From our perspective, the NEW Economy has impacted all of us directly and indirectly. The NEW Economy offers incredible choices for Individual Entrepreneurism. Those seeking new values, such as the desire for more flexibility and freedom in how we work, can find possibilities. There are solid reasons why a diverse population including all age groups gravitates toward work that focuses more on flexibility and freedom in how the work can be done for very satisfying rewards for time invested effectively.

Traditional companies embraced the idea of flextime many years ago. Once considered a risky experiment, human resource professionals found ways to bolster their company culture by offering flexible work opportunities. The idea is no longer an experiment. A growing percentage of job applicants will not be interested in traditional nine-to-five working hours.

Most importantly, the growing number of gigs produces even more work choices and more flexibility in how we can work and earn. Over 70 million are already involved in the U.S. alone. The opportunity to work embracing something which leverages your experience, skills, passion, and purpose have never been more numerous. An individual’s ability to increase his or her income potential is only limited by the person’s objectives and the number of hours available to embrace a new activity. There are many types of opportunities that can be explored.  

Many of us have lived through times when, regardless of our experience or educational background, we could not leverage more hours into more possibilities because we could not find the flexibility we needed. Perhaps you have experienced a time when predefined work schedules didn’t fit within your life’s constraints or conflicted with your chosen values, such as how you wished to care for your family. You may have experienced times when a flexible work arrangement would have served as a bridge between the last job and the next long-term opportunity you were pursuing. You may have determined you needed to work again after formally retiring because your retirement plan didn’t work as you had envisioned. Or you may have been looking for an entrepreneurial opportunity that offered minimal risk. Today’s NEW Economy opportunities and possibilities have created what past generations hoped to find: flexible work opportunities that can be engaged by the masses. The dreams of yesteryear have become today’s realities and possibilities.

Simplicity and flexibility are now strategic priorities for corporations, organizations, and individuals! Simplicity is the precursor to leveraging flexibility. We can now do more in less time. The smartphone is a daily companion and most of us are tethered mentally to our smart phones 24/7. If the phone is ever too far away, we grow concerned that we may have missed something. Communications which were once expected to consummate in a few days are now expected to be completed in minutes. We live differently and we work differently. Younger generations do not relate to not having technology at their fingertips. A family today, certainly siblings, may find themselves texting one another when the other person is only a few rooms away.

Because we can work in a flexible manner, our priorities are different and so are our expectations. Flexibility in how the work can be done ranks as the number one reason millions are being attracted to the gig economy. The Gig Economy has impacted the future of work like no other force since the beginning of the industrial revolution. (www.ultimategigresources.com/gig-economy-video).

The appeal of the gig economy is broad, across all generations. Name brands are involved, and new contemporary brands are emerging. Engaging with a company as an Affiliate has also become very popular.   

Most notable about the acceptance of the gig economy and the high satisfaction rate amongst gig workers (Ultimate Gig/Peterson Research July 2020) is the simplicity of gig models. They are typically easy to understand, easy to engage, and do not require time-consuming employer interviews to become engaged. A gig seeker can actually be engaged and working their new gig within a couple of days, often within hours. Pay is prompt upon completion of the work and always performance based. There is no fear of job loss because the gig worker has chosen to be involved and they can also choose to cease being involved in accordance to their decision, not the decision of the gig provider. The gig economy has impacted on the future of work in a manner that will continue to change our definitions of work. The gig economy may also be the leading indicator of a new trend toward enterprise which is available in diverse formats eliminating, or certainly reducing, the risk associated traditionally with entrepreneurship. The future of work has arrived and what we see is a new form of entrepreneurship, the emergence of the Individual Entrepreneur/Solopreneur.  

In the most recent research conducted by the Ultimate Gig Project Team, 69% of gig workers were found to be working multiple gigs. Working multiple gigs can also be considered a phenomenon. In the past, those who worked a part time job in addition to a full-time job may have kept that information secret/personal. When someone worked multiple part-time jobs they were typically described as being of high initiative and sometimes the descriptor “entrepreneurial” may have been applied. Today, working a gig to compliment income appears to be smart. Working multiple gigs may soon be realized as being a very smart use of underutilized time or perhaps indicative of the label, Individual Entrepreneur or Solopreneur – that person who works when they want to and how they want to, utilizing brands and systems to enable a self-designed enterprise of multiple income streams. Working multiple gigs can make work more interesting and very rewarding from a financial perspective. 

The type of current work or profession we are currently engaged in should not interfere with an opportunity to leverage underutilized assets. The limitations of the past years have been eliminated. We can choose what we would like to do and even try something new that we never explored before. Or we can develop an underutilized asset into the enterprise we often dreamed about but felt too risky to try. We can even develop a new career through multiple opportunities or possibly find the one thing we always knew was out there, … we just didn’t know exactly what it was or how to develop it. We can now work around priorities without disrupting priorities. We can try something new without risking what we have established. We can enhance the life work balance, perhaps, become more of the architect of our own destiny, … or at least gain more control, especially of our income while improving the life/work balance at the same time.