Among the attendees for Intuit, Inc.’s QuickBooks Connect 2015 conference, business owners and business analysts have a growing awareness of the utility of independent and freelance workers. Tapping into this resource while understanding its benefits and disadvantages is an important part of modern entrepreneurship, particularly with online networking making it easier than ever.

Steve King, a partner at Emergent Research, spoke with Jeff Frick, cohost of theCUBE, from the SiliconANGLE Media team, during QuickBooks Connect 2015 to discuss some of the aspects of freelance workers from the sides of both the employer and employee, and what’s important to make collaborations a success.

Growing percentage

With studies from his research company indicating that up to 40% of Americans are regularly engaging in independent work or consulting, King emphasized that freelance work has become a significant part of the economy. However, while it offers flexibility and autonomy, these workers are making the trade-offs of unpredictable income and no benefits.

There are ways to soften the impact of these disadvantages, though. “The people that do it best now don’t go it alone anymore; you use partners, you use other virtual workers, other independent contractors,” King said. For businesses making use of these workers, agility and flexibility in scaling is a consideration, but cost-saving is not as significant as it was 10 years ago.

Products and platforms

With platforms such as Amazon and Google Marketplace offering widely accessible avenues of distribution for applications and services, companies can find themselves needing an increase in workers for short periods of time, such as when ramping up to a product launch. Background, personal experience and expertise are what King picked out as being the top qualities for these companies to consider in such situations, though there are also opportunities for the independent worker to devise their own apps.

Outlining his advice for freelancers, King said “If possible, do it part-time to start, don’t give up your day job, and build up a little bit of a financial cushion before you get going, because it’s unpredictable, the income’s up and down … You have to show up for work every day. Develop relationships with other people, because if you try to go it alone, it’s going to be really difficult.”

Watch the full interview below, and be sure to check out more of SiliconANGLE and theCUBE’s coverage of QuickBooks Connect 2015.

Photo by SiliconANGLE