Make employees your customers

India's gig economy is feted - mostly by its own founders on LinkedIn - for 'disrupting' traditional business models. But Snabbit, an on-demand domestic services platform, has truly cracked a new level of disruption: treating its own workforce as its most reliable revenue stream. While legacy companies make the rookie mistake of spending money on employee uniforms, Snabbit has flipped the script. It has raked in ₹1.4 cr of its ₹12.2 cr operational revenue by selling mandatory workwear to its workforce - or 'partners', as the super dupe needs them to be called for tax reasons.

So, if board members ask how to pump up top-line growth amid mounting cash burn - the company reported a net loss of about ₹168 cr - the answer can be, no, not to find more customers, but to onboard 10,000 more gig workers and sell them branded pink tees. Genius. This is like keeping business at bars buzzing even if customers don't show up by asking bartenders to buy the drinks for themselves. But, honestly, why stop at T-shirts? The runway for monetising your own employees is wide open. Instead of providing a salary, channel your inner Musk and charge them a monthly subscription fee for the privilege of working for your company. It's the perfect circular economy where their salary pays for your firm's upkeep, while they get to keep their jobs. You can't get more disruptive than that.