25/02/2023
It would be great if you could join our new 7C Micro Business Alliance group on LinkedIn, or otherwise our existing 7C Alliance group on Facebook.
The intention being to help develop us reform the 7C Alliance, based on the 7C framework which Matt Miller first designed back in 2004 for enabling independents to better structure their business operations in line with operating outside IR35, but now with support for the following reasons in mind (and hopefully heart too!)
In recent years we have realised that there needs to be a reset in areas of the contract market for independents skilled in providing services which are transferable from one business to another, as these independents and their skills allow for best practice and innovation to be propagated not just in an industry sector but for enterprise generally, and even communities too - allowing for industry sectors and enterprise to be more cohesive generally.
In the UK, sadly too much has been focused on taxing these businesses due to the increased prevalence of them which has ironically been required due to dysfunction and fragmentation by what can really only be described as bulky or unwieldy large scale enterprise. Such enterprise has become increasingly ineffective at managing consistency in quality of its product and/or delivery of the service(s) to get the products to market, and its generally independents with both the skills and many years of experience across multiple businesses and sectors who have the knowledge, skills and wisdom to fix things.
Indeed, Sustainability ironically is, more often than not, not factored into these ineffective and/or inefficient enterprises because it is seen as too costly or too complex to somehow integrate or infuse its way into the enterprise - and there are still not enough good quality independents in that area, however even that is hopefully about to change through more independents determining the capabilities required and developing them.
The independents who have built up a vast array and depth of experience across multiple enterprise (and often in a broad range of communities too), are quite likely to spot the issues or challenges quickly from having seen the same sorts of hurdles or barriers before - and so knowing how to overcome them through what they do in being able to apply or adapt best practice or factor in innovation which already has best practice baked into it.
However not enough is focused on the capabilities which such individuals have built up and the value they have built up not only for themselves to get a good living but also for what they can offer enterprise to make it more effective and efficient but also communities too through making them and enterprise able to be more cohesive.
It all extends from these individuals having identified and developed skills which are transferable across different businesses, helping to not just make their enterprise more consistent, effective and efficient - but also by association of one complementary enterprise with another, make the joins between them and communities more cohesive. It can also help to make Society as a whole better if what they do is done with all due care and responsibility - and not just with a "fake it to make it" mindset.
The value of what good independents can offer Society and economies therefore needs to be celebrated and appreciated rather than cynically taxed because they are doing well out of it.
The 7C Alliance is being re-established because we recognise all of this and the value of independents.
We see the way forward as being not just about enabling contractors to operate outside IR35 in the UK (or equivalent elsewhere under adaptation or adoption of EU Agency or Temporary Worker Rules), but to go way beyond that to enabling discussions about us, the contractor ourselves, and what will enable us to be the best and do the best as well as get the best from it.
This "Top Guns of Contracting" will be achieved through us helping to make the independent's skills more effective and efficient themselves in their transferability but also the marketing and sale of them more open so the hiring businesses are more aware of the value of a good independent from a not so good one - and hence ensuring that the better one is valued with what they receive in return for their capability. So the good value independents need to be sourced and marketed with that in mind
It's from this Foundation that we can go on to discuss the state of the contract market and ways to get and maintain the best from ensuring that independents are genuinely and fully aware of what they need to do to ensure their skills are transferable between enterprises.
It also needs to be about:
- helping to inform and educate independents so that they can secure a good living from knowing the business capabilities which their skills are relevant to
- discussing the best and most reliable ways to both market and manage offering of their skill as a service in return for decent day rate - but also
- be more clever in what they do it for, so they are not only meeting all their commitments but are developing personal wealth and means to secure the lifestyle and forms of independence they genuinely want to get from operating independently; and finally
- contrast this way of being and doing as well as living (let's face it!) by contrast to either working through a big consultancy or services business or dedicating themselves to a single enterprise where transferability and extent of the capability they have developed is neither fully valued nor gaining value.
We hope all these things make more sense, and people who value good independents are prepared to support The 7C Alliance and that independents themselves either join our 7C Alliance group here on Facebook or the one on LinkedIn (as linked in below).
It is through these groups that we will start to identify who values and supports independents, as well as who are the most capable and deserve to not only be appreciated and respected but valued most highly in the marketplace. The 7C Alliance will then devise and develop marketing strategies and campaigns around not just best ways for independents to market themselves but also different ways which are more targeted directly to specific markets where their skills and services are more critically needed, and so can do more and do better work for not just a decent return on investment in development of their skills and capabilities but also be more visible and contribute more to the fabric of Society as well as the habitats and ecosystems which surround it and enable it to survive and thrive.
So we look forward to reconnecting with not just independents but also their valued supporters, both here on Facebook as well as "over there" on LinkedIn (re)starting with joining the group below.
All the Best, and the Best for All who endeavour to be and do their best
The 7C Alliance Renaissance Programme team
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