Monthly Archives: December 2023

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Survey: Freelancing in America 2023

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Upwork, the global marketplace that connects businesses in need of capable and reliable Freelance professionals and talented independent workers who are looking to generate billable hours, has just released the results of “Freelance Forward: 2023,” the 10th annual comprehensive study of the U.S. independent workforce. The study found that 64 million Americans participated in Freelance work during the past year, adding 4 million more self-employed workers over 2022. Freelance workers now comprise 38% of the nation’s workforce and contributed nearly $1.27 trillion to the U.S. economy in 2023.

Highly skilled professionals

Most Freelancers perform highly skilled professional work. Nearly half (47%) work in the knowledge economy and provide B2B services such as computer programming, marketing, IT, graphic arts and business consulting. Another 23% of Freelancers create influencer and other marketing content that fuels livestreams, social media videos and images, blogs and newsletters. 

Freelancers are also at the forefront of embracing new technologies. When asked about generative Artificial Intelligence use in the past three months, Freelancers were 2.2 times more than traditionally employed workers to say that they frequently use generative AI tools. In total, 20%, approximately 12.8 million Freelancers, use generative AI tools regularly (multiple times per week), compared to just 9% of traditionally employed professionals. When asked the functions for which Freelancers use generative AI, research (46%), brainstorming and ideation (35%), translation (33%), proposal writing (32%) and coding (28%) ranked at the top. 

Why we Freelance

Results of Freelance Forward studies produced over the the study’s 10 year history show that respondents enter Freelancing for various reasons, but flexibility and control consistently emerge as prime motivators. Beyond earning a living, when asked about reasons for Freelancing, “to have flexibility in my schedule,” “to be in control of my own financial future” and “to work from the location of my choosing” top the list. This is mainly because unlike traditional employees, whose work schedules are largely imposed by the company, Freelancers are our own bosses. We determine when, where and for whom we will work and therefore, we are able to control our schedules and lives.

The evidence of this freedom is apparent in where Freelancers perform our work. Although return-to-office mandates have brought many professionals back to their cubicle, the majority of Freelancers work from home, at a co-working space, or in another location of their choosing. In fact, 60% of Freelancers work remotely, as compared to just 32% of traditionally employed professionals who work remotely. Furthermore, Freelancers also choose the hours and amount of work they’ll do at a given time. While 77% of Freelancers say they work consistently, they do so based on a schedule that best suits their lifestyles.

The future is Freelance

Freelancing continues to grow as a viable career choice for professionals and according to survey participants, the future of Freelancing remains bright. To understand the future of Freelancing, survey respondents were asked to assess their feelings of optimism, or pessimism, ahead of 2024. Overwhelmingly, Freelancers are optimistic about prospects for their professional growth (80%), personal income and revenue increases (76%), opportunities to earn billable hours (74%) and personal development (84%). When asked about the future, 85% of Freelancers say the best days for Freelancing are ahead. Key findings of Freelance Forward 2023 include:

  • Freelancing remains a significant part of the U.S. labor market and economy: Freelancers contributed $1.27 trillion in annual earnings to the U.S. economy in 2023. This was a 78% increase from the estimated $715 billion contributed to the economy in 2014, the first year of Freelance Forward.
  • Freelancing hits a new all-time high: The number of professionals Freelancing increased to 64 million Americans, or 38% of the U.S workforce, an increase of 4 million from 2022.
  • Freelancers are 2.2 times more likely to regularly use generative AI frequently in their work: 20% of Freelancers use generative AI tools on a regular basis (multiple times per week), which compares to just 9% of traditionally employed professionals.
  • Nearly half of Freelancers provide skilled knowledge services: 47% of all Freelancers, or nearly 30 million professionals, provided knowledge services such as computer programming, marketing, IT, and business consulting in 2023.
  • A quarter of Freelancers are creating influencer-style content: 23% of all Freelancers, or 14.7 million professionals, created influencer content including livestream services, social media videos, images or blogs in 2023.
  • Generation Z and Millennials are the most likely to explore Freelancing: In 2023, 52% of all Gen Z professionals and 44% of all Millennial professionals performed Freelance work.
  • Older Americans continue to be part of the Freelance market: In 2023, nearly 8.3 million professionals, or 13% of all U.S. Freelancers, were aged 59 or above.
  • The future is bright, according to Freelancers: Over 85% of Freelancers say the best days are ahead for Freelancing.

Happy New Year and thanks for reading,

Kim

Image: Frontal Lobe Coworking, located in the Nationally Registered historic downtown of Howell, MI, opened in 2013 with the intention of attracting workers to a shared office space while also utilizing empty downtown buildings.

Business Strategy , Leave a comment

Think, Plan, Do: How to Think and Act Strategically

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By now, I’m certain you’ve figured out that life is a game of chance that’s impacted by luck (good or bad) and planning (strategy or happenstance). You cannot really “make your own luck” (only lucky people think you can), but by thinking strategically and implementing your strategies, you’ll be able to influence certain variables that may tip the outcome in your favor.

Strategic thinking is an essential skill that promotes success both in the business world and in your personal life. Business owners and leaders rely on strategic thinking to make informed decisions and plan for the future, to promote innovation, respond to changes in the marketplace and recognize good opportunities. Strategic thinking depends on reliable information that you’ll analyze to identify the potential outcomes of a decision and ensure that decisions align with your company’s long-term goals. Strategic thinking can begin when you address three basic questions:

  • Where are you now in terms of achieving your preferred outcome (the goal, success)?
  • Where do you want to be (the preferred outcome)?
  • What actions will you take to bring about your preferred outcome?

Rich Horwath, author of the New York Times and Wall Street Journal bestseller Strategic: The Skill to Set Direction, Create Advantage and Achieve Executive Excellence (November 2023) and founder and CEO of the Strategic Thinking Institute, a strategy workshop facilitator where he is an executive coach and strategic advisor, defines strategic thinking as the ability to Think, Plan and Do. Horwath believes that strategic thinking leads to insights that allow us to recognize or create competitive advantages that lead to success. His coaching experience has shown him that strategic thinking can be learned, that we can assess our own strategic fitness level and apply the skill to create value for the business.

Acumen

Howath points to acumen, the way you think, as the basis of strategic thinking, along with context awareness, insight and innovation. Acumen gives you the ability to size up a situation, see the big picture and generate new ideas that move the organization from its current state to your preferred future. The components he assigns to acumen work in tandem and are what separate strategic thinkers from the rest:

  • Context awareness—informs your vision of the big picture and reflects your understanding of both your internal situation (culture, purpose, processes, guiding principles) and external situation (market trends, customer behavior, competitive landscape, business conditions). This awareness and perception informs your choices to allocate the resources you’ll use as your pursue your goals.
  • Insight —the ability to learn and draw conclusions, however preliminary, from current conditions and past experiences. This requires curiosity and an exploratory mindset. A key trait of strategic thinkers is their discipline to continuously record, categorize, share and reflect on insights.
  • Innovation —can occur when you focus your awareness and insights to create new value. It typically generated by the brainstorming or problem-solving involved in overcoming a challenge or obstacle.

To evaluate your acumen, ask yourself:

  • Do I regularly assess my business’s current situation, both from both the internal and external perspectives?
  • Do I share valuable insights with my team?
  • When problem-solving, do I stick to the tried-and-true, or do I look for new approaches?

Allocation

Howath sees allocation as how you plan. Strategic thinkers set goals, distribute resources, recognize the risk and tradeoffs when making decisions and create advantages that bring value. Where you invest your resources — time, talent and capital — is a primary driver of your effectiveness and it requires the following components:

  • Ability to focus resources: Resources are usually limited and should be used judiciously in service to achieving your goals. An effective strategy involves the ability to focus resources, confirming that resources are sufficient to produce the desired impact and confirming how the resource should be applied to achieve the desired effect.
  • Decision-making: Strategic thinkers generate and evaluate a range of viable alternatives. Since trade-offs are being made with each decision, they analyze the pros and cons of each alternative, as well as the level of acceptable risk.
  • Competitive advantage: A competitive advantage is created when the value created by your resources and actions exceeds the value that prospective customers assign to your competitors. Once an advantage is attained, strategic thinkers continue to refine it in order to stay ahead of the competition.

To evaluate whether you allocate effectively, ask yourself:

  1. Do I recognize when it’s time to redistribute resources from underperforming areas to projects that show more potential?
  2. Do I spend time on activities that align with my goals?
  3. How do I measure myself against the competitors?

Action

Action is what you do, that is, carrying out your plans. Preparing a business strategy is but one step; how you execute your strategies is pivotal to your success. Action requires the ability to collaborate with others and optimize your performance.

  • Execution involves using your resources to achieve your goal. It requires focus, discipline and follow-through, as well as monitoring to ensure interim results and a contingency plan to salvage a plan that fails to produce the expected result.

To assess your ability to take action, ask yourself:

  • When it comes time to implement a strategy, how prepared am I to take action?
  • Do I ask others what their goals are at the beginning of the conversation?
  • Do I easily get side-tracked by other obstacles along the way?

Merry Christmas and thanks for reading,

Kim

Image: Jackie Gleason as a fictional pool hustler in The Hustler (1961).

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Subscription Model Spotlight

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The subscription-based business model is an American classic. From the newspaper that the neighborhood paperboy delivered every day to your parent’s house, to the magazines you looked forward to receiving from the mailman each month and, of course, the Book-of-the-Month Club, founded in 1926 and enjoyed by your grandparents, millions have bought subscriptions over the years. We trust the process.

As the e-commerce revolution lured millions of newspaper, magazine and book readers to digital formats and software as a service (SaaS) introduced a menu of business services that make back-office operations much faster and efficient, the number of products and services available by subscription has exploded. There are now hundreds of subscription-based businesses to indulge you, from cable TV and movies to goodie gift boxes for you (Hot Sauce of the Month Club) and your dog (Barkbox).

Subscriptions are the original recurring revenue business model, able to bring a fairly predictable amount of money into a business at predetermined intervals, making subscriptions adored by business owners (and increasingly, Freelancers). Customers also appreciate subscriptions: they make obtaining frequently used products or services more convenient and often less costly, since there is almost always a discount offered as compared to the price of a one-off item. Plus, time is saved and inconvenience spared when there is no need to repeatedly make purchases; a subscription guarantees that your order is complete and payment settled just once a year and renewed annually as desired (and sometimes renewed automatically, which means you do nothing beyond reading the renewal confirmation if no changes will be made).

What’s not to love? Monthly (or annually or quarterly) recurring revenue represents predictable cash-flow and every business owner wants it. The smartest, most forward-thinking business owners and leaders, including Freelancers, are brainstorming ways to integrate a subscription service into their company’s offerings. The good news is that the acceptance level of subscriptions in the general population makes it relatively easy to persuade prospective customers to buy. Persuading subscribers to renew the deal, however, can be another kettle of fish.

So, if the idea of selling your products or services by subscription comes to mind, first ask yourself which of your products or services customers regularly purchase throughout the year but might prefer to order and pay for just once a year and save themselves time and money? Float the idea with two or three of your steady customers and heed the reply. Adopting a subscription model requires serious forethought and planning and this is especially true for many B2B service businesses, where value is intangible and not always immediately recognized. For example, the value of software subscriptions is continually demonstrated with tangible and actionable information that’s generated on a regular basis and by frequent use of the platform by the customer. The value of leadership and Emotional Intelligence coaching, however, can be less immediately obvious.

Subscription business model experts reveal two critical success factors—perceived value and the subscriber experience. Regarding value, subscribers accept a recurring subscription fee when the product or service subscribed to consistently demonstrates its worth. Should the subscriber feel that s/he is not receiving value that justifies the subscription cost, the possibility of service cancellation is imminent. The benefits derived from the product or service subscribed to must be front and center in the subscriber’s mind. S/he must clearly witness or perceive the expected value, preferably through a noticeable, if not measurable, improvement in whatever need the service or product addresses.

Regarding the subscriber experience, quality control and the consistency of the expected outcomes delivered by the product or service are key. There is an ongoing need to maintain, and periodically upgrade, the subscriber service and experience delivered. Subscribers tend to expect service enhancements at regular intervals. Suggestions of other critical factors you may want to examine as you and your team evaluate the potential viability of a subscription model for one or more of your products or services are below:

1. Is the subscription model is right for your business?

 As noted above, do yourself a favor and confirm that enough of your customers will feel it advantageous to commit in advance to the purchase of one or more of your company’s products and/or services by subscription. Is it important to customers to reorder what you sell on an ongoing basis, or are sales typically intermittent or even one-off? Discuss with your accountant the amount of monthly subscription revenue needed to make offering subscriptions feasible for your entity. If you get a green light to move forward, it will then be necessary to develop strategies that promote and defend subscription revenue and minimize subscriber churn (i.e., cancellations). Be prepared to develop marketing campaigns that describe to current and prospective customers how buying your product or service as a subscription service will make life easier or doing business more cost-effective for them.

2. Subscription or retainer fee?

Even if you do a steady business with a certain client, for example, providing payroll solutions or website maintenance and security, a retainer agreement may be more appropriate than a subscription (both generate recurring revenue). A retainer fee is a fixed amount of money that a customer pays to a company/consultant in advance and for a specific period of time, typically, a month, quarter, or year. The retainer fee covers an agreed-upon scope of work or number of hours that the company/consultant agrees to provide to the customer. The customer can use the consultant’s services as needed, up to the limit of the retainer agreement. If the customer does not use all of the hours or services included in the retainer, the consultant still keeps the entire fee; if the customer exceeds that limit, the consultant can charge extra fees or negotiate a new retainer.

A subscription fee is a recurring fee that a subscriber pays to a company/consultant for access to a predefined service or product. The subscription fee is billed monthly, quarterly, or annually and the subscriber can cancel (sometimes) or renew the subscription at any time (usually toward the end of the billing period). The subscription grants access to the product or service, which the subscriber can use as desired. The consultant/company provides the product or service on a continuing basis or provides access to an online platform or membership access site.

3. Try before buy 

Consider offering a short free trial to allow prospective subscribers to experience the advantages of subscribing to your product or service—first month free, for example. Tempting current customers and prospects with a sample of your subscription service could convince a number of them to sign up and pay. Furthermore, you’ll make subscribing still more attractive when their pricing options are uncomplicated. Offer one standard monthly (or quarterly or annual) fee; if you also sell premium and/or economy versions of your product or service, price those subscriptions accordingly.

4. Set clear expectations:

Set clear expectations from the start of the subscriber relationship. Customers must understand what they’ll receive for the price they’ll pay–services, products, tools and/or supporting technologies. Subscriber info should walk customers through what the subscription offers, the level of support available from your team and company contact info.  Ensure that prospective subscribers fully understand the value they’ll receive, tangible (the product or service) and intangible (training, additional info and/or support).

5. Discounts for longer-term subscriptions

The monthly fee should reward longer subscription commitments—24 or 36 months, for example—with correspondingly progressive discounts. While some subscribers desire only short-term use, others will use your product or service basically forever. By offering subscribers a variety of subscription options and offering deeper discounts to those who agree to pay upfront for long-term commitments, you’ll have a better chance of attracting more subscribing customers and increasing recurring revenue.

6. Easy or automatic renewing

The subscription model is an excellent vehicle for customer retention, but your organization must implement strategies to further remind subscribing customers of its relevance to them and provide various incentives for renewing the subscription. Make renewing frictionless and enable subscribers to auto-renew (with an opt-out option). When you make renewal easy for subscribers, they’re more inclined to do so.

7. Quality control and customer experience

Subscriber satisfaction is not to be taken lightly; it is never a given. Ideally, you’ll find it in your budget to assign or hire (W2 or 1099) a subscriber experience specialist who will be responsible for ensuring that expectations are met. That person will also document and report on the turnaround time for resolving issues, as well as any recurring problems. Proper quality control offers you much-needed insight into subscriber concerns, which will drive ongoing service enhancements and continue to enhance subscription value. 

Furthermore, marketing experts have convincingly demonstrated that personalized communication is a deciding factor in reducing churn, building loyalty and re-engaging lapsed customers/subscribers. Your organization should collect as much subscriber data as possible and apply that info to generating email updates and personalized special offers that aim to encourage renewals. The goal is to maintain subscriber enthusiasm and reinforce the convenience, enjoyment and/or habit of subscribing. You want to avoid disengagement, complacency, or other dissatisfaction that may result in a lapsed subscriber.

8. Don’t skimp on packaging

If your subscription is a physical product, invest in premium packaging. With all due respect to the U.S. Postal Service, your product deserves better packaging than a flat rate priority box. While your physical product will require shipping, it is highly recommended that you avoid the temptation to save money by packing and mailing yourself. Instead, find a fulfillment house and outsource packing and shipping.

Your logistics provider will fulfill subscription orders for your product, packing and shipping those orders directly to subscribers in a way that effectively communicates the value of your brand and enhances the subscriber experience. The fulfillment center will also manage product inventory and store the inventory.

Thanks for reading,

Kim

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“Upload Photo Here” B2B Gets Personal

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Creating B2B marketing content that brings in leads and builds your brand is a real challenge! Bound by (real or imagined) expectations to appear “business-like,” B2B content creators are known to merely deliver the info that decision-makers need—the what, why, when, by whom and how a product or service is used, topped off with a serviceable call-to-action. The particulars will be in there but the end result is usually content that’s dry and impersonal. It doesn’t reach out and touch, it checks off the boxes.

If developing B2B marketing content is your responsibility, keep in mind that the decision-makers you aspire to influence are actually human. They laugh, they get bored, get frustrated, curious and (sometimes) inspired. They are busy, if not overwhelmed, and it takes something special to get their attention and win their trust. Your target audience responds best to content that is fresh, unexpected and shows that you understand what’s important to them.

Maybe you’re ahead of me and already have a guerilla marketing campaign in the works, as was discussed in last week’s post? But once the guerilla sizzle has grabbed audience attention, back it up and bring the steak. Your next move is to convert the buzz into confidence and trust that leads to loyal relationships. You achieve that by knowing your clients and using that knowledge to develop content and other means of communication that demonstrates you have their priorities and needs on your front burner. Below are factors to keep in mind and actions you may decide to take as you re-examine your B2B marketing strategy and prepare your organization for the start of a new year.

Personalized customer profiles

To figure out how to sell your products and/or services, you must know the goals and priorities of your prospects and have an idea of what might worry them, too. Accurate and updated client information is among your most valuable resources; data can be collected in quick-and-easy, nonthreatening ways, on your website or social media platforms. In exchange for a prospect’s name, contact info, business name and category, you may offer free 15 minute video consultations, free copies of your case study, or a free link to the webinar on which you made a guest appearance info. Inbound marketing tactics, spotlighted by a tempting call-to-action, not only moves prospects through the sales funnel, it also functions as a portal for client info.

Beyond basic contact info, a review of previous client or prospect interactions with your company will reveal more detailed info, including the purchasing history of current and lapsed clients, their buying preferences, concerns and the amount they spend. Get to know your target audience by understanding their unique preferences and help yourself to retain clients, make more sales and reduce churn rate. Clients and prospects are what a mailing list is all about; it’s members represent potential sales revenue for your company. Consider the following questions as you build customer profiles.

  • Who is a window shopper and who is researching with a goal of buying? Have you designed a “try before you buy” option available to undecideds, or is it effective to initiate a face2face or video meeting to show undecideds how your solution will solve problems and achieve objectives that matter to them?
  • Who are they buying for? Is the prospect an end-user and stakeholder, who influences the purchasing decision, or is the decision-maker, who may not directly use the product or service, doing the shopping?
  • After they complete a purchase, what kind of follow-up support, including info on the optimal use of the product or implementation of a service, would the new client appreciate?

Purpose-driven content

Companies are re-evaluating how they deliver their marketing messages and many now feel that creating purpose-driven marketing content is integral to being seen as relevant to potential buyers. The more you know about the goals and buying behaviors of your prospects, the more successful you’ll become in selling to them. You want information that guides you to describe, price, deliver and provide after-sale support for your product or service in words and actions that are quickly understood and strike the right chords with the target audience and in so doing, earn their trust and confidence. Consider the three phases of the buyer’s journey:

  • Discovery phase: What do prospects see when they conduct a Google search of your entity? What links appear in the results and what story is told about your products/ services and brand?
  • Consideration phase: How is your company represented when a prospect or client engages with your social media and other content? What platform links, articles, images and websites appear?
  • Conversion phase: How does your brand show up when a client transacts business on your website? What action do you want your client to take beyond making a one-time purchase?

Thanks for reading,

Kim

Image: © The Richard Avedon Foundation. Supermodel China Machado (born Noelie da Souza,1929-2016), photographed by Richard Avedon in New York, NY for the November 6, 1958 cover of Time Magazine’s 100 Women of the Year issue.