Micropreneurs - generally defined as people who work for themselves or run businesses with fewer than 5 employees - has been getting a lot press lately. Articles include:
Why People Want to Be Micro-Entrepreneurs: From Fast Company Co.Exist, this article covers a survey by micro-task site Fivvr on why people want to be micropreneurs. The top reasons are job independence, frustration with the 9 to 5 grind and the money.
The Rise of the Micro Entrepreneurship Economy: Also from Fast Company Co.Exist, it discusses why people want to be micropreneurs from a qualitative and trends point of view.
Here Comes the Corporate Brain Drain: From Information Week, this covers the risk to corporate IT shops that they may lose a lot of their best performers to independent work.
Why Micropreneurship May Be the Key to Job Creation: A Huffington Post article that interviews the CEO of Task Rabbit, a micro-job site.
Can the Rise of Micropreneurs Force Companies to be More Humane: Yet another Fast Company Co.Exist article (they really like this topic). It argues companies are going to have to treat their employees better or lose them to independent work.
Side-hustlin': From MTV's Scratch Gen Y marketing agency the article describes the side businesses that Gen Yers are building, alongside the regular work they do, to make more money, fulfill their dreams, or maximize their potential in ways that their 9-to-5 might not be able to.
My Mom is a Micro-Preneur: Very nice story on a 9 year old Bolivian Boy's perspective on his mother being a micro-preneur.
We're in the process of crunching the data from the 2nd Annual MBO Partners State of Independence study survey. This survey is designed to identify and profile micropreneurs (we call them independent workers).
We will be reporting on our findings in the coming weeks.
This is a great roundup. Micropreneurship is an exciting movement, and part of the motivation behind my business. As a someone who's dabbled in micropreneurship himself, I know these entrepreneurs need professional services from others to help legitimize and grow their businesses. That's the goal of Swapel.
Posted by: Nick Barron | August 01, 2012 at 05:22 AM
When you consider that so many knowledge workers are becoming long-term unemployed, yet technology has enabled them to exploit their knowledge base to embark upon ventures we could only dream of as recently as 10 to 15 years ago, it is no surprise that more and more professionals are opting for the self-employment route by starting micro-businesses.
They require low infusions of capital. They're highly specialized, highly localized and may very well replace a salary, if developed intelligently and with a sound marketing framework for expansion.
So, more power to the micropreneur!
Posted by: Micropreneurship Is The Future Of Small Business | August 08, 2012 at 04:09 PM