For some time, large corporations have been outsourcing to the developing world but there is an increasing trend of ordinary people doing the same thing.
Elance is a freelance marketplace and is like an eBay for work. In the past 3 months I was able to find work writing an self-help ebook netting me $315 for less than a day’s work in total. Not a bad little earner, but with the pound being stronger than the dollar, the exchange rate works much better in the other direction. In the next 2 weeks, I will be launching a new ecommerce site for Masquerade Clothing and a web-application that will literally turn Britain’s housing market on its head. The shop has cost $250 and the web-application $1250 and I will be able to offset my costs by applying for funding from my University.
Why I have not done the work myself.
- Learning html, javascript, php, linux, css etc from scratch is time consuming. Skills acquired now are out-of-date in 6 months and completely obsolete in 2 years.
- I have successfully obtained temporary employment with ITV in Manchester which reduces the amount of free time I have to blog and work.
- ITV pay around £8/hour, developers on Elance are cheap and can get the job done much faster to boot.
Let me turn you over to Tim Ferriss (again) to shed some light on the Elance game:
Its free to post your project and invite people to bid, in my next post I’ll be writing a short guide on using Elance and what to look out for when you do. I think personal outsourcing done right could make things pretty sweet for everyone concerned. Thanks to exchange rates, the service provider can charge a rate that suits them but suits the buyer too satisfying both parties. Check out the following video showing what some progressive parents have been doing (haha)!
Have you ever used Elance or another personal outsourcing service? Do you think that it will change the world? Please leave your comments below!