Gig Economy

Gig Economy

First thing first. This article is written for Pakistani market audience specifically. The world including Pakistan is going through an artificially created inflation infused era. The big corporations may not be cash strapped but they need their employees to be cash strapped. What do I mean by this? No one likes competition. It literally kills the business. Despite the competition, individuals are competing on gig websites to get the work. What’s a Gig? It’s a slang word which means getting an informal or part-time job. It does not lasts for longer years or forever. The gig or the job can be from one hour to few months on contract. What’s a Gig Economy? Since in this inflation infused and cash strapped economy; everyone is looking for a financial stability. The traveling has been restricted due to expensive transport. The petrol prices are going out of control. On the top, the Pakistani currency PKR devaluation is already killing local businesses. So, now, what people are doing is looking for short cuts and short term and part-time jobs instead of full time and long term jobs. These small jobs or gigs is a characterization on the economy naming it as gig economy. It has a major impact on the economy. Pakistan’s Internet Penetration I am not interested in disclosing any statistics as it can be easily searched online. The Internet penetration has increased a lot in Pakistan. However, surprisingly the Internet is not cheap in Pakistan. The quality of service of the Internet is not up to the par in Pakistan. We as a nation and freelancers literally can’t compete in the international freelance market. The Pakistani authorities are not competent enough and can’t handle the Internet traffic pressure that Pakistan has to offer. The technology requires continuous maintenance, uplift of equipment and hardware, upgrade versions of software, firmware, and showing urgency of getting tasks done. This is only the beginning. A light disruption of Internet and you are out of the business instantly. And then the pouring of curse words towards Pakistani authorities. The Pakistani nation are probably more creative in blabbing curse words then actually creating a technology. Gig Economy Competition One ponders that majority of the youth in Pakistan works for gig sites where the clients are in usually Western countries. This includes North America, Europe and Australia. I can breakdown these three country categories. I leave this to your imagination. What the hell are gig sites? Gig Sites simply provides part time jobs. I don’t want to use their name as we all are aware of it. Now, let’s talk about competition. As I said earlier that it kills business. And feudal lords of Pakistan do not promote competition at all. They will kill your business in anyway if you don’t follow their rules. We can see what our feudal lords are doing across Pakistan. I was speaking to one of my clients back in 2005 when CPEC was not even realized. According to him, that we will be a service industry in future years. Guess what? We have become one now. Pakistani industries in major areas are shutdown. Pakistani authorities have outsourced major companies and lands to foreign governments. That is also part of gig economy. How is outsourcing part of the government is a gig economy? Well, the government is unable to produce anything. According to the World Bank, the Human Capital Index (HCI) is 0.41 which is pretty low for Pakistan in Asian region. In simple English, that a human in Pakistan either you or I are only 41% productive. Aint’ that sucks! The competition among youth on freelance market is so high that when I actually talk to them about my local product; they quote me as I am a VC based startup. Thank you for that respect! However, I am not VC based startup. Al Hamdolillah! I have several self-funded startups namely Muzdoor.com, Pkodr.com, Tusvir.com, etc. Business Execution Pakistani freelancers are working diligently to meet the household expenses. However, it's really fun working with an international market. I have been working it since my graduation in 2000. I did it back in USA and restarted it when I moved back to Pakistan in 2003. The Internet penetration was pretty low and I was frustrated to grow myself. Gig economy will only work when freelancers know what business execution is. Business execution is series of steps or strategies that we all plan. Even if you have fear, write down, jot down, and document your data flow chart. The documentation tells a startup where and how your service and products will work. Write down your ideas before you forget them. About Mansoor Ul Abedin, CEO Mansoor has more than twenty five years of experience in working with startup companies and problems they face. He has helped small businesses which have grown from one employee to more than sixty employees in less than two years. He has been involved from the development of database systems to the operational management and implementation of database. Mansoor has also worked as a Senior Campaign and Training Manager for a large BPO organization in Pakistan. He was involved in the campaign handling, client coordination with the training on US and UK culture to Pakistani call center agents. He has graduated with a Bachelor of Science degree in Computer Information Systems from DeVry Institute of Technology in 2000 from USA. He has extensively traveled to USA, England, Saudi Arabia, and Turkey. He is currently residing in Karachi, Pakistan. ;