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Entrepreneurial projects can consume your life. No wonder so many people with limited time and funds defer their dreams of starting a business. But with the help of online technologies, millions of people are keeping their day jobs while trying entrepreneurship as minipreneurs.
As defined by trendwatching.com, a firm that tracks and analyzes consumer trends, minipreneurs are a "vast army" of consumers-turned-entrepreneurs operating minibusinesses, often as part-time ventures, with the aim of experimenting with entrepreneurship and making extra cash.
Statistics vary on the number of minipreneurs, but trendwatching.com cites figures suggesting that as many as 5 million minipreneurs may be operating in the US. Trendwatching.com director Reinier Evers says these entrepreneurs are seeking to accomplish one of the following:
- Switch careers or make some other major life change.
- Do something similar to their current work, yet be their own boss.
- Make extra cash, perhaps for just a few hours a week, and gain a feeling of empowerment from working for themselves.
Minipreneurs include shareware creators, T-shirt designers, comic-book publishers, jewelry makers and political bloggers. To minimize risk, they typically keep their regular jobs -- at least at first.
What's Fueling the Minipreneur Boom?
According to trendwatching.com, several factors have converged to cause a boom in minipreneurial ventures. The most prominent include the Internet-enabled global marketplace, making niche markets profitable, and a highly developed "network of intermediaries, tools, resources and processes."
Included in this "ecosystem," as trendwatching.com terms it, are open-source software; free or inexpensive Web hosting systems; Google Talk, Skype and other free telephony systems; inexpensive Internet advertising and bartered ads; PayPal and other online payment systems; and product-selling services, such as Lulu.com for on-demand publishing and CafePress.com for peddling mugs, T-shirts and other items.
"So many consumers are now online...that it is becoming even easier to make serious money as an individual, targeting the many, not-so-small-anymore niche markets that are emerging," Evers says.
A chief attraction? There's virtually no risk. "The investment is low -- setting up an e-commerce site or opening up an eBay account is cheap and easy," Evers explains. "A wait-and-see attitude is one very pleasant luxury that minipreneurs enjoy.
The Skinny on Minipreneurship
Consider the experience of Jake Nickell and Jacob DeHart, who founded Threadless, a hip T-shirt company with an ongoing shirt design competition.
"We started with Threadless and built it as a hobby to help artists get their work noticed," Nickell says. "We were both active in a design community called Dreamless and thought it would be neat if people could submit their work for scoring and make products out of the best-scoring designs.
When they launched Threadless in 2000, Nickell and DeHart were both working full-time. They continued in their jobs for two more years, until Threadless and their other miniventures eventually became their full-time work. Now their company, SkinnyCorp, employs about 20 people.
Freelancers and other workers with flexible schedules may be more suited to starting minipreneurial ventures. "You need time to do this, not money," Evers says. "Anyone who's already working 50 hours per week and has a decent income will be less inclined to start a side business.
Evers advises wannabe minipreneurs to "determine if you want to do this to make a bit of extra pocket money or whether you want to make this your living. The latter is much less relaxed and much more work. So figure out your priorities first."
Still, Nickell advises, you may just want to try something without thinking too much about the implications. After all, you never know where a miniventure will lead. "Go ahead and just do it, maybe start on the side, maybe go full force. But don't be afraid to just try it and have some fun."
