The time for change is upon us
Aside from the Industrial Revolution, the last two decades have presented businesses with one of the most rapid periods of change in history, with iPhones, blogging, and email going mainstream. This has left some businesses behind in the dust, but allowed new models and ideas to thrive.
All of this change has led to an economic revolution of sorts, as well. Bill Clerio, CEO of WePay tells AG, “There’s a revolution in full swing that is changing the way ordinary Americans make a living. From internet commerce technology has sprung forth the Bottom-Up Economic Revolution. It’s dramatically altered the way business is conducted by both the seller and consumer. Front and center in this shift is platform businesses – small business cloud-based companies, online marketplaces and crowdfunding sites. They bring buyers and sellers, as well as non-profits and donors together in new ways to interact and do business.”
Clerico notes that because any average citizen can more readily create income without the overhead of retail space and so forth, the possibilities are endless. “You can find homeowners in need of your maintenance services sell your own custom made clothing, rent a room on Airbnb, to name just a few opportunities. Need capital? Funding opportunities are also available and could be just a few clicks away at crowdfunding sites for the everyday entrepreneur.”
This group is fueling what Clerico calls the Bottom-Up Economic Revolution, and shares with us (in his own words below) how these proprietors are increasing at a rapid clip as traditional employment is in flux:
Facts about the new economic revolution
According to Clerico, “Proprietors have steadily increased every year since 2000, in terms of a percentage of total US employment.”
“Between 2000 and 2012,” he notes, “the US labor force lost over a million private wage and salary workers yet in that same time frame, over 10 million working proprietors entered the marketplace. Furthermore, 21% of working Americans received at least part of their income through self-employment.”
Clerico stated, “Enterprises with over 1000 employees lost over 1 million employees between 2002 and 2012 while enterprises with less than 25 people gained over a 1.5 million employees—nearly half of those 1.5 million employees are with enterprises that had 5 or fewer total employees.
As the Bottom-Up Economic Revolution grows, we see two categories of platform companies driving it: marketplaces and cloud-based small business software. These small business platforms must provide not just an excellent overall user experience, but also an easy-to-implement payment experience that protects the consumer, the seller, and the platform business itself from risk and fraud.
This new wave of ecommerce is perfectly complemented by WePay. Unlike other general-purpose payment APIs, WePay is designed for platforms. Our patent pending risk engine technology, Veda allows us to underwrite businesses of any size and shape. Platforms can feel confident that a robust system of fraud protection is in place to protect them as a payments process is weaved into their product seamlessly.”
He concludes, “The Bottom-Up Economic Revolution represents a massive opportunity for enterprises that can successfully bring three key ingredients together: new ideas for solving old ways of doing things, ample drive and a competent team. We plan to keep the Revolution booming by continuing to support the backend transactions in the world of e-commerce. It’s an exciting time and we couldn’t be more thrilled to see where the creative players in this vital new economy head next.”
