The Promise and Peril of the Freelance Economy

The Promise and Peril of the Freelance Economy is an essay on self-employment from the Manhattan Institute, a New York based think tank. 

The article covers a lot of ground and is well worth reading for anyone interested in or considering self-employment.  Some of the key points include:

1.  New York City is a hotbed of self-employment.  According to the article, there were 807,750 self-employed workers in NYC in 2006.  That is about 20% of the non-government jobs in NYC.  This is about twice the nationwide average.

2.  Health insurance is a huge issue for the self-employed.  Both securing health insurance and paying for it.  A key message is anyone considering self-employment should figure out how to secure and pay for health insurance before going out on their own.

3.  Freedom, flexibility and the ability to be the boss are key reasons people become and stay self-employed.  We hear these same reasons consistently in our research on the self-employed.

4.  The self-employed add value to the economy.  This point seems self evident since so many people are self-employed, but it is amazing how many times I hear that the self-employed (and most small businesses) add little or nothing to the U.S. economy.

I saw this on the Policy Dialog on Entrepreneurship blog which is a great source of information on entrepreneurship.

Comments

[Kathleen G.]

Good article, thanks for the post.

[Chris]

Who says small businesses add nothing to the economy?

Probably the only people still paying taxes.

best,

Chris O.
Referral Key
“Your Trusted Referral Network”
http://www.referralkey.com/

[Success CoSign.com]

You touched on a great point: the rising cost of health insurance for the self employed.
This can single handly turn most away for considering being a small business owner to becoming a online business owner while keeping a full or parttime job.
http://SuccessCoSign.com