A sharing economy is an economic system in which assets or services are shared efficiently. In May 2019, Forbes quoted a study by PWC predicting that the sharing economy is projected to grow from $15 billion in 2014 to $335 billion in 2025.
Common recent examples of Airbnb, Uber, and Netflix show that the sharing economy offers the opportunity to mix up established industries and has the advantage of opening new revenue streams and reaching customers who might not have been interested in the company’s products or services beforehand.
Sharing isn’t quite a new way of life but technology and ease of connections through the digital world have boosted accessibility and convenience offering the ability to seek things out and obtain them easily. In many ways, sharing is something we’ve always done, you scratch my back, I’ll scratch yours. But now, with the sharing economy in the digital age, it may be the perfect opportunity to foster the growth of your business.
What are the top benefits of the sharing economy for your business?
1. Get professional support on demand.
Need It Today, but not tomorrow? General practitioners probably don’t need a full-time IT person or a dedicated accountant. Conveniently, these jobs can all be hired out to specialists. When you have a specific task, the best time to hire a resource to perform that specific task is when you need it. Such as hiring someone to do your corporate taxes or to help you manage your administration. Keep an eye on how much you’re spending on resources to do work for you, versus doing them in-house and weigh up what is most efficient.
2. Expand into other areas of practice.
In a sharing economy, everyone benefits. Your client gets what they’re looking for quickly, locally, and cheaply, while you get to expand into a new area of practice making you more attractive to new clients and to ultimately generate new sources of income.
3. Create an ally not a competitor.
It’s easy to look at the sharing economy as another chance to fight the competition. But the sharing economy is geared towards enabling businesses to operate in a way that wasn’t previously possible, like working in partnership with your competitors.
