Why Micro-Entrepreneurship Could Be Key to Job Creation

In February 2008, Leah Busque was headed to dinner with her husband when realized they were of dog food. She had no idea that simple need at specific moment would eventually lead to creating a business providing thousands of opportunities.

She registered for the domain for TaskRabbit.com that night and four months left her job as an IBM software engineer to start the San Francisco- online tasks marketplace.

"How other companies can say they've created 4,000 jobs in the last 12 months?" said Busque. "To me, it's a staggering number for a start of our size. That's what me really excited about the opportunity and the picture."

Concierge and errand-running service start ups have cropped to provide quick gigs for people seeking supplemental income or spending money, including Exec, a task-management service offered as employee perk; Agent Anything, in college students complete tasks; and Zaarly, which attracted $1 million investors, including actor Ashton Kutcher.

But some of her 4,000 "taskrabbits" do run quick such as delivering groceries or cleaning, Busque is thinking beyond that — she wants to create she calls "micro-entrepreneurs." "The vision for TaskRabbit is to revolutionize the world's labor ," Busque said.

The labor force's prospects seem pretty grim, the latest jobs report showing dismal job growth and an unemployment of 8.2 percent — three years after the recession officially .

Whether a platform freelance gigs can spark a jobs revolution remains to be . In the , Busque discusses why part of the "jobs problem" may be we define "jobs."

Can you explain your concept micro-entrepreneurship?

We're at a where people are starting to rethink and redefine what work to them, and the typical 9-to-5 job that you work for 40 hours a week and retire from after 30 years is an old of thinking. This concept of micro-entrepreneurship is to get people the tools and resources to be own bosses, and decide how they want to work, how much they want to paid and what skills they want share.

How did the recession actually into your success?

I incorporated and launched in September 2008, right the stock market had crashed, the economy was shambles and people were getting off left and right. I was surprised by wanted to be taskrabbits — lawyers, pharmacists, teachers, all had just been laid off typical full-time careers. When these people came to me, that's when it me just how much potential this tiny idea .

So you know of people who are making a doing this work full time?

We have seen that. For , Chris in San Francisco laid off from his job at Macy's and is now about $5,000 per month doing handyman services full , which used to be his hobby on the . Another person we know this is Mark in Boston, who worked construction and got laid off in 2008. On TaskRabbit, he started a lot of handyman-type jobs, and he has made the as the economy has improved not to go to a full-time job but to continue being his own . We see folks in every market we've launched who are doing this full time.

The key here is people embracing they thought was a hobby or just something they like to do the side — whether that's handyman , event planning or amateur photography — and making that their full-time work. It's really about empowering people to do what love.

Have you seen more demand people interested in this type of work vs. traditional jobs?

We have another 5,000 taskrabbits a waitlist. We get emails from people day asking when TaskRabbit is coming to their city, so we're working as we can to expand to locations.

Do you think this shows an entrepreneurial solution the jobs problem can be more efficient than a political solution?

I just know that times of economic turmoil and downturns, we entrepreneurs emerge, and it's happening now more than . I believe this is not just TaskRabbit's platform, but it's about enabling thousands of entrepreneurs this country to take the concept of work into their own and on their own .


Adapted from: CNBC, July 12, 2012.