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We often have press enquires for user case studies that we need to respond to fast. As those of you who have been featured will know (see BBC news piece featuring two of our users) getting press coverage can be an immense boost to your profile or your business so we want to bring more of these opportunities to more of you.

To help you keep up to date with enquiries we get from the press and to enable you to respond fast we’ve set up a twitter page www.twitter.com/peopleperhour Follow us on twitter so that you don’t miss out!

PeoplePerHour.com on BBC News at Six

For those of you who haven’t seen it already, there was a feature on PeoplePerHour.com on the BBC News at Six yesterday, talking about how our site is helping people and businesses in the recession. The feature was centered on two of our providers  – Edward Moss and Zoe Smith – with a short commentary from our founder in-between.

A longer interview with our founder was also posted by the BBC online in a feature titled “working from home to beat the recession”

The publicity has created an unprecedented amount of traffic to our site that brought it down momentarily. We were fortunately able to revive it fast. We apologise to any of you who were trying to access the site at that moment.

We have a lot of follow –on press enquiries from regional and national press who want to hear similar stories from people like you and how you’re using the site to help your business both save cost and enhance your income.

So if you feel you have a story that is compelling and timely then please email us on pr(at)peopleperhour(dot)com.  Please be sure to state clearly the following and any other relevant information:

For Freelancers:

• your location
• employment status (full-time/ part-time employee/ freelancer / work for a company)
• why you are using the site (to supplement your income  / you’ve been made redundant / you’re transitioning to        freelance / other )
• family status
• experience you’ve had with using the site and how its helped you: projects won / awarded / bids placed / how         much you’re business has saved by using the site

For Employers

• your location
• your company name
• what kind of company you manage / own
• how many staff do you employee
• why you are using the site (to save cost / to avoid hiring people / to get things done fast)
• What your experience with the site has been: how many projects posted / awarded

We look forward to hearing from you.

The Future of Work

There was an interesting article about ‘The Future of Work’ in Time Magazine this week. Seth Godin, author of Small is the New Big, contributed some particularly insightful points. Godin describes a future in 5 or 10 years, where businesses will employ only a few essential employees and outsource the rest of their work.

A growing number of businesses are already adopting this way of working. We speak to dozens of you every day who tell us how you have cut costs by outsourcing work via PeoplePerHour.com. Many are cutting costs by more than 50% a year.

For example, earlier this week we spoke to Michael Parker, founder of A Quarter Of Ltd, which is a traditional sweetshop, selling retro sweets online. Michael has outsourced PR, affiliate marketing, article writing and web site development, saving an estimated £7k every month in salaries.

Similarly, Kerchoonz, the social networking site that allows free legal music that pays the artists, saved costs by finding freelancers for their PR, Marketing, IT and sales functions, for which they’d otherwise have to hire fulltime or agency staff.  Founder, Indiana Gregg, says “we have made an estimated saving of 32% in the last year by using freelancers through PeoplePerHour.com”.

Ask-Kent, a B2B telemarketing company, founded by Richard Romaine took his entire business virtual in January 2006. It previously had 10 fulltime people in an office. As a virtual company it has five telemarketers working from home at any one time. By doing this, Richard has cut overheads by £80k a year. This kind of business model is also greener as it eliminates the commute.

Thanks to all of you who are using the site and recommending it to others, PeoplePerHour.com has grown from 4,700 to more than 30,000 in the past year.  This suggests that ‘The Future of Work’ as Seth describes it is already well on its way to becoming a reality.

Employers can now limit bids to UK providers

After numerous requests from Employers on our site we have now introduced a feature whereby they can optionally limit their bids to UK Providers only.

Our site is now over 70% UK freelancer, and despite a constant worry by many of you that you’ll be ‘undercut’ by lower bids from abroad, over 85% of bids are awarded to UK freelancers, despite many projects having cheaper bids from abroad.

The data seems to suggest that Employers on PPH rate locality, quality and ease of communication over price. The feature we’ve just added now takes this a step further by allowing our Employers to limit the bids they get only to UK providers if they fear of being  ‘flooded’ by large volumes of bids from abroad (as they’ve often declared) many of which are excessively cheap and ‘meaningless’ in their view.

Surveys we’ve done with our users show a split: some Employers adamantly do not want to get bids from non-UK providers and in fact often find them a nuisance for the reasons highlighted above hence the feature to optionally block them. Others see it as a nice-to-have comparison even if in the end they chose a UK freelancer 85% of the time.

This is not to say that our site is entirely UK: we have multiple cases of Employers awarding their projects to providers abroad with excellent results.  Those that have taken the time and care to submit well-thought out and structured bids have been successful.
The same goes for UK providers, and we urge all our providers to do the same – as we’ve done many a time in the past – in order to win more work.

This is yet another case of quality faring higher than price in our marketplace. The geographic distinction is simply an (unfortunate) interpretation that’s been deuced from the average case. Which is why we are not taking any measures to ban or restrict usage, but rather – as we always strive to do  - give our users more choice.

Working 5 to 9 takes off in the UK

More than five million people are working from home after finishing their day job, according to new research published this week.

The survey, commissioned by the world’s biggest office products company Staples, and carried out by Enterprise Nation, the UK’s largest website for home based business, confirms that the ‘5 to 9’ trend is spreading across the country.

Of those 5-9ers questioned, 50% said their business was growing and over 60% expected to be going full time within the next 12 months.

Enterprise Nation Founder Emma Jones said: “We were amazed by what we found. Although we knew there had been a tremendous growth in home business, we had no idea that much of this was coming from the 5 – 9 trend.

“What’s particularly significant is that the current economic climate is the impetus behind this trend. For some people it’s about increasing their income to cope with a partner’s redundancy while others felt uncertain about their future career prospects and wanted to make sure they were better placed if they lost their job.”

There’s also the added attraction that building a business at night and weekends from a spare room is low risk and low cost, allowing people to increase sales, confidence and cashflow, whilst holding onto a salary.

“In a recession people often set up their own business as a way of taking control of their own life again. But the current downturn is so severe that people are being more cautious, hanging onto their full time jobs and testing the water first before making a decision. This clearly makes good business sense.”

The survey also highlighted that 72% have considered giving up their day jobs to spend more time on their home business.  When asked what would make them leave their job, 42% said it was the only way they could grow their business while 32% said it would be when they could afford to.

Staples commissioned the research after noticing a shift in shopping patterns with more people visiting their stores after 5pm.

Yetunde Ige, Staples Head of Marketing said: “Clearly this trend is something that we’re interested in as our stores are open late. As a result we are looking to launch a 5-9ers club, which will reward people shopping after 5pm and hopefully be a real benefit to those trying to start a business in their free time.”

Trendwatching.com – one of the world’s leading trend firms – has picked up on this phenomenon. Its monthly report confirms: “A recession induced need for cash and an ever-growing infrastructure enabling individuals to act as part-time entrepreneurs, are fuelling concepts that help ordinary consumers make money as well as just spending it.”

A free copy of ‘Working 5 to 9 – how to start a business in your spare time’ is available at www.enterprisenation.com

PPH gets a new look

We have been collecting feedback about the design of the site for a while now; both through the messages/emails we get and also by proactively contacting as many of our users as possible to get feedback.

With that in mind, we have now launched a new, cleaner design that will hopefully address most of the feedback we have been receiving. Please take a moment to check out the new design and feel free to send us any feedback that you might have.

We will continue the redesign exercise over the next few months to improve other sections of the site – it is our ongoing goal to make the site as easy as possible to use and understand so thank you for your feedback so far and we hope that you will like the new design.

How to win bids – testimony from a successful PPH Provider

Every so often, a plaintive cry will be heard from a service Provider, wondering why their bids are not being accepted. The implicit  – and wrongful – assumption is often that competition from excessively low bids is making their services uncompetitive.

We dug in to find out the truth. Whilst low bids may be a frequent occurance, it seems that the quality  of the bid is in fact what determines a winner. And so that you don’t take our word for it we asked one of our most successful bidders Claire Shiels who’s won over 50% of the bids she’s placed on the site to become one of our highest earners to tell us how she does it:

“As a relative newcomer to PeoplePerHour.com, I have nevertheless managed to secure a number of clients.  Having a great deal of professional experience in a wide range of industries certainly helped to win my first project, but you can certainly improve your chances of success by following these tips:

1. Be realistic – many providers bid for inappropriate projects or create an extensive list of unrelated skills.  This gives the impression that they do not have any expertise in a certain area, so stick to one area of work you know you can do well.

2. Make the effort – in your bids, make sure you tell providers how your skills and experience match what they are looking for, what similar work you have done in the past and why you stand out from the crowd.  Make sure your punctuation, spelling and grammar are correct and check over your bid before you send it.  An extensive portfolio always adds excellent support to a bid.

3. Be sensible about price – the buyer who chooses someone offering a ridiculously low bid over someone more skilled and experienced is unlikely to send a stream of work your way.  Be careful or you could end up working flat out for little money.  Offering excessively low fees can devalue your reputation and turn many buyers off.

4. Create a full profile – a full, relevant profile is much more convincing to a buyer than simply saying “Choose me”.  Give a couple of paragraphs if you can.

5. Create a relationship – engage with the buyer from the beginning.  They will normally want to build up a good working relationship with someone who they can depend on for experienced, honest advice and can discuss ideas.  Research their firm if you can and explain not only how you can match their needs but also put your own ideas forward if appropriate.

6. Play by the rules – flouting the PeoplePerHour.com rules, perhaps by including contact details or encouraging buyers to contact you whilst bidding is still open will more than likely alienate you from other providers as well as buyers .  You also risk a ban from PPH.

If you are serious about sourcing work on PeoplePerHour.com, you have to approach the task as a job interview, each time you make a bid.  Project hunting takes time and effort, and a great deal of both needs to be invested by you to make a success of your freelancing career.

Since signing up with People Per Hour in December 2008, I have taken on fourteen clients in this way, many of whom now offer me repeat business on a regular basis.  My workload is now such that I have been able to successfully launch my consultancy, Claire Shiels Marketing, full-time – showing that with a mixture of professionalism and realism, PPH can indeed provide much more than mere pocket money.  It may well act as a springboard to a whole new career.”

Improve the quality of bids you receive

Buyers often get frustrated when they don’t get quality bids for their project listing. We’ve done some research and we quickly realised that the quality of bids tehy recive is  directly driven by how good their project brief is . We have asked one of our top rated bidders to give us some Tips as to what constitutes good bid. Emily Cagle is a marketing and communications consultant and has won a high proportion of the bids she’s placed largely because she’s been selective in which projects to bid for

As a provider on Peopleperhour.com, I read dozens of job listings per week but often the project description isn’t terribly clear, so it’s hard to fathom exactly what the buyer is looking for.

While this might present a challenge to the service provider, the main victim of the vaguely worded project listing is the buyer themselves, who not only risks receiving dozens of irrelevant bids, but might even go so far as to accept a bid from a provider who has a false notion of what is required.

Make the title count

The first step to attracting quality bids is to make the most of your listing’s exposure in the ‘Latest Posts’ section on the front page of Peopleperhour.com. This feed only displays the first 30 characters of the project title, so it’s wise to keep your title below this mark and get straight to the point. For example, rather than writing ‘Help needed with sales letter for accountancy firm’, you could write ‘Sales letter (accountancy)’.

Be specific

When it comes to the project description, bidders will find it much easier to price up a project if you are explicit about what’s involved. So, for a web design project, for example, aim to explain how many pages are needed, what functionality the site must have, whether you will need a logo and so on.

Outline required skills

If you any specific skills requirements, such as being able to work with a particular piece of software, you should list them and state whether they are essential or preferred. It is also worth mentioning what industry your company operates in, as this can attract bidders with useful experience. For example, an accountant who already understands the typical transactions of a firm in your sector might be better placed to give industry specific tax advice.

Sell yourself

To attract strong bids, you should also consider giving some details about your company’s achievements and reputation. Just as with any job, people may be more inclined to apply if the company has an appealing profile.

Set a realistic budget

It is also important to be as realistic as possible about your project’s budget. If your budget range is very low, you may not attract the standard of provider you are looking for, and if it is unnecessarily high, you might find people bid higher than they otherwise would. If you have time, research what constitutes a realistic budget before submitting your listing. Alternatively, choose the ‘Prefer not to disclose’ option and judge what constitutes a reasonable price based on the bids you receive.

Clarify with bidders

Finally, remember that all bids come with a private message board that allows you follow up with providers and ask for more information, so if a bid looks great, but doesn’t answer those last minute questions that have arisen since you posted the project, ask them! A good provider will be happy to discuss your requirements in more detail before asking you to accept their bid.

– Emily Cagle is a marketing and communications consultant

Increase your chances of winning work with effective bids

In addition to ensuring that your PPH profile is as comprehensive and professional as possible, the other most important element of success in winning work on PPH is your ability to submit effective proposals (bids) to prospective clients.

Here are some tips on how to make your bids as effective as possible and make them stand out:

1. Tailor each proposal

While there is nothing wrong with having a proposal template as a starting point, you should always remember that templates are there to be customised. Sending generic proposals is one of the most common mistakes and it hardly ever works as clients can easily spot a proposal that has been simply ‘copied and pasted’.

Instead, put in the time to go through the project requirements properly, give thought to your proposal and tailor it to address all the points/requirements of the project.

2. Describe your approach/process

Clients often know what they would like to achieve (e.g. they need a company website) but not what is involved in the process or how it’s done. Giving a high-level outline of the process you will follow to achieve the result they are after is a quick way to build rapport and win the client’s confidence.

3. Highlight your strengths/experience

Do not be shy to highlight any relevant experience/projects you have completed and highlighting your skills – clients need to be convinced that you are qualified to complete their project successfully. Do not go overboard when selling yourself and if you are giving big projects as examples of your work, explain clearly what your exact involvement was.

4. Be concise

Clients usually receive many proposals, so it’s important to be concise and make each word count. Do not labour obvious points and use easy to understand language without too much jargon.

Bigger, more complex projects will probably require more detailed proposals but it’s worth keeping in mind that too much detail from the outset might make the project appear daunting to the client.

5. Ask questions – don’t overpromise

If you are not clear about any of the project requirements, ask questions instead of promising that you can deliver the world. One of the most common causes for problems during projects is poorly defined requirements.

While only the client can provide you with the necessary detail and information, it is up to you to ensure that you have gathered all the information by asking the right questions and filling any gaps in the requirements.

6. Show enthusiasm

Let the client know that you excited about the prospect of working together on this, and possibly future projects.

Clients are much more likely to hire someone who shows interest and enthusiasm about their project and business instead of someone that comes across as wanting to get the project done as quickly as possible and get paid.

7. Review your proposal

Always remember to carefully review your proposal. Proof-read what you have written to ensure that there are no spelling or grammar mistakes but always also review the proposal as if you were the client i.e. by trying to put yourself in the client’s shoes.

It is always a good idea not to review your proposal right after you have written it as it will be difficult to spot; work on something else for a couple of hours if possible and then revisit your proposal.

When reviewing your proposal try to determine if it’s engaging, if the benefits of hiring you are clearly stated and most importantly, if it makes a prospective client confident that you can deliver.

UK providers scoop up most of the work

One concern we’ve had raised a few times by our Providers, and once celebrated in a recent article in the Guardian, is that UK freelancers are being undercut by cheaper bids from providers in places like India and other emerging economies who work for a much cheaper rate.

Whilst this may be true at large in terms of bidding activity, it seems that still the vast majority of projects on PeoplePerHour.com is being awarded to UK providers, by a long way in fact.

The top countries in terms of % of work awarded on our site are shown below

-    UK – 85%
-    India – 5%
-    France – 1.2%
-    China – 1.1%
-    Spain – 1.1%
-    South Africa – 0.9%

So it seems that, despite the credit crunch, cheaper doesn’t always win – in fact it seldom does.

For the incredulous, another way to validate this is to take a quick look at the Find Providers page on the site. The top 15 or so ranked providers are all UK based, and the vast majority of the top 50 high earners in fact are UK based.

Now, this does not mean that foreign Providers are of inferior quality. Often its is the case the UK companies prefer to use local talent as they find them more trusted. Or it could be a nationalistic thing. What we have noticed however as the market-maker is that UK providers do tend to submit better thought out bids on average, more meticulous and planned. The ones outside the UK, either due to language barrier or for other reasons, seem to be shorter and less detailed in their bidding

So for those who have concerns about being out-bid by cheaper service providers, the answer is: you shouldn’t be. The devil (or in the case the blessing as it were) is in the detail. Cheap bid does not by default equate to an awarded project. So hang in there, stick to your guns, and demonstrate that you are a quality bidder by building on the detail – and you will carry on winning.