[thelist] freelance outsourcing

On 25 May 2000, at 13:27, Kennedy, Scott wrote:

> This brings up a question that's been on my mind... how do people
> find other freelance folk to outsource to?  

Not always easy.  

Apparently most people who are pretty well qualified are also pretty 
well employed.  The industry is in developer's favor right now, with 
more jobs than people, so p/t work by qualified folks is harder to 
find than FT work -- they're busy.

Right now I have six people who do "consulting" for me now and then 
and another couple who might.  I have the clients pay directly when 
possible -- I invoice, but "on behalf of" and the check is to the 
worker -- this puts me out of the tax loop for employer issues; I am 
just a project manager.  I pay them as 1099 consultants/vendors when 
they work for me.

I'm no expert but I'll share my solutions for finding part-
time/occasional help from others.  These are not ideal solutions, 
they are just what happens for me in the real world.

1) For high-tech help (meaning, people doing advanced-level work I 
don't know):  Beg. Plead. Flatter.  Wave money.  (And work to learn 
more so I don't have to keep giving that money away.)  Gee, if only I 
had a better figure I'd have other options.  (Just kidding guys.)

2) For middleware work (cfm, asp, sql, etc.): Find people who are 
fairly good html/script developers, and/or people who are non-web 
programmers (one of my coworkers was a C programmer years ago), 
and/or people who are business-related database folks, none of those 
are qualified for middleware work off the bat but many people with 
those skillsets really *want* to learn web work, and so if they're in 
a position where they don't need a FT income, I can train them.

On one hand, it's extra time and effort on my part.  On the other,
(a) they're willing to work for less as they learn [so it doesn't 
harm me financially to take a chance on them], as they're glad of the 
chance to have something real to learn on AND something for their 
resume; 
(b) it creates a good relationship and those kind of partnerships can 
help us both indefinitely; 
(c) I find they tend to pull in OTHER work they are not really 
qualified for, that I then help them with, which works nicely for 
both of us; and 
(d) as the 'mentor' process gets us closer than most normal 
'coworkers', the trust allows me 'backup webmasters' I can rely on if 
I need to take time off or something; and
(e) just for personal reasons, I consider constant education of 
oneself and others part of life, so it's part of that.

3) For basic html/script work, I usually look for someone who is 
doing it, who taught themselves (who didn't?!), who works on their 
own and who needs the work.  I avoid folks I think are going to need 
to get a "real job" (FT) at some point because then I lose the time 
I've invested in training them to what I'm doing; I need people who 
work on their own and want a variety of clients and projects.  I have 
found a couple of these folks just by friends' references to those 
they've met, worked with, or from webmasters who happen to get to 
know me via email in regards to projects or sites I'm involved in.

4) For simple html work, data entry and such, there are infinite 
resources for that no matter where you are.  Anybody qualified to be 
a basic clerical worker can learn to make edits to text (even in code-
view), upload via ftp, and enter data into a form.  Most of America 
would be thrilled to make even a small amount of money on something 
they could do p/t from their computer at night.

5) For graphic design, usually myself, my ex- or someone we know can 
do what's needed.

My current needs that I haven't filled: 

a - someone to make a few Flash elements I can stick in a database 
text field to output into a dynamic site in a similar manner to 
images; I'm not even sure what I want is possible; and/or

b - someone to make a few java applets that could have the code 
slightly modified to do a very similar thing with different 
images/details; again I'm not sure if what I want is possible;

I don't do java or flash, so I'm going to have to break down and hire 
somebody.  Sigh.  If only I had more time... !

Regards,
PJ

--------
Palyne Gaenir
ScienceHorizon Web Media
http://www.sciencehorizon.com
palyne@sciencehorizon.com
Toll-Free 877-316-0763