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 the reasons people do freelance work last week, we switch gears this week to drill down on whether or not freelancing work fullfills individuals’ goals.
Breaking down the results, overall life goals scored higher across the board than financial goals. Individuals aged 55-64 were the most satisfied with freelance work, including both financial goals and overall life goals. This was followed by ages 45-54. Oldest and youngest age groups were least satisfied.
Localogy members can access full charts and SMB survey reports. Non-members can purchase reports.
What Does it All Mean?
Going a bit deeper, a few things jump out at us:
– The fact that overall goals scored higher on average than financial goals (in most age groups) suggests that the benefits of freelance work are more about lifestyle than financial gains.
– For financial goals, levels of attainment grew with age, until the 55-64 group after which it dropped off.
– This suggests that older individuals have more refined skill sets, robust resumes and pay rates, as they are meeting goals more than younger generations.
– However, the drop-off in goal attainment for the oldest group suggests that some of the earning potential and candidate “marketability” recedes after a certain age.
– Moreover the freelance lifestyle, involving less security and more “hustling”, may be a “young man’s game” and less appealing to older individuals who want more steady secure work.
– Similarly, goal attainment was lowest among the youngest age groups, suggesting that less proven workforce status makes it more challenging to find and keep freelance work.
– Overall 52% of freelancers say the independent life is meeting their goals, broadly defined. Yet only 33% of those under 34 say the freelance game is delivering
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.
