Independent Professionals have a tough time establishing ourselves in the market. We suffer from lack of resources. Not just financial ones, but the ones the financial resources pay for. For instance, people. Here we get the short end of the stick.
Most of the talent gets attracted to the larger companies. These larger companies spend considerable sums looking to understand their employees. To be fair they often provide employees with a career that matches their expectations. For example, nowadays employees do voluntary work as part of their benefits package. forbes recently published an article. It highlighted how mainstream Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) progams have become. The article highlights a survey. where 53% of workers said “a job where I can make an impact was important to their happiness”. It highlighted how many would take a 15% pay cut to be happier at work. It also highlights the triple bottom line of profits, people and planet is mainstream.
Harvard Business School recently highlighted their own research. Here they suggested that all companies needed to have a CSR. It is fast becoming a way to generate a competitive advantage for the firm. As a discipline it has become so widespread it even has its own method of accounting. Social Accounting. This type of accounting audits the company’s socially relevant behaviour.
Again this is another area where Independent Professionals tend to suffer. They struggle to organise similar packages for themselves and their staff. The time constraints and space constraints alone discourage most. It is only fair that Independent Professionals get to join in this trend to humanise their businesses. The lack of scale can be overcome by organising a collective space. They can make their time available to those who struggle with their businesses. It helps them humanise their own experience.
We came across this concern at Entrepreneur Commons, London. We have organised peer to peer support for entrepreneurs in London for 6 years now. We tested different ways to help Independent Professionals organise a CSR. We recently decided to make this support available globally. Our spin off - Stairs And Shares helps Independent Professionals organise a CSR. We use the principles of the sharing economy. This means they can offer their spare time via Stairs And Shares. The support is available at a small financial expense and the benefits are great. Independent Professionals get to build awareness of who they are. They get to interact with potential clients without needing to make much of an effort. They also get to give back to society.
It would be great if you could join us as well.. It will help us understand your needs accurately. We hope this will lead to a solution you will be comfortable using. Afterall, the more you use it the more society will gain. We look forward to you helping us support humanity.
This project part of the biz Stuff co creational project portfolio.