By Kermit Pattison
Small businesses increasingly are tapping a new talent pool: the world.
A new generation of online service marketplaces is giving small companies more opportunities than ever to find specialized expertise and affordable labor. Main Street businesses can shop a virtual international bazaar of freelancers to recruit computer programmers in Russia, graphic designers in San Francisco or data analysts in India.
“This is one more step in the path to leveling the playing field between small and large businesses,” said Thomas W. Malone, a professor at the Sloan School of Management at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and author of “The Future of Work” (Harvard Business School Press, 2004). “A small-business person in a company of one can look to the world like a very large company and have access to all kinds of services — and that’s largely because of this kind of model.”
These online marketplaces are fueled by several trends. The recession and recent wave of downsizing have forced many corporations to eliminate in-house services and use independent contractors instead. Buyouts and layoffs have pushed many skilled professionals into the freelance marketplace. (more)
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