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December 31, 2017

Get your 2018 freelancer business ready

Written by Jack Lewis

Have you decided to take the plunge and set up your own business in 2018? Here you’ll find some key trends as well as practical steps to help you get save time and reach your goals more quickly.

Starting with some 2018 trends that will give your business the competitive advantage.

The really exciting and overarching trend for 2018, especially for new small businesses, is the speed and proliferation of tech startups run by visionaries disrupting traditional models that have been serving us badly. New technology available to the masses has driven the rise of the sharing economy and it is not just millenials that have now fully adopted digitisation in all sectors. Markets from retail (Amazon), automotive (Uber and Zipcar), entertainment (Netflix and Sky On Demand), food (Deliveroo) and the server market (Google), all are delivering incredible experiences to customers re-imagining and re-instructing new behaviours about how we all conduct our daily transactions in life. And it’s amazing how quickly we adapt. Using the tech disrupters of yester-year quickly feels as banal as doing the ironing!

So while these have already become household names, what are the others on the horizon that will dominate 2018 and can help your business get ahead of the game? You have a massive competitive advantage if you are just starting out or run your own ‘solo-preneurial’ business as a freelancer or contractor as it is so much easier for you to join the early adopters. You don’t have to grapple with an anti-change culture or red-tape, all you need to do is spot the opportunity and so when someone uses tech to create a business or product that does something better, (not just using tech for the sake of it), you can do better too. If you are starting a business or planning to go solo, this technology-first mindset will give you some key advantages including speed, time, ease and cost. These are some of the 2018 trends for new businesses to be aware of starting with 2 big, (but until now less disrupted), players – Banking and Insurance.

Banking

The most ubiquitous high-street banks we’ve used all our lives are suddenly getting serious competition. Relatively early adopters and millennials expect to bank whenever they want. Queuing in your lunch-break or getting caught out on a bank holiday is not acceptable in this digital day and age when you can online shop at Asos or Amazon any second of the day, 365 days a year. Suddenly our expectations that have been lifted by better-served sectors do not align with the traditional banking model. So it is not surprising it did not take long for digital banking to become a much more attractive option and soon it will not just be the millennials and early-adopters at the scene. It is predicted digital banking will grow to more than 2 billion users by 2020.

There are some great online banks and ways to manage your finances like Monzo and Go Cardless that will be taking the banking world by storm in 2018. Here is a trend-leading check list you should consider before making banking decisions in 2018.

  • Make your wallet and bank your phone
  • Go cardless
  • Take ecommerce online payments and transactions
  • Manage your accounts and tax
  • Get paid on time

Insurance

Another sector, like banking, that desperately needs a shake-up in 2018 is insurance. Like their’ banking, people no longer expect to have to pay admin fees or spend hours on the phone wading through jargon. New digital propositions are making people re-consider where they get everything from their home to travel insurance. For new startups and freelancers looking for business insurance, this becomes really interesting. Workers are much more agile with flexible hours and operating from changing work environments. Cumbersome insurance models no longer serve them. Insurance companies like ours are now offering on-demand policies so that people can get protection for when they are working without wasting money on premium policies or putting themselves at risk when they are not.

For small business owners and freelancers, whereby everyone is holding digital data whether it is client’s email addresses stored in their contacts on their mobile phone or highly sensitive customer bank details, cyber attack is a real threat and so insurance needs to be front-of-mind. Plus, as a freelancer, your business equipment is your home-office so losing it becomes much more risky than if it is all kept at a fixed office address with security at reception, CCTV and locked desks. Again insurance becomes vital and speed is the essence if your business depends on you getting back online quick. Without backing you are more at risk when you submit work to larger companies that will have a lot more money and structures in place than you, making insurance against claims or accidents invaluable.

Dinghy https://getdinghy.com has been created exactly in response to these challenges for freelancers offering slick online fast, flexible and low-cost insurance for freelancers and startups. We started with you and built the product around your challenges and behaviour combined with our beliefs meaning you will be able to check all of these off.

  • Manage your insurance in your phone
  • Online claims service
  • Get on-demand, flexible policies
  • Never pay admin fees
  • Get help fighting the big guys
  • Get conscious insurance

There are some killer tech disruptors out there so if you do your research and adopt quickly you can give your business the competitive advantage, plus have the slickest products in your pocket making your life easier and letting you get on with what you do best.

Have you been thinking about getting insurance? Get a quote from us at Dinghy and join our mission to make insurance better.

About Jack Lewis

Read more blog posts by Jack Lewis


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