40% of the US workforce is building an independent business as a full or part-time venture.
This includes 5.6M people building a business in the direct sales industry, 2m+ building an eCommerce business, 1M+ driving an Uber and millions more freelancing their skills on sites like Upworks. Many have multiple revenue streams by running several “businesses”.
Why do they go independent? They want time flexibility, more money and being their own boss!
But it’s hard!
While access to tools and training has never been easier and more cost effective for people to start a business (at least a home business), it’s hard to build a successful business.
Competition, lack of knowledge and time to do marketing and sales, fulfillment issues, low margins due to low buying power, zero cash for supporting team members, are just a few of the issues that pester entrepreneurs trying to start a business.
Where there is a need, you’ll find opportunities
With 45M people building a business, we see the “Future of Work” startup ecosystem investing solutions to help solopreneurs build and manage a company. Special insurance for businesses starting up, loans, online skill enhancement courses, small B2B social networks and software companies are targeting this HUGE market.
Enter virtual franchises
One company is taking a unique approach helping Independents start a business from home.
“Most people don’t know what business they want to build or even their financial goals, they just know they want to make money and be independent”, says Itamar Shafir, CEO of Umbrella — who is helping thousands of Independents build their business.
“The bulk majority want a turnkey solution to starting a business; low risk, low cost and a very formulated business opportunity. Something like a franchise, just without the costs and legal limitations”. Continues Itamar.
There are amazing brands that would love to tap into the sales power of Independents, having their products and services sold by millions of Independents to businesses and consumers.
But most brands can’t train, manage and support thousands of very small sellers. They prefer to work with a few large resellers.
Umbrella works with Brands, turning their offering into a Virtual Franchise on Umbrella’s platform; a turnkey business-in-a-box solution for Independents who want to start or expand a business.
The Virtual Franchise includes products to sell for at least 40% margins, as Umbrella bulks buys from the brands on behalf of a large community (Sam’s Club play). Fulfillment is done by the brands, billing and accounting is done by the Umbrella platform, as well as marketing and training, so all an Umbrella member needs to do is choose the virtual franchise they want, and WALLA, they have business.
“Our members can focus on selling as everything else is taken care for them. Quality product with great margins, training, marketing, billing, the works — formulated path to success”, says Itamar.
Training and growing on AI
Umbrella also has something special that no franchise or course platform has; it brings both the training and real-world practice into one trackable system. So, Umbrella’s platform can track your business performance in comparison with your training and task progress on the system, identifying your weak points and serving the right content/takes to overcome it and build the business.
While this feature is still in early days, Itamar says “with the data we’re getting from thousands of people trying to build a business without training, tools and products, we’re starting to understand how to automatically make them more successful”.
Umbrella, which bootstrapped its Virtual Franchise SaaS business in 2017, has already grown to notable force in the market, helping thousands of members build their business for a small monthly fee and working with leading brands.
“Our aim is to have many options on the platform, so people can pick and choose the right business for them.”
Virtual franchising makes it much easier to start a business and the power of a large community makes Umbrella buying power play in favor of all its members.
