Self-employed workers comprise the largest segment of US workers, with 10 million Americans working full-time in self-employment. This number equals the total of the three most common American jobs: retail sales, fast food counter work, and cashier. Self-employed workers typically earn double the national annual median income. Many of the highest-paying professions, such as professional services, are dominated by self-employed people. Solo workers can either be experienced professionals looking to establish their own business or career changers and young professionals entering a new profession without the support of a conventional organization. In either case, they may have felt overwhelmed by the risks and costs of independence.
Tech layoffs dominate headlines as we debate whether the economy is on the brink of a recession or a brief slowdown. Despite this turbulence, employment remains very strong. There are currently an estimated 73.3 million freelancers in the US, and 8.2 million have joined since the pandemic began. As people become more open to flexible jobs and schedules, this part of the workforce will continue to expand. The all-in-one back office platform Collective surveyed its freelancing customer base and found self-employed workers are optimistic about 2023. 81% reported that the last six months were the same or better for their businesses than they expected, and 83% expected the next six months to be the same or better than the previous six months for their businesses.
Roughly one-third of US workers have performed freelance work in the last year, and $1.4 trillion is paid out to contract workers annually. Banking, corporate cards, and vertical software tools serving startups and small businesses have become big, but only some good options exist for solopreneurs or businesses of one. Having the right tools to launch, sell, manage, and market their services is essential. Psychiatrists, insurance agents, fund managers, and tutors all need different tools to operate their businesses. San Francisco-based Found, for example, wants to offer full-stack financial services for self-employed workers and raised $60m in Series B funding led by Founders Fund last year. Wingspan recently announced a Series A led by a16z for its all-in-one payroll platform for contractors. There are great opportunities in building startups that help freelancers with financial offerings, demand generation, operational automation, trade network access, and more across industries.
Contrary Research has covered a few companies that serve small businesses and freelancers, like Ramp, Brex, Deel, Webflow, and Canva.
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