 Hey, welcome back everybody. This is Jeff Rick with the Q. We are on the ground at the San Jose Convention Center at QuickBooks Connect 2015, the second year they've had the show. 5,000 people are here learning about QuickBooks, the developer community, the accountant community, really trying to build that community kind of connection between those groups to accelerate kind of new applications, etc. So we're really excited. Steve King, a partner at Emergent Research, welcome. Thanks a lot. Thanks for having me. So you said you were here last year. I was. What's kind of the vibe on the show compared to last year this year? Because it's only the second year. More people, more excitement. It was big last year too, but it's even bigger this year. In fact, I had a real hard time parking this morning, and I had to park quite a ways away. That's a good sign. And last year I was able to park right here at the convention center. So you're all about independent workers. There's a new way of working. So a lot of people do a 1099, you've got to kind of be a sophisticated independent contractor. You've got to be able to go job to job. The days of getting a job at GM, staying there for 30 years, retiring, and go and watch, not so much anymore. Yeah, we do a study and we think there's about 30 million Americans that on a regular basis, meaning in an average work week, work as freelancers or independent consultants and independent contractors. Other folks, the Freelancers Union are up working to study saying 54 million Americans in total. Those include some people that just do it occasionally. But however you do it, it's somewhere between 30 and 40 percent of the economy now, though the workforce is doing at least some part-time independent work. And how much of those people are doing it by choice or versus by necessity? We find in our studies, and we do a number of surveys on this, we find about 60 percent its choice, 55 to 60 percent. There's about 25 to 30 percent that are doing it purely by necessity and then the people in between are kind of a mix. But it's really interesting, most people are doing it by choice. And they're doing it because they're looking for autonomy, control, and flexibility. And those things are hard to come by in a traditional job. In exchange, they're dealing with insecurity, lack of benefits, unpredictable income. So there's a clear trade-off. We call that the yin and yang of independent board. Right. And there's always the other thing too when you're an independent contractor, and many of us have been there at some point in time, right? It's this whole kind of sales process of motion versus delivery. You got to be working on your next deal. You got to be out in the community in which you're serving, working on those next deals. And then, oh, by the way, you got a deal and I actually got to deliver. And if it's too big of a deal, you got too many customers. It kind of takes you out of the sales motion. So what do you see kind of best practices of people balancing that? The people that they do it best now don't go it alone anymore. You use partners. You use other virtual workers, other independent contractors, whether it's through online marketplaces like in Elantz, or whether it's just people that you know. My own business is that way. I'm a husband and wife, two-person firm. We have no employees. But at any point in time, we have six to eight people working on our stuff. And so that gives us the ability to continue to deliver while also making sure that we have something coming out in the future. And it's not just selling. It's also someone has to do the books. Someone has to make sure that computers run. I mean, you do have to be a jack-of-all-trades and it's not for everyone. Right. And we're at, we're here at Quickbook Show. And obviously, keep the track of the money is a lot more complicated if you're running your own show. You don't just get the paycheck and it's automatic deductions go where they're supposed to do. You do a quick 10-40 easy and you're finished. Well, particularly now when you're talking about these independent workers, they tend to have multiple streams of income, multiple gigs. And so they might be driving for Uber, teaching, dance, and a, and be a graphic designer all at the same time. And so sort of pulling all that information in and doing your taxes is incredibly difficult. And that's why QuickBooks has developed, why Intuit's developed QuickBooks for the self-employed. Allow them to manage the tax process. And do you see kind of the trend, the macro trend kind of continuing this way where there'll be more and more independent workers kind of assembling around a particular job or assembling around types of work as opposed to kind of the old school, the job at GE and work there forever? Absolutely. Two things are going on. On the demand side, more and more corporations are choosing to hire more of what they call contingent workers, which are independent workers that are not traditional both-time employees. They're doing that primarily now for agility and flexibility. You want to be able to scale up and scale down their staffing levels as they need. There's also a cost savings component, but that doesn't come through as much as it did, say, 10 years ago. So companies are using more. At the same time, it's what I talked about before. People are looking for more flexibility, they're looking for more autonomy, they're looking for more control. So we have a flow of people that are saying, I no longer really want to be a traditional employee. So both on the supply and demand side, it's where all things develop, and it'll continue to grow across the economy. Now there's kind of three groups of workers that are the focus of this show. There's the kind of the traditional small business, which Intuit's very involved in. There's the account I just learned a little bit about from Jim. And then there's developers. You're here, you're kind of speaking as a developer. What are some of the special characteristics that developers have to think about in their kind of autonomous work life? It's interesting, the developers have to come up with products that their customers are going to buy and want. And so the biggest thing is creating a product that has a big enough market that can develop a survivable and sustainable small business. So that's the biggest thing. The second thing is something we were talking about before we started filming was what platforms do you attach yourself to? Do I build my products on top of the QuickBooks platform? Do I go on top of Google platform or maybe Facebook? And so that platform decision is also important. So developers have a very complicated world right now. And they have to pick their platform and pick their target market in a way where they're more likely to end up being successful. It's a difficult task. And where do you see, what are some of the factors that you see that kind of influence that decision for coffee developers in terms of your experience working with them? Certainly their background and their personal experience and their expertise. So a lot of developers are going vertical market. They understand the insurance industry. So they develop an app for the insurance industry. Or they understand agriculture and they do an ag app. And so having an expertise where you can really get in there and understand the need, understand the customers and develop something that those customers will need on a regular basis. That's really the key part of this whole app at all. Build something that people need and support it really well. I saw this joke. It's kind of that, if I only had a, you know, built the build down, right? Because you know it, you wish you had it. There's other people in that same industry, that same position, chances are they maybe need that thing too. Absolutely, absolutely. A lot of apps get built that way. Out of someone having a passion or a need for themselves, they're saying, gosh, then other people, other people will need this. That's how a lot of it happens. I was just on a panel with the CEO of Expensivine. That's how he started that business. He said, I hated expense reports. I built an app for me to do my expense report and then I realized other people would want it too. Now he has a very successful business. Yeah, much better than just building a widget for fun or because it's technologically cool or you think maybe somebody might want it and they're now trying to find a market. Solve a problem. Solve a real problem. So I give you the last word. What's your advice, best practices for people, maybe just starting to venture into kind of an independent contractor world or, you know, kind of self-employed? What would you tell them? Kind of things that, you know, put falls to a void and things to really concentrate on. In terms of going out on your own and becoming an independent contractor, solve a void. First thing is if possible, do it part-time to start. Don't give up on your day job and build up a little bit of a financial cushion before you get going because it's unpredictable. The income's up and down. Develop a few customers because that will be important also. So try to stick with your day job as long as you can before you drop that off. The second level is you have to show up for work every day. There's all this talk about working in your pajamas or working day good. Treat it like a real job. Show up every day, get your work done, be organized. In a lot of cases it helps if you get yourself into a situation where you're working with others. Develop relationships with other people because if you try to go it alone it's going to be really hard. Those are really the keys. And then of course make sure you have a skill that's dunco on your own unless you have something that people know. Again, solve the problem. Steve, thanks for taking a few minutes out of your day to share your entire work. Thank you. I really appreciate it. Thank you for your time. Absolutely. I'm Jeff Frick. We're at Intuit's QuickBooks event 2015, 5,000 People, San Jose Convention Center. Thanks for watching.