This Outsourcing Case study is all about analyzing the procedure of hiring a freelancer from an outsourcing marketplace, what actually I did to eventually overcome all of the problems I faced while hiring someone and the service I received in return.
Here in this outsourcing case study, I will show you how I outsourced one of my projects on freelancer.com, how I selected the best skilled bidder, how I dealt with them, problems I solved, how I effectively communicated with them, how I managed the best output from the freelancers and what things I considered to hire the best freelancers. Along with mentioning the problems I faced, I will definitely provide you with the solutions that you may manipulate while you outsource anything in freelancer.com.
Figuring Out Exact Jobs To Outsource: In this outsourcing case study, I am going to demonstrate a number of ways to figure out the exact jobs to outsource. If you are running a business, you may have quite a several types of work in hand to be done by your employees. But it is rather impossible to recruit somebody who can handle all types of tasks all by himself. Moreover, sometimes you might get orders from your customers which need some extra efforts and you might want to get these done anyway. So, what will you do then? In such cases, you need someone who can do these stuffs and are willing to go some extra mile for you. You need someone who can do this work at an affordable rate as per your expectation. Once I got a weird web development order from one of my clients but I was unwilling to deny him the service. So I planned to outsource it to freelancer.com as it is the most reliable outsourcing platform where you have to pay only when you get your stuffs done and you are satisfied with the work.
Posting a Project on the Job Board: I have already mentioned in an earlier article which jobs to be outsourced. In this case, I outsource a web development project. you might think that Freelance Developers are little bit expensive, but in Freelancer.Com, you have lots of tools and features to choose the cheapest but the most skilled freelancer from a long list of potential bidders. First I planned about my requirements and the quality I expected. I noted down in a notebook about everything I required to get done and then I attached with the Job Details while I posted my project on Freelancer.com. I mentioned the time when I needed it and I gave reference to some similar tasks I found on the internet. I included all the design and navigation requirements and I also said that I would never compromise with the quality. After everything was accumulated, I posted my project and asked skilled freelancers to bid on my project. I also added the required skills on the Job Description to make the prospective skilled freelancers attracted to my project. In freelancer.com Job-board, the required skills are usually highlighted and this awesome feature helps a freelancer to decide easily whether s/he can look into this project for further action or not. Eventually, the most important step you have to take and this is all about estimating a rate for your project. I usually prefer the fixed price as I will only have to pay when the jobs is accomplished as per my expectations and requirements. And freelancers these days find those Fixed Rated jobs comfortable as they can concentrate on the tasks to be completed efficiently without worrying about the number of hours.
Accepting Bids: After I published my Job Post on freelancer.com, I was getting lots of bids from the freelancers around the world right away. At this stage I checked every bidder’s profile who has already done similar stuffs and already recognized as an expert in this field. I double checked the rating they have gotten from other buyers like me. Eventually I selected some freelancers to contact. I made a list of selected questions including my bold requirements. I sent these questions to all the potential freelancers and waited for their response. After getting some impressive answers from some of them, I arranged an interview with each freelancers individually and wanted to know how they would accomplish my outsourced project and how much dedicated they were. I then checked out the portfolio profiles of them and planned to hire one of the best freelancers from the bidders’ list. I was totally unwilling to compromise with the quality of work. That’s why I always tried to be bold in this issue. As you are building your business by using freelancers and spending your hard earned money, I suggest you to be strict on the Job requirement stuffs and the overall quality of the freelancers.
Sent the Work Instruction & Requirements: When the hiring process was done, I sent my detailed work with giving him some instructions about the project. I asked him to let me know whenever he faces any problem. I requested him to mail me whenever he needs anything to know from me about the project. Sometimes I gave them some of the links of related projects and asked them to follow these links for a better understanding. I was bold enough to mention my requirements and strict enough to ensure the quality of the output for what I was spending my money. Most of the time I added useful resource files and work samples in the Job Description to let my hired freelancer have a better working flexibility and understanding.
Communication Gateways: As I prefer Skype to make a distance call or video call for making an uninterrupted conversation for free, I invited him to add me on Skype. I called him and clarify everything about what he needed to do, on what tasks he should emphasize more and how much time he should take to complete this job. I also wanted to see how much task he had already done and also requested to do some necessary modifications and changing. In Freelancer.Com, there is a feature to make contact with the hired freelancers and I personally prefer this built-in method too.
Getting Completed Tasks on Hand: When that freelancer accomplished my given project, he sent me that work sample. I checked that sample whether it was nicely done or not. I found some more things that were needed some adjustments, so I asked that freelancer to modify those and tweak them so that it became an impressive work. If you outsource through freelancer.com platform, you will only have to pay when you are satisfied with the accomplished task and this is the main reason why I prefer freelancer.com as my outsourcing partner.
Sending Payment: At the very last stage, I sent the payment to the freelancer I hired. As I was contacting with him using freelancer.com website, I preferred to pay via freelancer.com built in payment system as it was secured and reliable. And most importantly, I tried to pay him through this website to increase my buyer profile reputation and overall rating. I love to the see the smiling faces of my freelancers as this increases their enthusiasm.
Sending Feedbacks: After sending payment, I never forget to publish a feedback about my experiences with this guy and how this guy have made my whole task easier and assisted me with my business. A positive and inspiring feedback will make more passionate to work better in future and this feedback system will make other business personnel’s to get a overall idea about that particular freelancer. Sometimes I also give negative feedback to the freelancers whom I am not satisfied with. At Freelancer.Com, you are sure to find a number of efficient freelancers, so I don’t really worry about anything when I hire freelancers from this marketplace.
Analyze the ROI: ROI means the Return of Investment. The better ROI you have after completing a project, the better opportunities you have to expand your business and outsource more and more. Don’t forget to check out how much money you spent, how much time you spent and what was your expectation regarding the output you got from the freelancers. You have to take note of every steps you have taken, sum of money you have spent and number of hours you have given away to hire a freelancer. I personally always analyze my ROI and this process makes me a better businessman in terms of hiring a freelancer to get my works done.
So that’s it, an outsourcing case study of mine and here I explained the whole procedures of how I planned my outsourcing strategy, how I published them on freelancer.com job board, how I hired the best freelancer, how I built a positive and effective communication with my freelancer and exactly how I managed the best output I expected. As a new outsourcer you people might find it useful to follow the steps mentioned in the outsourcing case study. This case study is a role model and you can follow this in your business life no matter what business you are doing. My business Username in Freelancer.Com: DevsTeam. Best luck.