After reading the Tim Ferriss book, The Four-Hour Work Week…I was motivated once again to dive back into the world of outsourcing in order to get some of my personal projects moving.
I did all of my hiring via Elance and GetAFreelancer.com. Unfortunately, I’m only batting about .500 at this point…great for baseball, sucks in real life.
Some of my horror stories:
- I hired out some data entry work on a niche web directory. I provided all the raw data and the job was to confirm the existence of the web sites and input the data in the proper relevant category. Unfortunately, the company I hired (in this case, an Indian company) had a bad apple somewhere in the bunch. My carefully-monitored directory had ended up with a bunch of SPAM links added to it (i.e., someone was working on the job as a dual agent and probably saw an opportunity to double-dip). Obviously, the firm was fired midway through the job.
- I hired out a graphics job which should have taken no more than a week to complete. The artist was located in the former Soviet bloc. After firing and rehiring the artist over extreme delays and poor communication, the job was finally completed SEVEN weeks later.
- I hired out creation and directory submssion of a large number of articles. In this case, the provider was in the US. But the articles were so lacking in content and legitimate value that I ended up buying my way out of the deal halfway through…leaving me with nothing usable whatsoever in exchange for my money.
BUT…not all the news was bad. So far, I’ve discovered a handful of quality providers…with whom I intend to work again, and whom I feel comfortable in recommending to others:
- Syscon Software Consultants: I hired this Indian company to create a back-end that would significantly simplify administration of one of my sites. Their price was reasonable…their communication excellent (even taking into account the 9.5 hour time difference between us), and they met their deadline. Quality of final product: Excellent
- Gilbert Design: I hired this US-based graphic designer to design my latest business card (I haven’t had new ones done for years). She was very patient through all my ideas and revisions…was a great communicator, and the price for her services was probably too low. I have already hired her for a logo design job. Quality of final product: Excellent
- I’ve also found two good resources for article writing The TDS Group (no web site yet) and Northern Lights Press.
So…in my experience, outsourcing is definitely a hit-or-miss proposition. As Ferriss said, it’s critical to be extremely precise in your instructions when outsourcing work. However, such precautions don’t account for variations in cultural work ethic, nor do they protect you from those who are patently dishonest.
I still have several projects in outsourced status, and will be continuing to do so in the future. I will follow up with more personal observations in the future.
Hi Chuck,
Have you checked out oDesk for your outsourcing needs? Some of the issues you’ve had with outsourcing could be directly resolved (or eliminated) if you’d used oDesk. The hourly payment model, for instance, allows you to verify exactly how much time your provider is spending on your project and the screen grabber tool (oDesk Team) lets you see screen shots of your provider’s work (this would have been useful in preventing the problem with the company that submitted all sorts of spammed links). Take a look: http://www.odesk.com
~Michelle, oDesk
I appreciate your input and the referral to oDesk, Michelle. However, my issues are these: I don’t want to have to check up on people’s work. If I’m paying them…once I’ve approved the general quality of the work, I shouldn’t have to watch over their shoulder. That’s the point of outsourcing, in my view. Also, I never use hourly rates. Project fees are much more quantifiable…both the buyer and the supplier know exactly what to expect. Hourly rates are too easily abused.
Hello Chuck,
Thank you for promoting some of the service providers you hired through Elance, and also thanks for your time during our phone call last week to discuss some of the issues you mentioned in your Blog.
First of all, we are proud to see you have found good service providers on Elance. For the service providers you recommended above, here are their profiles on Elance (even if they do not have their own website like the TDS Group, their Elance profile pages show their service offerings, skills, portfolios and ratings)
TDS Group:
http://www.elance.com/p/?q=eolproviderprofile&userid=1737056
Gilbert Design:
http://www.elance.com/p/?q=eolproviderprofile&userid=1689268
Syscon:
http://www.elance.com/p/?q=eolproviderprofile&userid=1366904
Northern Light Press:
http://www.elance.com/p/?q=eolproviderprofile&userid=1556588
I also enjoyed our discussion about continually improving the ratings and feedback to give as comprehensive an overview as possible of each service provider’s “track record” with their past clients/buyers.
Elance is always looking for feedback on items such as, well, our feedback system! I have talked with our Product Mgmt team about implementing some new feedback features based on our conversation last week.
I look forward to reading about your next experiences with outsourced projects.
Best Regards,
Lorenzo
http://www.elance.com
Some great info here chuck its nice to see plus and minus points coming from point of experience. I will be extensively using services like elance in the near future for my own out sourcing and up and coming projects. I see it as a factor of you have to build key relationships in any given area before you can be confident in the service they provide you. Its nice that you share with your readers ones that have worked well for you. Its also great to see the direct feedback and assistance posted in regards to your issues it shows a great deal of responsibility from the people that cross chain the services rather than directly provide them.
All together a very informative post
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