As part of the ritual of examining local commerce and SMB Saas strategies, Localogy goes right to the source: SMBs themselves. How do they feel about marketing and operational software? What features do they want? And how has their hunger changed in a pandemic? This is all a moving target.
But as part of that exercise, we sometimes broaden the subject matter beyond traditional SMBs. In the latest Localogy study, done in collaboration with Mono Solutions, we looked specifically at freelancers. Why is this important? The Covid-driven “great resignation” has boosted the freelancer economy.
With that backdrop, who are freelancers and what makes them tick? The report, The Freelance Channel – A Growing Reseller Resource dives in. After examining thedistribution of freelance job categories last week, we switch gears this week to drill down into the reasons individuals become freelancers.
Breaking down the results, the leading reason freelancers do what they do is money. That’s followed by lifestyle choice, fit with family situation, and job loss. Results vary by age, where younger generations are driven by lifestyle and money, while older individuals are driven by family dynamics.
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What Does it All Mean?
Going a bit deeper, a few things jump out at us:
– Motivations for freelancers to join the 1099 life are largely a function of age, as noted.
– Due to common psychographic profiles, it’s not surprising that lifestyle considerations drive younger freelancers.
– Similarly, it stands to reason that older workers are motivated more by changing life circumstances such as family.
– Freelancers driven by job loss are likewise varied by age, the most prevalent age group is 35-44, which then drops off with each older age group.
– This could be because more individuals in the 35-44 age group are in the job market and thus affected by Covid-era job losses (among other things).
– Generational dividing lines are more pronounced in other areas, such as lifestyle choice.
– For example, 67 percent of freelancers under 55 say it’s a lifestyle-driven choice, compared to just 29 percent of freelancers 55 and up.
– Similar age-related differences were seen in financial motivation, where 33 percent of 18-34-year-olds say they’re in it for the money versus 8 percent of those 55-64.
Time to Shine
Stepping back, SMB online marketing – website-based or otherwise – continues to grow rapidly. SMB SaaS startups and online services providers are correspondingly thriving as it continues to grow as a leading subsector of the broader SaaS universe. There’s a long-tail opportunity at play.
Meanwhile, new SMB SaaS users could represent permanent adopters – a concept that’s accelerated in the Covid era as SMBs are forced to boost their digital transformation. This sends them into the arms of SaaS providers to accomplish a range of marketing and operational functions.
We’ll return in the next installment to go deeper into SMB marketing and website adoption. That will include their goals and success factors. Let us know what additional insights jump out at you from the above data, and stay tuned for more breakdowns in our Benchmark Bytes series.
