Guru/eLance outsourcing web business.

**robousy** · 02-05-2009 02:37 AM

Hey folks,

Many of you have probably heard of guru.com and elance.com. I have used guru myself and got a pretty decent website built for about 1/4 the cost compared to what I would have paid in usa.

So, I'm sure I'm not the first to think of this, but has anyone thought of
forming a web development company with yourself as CEO, then picking up jobs and just outsourcing the work through guru say, and netting some $$ on top.

Any thoughts or experience??

**CiD743** · 02-05-2009 03:05 AM

I out outsource projects that I either can't do or don't have time to do. It works pretty well most of the time. It can be annoying at times, being the middle man.

For it to work well I would build a small network of freelancers. Once that's done, I think it would work well.

**robousy** · 02-06-2009 06:11 AM

Thanks for your feedback Cid743. Yes, I can imagine that playing the middle man cna be somewhat frustrating as there must be a lot of message relaying.

I agree that a trustworthy network is what's required for this sort of thing to work.

**SOCMiles** · 02-06-2009 09:01 PM

Another noteworthy site is Odesk.

You may enjoy reading Timothy Ferris' book "The 4 Hour Work Week." He goes quite in depth about how he has utilized virtual assistants to remove himself from being the bottleneck.

I think you are on to something with your idea!!!!

**healththink** · 02-07-2009 09:45 AM

i used these people to build my website
Kmwsoftech - Web Development and Web Designing from hyderabad, INDIA

**robousy** · 02-09-2009 06:28 PM

Hey,

Just checked this thread after a couple of days away from the computer. Thanks for the additional comments SOCMiles.

I have a sneaking suspicion that healththinks site is more spam than anything else.

**outsourcery** · 02-10-2009 01:24 AM

Hey mate,

This can be done, but i'd suggest if you give it a go, you present yourself as the front man and market your services locally. That way you can charge a premium rate. I've done this successfully as an experiment for graphic design work. I did it with people I know, just to see if it could work. Web work is a bit more dicey... you'd need to do it a few times, get familiar with your freelancers and develop decent work processes.

Vet projects thoroughly- only take work that is well defined. Otherwise you're inviting a lot of headaches... the amount of time you'll need to commit will make it borderline profitable.

Absolutely a viable option, a lot of people are doing it right now.

Cheers
Hugh

**Usman Sheikh** · 02-11-2009 01:46 AM

Hey Robousy, this is a model that a lot of people are using as stated by Outsourcery. A couple of my friends are using this model with some success. The common problems that they are facing are:

1. Unclear requirements upfront. Be very clear with what the client wants. This is where a lot of disputes are created.

2. Maintain quality is of utmost importance. By re-outsourcing again you will need to make sure you stay on the ball and manage the quality well.

3. Using collaborative technologies such as BaseCammphq.com or proofhq.com can really help both the communication process as well as getting a dash board view of the projects you are working on.

Hope this helps.

Usman

For more information msg me on twitter @usmansheikh

**robousy** · 02-12-2009 11:44 AM

Thanks outsourcery and Usman Sheikh.

I agree outsourcery, I was definitely thinking of being the 'local' front man. I live in a big city (4M+) so there should be plenty of clients out there. I know that when I was getting a web page built I would have really liked the opportunity to meet with someone from the team and have face to face conversations.

My idea was really to find a local guy (say a recent computer science grad) and have him/her come along to meetings with me to help with the technical side of things. I'd pay them something hourly like $30 or something. I think that helps give credibility if I'm a little unsure on the difference between php and sql for example (!!!!!!).

Then - after meeting with the client the work would be done by someone outsourced on guru say.

I think that my role would be to be 100% sure what the client needed, and to build strict milestones, and to be paid incrementally. I'd probably encourage the clients to build powerpoint presentations regarding how they see everything looking and functioning.

Thanks for the BaseCammphq.com and proofhq.com links. I'll take a look right now!

**vmgbpo** · 11-16-2009 04:57 PM

There are actually people on both Elance and Guru who do this.The problem is management. You are still the one responsible for the end product to your client.

**Tzarkov** · 11-23-2009 01:54 PM

I run a web development firm based in Uruguay, South America. Most of our work comes from partner businesses in Europe and the US. We are not altogether that economical, but our design is well over the standard as well as our programmers and XHTML/CSS coders. We also provide the best service I am aware of, letting clients follow the development as closely as they see fit. Ours is a sound and proved business model, not anything new or particularly creative. Although there still is plenty of profit to be made for our partners and independent salespeople in Europe and the US. The average sum they make is around the $5.400 a month and most of them do it as a part time job, to pay university while they are still studying.

**SirLucius** · 12-03-2009 01:26 AM

Yeah, I've tried this with my SEO consultancy business. Originally I started out as a web design and SEO. I know SEO really well, better than 99% of people out there; however, I noticed that many small businesses in the area also wanted web design. So I thought great, I can just outsource this to a designer on eLance.

BIG MISTAKE.

The issue is that it is difficult to manage someone halfway around the world. Also, my first client wanted to sit with a designer and explain what they wanted. My designer did not take english instruction too well, and repeatedly did what they wanted. Then he would disappear for days on end with no communication, while my client screamed for a sample or some turnaround or simple changes. The designer mistyped everything and never really understood the general concept of what we were going for. In all, it is just much better to outsource to a U.S.-based designer.

My advice is to just stick to what you know best versus the trying to do everything in-house. I also tried to set-up a reseller hosting business and that was a complete disaster as well. In the end I found it was much better for me to just become an affiliate of a hosting company and refer clients there and get a commission check. In the end I was going to have host my clients at $7 or less a month to be priced with the rest of the market.