Shares for freelancers: Shall we make it happen?

Dear Enterprise Nation community, it's Emma - I need your help...

Emma Jones (@emmaljones) is founder of Enterprise Nation, a business expert and author As you may know, we've put together 10 recommendations to help small businesses grow (and we've asked you to vote for your favourites). Recommendation number 6 calls for the creation of a new model, which would allow small business owners to give freelancers they work with share in their businesses. As far as I can tell, all share option schemes (and subsequent tax reliefs) are for companies wanting to reward and incentivise employees. Many small businesses are growing by outsourcing work to talented contractors and self-employed professionals - and there's no model to reward and incentivise that workforce with shares. To me, this screams gap in the market.

Share ownership improves performance

Evidence shows that companies that offer employees shares outperform those that don't. I can certainly see, in my own business, the benefits of offering share ownership to a loyal band of freelancers. It's something I've been keen to do for a while, but I've never found the right or proven model. I want to reward my team for their hard work to date and offer them a piece of the business, so they remain motivated and committed to help realise our ambitious vision. I'm talking with experts at the Employee Share Ownership Centre and Mutual Ventures to ask about the feasibility of such a model, but what would be really useful to know is if you would find this useful too!

Tell us what you think

Please let us know what you think about offering freelancers shares. Your view will help determine whether this is something Enterprise Nation spends time on lobbying the government.

1. If you outsource work to freelancers and sub-contractors, would you like to offers shares in your company to them?

2. If yes, have you done this? And if so, how?

Let us know what you think in the comments

Thanks, in advance, for your help! Emma