Absolutely. Check out the MBO Partners State of Independence in America report which is on their website. It is the only research that has been done consistently over time. This year will be… Read More

There are a lot of platforms for creative professionals. One of my favorites is Working Not Working. This platform is for any professional with a portfolio, from illustrators to animators to… Read More

It depends on what report you read. The best are by The McKinsey Global Institute, MBO Partners, The Freelancers Union in Association with Upwork, and The Staffing Industry Analysts. Of cour… Read More

As a California voter, I hate the proposition process.  I have always felt it was inappropriate for the masses to legislate, since that is what we elect our state representatives to do… Read More

The recent passage of #AB2257 shows just how ill-conceived #AB5 was, and how little the lawmakers understood about the gig economy. I may not write laws, but I write books.  When I subm… Read More

Deloitte Research and the MIT Sloan Management Review published an interesting report recently entitled “Opportunity Marketplaces.” Their premise is that companies should create… Read More

Perhaps because of AB5, the new law regulating independent contractors in California, I have been getting a lot of calls from journalists, think tanks and thought leaders about the #GigEcono… Read More

As the author of Thriving in the Gig Economy, I have gotten a lot of inquiries in the last month asking me whether the gig economy will crumble in California given AB5. For those who don&rsq… Read More

At the National Association of Corporate Directors Summit last week, Admiral James Stavrids, the former Supreme Allied Commander of NATO gave a talk on global risks.  When asked how we… Read More

Escape rooms have become a very popular entertainment option in the last decade, where participants play an escape game to collectively discover clues, solve puzzles and ultimately achieve t… Read More

I suppose I should be happy that the #gigeconomy is at least being mentioned by some of the presidential candidates.  That said, I am disappointed with their frame of reference. Mayor… Read More

July 1, 2019 | Blog | 0 comments My favorite source of gig economy data, The State of Independence in America, recently announced its 2019 findings. When I was writi… Read More

Life Sci Hub is a #CoolGigCompany that is in a unique niche; they scientists and specialized consultants to the Life Scienc… Read More

Brett Helling  wants GigWorker.com to be for independent workers what Ridester has become for drivers in the rideshare business. Ridester is the “got to” resource for ridesh… Read More

The National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) today gave independent contractors a boost when it reversed a prior decision from the Obama era which had limited the definition of independent cont… Read More

There have been several articles so far this year about how furloughed federal workers are using the gig economy to make ends meet; A recent Fast Company article indicated that services off… Read More

As an early operator in  the #GigEconomy, I am gratified by the ways in which it has grown. This year in particular,  I have to say there is much about which to be grateful at this… Read More

I am proud to be part of the leadership team of The Myers-Briggs Company that made the effort to change its corporate structure to become a California benefit corporation and obtain its B Co… Read More

When you write a book about a topic that is often in the news, like the #GigEconomy, friends send you articles on that topic to be sure you see them.  It is nice, since every so often… Read More

0ne of the benefits of being a Board member of CPP Inc.-The Myers-Briggs Company is that we get to use the products. Each year at our off-sites, we take an assessment and then, one of the Ph… Read More

A challenge for many workers in the # gig economy is the isolation.  By definition independent workers are working on their own, an island away from the mainland. You do get to mingle w… Read More

People often ask me why I wrote my latest book, Thriving in the Gig Economy.  It was due in part to the fact that in the summer of 2016, three different investor groups approached me fo… Read More

I have to laugh when people talk about the “new” gig economy, because the truth of the matter is, it is not new at all.  Gigs have been around for a long time as have compan… Read More

As I like to say, I started a Gig Economy company before the term was even coined.  M Squared Consulting matched independent consultants to projects,  My partner, Paula Reynolds an… Read More

People are often surprised when they discover the millions of people who choose to work independently in the #GigEconomy.  Various studies show that their motivation is the desire for f… Read More

Getting a mortgage is one of the challenges for independent workers in the #GigEconomy. Lenders typically qualify loan applicants based on employment income as reported on a W2.  There… Read More

Many people complain that the #GigEconomy creates low wage jobs with no benefits and is therefore a negative for society.  What this perspective fails to recognize is that for so many… Read More

The April 30th opinion handed down by the California Supreme Court about worker classification has been described as a “seismic shift” which could cause “the end of the Gig… Read More

When I am asked about the problems with the rise of the #GigEconomy, I have a very optimistic response. “Smart entrepreneurs out there will come up with solutions to the inefficie… Read More

There was a great article in Medium today advocating that all freelancers adopt rush fees.  The idea is that urgent projects require special attention that may shuffle the priorities of… Read More

Baseball is back in season, even though Opening Day is not until Tuesday in San Francisco. (Go Giants!) Nevertheless, as America’s past time gears up,  I thought it was appropriat… Read More

Masters of Scale, the podcast run by Reid Hoffman of Greylock Ventures and founder of several companies including LinkedIn, is o… Read More

As a student of the #GigEconomy, I seek out #CoolGigCompanies to understand the new models and ideas that are being brought to the market by entrepreneurs around the world. Here is another i… Read More

There is a lot of talk right now about whether the educational system in America (and the world) is preparing workers for the increasing importance of the #GigEconomy. The Solo City Project… Read More

One of the things I like to do in profiling #CoolGigCompanies is finding entrepreneurs who see an opportunity in the Gig Economy that many others may have overlooked. Craig Lewis of Gig Wage… Read More

You have the chance to participate in ground breaking research about how psychological type may factor in to the #GigEconomy.  Read on to learn more. People become independent workers l… Read More

The recent UpWork study, Freelancing in America 2017, refreshed data about many aspects of the Gig Economy including participants, motivations and demographics. The study reinforced the conc… Read More

Last month, UpWork and Freelancers Union released their fourth annual “Freelancing in America” study and announced that the freelancing ranks continued to grow and reached 57.3 m… Read More

…there was the Oxford English Dictionary. To retire originally meant to move to a position of safety and or relaxation.  One would “retire to he bedroom”, for example… Read More

M Squared was/is a great business, although not everyone saw that at the time. Deploying a network of independent consultants in a just in time management approach was radical in 1988; there… Read More

Goldman Sachs announced today changes to its Associate program with the goal of retaining more of these junior hires.  A senior official was quoted a saying that they do realize that th… Read More

I have been on the Board of CPP for 16 years.  CPP Inc., owns the publishing rights to the Meyers Briggs Type Instrument (MBTI), the most widely used personality test in the world. Duri… Read More

I was driving out to a business meeting in the California Central Valley listening to The Last Lecture audio book. A wonderful book filled with life lessons that author Randy Pausch off… Read More

There are those days in the San Francisco Bay area that are just too perfect for words.  This time of year, the air is cool and crisp and the Bay is a deep lapis blue .  It is on t… Read More

To think about the new book, I need to go back to the old one,  A New Brand of Expertise; How Independent Consultants, Free Agents and Interim Managers are Transforming the World of Wor… Read More

Several years ago at my kids’ urging, I read The Hunger Games  books and loved them. Not only were they a good read, I saw a wonderful connection for ReSurge.  In the fi… Read More

M Squared alumni may remember this message, since I was often asked to repeat it year after year. When my son, Kevin, was in 1st grade, his class made a quilt of all of the boys’… Read More

As the Chair of a not for profit Board, I think “Giving Tuesday” is a tremendous innovation in philanthropy.  Giving Tuesday is December 1 this year.  It is meant to fo… Read More

Expertise and the Independent Consultant I recently reread my book, A New Brand of Expertise, published in 2001. It was a book about, as the tag line said, how ” free agents, independe… Read More

I don’t always flunk retirement, which explains who I am doing a mini mid week ski trip with another former CEO. At Northstar in Tahoe we took advantage of the opportunity to spend a f… Read More

A recent news item little noticed apart from gig economy wonks like me was the fact that  the government is planning to get data on how many workers actually populate the “gig eco… Read More

Now that I have embarked on my research for the next book on the high-end of the on demand expertise marketplace, I am having a lot of deja vu moments.  Certainly, there is the fact, th… Read More

I saw a blog post today from DCR Workforce announcing that there will finally be a “reckoning ” of the gig economy.  http://blog.dcrworkforce.com/finally-official-reckoning… Read More

I am reading, or more accurately, listening to the book Start with Why by Simon Siner which is about how great leaders inspire people to action. https://www.startwithwhy.com/About.aspx In on… Read More

Stephen Kasriel the CEO of Upwork just wrote an article in Fast Company called “Why the Future of Work will Look a lot like Hollywood.”   I agree wholeheartedly and in… Read More

As the Chair of ReSurge International I attended a great event this week called Board Match put on by The Volunteer Center. http://thevolunteercenter.net/?The_Board_Match_NPO The e… Read More

Honest Dollar in the Gig Economy The headline in the Wall Street Journal yesterday read, “Goldman buys Retirement Startup“. The story went on to report how the purchase… Read More

A recent article in Forbes, http://ww.forbes.com/sites/parmyolson/2016/03/21/gig-economy-app-blue-collar-job-on-demand/#51a7380f74e2, illustrates a problem with the media’s f… Read More

An article in Forbes today suggested the title of this post, that companies need a new operating system for the Gig Economy.  The article entitled, “How Businesses must Adapt to A… Read More

As part of my research for my new book, Thriving in the Gig Economy, which will be coming out next spring, I had the opportunity to interview Stephen DeWitt, the  CEO of WorkMarket… Read More

Mark Miller, a journalist who writes about financial matters surrounding aging and retirement wrote a nice piece today  called “Retirement in the Gig Economy“.http://www.wea… Read More

I had plans to write a totally different post today about the Gig Economy related to some work I had done for my new book, Thriving in the Gig Economy.  But the political events of the… Read More

Small Business Trends today had an article entitled  “20 Platforms for Workers in the Gig Economy”.https://smallbiztrends.com/2017/02/gig-websites.html It was a good li… Read More

Since its Academy Award season, I thought  it would be appropriate to compare the Gig Economy to Hollywood.  Stephen Kasriel the CEO of Upwork  wrote an article in Fast Compan… Read More

On this International Women’s Day, I thought a good post would be to talk about women in the Gig Economy. In the recent McKinsey Global Institute Report, “Independent Work: Choic… Read More

Harvard Business Review published an interesting article by Professor Diane Mulcahey last week called, “Will the Gig Economy Make the Office Obsolete?” https://hbr.org/2017/… Read More

Although some think whether an individual is an independent contractor or an employee is a new legal question brought about by the gig economy digital platforms like Uber, the truth of… Read More

The trend of independent work is not just a story about the workers, but also the ecosystem that supports them.  In my #CoolGigCompanies series I highlight some of the firms that may no… Read More

How the observers of the Gig Economy might not always get it right. My dog, Lucy Last week the Wall Street Journal published an article about how getting a gig as a dog walker is just as har… Read More

It may not be his mantra, but in interviews and articles, Marco Zappacosta, the CEO of Thumbtack, always says, “the future of work is local services.”  With increasing autom… Read More

Labor Day is the traditional end of summer holiday, filled with picnics, last trips to the beach and big retail sales.  How ever you choose to celebrate this weekend, be sure to raise y… Read More

Many people do not appreciate just how diverse the Gig economy is.  Not only are there a vast number of talented people with diverse expertise from animators to data scientists to web d… Read More

I recently was on holiday in Kenya.  Given my interest in the #GigEconomy, it was hard not to notice the huge billboards advertising for Uber drivers once we arrived in Nairobi. So I de… Read More

Management consulting is often a great training ground for entrepreneurs.  That was certainly the case for Jan Schaechtele and Christoph Hardt, two former McKinsey consultants who were… Read More

It has been a busy week of interviews about my new book.  Here is a partial list: 7/12 –  Technomics, KGO,  Host Jason  Middleton; he half hour show will air in the… Read More

After nine years, I have stepped down from the Board of ReSurge International.  ReSurge International sends Reconstructive Surgeons to help the poor around the world and at the same ti… Read More

Download the PDF Here DATE:TIME                          &nb… Read More

As I continue my exploration of the wonderful world of the Gig Economy, I am discovering many fascinating firms.  My #CoolGigCompanies posts will profile what some of these firms a… Read More

Baby Boomers will immediately get the reference, but in deference to those not born until after 1988, please permit me a bit of an introduction.  Nancy Reagan was of course, the wife of… Read More

MBO Partners recently released its 7th Annual State of Independence in America study.  This report looks at the world of independent workers, including self-employed workers, part-time… Read More

With all of the drama in Washington these days, you can miss the substantive work that may be happening.  With very little fanfare, corresponding bills in both the Senate and the H… Read More

I am thrilled to report that Publisher’s Weekly included Thriving in the Gig Economy as one of the new and noteworthy upcoming  books Read More

Accenture published  the results of its 2016 US College Graduate Employment Study in a report entitled, “The Gig Experience; Unleashing the potential of your Talent and your Busin… Read More

Tools of the Trade for some Gig Workers Last week, Nathan Heller published a great piece in The New Yorker, entitled, “Is the Gig Economy Working?” Since my new book, Thriving in… Read More

Sheena Iengar is a professor at Columbia Business School who studies decision making.  In a recent Ted Talk she explained the concept of “Choice Overload” and the fact… Read More

I am headed to Disrupt HR in San Francisco Thursday, 4/27.  check it out at http://disrupthr.co/san-francisco/ Leaders in the field will be talking about new ways to think abo… Read More

A student of the #gigeconomy, I am always reading what is being said about it. Although we all know it is a global talent market, sometimes sitting in the shadow of Silicon Valley, you can f… Read More

A big thank you to all of my early readers who have offered up some great comments about my upcoming book, Thriving in the Gig Economy.  Here is a sample. “The new landscape of wo… Read More

Berkeley Haas Magazine http://haas.berkeley.edu/ published the first announcement of my new book, Thriving in the Gig Economy.  What can I say but go Bears! Working Smarter Book… Read More

Stephen DeWitt, the CEO of talent automation software firm, WorkMarket, https://www.workmarket.com recently published a provocative piece in the NewCo Shift  entitled, … Read More