"Crack team" agency –GAYwould this service be useful to you?

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popcorn

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Sep 20, 2007
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I've been mulling over an idea for a new service/business recently and it'd be wicked to get some thoughts –

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tl;dr – bring together a small crack team of vetted freelancers, spread over timezones, to give marketers the ability to quickly hash out lightweight ideas/tasks.

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I'm sure a bunch of you in the affiliate space can especially related to the need for quick execution; you need to spring into action before your competition, or you're just fired up about an idea and what to get it done ASAP. You might want to bash out a LP, get some data scraped, or have a VA do some boring data entry/research etc etc.

oDesk and the like are awesome; but sometimes you just don't want to go through the BS of waiting, interviewing and so on – and don't fancy the risk that it might not work out.

The crack team are pre-vetted for good quality. There'll be a minimum number of people for each skill set (coding, graphics etc) available 24/7 (thanks to having people spread across the globe). You're assured of decent quality and quick execution. Everyone will be on board with Asana for smooth communications and vetted for no nonsense good English. You can have a single POC with a project manager, or speak directly to the freelancer. The service will manage payroll, validate time-tracking (screenshots), and you just get one bill.

Those doing pretty well might already have go-to people who they use for LPs, scripts etc. – so the service might be not so interesting for them. It wouldn't be suitable for substantial projects either; you'd be better off using the traditional marketplaces. This serves a middle-ground for those who don't give enough work to past contacts to keep a steady relationship and sometimes have the need for speed.

It'd be a transparent hourly rate, varying for the skill sets required. Just a few bucks extra per hour premium on their normal rate.

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Potentially useful? Know of any existing players in the space?
 


Good general idea in essence, but the only thing I would be concerned about is that in order to have work banged out quickly like you're suggesting, you generally need to have an existing relationship / repour with each other.

For example, if I get a new long-term client, it generally takes about 3 months to get to know each other, and for me to get my head wrapped around their personality. Once that happens, and only then, can they drop me a quick 3 sentence e-mail, I bang out say 15 hours of work over the next few days, and I know they're going to be happy with it, because I know their style and what they're looking for.

Before that though, I always have to ask questions, get confirmations, have a consultation or two, etc.
 
Thanks @Kiopa_Matt.

You are spot on; it does take time to build those relationships and be on the same page. This could be a roadblock with the idea for sure.

I see it that the issue could be alleviated with a few measures:
  • You can at least start to build that long-term relationship with the project manager who will start to know your needs better.
  • Make the project manager very good at reviewing briefs before they get passed on.
  • Make sure each freelancer is well trained to be really good in communications. Use the right tools, be responsive, great English, knows to ask questions, not say "yes" by default etc.
  • Have a strong presentation of their portfolios. Show both the brief + deliverable - so it's more clear what you can expect to get.
  • Maybe also have a repository of best practice work (even not from the freelancers in the team) in each area. And then the client can just say "mimic #12".
 
Yeah, I definitely think you'll need project managers in between the clients and freelancers, simply because the freelancers are probably going to come and go every week. Make sure you take good care of the project managers, because your success is going to depend on the relationships they develop. You don't need them splitting off to start their own firm, taking their contacts with them.

Only other thing I can suggest is categorize the projects and freelancers as much as you can. For example, this freelancer is proficient with scraping, or PSD -> HTML, or Wordpress, or whatever. Then of course, QA resources -- documentation, training, etc. For example, have a section for a PSD -> HTML project that informs the freelancer the bare minimum that's required to be delivered in order to continue as a freelancer with you. Plus appropriate documentation to help them provide that level of quality.

I don't know, but best of luck!
 
Cool, cool.

Involved in way too much other stuff to really pursue this right now. But it's always fun to brainstorm new ideas :)
 
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