Have you heard of microenterprises and micro-entrepreneurs? It could be a vegetable vendor selling his greens or that techie kid trying his hand at making a new smart phone app, a tiffin service or a day care in the neighbourhood. Take a look around, and you will see them everywhere. What exactly is a Microenterprise? And why are so many people attracted towards microenterprises?
A microenterprise can essentially be defined as a small business with five or fewer employees. Microenterprises are an enriching platform for individuals to apply and showcase their talent, creativity, hard work to carve out a niche for themselves.
In today’s terms micro-entrepreneurs are people who have limited resources to start a business and wish to make money on their own terms without following orders of a formal work hierarchy. Anyone with a computer and an internet connection can start a microenterprise without much manpower or capital investment.
In the United States, a different model is used; microenterprise is defined as a business with five or fewer employees. Additionally, such microenterprises generally need less than $35,000 in loan capital and do not have access to the conventional commercial banking sector. In Australia, it refers to a business with a single owner-operator, having up to 20 employees.
Daniel H. Pink has stated in his book ‘To Sell Is Human: The Surprising Truth About Moving Others’, a research from IDC estimates that 30% of American workers now work on their own. This number of non-traditional workers (freelancers, contractors, consultants) will rise up to 1.3 billion by 2015. The sharpest growth with be seen in North America and Asia is expected to add more than six hundred soloists around the same time.
More and more individuals are driven now towards the value proposition of microenterprises for an array of reasons that are very attractive.
Be Your Own Boss
Be your own boss, fix your own work schedule, and follow your vision to enhance your business. Most people love this independence. Make money, cashing on the knowledge, skills, goods or a passion that you already possess.
Easy Prioritization
Prioritize what is important to you – education, health, family, business or self care. This helps homemakers, students as well as other individuals to turn entrepreneurs in spare time.
Do What You Love
Spending more time doing what you love and making money out of it is a win-win proposition. Learn new skills and enrich existing knowledge base with new avenues. Those who wish to work part-time, freelance or are retired find microenterprises an alternative to stay active and constantly update their knowledge.
Freedom of Time and Place
Freedom to work from home or an office is also an added advantage of a microenterprise. Technology comes in handy when Instamojo helps simplify payments for micro-entrepreurs. It enables them to collect payments for their goods and services by simply sharing a link.
This helps micro-entrepreneurs to focus on product and distribution without worrying about collecting payments, or tying up with payment gateways. It also supports business owners by providing tools like business analytics, affiliates system, emailing system and a sales and customer dashboard to simplify and give more insight to the sales process of any microenterprise.
It’s about time to take back your independence, do what you love and make money out of it!
