EVOLVE Business and Professional Magazine February 2020 | Page 16

CENTRAL FLORIDA
EMBRACES THE ‘GIG ECONOMY’
by Kimberly Jace
T
here’s a new category of worker in Central Florida—and
you’ve already met them.
The woman who designed your business logo, the
man who sold you that handmade sweater, and the Lyft driver
who got you safely to your destination are not working jobs
in the same way our parents and grandparents did. They are
gig workers: self-employed, independent contractors and sole
proprietors who earn money outside the structure of the full-
time-jobs-with-benefits that once
represented the American economy.
“Since the recession and its very
slow recovery, people have had to wear
many hats,” said Lou Paris, director of
the Prince Entrepreneurship Program
at Stetson University in Deland.
Lou Paris
But what is a gig, anyway?
The gig economy is loosely defined,
but gigs usually have two things in common:
The work is temporary, short-term, and project-based,
rather than paying a salary
The employees find the work through non-traditional
means.
While some gig workers perform freelance services for
established businesses—for example, a secretarial job through
a temporary employment agency—others use web platforms
such as Fiverr and phone apps like Uber to find their clients.
Craigslist online ads or Facebook postings also are a vital means
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