The Wheel: Gig Economy and Value

We are all aware that we’re amidst a sea change in the workplace. The traditional model that our parents and grandparents lived with – loyalty to a company = stable employment, guaranteed benefits, pensions, etc. – is dying. Today, with the emphasis on quarter-over-quarter (Q/Q) growth, the people who run large companies are fixated on shareholder value and their bonuses. In this article, I will discuss how this structure and the gig economy go hand in hand. 

Current Factors Leading Movement to the Gig Economy

Since labor costs are the biggest expense a business has, as a worker, you are (or will be) a liability for a company. As I constantly caution my clients, no matter what they tell you, you are not “a member of the family.” If you are an employee, your employer at some point will likely:

• cut your hours, so you don’t qualify for health insurance
• turn you into a contract worker
• replace you with someone younger, cheaper, or from a country where the wages are a fraction of what you earn
• find a robot to do your job

Sadly, if you do find a full-time job, it probably won’t last. You realize that you can no longer rely on a single employer for financial stability. You are almost being forced to be a freelancer: your own business, your brand.

Freelancing is Trending

According to the American Heritage Dictionary, a freelancer is “a person who sells services to employers without a long-term commitment to any of them.” Upwork’s 2022 Freelance Forward survey reports that 39% of the U.S. workforce performed freelance work in the past year, up 3% from 2021. This trend is predicted to continue.

While financial gain is the primary motivator for freelancing, it also offers the following benefits:

• flexibility
• helps you find a sense of purpose in your life
• can offer a stepping stone to a new career
• a way to create more control and stability in your life

Employers increasingly like to hire freelancers because they don’t have to pay them benefits; they can save on office rent because freelancers increasingly work virtually, etc. But if you’re used to the traditional model, becoming a freelancer can be frightening. As Buckminster Fuller said, “You never change things by fighting the existing reality. To change something, build a new model that makes the existing model obsolete.”

The Wheel- A Guide to the Gig Economy

Here is the model I created and used with my clients. Picture a wagon wheel:

The hub is your core brand or skill set. Let’s use “musician” as the hub in this example, but it will serve any vocation in any industry.

The spokes extending from the hub are the various ways a musician can derive income from their talents. This might include studio musician, touring musician, teacher (private lessons, clinics, K-12, afterschool programs, high school and/or college level), producer, audio engineer, arranger, manager of other artists, mixer, songwriter, booking agent, product endorsements, etc.

Creating Generatable Income in the Gig Economy

When creating a career strategy, the goal is to find as many ways as possible to generate income. This is an appropriate response to a freelance workplace where the emphasis needs to be on finding work — not jobs.

A business does not rely on a single client. As you approach your own career (brand) as a business, this model frees you from relying on one “client,” and is designed to create a steady stream of income from multiple sources.

The Wheel replaces the traditional concept of having a job at a company (one client). The working world is too fluid and volatile to expect a supportive work environment to last very long. Even if you have a “good” boss who treats you well and recognizes your contributions to the team, they may not last in the job. Job stability is threatened by management shakeups, mergers, and the resulting layoffs, outsourcing, robotics, buyout packages, etc. Unfortunately, this is the new normal.

A Change in Mindset

People serve loyally with companies for years, only to be shown the door for reasons having nothing to do with their job performance. They leave feeling that their contributions were ultimately neither valued nor appreciated. Employers don’t care about you, and loyalty isn’t rewarded.

For decades, we have relied upon the safe harbor of the full-time job. We can no longer afford to do that. The Wheel is a worker’s hedge against the instability of the employment landscape of the 21st Century. While you may not like being a freelancer, which entails constantly selling your services and continually upskilling, it is increasingly the direction in which the labor market is going. Learn to embrace it.