Sustainability Through The New Digital Age Economy
BY NAVED JAFRY & GARSON SILVERS
More than ever digital workers can now have the luxury to choose their location to work from and liberate or even unleash the potential of their human resources for companies and communities all over. Joel Runyon of Impossible Ventures thinks that 2014 may be the year that this trend seems to be gaining momentum. Here are some of the pointers where this notion may just be true.
Independent contracting is up
With sites like ELance, oDesk, Fiverr.com, people can sign up and sell their services to anyone in the world. Similarly, instead of having to commit to a full-time employee, budding entrepreneurs can hire a freelancer at one of those services, get a personal VA through service like Fancy Hands or Zirtual, or hire an entire BPO team through a service like Support Zebra.
There are more income options
Instead of having to rely on a single source of income, people can rely on companies like Lyft, Uber or Airbnb to generate additional income on the side using assets they already have (cars and homes). All these jobs can be done from any location in which those companies operate.
People can also pick up side jobs with Task Rabbit, Zaarly, and countless other apps to generate income. That lets people travel more and become more mobile, as they have a method of generating income in-between jobs or as a substitute for a job altogether.
Traveling is becoming cheaper
As much as people like to bemoan airlines, traveling is now cheaper than ever. For a couple thousand dollars and 48 hours, you can be on the other side of the globe. People can use travel hacking and other forms to make it cheaper to fly internationally, and live abroad. That allows them to arbitrage their money to earn in strong currencies (the dollar, the pound) and spend in cheaper economies (pesos, baht).
Blogs are exploding in popularity
Blogs have been part of the Internet for the last decade, but they’ve been going to the next level over the past couple of years. Whether you’re talking about the paleo diet, doing the impossible or becoming a better writer, a blog about anything can quickly become a business.
Add to it the fact that you can start a blog for next to nothing ($100 for hosting and $9 for a domain), so it’s easier than ever to cut the strings to your desk job.
Social media platforms turned into businesses
Fun social media platforms have turned into fully-fledged businesses for some people. While it might have started out “just for fun”, people likeDiane Sanfilippo, Jenny Sansouci, Jadah Sellner and more have made a living from their blogs and their Instagram accounts.
Viral videos have made people famous and launched careers with the click of a button (Heck, I just got back from a Lindsey Stirling concert whose success was launched by a YouTube video).
No matter where you are on the planet, the world is becoming more mobile and digital, which means more can be done from your bed than commuting thousands of hours trapped in your travel capsules (Cars,Bus,Boats,Trains and Planes). This definable moment comes as good news for carbon footprint activists who think less travel could help in reducing the planets overall emissions. Sometimes it makes me wonder what transformations this new age may bring. Are we going to be more disconnected with each other to enhance productivity and save the planet or is there a better way to find a reasonable solution for overall sustainability of our planet, improved productivity, as well as the well beings of our relationships.
What do you think?
Posted in 1. Economy | Tagged digital age, digital age worker, jafry, naved jafry, new economy, sustainability, zeons | 1 Comment |
