Why we're launching FREE

When you kick off a start-up, a lot of people (we’re talking pretty much ALL the people you talk to) will rave on about the power of Early Adopters. For ease, let's refer to them 'EAs'. We’re not talking Angelina and Brad adopting mind you. These are the people who uncover the ‘cool and new’ things, and who are such apparent trend setters the rest will follow their lead if they think your new business idea is fantastic.

So compelling is the theory that this is the group a lot of businesses (especially ones online) aim for when they first kick off because even if the EAs don’t necessarily have a need for your product, they will tell someone who will. And you see it in a lot of Australian start-ups.

But does it make it right?

We’re stepping out on a limb and going against the grain.

TaskRunners won’t be launching in the heart of EA territory. It’ll be launching in the heartlands of where people need the help the most – right in the heart of suburbia.

We can’t ignore the need to ‘monetise the product’ but we will be skinning this cat in a way that is different to most through offering both cash and in-kind as a payment option (so swapping or bartering basically) and taking a little more of a creative route to the road of a sustainable business (stay tuned for more on this).

We want to roll up our sleeves, get in there and help people get things done as quickly and as stress free as possible.

<Drum roll please>

We’re making TaskRunners completely FREE until the end of 2012. We’re testing our theories related to sharing tasks to create a better way of using time without our community of members paying for it.  

If you can hear a gasping, screaming sound right now, it’s probably the collective groans of the start-up community because we’re not trying to romance trend setters or looking at this from a plainly cash perspective.

We’re in this for the right reasons and for the long haul so we have to reinvent things a little to make sure it works the way it should.

That’s why we’re diving right in at the deep end to save your sanity. Because we wouldn’t have it any other way.

What do you think? Crazy stupid or crazy smart?

Taking on our Biggest Task

If you've read our post about how our TaskRunners journey started you'll realise we we're pretty much stuck in the busy-ness of life like millions of Australians. Simply overwhelmed.  

When I first thought of TaskRunners, I wasn’t looking for a specific “collaborative consumption” business to start. I didn’t even know the term or movement existed. I sure wasn’t looking for an online start-up that could make use of the latest in technology because I’m almost a complete technology dud. Start-up culture and practices weren’t even on my mind.

No. It sounds a little cliché but I just wanted to help and connect people which brought some joy into their lives. I’m not talking around help in a charitable way (that’s another one of my passions that I’ll save for another post) but in a sense that made people’s lives easier, more enjoyable and just so they have the freedom to choose what they wanted to do with their time. I know it was what I also wanted for myself and my family.

What I was seeing around me was (and have since found out):

• Parents, especially mothers, drowning under the weight of the domestic burden, sleepless nights and a lack of ‘me’ time.

• Overworked and stressed out individuals who were working ridiculous hours without time to even enjoy their families let alone look after their own health.

• The growing Grey Army (of which my parents are a part of) who have all this skill, experience and knowledge to share but don’t get a lot of opportunities to make the most out of that without a lot of digging.

• A huge underutilised workforce in the form of stay-at-home mums, university students, carers, the disabled, underemployed and the unemployed.

• Freelancers who were stressed by the growing number of eBidding sites denting their livelihoods as more and more work went overseas.

• Small business owners who saw less and less of their families because of impossible ‘To Do Lists’ attached to their workload.

Mission Impossible

With all these people leaping around in my head, I began to wonder what I could do.  How could I do something to cater to all these different markets or it just impossible? It literally bugged me for months before I began to realise it was TIME that was everybody’s problem. It took me that long to come to that realisation because I was just so caught up with life myself. 

So what if I could find a way where people who had spare time on their hands could help others who didn’t and redistribute what everyone needed to do and re-balance time? Sounds a little far fetched but I did my research and I knew I could introduce a localised solution to cater to the Australian family. The task was on! On now, just mere weeks away from going live, we're ready to get things happening for people.

Sign up here to be the one of the firsts to know when we launch. 

What do you think of TaskRunners? Love it? Hate it? Not quite sure?

I would love to hear your thoughts.

x Cheryl

Collaborative Consumption: The Sharing Economy

Life's better shared

We all got a mild tail kicking from the GFC a few years ago. Some of us lost jobs, others weren’t sure about their jobs, things became hard to afford and we looked across the water at the US, UK and Europe a little nervously there for a while. But sometimes the scary times birth wonderful innovation and invention in the human mind. 

It was some of that thinking that spawned ‘Collaborative Consumption’, Australia’s newest eco-business movement!

What is Collaborative Consumption?

Peer to peer sharing

For all its fancy pants sounding name, Collaborative Consumption is not anything we have not experienced before. It is basically about taking something we already have and sharing it across a few people rather than everyone having their own version to contend with. 

In TaskRunners’ case, it simply means taking the tasks one person faces and giving them to another willing person to perform, for either cash reward or the return of a similar favour at a later date. Or, on the other hand, if you have a skill or knowledge that you're proud of, sharing that as well. Nice!

Do I know of any Collaborative Consumption businesses?

Some of these car and ride sharing businesses look familiar?

A few well known businesses you may have heard of are things like the traveller’s new best friend AirBnB, events like clothes swaps, car sharing and of course task orientated businesses like TaskRunners. The idea of sharing things, labour, experiences and more across every day people in the community has really taken off in Australia. We now have over 70 kinds of businesses offering everything from local tours to textbooks, pet vacations and desks in office spaces, and even shared cooking and dining experiences. 

You'll be surprised just what you can find!

How is Collaborative Consumption green and socially responsible?

By sharing resources, we lessen our impact on the environment. This is particularly true of businesses like Open Shed , Zookal or Find a Uniform who specialise in sharing and/or recycling commonly needed goods across a few people on a regular basis.

Collaborative Consumption is also socially responsible because it relies on getting people together to help each other. This helps to:

• end isolation in our community, 
• give people a sense of belonging, and 
• provide a reason to be proud of the places where we live. 

Not only that but by working together:

• we help lighten our load and the stress related to it, 
• we give people reasons to feel useful, and 
• it's scientifically proven to aid self esteem and chase away the blues through helping. 

Sharing also keeps you from getting eaten by big cats

It is amazing to think that sharing something so simple as an item or a task can add so many benefits, but it’s true. These connections have a really positive impact on our environment and our community. 

Are you feeling the buzz?!

Will TaskRunners be useful for me?

Absolutely! 

In this day and age, most of us are super busy and wearing multiple hats in order to get by, work towards our dreams or even just manage to juggle work and family. But no matter who you are, we’ve all experienced the added value a pair of extra hands offers when it’s time to get things done. Or we want to be able to help others but can’t afford to market ourselves or don’t know how to let people know we are available. So TaskRunners is designed to simply connect the everyday person who needs some help with another everyday person who can provide it. It's that simple.

Where do I sign up?

Keep following us as we get ready! 

You can follow our journey through to September 2012 when we launch in a couple of ways. Tres exciting!

• Register your interest on our TaskRunners   
• Follow our posts on Facebook (Do ‘Like’ us) 
• Pinterest
• Twitter or 
• Via this official blog 

This is about you too - so just hit us with your questions and suggestions! 

What are your thoughts on Collaborative Consumption? Have you used a Collaborative Consumption business before? Share your experience with us.