The sharing economy works not just for Airbnb, but creative agencies too
A sharing economy is a collaborative economy, and that can only be a good thing for creatives, writes Sarah Bailey.
While most memories of my uni days are a bit hazy, one has remained crystal clear. It’s of an economic theory lecturer who challenged the wisdom of ownership over-sharing. The example he used was a lawnmower.
Why, he asked, does everyone on a street buy one, when most households only have a small lawn that needs cutting every few weeks?
It was a question I’d never asked. To me, buying a lawnmower was just something you did when you became an adult with a house in the ‘burbs and a patch of grass big enough for a medium-sized dog to bound around on.
Bailey: Letting go of control is a challenge for ‘ideas people’
A major downside to being a freelance creative is missing out on the prolonged exposure to a client. I find it really helpful to be in tune with the continuum of their business, particularly when pro-active stuff strikes, maybe based on a snippet of conversation or an article with a revealing insight. Agencies don’t necessarily get that added value when they hire a creative on a project by project basis. Then again, they might not need that added value either.
Nice article, but I’m no lawnmower.
Hasn’t Host been using ( or previously used) this model of outsourcing creative for years?
My father taught me the same lesson. We had a country property and rather than own harvesters which were capital intensive, needed upgrading regularly, prone to break down and only used for one week a year we employed contractors. I would like to agree with you for professionals to collectively work together on projects however is more difficult to achieve and economically challenging for the participants.
Hi, good start to the article, but you’ve lost the point of your intro as soon as you delve into your own spiel.
A lawnmower does a well-defined job (mowing grass, and possibly weeds) and is typically under-utilized, for all the reasons you mention – sharing it makes absolute sense
It’s great that you think you’re a lawnmower, but unfortunately the analogy starts to fall down there
* there’s no prestige in having you or other marketing agencies hanging around in the garage. Unfortunately, too, this comes at an unnerving continuing cost, as opposed to the single purchase price for the example
* the sharing of the lawnmower allows each owner pays a portion of its purchase price. Without excess supply (people buying lawnmowers grossly surplus to their need for them) there are no economies to be had here – unless you start reducing your rates proportionate to the number of clients you have, to keep your overall profits fair (i.e. constant), such that clients benefit from your mower status.
I hate to say it, but the first two paragraphs of this are interesting. The rest is fairly blatant self-promotion and doesn’t promise anyone other than yourself any benefit
Excellent view of things: idle capacity or idle time can be seriously potentilised to reshuffle roles and maximising productivity