Business case for launch

This kind of service is too early-stage for us to offer detailed income projections with any credibility. But here’s some core principles.

There are currently no upfront charges for launching a Slivers-of-Time marketplace and no cost for marketing materials. The service is funded by a fractional mark-up built into each hour sold.
Your staff will have to put in time to (a) line up the work that will go through your new marketplace (b) approve work-seekers. This is your key cost. However, the agency offering the marketplace can build a mark-up into each transaction. Typically this could be 10-20%. This income is unlikely to cover costs of staff time in the start-up phase.
You should probably expect a marketplace to become fully profitable in its 2nd or 3rd year of operation.

What's the aim?

What would you want a Slivers-of-Time marketplace launched by your organisation to achieve? Aims might include:

Building profile as innovators
Spreading existing work around to as many households as possible
Rejuvenating the local economy
Attracting inward investment
Fostering community cohesion
Keeping local work for local people
Increasing general employability and skills
Buying support workers and service provision more cheaply
Driving sustainable development
Raising internet usage locally
Creating a profitable, agency business
Immediately helping people into full time jobs
Getting hard-to-help groups into work

Broadly, Aims 1 to 10 are realistic in the short term. But the business case is unlikely to stack up if you expect immediate results for aims 11 to 13. A marketplace can do those things for you, but only in the mid to long term.

The rest of this section offers broad business cases for specific entities that might launch a Slivers-of-Time marketplace.