, according to MBO Partners. Nearly a quarter of the total U.S. workforce are independent, self-employed workers.
As the chief cook and bottle washer of their small businesses, they do everything from scheduling and managing projects to organizing and storing files to billing. Typically, solopreneurs rely on a hodgepodge of software or paper processes that don't work well together. Yet, time is money to them and it is their most precious resource.
More than eight years ago, HoneyBook was launched to provide solopreneurs—service providers such as graphic designers, marketing consultants, photographers, doulas, and dog walkers—with the technology to make them more efficient. As a San Francisco-based tech company, it has a philosophy of failing fast, which means it takes an iterative, hypothesis-driven approach to developing and launching new ideas.
The company's values provided the North Star that HoneyBook needed to guide its decision. Their value was connecting members, enabling them to create solutions, share those resources, and support each other, commented Naama Alon, cofounder and Chief of Product at HoneyBook. When the team thought about solutions, they focused not on putting the company first. Instead, they focused on how to be of service to members, she continued.
Providing a community of support to Honeybook members during a difficult time was the right thing to do, even if it wasn't going to be a moneymaker, Alon said. As it turned out, sticking to values was also profitable. In the past year, its focus on its members led to a tripling in annual recurring revenue and more than doubling of new subscribers in the U.S. and Canada. At the same time, members have booked more than $1 billion in business on the platform in the past nine months.