In Alaska, “staffing up” is standard in seasonally demanding industries like fishing, tourism, or construction, but the growing practice of hiring a team of freelancers to execute short term, professional projects is new-ish. David Taylor of Element Agency says his company operates as a core team of three with access to numerous freelancers specializing in strategy, communication, and design. By handpicking freelancers for each project, he can customize his team to perfectly fit client needs. This model is especially attractive to clients because it keeps the costs down (no “hard core” overhead) and the freelancers he hires are highly motivated. Not only are they representing themselves, they have the flexibility to work however best suites them; whether it’s wearing a blazer in a co-working space at 2:30 PM on a Tuesday or cozy in pajamas in the kitchen at 3:00 AM on a Saturday, they create where they want and when they want. As David says, “Creative people work on inspiration. You can’t just put them in an office from nine to five and expect something brilliant to happen. It just doesn’t work like that.” He believes that Anchorage is great place to do this kind of work (on par with trendsetting cities like Nashville and Austin) and sees demand increasing: “Hiring freelancers means small companies don’t have to bear the burden of overhead like technology and benefits for additional employees. Having access to benefits like Obamacare has made being on your own less scary. But it also takes the pressure off of small businesses that are penny pinching. It’s a win-win.”
Although it’s difficult to determine if co-working spaces should be credited with an increase in the number of Anchorage-based independent workers (especially since we don’t actually know if or by how much the number is increasing), they are certainly responsible for bringing attention to the lifestyle. Freelancers in Anchorage seem to be a bit behind the rest of the country in utilizing talent matching platforms, perhaps because traditional methods of capturing work are still sufficient. However, if more and more people turn to freelancing, many will be forced to broaden their search for work beyond local markets. When this happens, local freelancers will truly be location independent and continuing to offer appealing work spaces, an attractive business climate, and high quality of life will be more essential than ever. Fortunately for Anchorage, Joe speaks for many when he says, “Alaska’s my home. It’s the most beautiful place in the world. Who wouldn’t want to live here?”