The only upside to living a full hour away from my dentist is that I have plenty of time to listen to podcasts in the car.
Two pieces of good news from today’s trip.
First, no cavities.
Second, I listened to an episode of Jacob Morgan’s podcast in which he interviews Steve King.
Jacob Morgan is a best-selling author, speaker and futurist, focusing on the future of work.
Steve King is co-founder of Emergent Research, which tracks the future of small business and independent work.
During the podcast they have a wide-ranging discussion about the state of the gig economy and its future.
And yes, as freelance writers and copywriters we are dead center in the gig economy, along with Uber drivers, coaches, consultants and basically anyone else who, in the words of Dan Pink, works as a “free agent”.
About half way into the conversation Steve King talks about how things have shifted over the last few years when it comes to the reasons WHY companies hire freelancers or gig workers.
Reaching out to freelancers used to be driven by a desire to save money.
A company could save a lot of money by using freelancers from time to time instead of taking on a full time employee. Add up salaries, benefits, office space and more… and employees are expensive.
But it seem things are changing.
According to Steve King, when companies seek out freelancers they are no longer driven primarily by the promise of saving money.
These days they are more likely to be driven by the need to find skills and expertise they simply don’t have in-house.
So… no longer in search of savings. Instead… seeking out skills they don’t have within their company. Or maybe they have some employees with those skills, but not enough to meet demand.
This shift in priorities is great news for freelancers everywhere…
When companies were all about saving money, it put huge downward pressure on freelancers.
We felt we had to keep our prices down, both to appeal to cost-conscious clients and to compete with other freelancers.
That dynamic is now changing.
However…
MOST freelancers won’t listen to Jacob’s podcast, read his books… or come across this post.
MOST freelancer will continue to think that getting their next freelance gig is going to be all about price.
But you know better.
It’s now time to shift emphasis away from the price story and over to the value and specialty expertise story.
Do that and you’ll not only become more attractive to prospective clients, but you’ll also be in a position to charge higher fees.
All this goes to show that it makes sense to stay abreast of trends and new developments in the gig economy.
Stay tuned!
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Nick, congrats on no cavities. And your other piece of good news makes more and more sense as most niches evolve into preferring specialists vs. generalists!