 The right to fair taxation
4 The right to unemployment protection
5 The right to affordable health care
6 The right to have access to capital for professional innovation
7 The right to training for professional growth
8 The right to a hive that thrives: individuals working alone and together for the common good of the independent worker community
9 The right to a government that will partner and protect
10 The right to security sufficient to help us to launch future generations and sustain us in old age.
In the Introduction, I mentioned that my goal in writing this book was to help you have many good days as a freelancer. I hope you’ve discovered lots of ways to do that, and know that there are always places and people you can turn to for information and support—most especially your fellow freelancers. As a freelancer, you’re a master of new beginnings. There’s a long tradition of that in this country. So work fearlessly and with joy, and help others do the same. Together, we can make work life more successful and secure for all, and make the Freelancer Bill of Rights a reality for every independent worker, now and in the future.