Well… that’s it people. I think it’s pretty much case closed now.
Economists, academics, thought leaders, bestselling authors… it seems just about everyone has weighed in on the topic of the new economy and the fact that self-employed professionals are taking center stage.
But this month, freelancing or “working independently” or being a “solopreneur” (no one has quite settled on the catch-all phrase to describe us yet) was officially ordained as the way of the future by the mainest of mainstream media…
It’s right there in black and white, on page 42 of the July issue of O Magazine…
“Stop looking for a staff position…” “…package yourself as an independent contractor for hire on a project by project basis.” – Suze Orman O Magazine, July 2010
O My!
Let’s just pause for a second and appreciate the gravity of this… here you have Suze Orman, perhaps the most recognized personal finance expert in America, in one of the nation’s leading magazines, telling millions of readers to eschew the traditional J-O-B and go solo.
Um. That’s HUGE.
You can read the full article online for the proper context, but basically Orman’s advice came in response to a reader (someone with a master’s in HR) who was frustrated with job hunting after 40 applications turned up crickets .
With her advice to look for project-based contract work, Orman adds her voice to the chorus of people like Seth Godin, Dan Pink and countless others who’ve been telling us for years (many years, in Pink’s case) that freelancing, or whatever you want to call it, is increasingly how we roll in North America now. (Seth Godin even refers to himself a freelancer, in this recent video interview.)
Seeing advice like this in the pages of O, from a mega-high profile author like Orman will be a wake-up call for a lot of people. If you thought “going solo” was just a trend, watch what happens now, and in the next few years to come.
Who stands to profit from this? YOU!
If you’re reading this blog, odds are you’re already an indpendent professional, consultant, freelancer, solopreneur, whatever-you-call-yourself or you’re working toward that vision. So… if you’ve been hesitantly dipping your toe in the warm waters of freelancing, now is the time to take the plunge. FULLY. Get ahead of the wave, go all out, and build your solo business. NOW is the time.
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Pete Savage is co-author of The Wealthy Freelancer and doesn’t quite know how to answer, “Why were you reading Oprah Magazine, anyway?” so don’t ask.
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Thanks for this. Maybe others in the media will start to catch on. Especially loved this line: “[f]reelancing, or whatever you want to call it, is increasingly how we roll in North America now.”
Yes, yes, YES!!! Oh, boy… I’m getting goose bumps here!
My take on this: The tidal wave is swelling up in a huge way. And when it comes crashing down, this is going to be the hottest and most talked about topic in the mainstream media. Very much in the way of environmental issues. In fact, the green movement is a perfect example of a topic that had a lot of pent-up energy. Few in the mainstream media were really talking about it. It was mainly a grassroots movement for years. Until it reached that tipping point a few years ago. And once it came out, it exploded in a big way. Now you just can’t stop the conversation. No way.
It will be like that with the freelance movement. And I’m going to predict that this article is the beginning of a tsunami unlike anything we’ve seen in the world of work since the industrial revolution.
When 30% of the workforce is contingent, you can only ignore us for so long.
Oprah and Suze — our contact info is on this site. Let’s talk.
It was a Feb. 8 article in the WSJ that floored me, and it was these two sentences in particular:
“Today, in fact, 20% to 23% of U.S. workers are operating as consultants, freelancers, free agents, contractors or micropreneurs. Current projections see the number only rising in coming years.”
Twenty percent!? That’s amazing. I think that’s a high estimate, but even if the percentage is 15, it’s still an enormous number of people.