A survey of 2500 small businesses had found that 52% can’t afford to hire a UK design, IT or marketing or branding agency to help grow their business, according to Freelancer.co.uk, the world’s largest outsourcing marketplace. This may often be due to high recruitment agency fees.
Instead they are resorting to hiring freelancers they have found on the internet to do the same work - either rebranding their company, marketing their products, or programming an e-commerce website - sometimes the price is 1000% cheaper than what the agency quoted.
The survey discovered that if the freelancer hadn’t existed and the only option would have been to hire the agency, 42% said the cost would have been enough to stop them investing, worrying that they would have to go in debt that they couldn’t afford to pay back.
Worrying, 30% who said they approached an agency because they were starting up a business, revealed the cost would have put them off staring their own business.
Yet the businesses who were initially skeptical about hiring online found that the quality was high enough for them to rehire the freelancer. 33% said the work was outstanding, while 50% said the work was good.
Gill Armstrong who runs Armstrong Security in Birmingham was quoted £5000 by a local company to market her business, which she couldn’t afford.
“I paid a freelancer less than a quarter of the price asked by local company,”she said. “I wouldn’t have been able to afford to go digital without outsourcing to a freelancer. With a very tight budget to market my services, the freelancer actually offered me the solution I as looking for,” she said.
“Increasingly small businesses are finding that they can hire a freelancer for the services that they need and at a price they can afford,” said Bill Little, Freelancer.co.uk’s director for Europe.
“Small businesses are underresourced and get distracted by side tasks. Outsourcing fuels growth by freeing them to concentrate on what they do best,” he said.
Case studies:
Armstrong Security – Olympics security:
Gill Armstrong – a business that outsourced marketing needs and ended up providing 150 guards during the Olympics.
Gill was made redundant as a security officer and set up her own security businesses in Birmingham. Marketing her company digitally was crucial to its success, but local companies cost too much, so she hired a freelancer through Freelancer.com. Such was the success that she had to supply 150 guards during the Olympics.
SEO was important to the success of her company, but as a start up she couldn’t afford the £5000 that a local company costed.
“Freelancer helped me achieve link building and digital marketing goals for Armstrong Security for less than a quarter of the price asked by local companies and professionals,” she said. “I wouldn’t have been able to afford to go digital without outsourcing to a freelancer.”
“With a very tight budget to market my services, Freelancer actually offered me the solution I as looking for…it also helped me learn most of the SEO from professionals I hired and now I have acquired very valuable SEO skills that I constantly use to stay ahead of competition”.
Gill made more than what she used to earn on her previous job in just 6 months. The Olympics led to increased business opportunities, with requests for the provision of security guards, stewards and bodyguards – Gill had to recruit 150 people to cope with demand during the period.