The economy is facing the wrath of this pandemic the hardest. The employees either have to give up on their jobs or face salary cuts in order to manage finances in companies but this has led to the rise of another set of micro- entrepreneurs. This includes freelancers and individually-ran business. Fintech startups like Razorpay and Instamojo though saw a change in trend with increased number of transactions from micro-entrepreneurs.
Sampad Swain, CEO, Instamojo explains that such micro businesses go online every year and account for $3 billion GMV. Instamojo provides the space for small businesses to set themselves up online and the last month of lockdown has seen a 20% increase in traffic on their platform. Every minute almost one new client is joining Instamojo since last month. These micro-entrepreneurs are mostly dealing in e-books, food, pet essentials etc. Another social commerce platform, Meesho’s CEO, Vidit Aatrey also estimated that there will be increase in micro-entrepreneurship because of job cuts.
There are instances where people started earning more through freelancing after the lockdown was imposed and companies started downsizing. Platforms like LinkedIn and Dribble have been helping freelancers find relevant projects based on their skills. Designers, content writers and programmers are most sought after careers as freelancers. Brands have been focusing on content creation presently to reach out to their audience and maintain connect. Not only startups but traditional companies as well have started working with freelancers as the Work from Home concept gets more familiarity.
Naman Sarawgi, CEO of A Bangalore-based startup for managing payments and invoices for freelancers, Refrens told that there has been 20% increase in the invoice generation for freelancers in last month. The trends show that the companies will keep on working with freelancers even after lockdown is over. They have been building processes for the same. The payments and insurance companies as well are working on their policies for freelancers. This seems to be a positive change in the corporate sector with stringent management system.