If you took an Uber today or recently booked a bungalow for your vacation via Airbnb, you probably don’t need an explanation what sharing economy is. Its central idea is not exactly new. Libraries have been abiding this logic for centuries: you have something you’re not ready to sell – rent it out.
You may ask, what’s the big deal? Why do so many people consider it the next big thing?
As Bill Clinton, again, hints us, “It’s the economy, stupid”. Uber earned over 10 bln USD between 2015 and 2016 alone. Last year, Airbnb got 2,6 bln in revenues and 100 mln as profit.
Nobody can promise you become a millionaire in a month, but the sharing economy business model is easier than you may imagine and in many cases does not require complete restructuring. All you need is to detect the blind spots in your resources and reorganize their use more wisely. Here are three insightful ideas which are really easy to integrate into any small business operations:
Do you have a vacant room in your office? Rent it out to freelancers
This is not exactly coworking but since you already have an office space, furniture and Internet connection – why not?
Closing such a deal would take less than a minute: you upload the agreement into SignNow, add Signature fields and that’s it – the agreement is available for e-signing. If you use Kiosk Mode in SignNow, both parties can e-sign directly on your phone or iPad. Note that since millenials are the most active customer group in sharing economy, you should most probably take care of cashless payments for your offer. You can try Stripe or Payeezy integrations with SignNow, for example.
Renting out vacant office space may be a triple benefit for you, actually:
- You get an additional source of revenue;
- You get local marketing at no cost since more new people will be visiting your office, indirectly getting to know your product;
- You may also use this as your chance for field headhunting. Who knows, maybe one of these freelancers can become your copywriter, designer or system administrator?
Renting out equipment, furniture or even uniform
The very idea of renting out your sound system or your favourite surfboard sounds a bit crazy, unless you have a security deposit receipt. The workflow is very much the same with renting our office space: easily create a template with SignNow, indicate the amount of payment on each document, e-sign in person or via email and request an online payment.
Keep in mind that all signatures obtained via this standard SignNow procedure are court-admissible. So, if anything goes south with the rented equipment, you can easily claim damages.
Outsourcing the tasks of secondary importance
The study cases of TaskRabbit and Fiverr clearly show that nearly everything can be (and sometimes should be) outsourced, apart from your core business, of course.
However, signing an NDA sounds like a good idea here. Ranking and reviews by customers may give a good idea about quality and timeliness of work, while e-signed NDA, often mistakenly seen as merely a formality, will provide you with additional guarantees (not to mention the court admissibility!) SignNow keeps all transactions encrypted and provides e-signatures that are legally binding and recognized as valid around the world.
