Celebrating Independence Our Way

Warning to readers: A rogue business team at MBO Partners has taken over our Blog. Expect periodic takeovers during the coming year. If you want to join them, go to their Facebook office . They are usually hanging out there.

Anyone who has worked with the business team at MBO Partners knows we’re pretty passionate about career independence and those that choose the independent lifestyle.

When our company committed to doing the first-ever national study on the independent workforce, it was an exciting time (cartwheels, anyone?).

It got even more exciting when the first round of data came out in early July. Here was us, trying to shout it from the rooftops.

And there was our trusty research partner, Emergent (by the way, a team of a couple of fantastic, and down-to-earth independent professionals), and their partners, proper researchers working at Rockbridge, stopping us.

We took a deep breath (we even crossed our fingers) and the early results were right.

You’re getting it before the press release — Independence has permanently parked in the reserved-for-professional-of-the-year spot:  

1. 16 million independents– with another 28 million thinking about joining our ranks, just in the next two years. Can we say “I told you so?”
2. Two thirds of us really ENJOY what we do for work, compared with two thirds of those working traditionally – who – ahem – let’s say they DON’T enjoy what they do.
3. Us Independents are what you call lovers of liberty. That means that we will trade freedom for money, and control only ourselves, and don’t like being controlled by others. Familiar? In our office, yes. Now, also in our nation. A full 63% of independents nationally fall into this freedom-loving, won’t-go-back, hate-that-office-politics, career group.
      
4. Biggest a-ha for us hold-ourselves-apart career Indys: For whatever reason (our fashionable home-office attire? our can-do expert will? Our meetings at Starbucks? Our sweet salaried spouse?), people now want to be like us. No longer are we seen as somehow second-class career citizens, we’re the first class cabin. 28 million more are considering our lifestyle. This is getting really exciting!

All humor aside, it is a sobering moment to stand and share information that shows the country is at a work and career threshold. We want you to know: We’re committed to sticking around, and delivering updates the rest of this year and also to resizing and revisiting independent work every year, and giving you – the supporter or curious bystander to independence  — a real annual Index to follow each year.

Please join us in declaring this the year of independence. One professional, one expert, and one human being at a time.

And then, let’s go have some fun.