They’ve come from around the country and the world to gather on the bare concrete floor of an empty office building and talk shop. A sea of laptop-clutching writers, photographers, graphic designers, IT specialists, engineers, public relations officials and advertisement representatives with one thing in common: they never want to work for another boss again.
“Welcome to Freelance Camp,” says Shane Pearlman as the folks file in to the second annual seminar at the vacant Rittenhouse Building in downtown Santa Cruz.
Pearlman, along with business partner Peter Chester, are freelance “problem solvers”–technology experts and contractors for hire who work with companies to streamline their communications and web services. And as evangelists for the freelance way, they are practicing what they preach.
Their company, austerely dubbed Shane & Peter, is a kind of “freelance co-op” in which they recruit teams of self-employed professionals to tackle whatever problem a company might throw at them. By keeping a thick Rolodex of vetted specialists, Chester and Pearlman are able to tailor a staff to the needs of a particular project. And since the workers aren’t full-time employees, the duo can avoid paying health insurance, 401k’s and other costly employee benefits for a savings, they say, that’s passed on to their clients.
Chester says his company only hires reputable full-time freelancers, not “people looking to do something since they got fired.”
“I’d say out of 10 people we interview for a gig, one or two are serious freelancers,” says Chester. “The co-op thing is kind of like communism—it can work great under the right circumstances, but you either need someone to keep everyone in line, or only use people that are good at keeping themselves in line. I sometimes think of us as more of a dictatorship, because Shane is always there to make sure things are on track.”
Whether part of a co-op or not, the 200 or so freelancers at the Aug. 15 Freelance Camp are part of a growing sector of the workforce. Thanks to technology like laptops and wireless internet, individual workers are trading cubicles, copy machines and suits and ties for coffee shops, Blackberries and sweat pants and slippers as more and more people find they’re able to package, market and deliver services and products all on their own.
In Santa Cruz, the move toward freelancing is especially striking. Shared office spaces like NextSpace in Santa Cruz and The Satellite in Felton provide internet, shipping reception and meeting spaces on a part-time schedule, and for a fraction of the cost of traditional office space rentals.
Teresa Thomae, director of the Central Coast Small Business Development Center, says she’s seen a huge increase in self-starters over the last year. The boom, she says, stems from the slumping economy and unstable corporations that offer little in the way of job security.
“In every economic downturn we see an increase in people looking to become freelancers,” says Thomae. “Instead of being an employee, they want to be their own boss. Not necessarily to hire a bunch of employees and grow a real business, but to create a job for themselves. Our parents taught us that if you get a good job, keep it even if you hate it, because it’s health care and a salary. But now, for the Gen Xers and Gen Yers, if they don’t like a job, they’re gone.”
The co-op model that Pearlman and Chester use is also catching on. Parachute Creative, a graphic design outfit run by Davy Reynolds and Ruby Anaya out of NextSpace, maintains a network of freelancers that can be mobilized when a job is too big or multi-faceted to for Anaya and Reynolds to accomplish on their own.
For some of the freelancers, it’s deal. Web designer and mother of two Carey Bradfield says that if a gig comes about that will detract from her time with her kids, she’ll either decline the work or bring in help from a fellow freelancer. Reynolds and Anaya say they’re comfortable having a small operation and have no intentions of bringing any of their freelancers in on a full-time basis.
“Most of the freelancers we see are looking for full-time jobs. Still, I think if we expanded too much, we might lose some of the vision we started with. I think most of them realize this and don’t expect us to hire them full-time,” says Reynolds, lounging on a beanbag chair inside his company’s colorful NextSpace cubicle. “We definitely try to hook up the freelancers we use, though. For any work we can’t do in-house, we use them. And we’ve got plenty of work to do.”
