Business case for launch

This kind of service is too early-stage for us to offer detailed income projections with any credibility. But here are some core principles.

We want Slivers!

  • There is little upfront cost to launching a Slivers-of-Time marketplace. The service is funded by a fractional mark-up built into each hour sold.
  • The key resource required is staff time. Someone  will have to put in time to (a) line up the work that will go through your new marketplace (b) approve work-seekers. However, the agency offering the marketplace can build a mark-up into each transaction. Typically this could be 10-20%. This income is unlikely to cover costs of staff time in the start-up phase.
  • You should probably expect a marketplace to become fully profitable in its 2nd or 3rd year of operation.

What's the aim?Suitcase hands

What would you want a Slivers-of-Time marketplace launched by your organisation to achieve? Aims might include: 

  1. Building profile as innovators
  2. Spreading existing work around to as many households as possible
  3. Rejuvenating the local economy
  4. Attracting inward investment
  5. Fostering community cohesion
  6. Keeping local work for local people
  7. Increasing general employability and skills
  8. Buying support workers and service provision more cheaply
  9. Driving sustainable development
  10. Raising internet usage locally
  11. Creating a profitable, agency business
  12. Immediately helping people into full time jobs
  13. Getting hard-to-help groups into work

 

Broadly, Aims 1 to 10 are realistic in the short term. But the business case is unlikely to stack up if you expect immediate results for aims 11 to 13. A marketplace can do those things for you, but only in the mid to long term.

The rest of this section offers broad business cases for specific entities that might launch a Slivers-of-Time marketplace.

Starting a market