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The future and dynamics of work in India are evolving, with more professionals opting to work as freelancers or independent consultants rather than being in traditional full-time employment.

This trend helped in the emergence of a unique opportunity for MSMEs in India by providing them access to a pool of skilled and experienced professionals for flexible engagements. Having access to the industry specific expertise that senior professionals bring with them as freelancers can help businesses scale up more quickly and effectively compared to having a traditional workforce.

One example of a small manufacturing business in India successfully leveraging the skillset of freelancers is a specialised hi-tech manufacturing company in the chemical industry. They were posed with a situation to finalise on a make or buy decision for one of their business units. The SME needed a machining and moulding expert with the relevant business acumen to evaluate their existing setup and facilitate the decision making. Only an experienced industry expert could have come to their aid in such a scenario. The senior freelancer that they onboarded with the help of an expert network platform, was able to provide the fitting expertise that the company desired on an as-needed basis which allowed the business to scale up quickly saving on the costs and processes of acquiring the niche expertise in-house for a one time requirement.

Similarly, a textile company needed inputs on cotton procurement to understand the market landscape, pricing methodologies and innovative strategies for cost reduction. In order to gain such insights, they would need an expert with vast exposure in different markets and enough experience under various scenarios. Hence this called for bringing in seasoned expertise from outside. This was also made possible by an Expert Aggregator Network Platform who connected them with a textile industry veteran with expertise on the end-to-end cotton value chain in both domestic and international markets.

In the future, it is likely that more MSMEs in India will choose to work with freelance industry experts in several cases due to the flexibility offered. The opportunity to engage specialised talent on a need basis would prove to be highly beneficial to any enterprise irrespective of their time in the market. This trend as we see is already well adopted and accustomed to in other markets of the world, and it is only a matter of time before it becomes more welcomed in the Indian market as well. With emerging online platforms and tools in the gig market today, it is becoming easier than ever to access such specialised expertise.

This pool of experienced freelancers & independent contractors in India is growing by the day and many businesses here have already started turning to these experts to achieve interim goals and execute specific project needs. It has helped them solve business problems with higher efficiency and would eventually empower them to compete and flourish in the global market.

– Authored by Archana Bhati and Inku Khanal (Business Development Team) IndusGuru Network Partners