Despite trade wars, tariffs, and the erection of other barriers to cross-border commerce, independent workers, freelancers and solopreneurs are increasingly finding customers outside U.S. borders.
As the MBO Partners State of Independence study chart below shows (click to enlarge), in 2019 22% of Independent workers who work full-time as independent workers said they provided goods or services to customers outside the U.S.
This us up from 19% in 2018 and just 12% in 2012.
The increase in exports is being driven by several factors:
- Online marketplaces have made it much easier to find and service customers outside of the U.S. They also simplify and facilitate transactions and payments.
- Collaboration software has reached the level where communicating with remote customers is easy and efficient. This has greatly increased the ability of service providers to serve customers outside of the U.S.
- Improvements in outsourced logistics services have reduced the costs and greatly simplified the process of delivering physical products to pretty much any global destination.
We expect the trends driving the growth of exports by full-tine independent workers to continue to strengthen. Because of this, we expect the export activity by independent workers to continue to grow.
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