The UK’s freelancers and contractors are continuing to thrive during difficult economic times. But why? And how?
It’s time for a quick-fire round up.
**The certainty of uncertainty:** over the last few years many medium-sized and large businesses have hit a financial brick wall. Or been hit by a financial brick wall. Such businesses have had to make redundancies as a key tool in keeping their companies afloat. A workforce of permanent fixed staff quickly became a burden.
**Streamlined business:** suddenly running a sizeable business required a more flexible and streamlined approach. In an uncertain market the requirement for skilled professionals to fill certain roles became an ‘on-the-hoof’ calculation. Workers were needed on demand. That’s when the freelancer stepped in.
**The technology to match:** online technology became an increasingly crucial tool in matching freelancers with their prospective clients. Whether it was sourcing work, networking or providing the work remotely online – technology was able to play a key role in empowering the flexi-worker. And not just in the IT-based industries. Websites such as MyBuilder created networks for building contractors and their prospective customers.
**The outsourced economy:** a recent edition of The Sunday Times referred to “a quiet revolution that is changing the labour market.” This referred to a new economy based on outsourcing rather than building a business by increasing the number of ‘in-house’ employees – every part of a business could be outsourced from accounting to manufacturing, to web design and much much more. As Emma Jones would say: ‘Do what you do best and outsource the rest.’
**Freelancing here to stay:** what if the economy picks up? Will everything be as it was, large fixed-term workforces a preferable way of staffing a business? Will businesses want to go back to being less efficient? Of course not.
>Summary: freelancing looks set to flourish for the forseeable future.
##### Is it just us? What is your experience? Are you thriving right now? — we’d love to read about your experiences…
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###### Image by [The Carol](http://www.flickr.com/photos/thecarol/3172513491/) ~ [cc](http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/deed.en)
