2023, The Year Of The Gig Entrepreneur!

By Perry Rearick, Chief Editor, Follow Your Buyer

Thought for the Week – 2023, the year of the gig entrepreneur!

Last month I attended a conference, not a virtual event, but the real deal. I had not been to a live in-person event for a while.

I’ll spare you commentary related to, “boy it sure was nice to get back to a live event!” Rather than trying to recapture the past through a traditional tradeshow model, something many B2B business leaders, marketers, and salespeople long for, this conference was a uniquely forward-looking experience. And it was a microcosm of the modern gig economy attended by gig entrepreneurs.

First, let’s clarify what gig means. The term traces its roots to jazz music when musicians referred to their individual performances as gigs. And it describes a growing segment of our economy filled with workers and employers who see a world comprised of limitless opportunities if the right network of resources can be pulled together. Like jazz, there is a significant amount of improvisation.

Unlike most conferences that are centered on a market segment or industry, this was a group of seemingly unrelated conferences that included healthcare, education, law, information technology, money, and marketing. I was invited to attend the marketing track but spent an equal amount of time in other sessions and quickly discovered the symbiotic relationship among them.

Attendees were a potpourri of curious, gig entrepreneurs eager to engage in conversations, and quickly disengage when they did not perceive anything of value. They don’t adhere to traditional market categorizations or target audience demographics. Titles don’t reveal much about them. For example, I met an endodontist, the owner of a dental clinic who developed software to help him reduce the time it takes to on-board new technicians. It works so well that he sells it to other dentists. Is he a dentist or a software developer? He’s both!  

From the outside they appear fragmented and disorganized. Collectively, they operate like a spider’s web: flexible, sticky, and stretching in multiple directions to capture the next opportunity and employ their network of resources.  

And they represent a rapidly growing segment of prospects and customers for B2B companies. Rather than chase them down and pitch them, we must learn how to do business with them through understanding. Help them, and become part of their network.

We must follow them!

I hope you have a great week and terrific start to the new year!