OnlineJobs.ph Solves Upwork’s TURNOVER Problem

Welcome to the Secret Sauce of Outsourcing podcast that's dedicated to making you better at outsourcing. This is episode 373. My personal feelings about upwork. So it's a huge platform. They have raised, I don't know, $100 million in venture capital money or whatever it is. They are everywhere. People talk about them, them and Fiverr, which again, has raised, I don't know, $100 million. And here we are, the tiny fly on the wall. Onlinejobs Ph. And yet people continue to switch from upwork and Fiverr to OnlineJobs pH. Now, I have oddly strong feelings about this, and I'm gonna offend some people here and I'm gonna make other people feel uncomfortable, and I'm gonna make other people want to say, you shouldn't talk like that about other whatever. So let me just start this with Upwork is good. It's a good platform. It serves a good purpose, but it's bad for entrepreneurs and small businesses. And there, I said it. You can tell me I'm wrong, you can tell me whatever you want, but I'm sticking with Upwork is bad for small businesses and for entrepreneurs. And I'll tell you why. I know I'm going to get backlash for this. Go ahead and send me the email. Upward makes it easy to find talent. That's good. Then they mark up that talent and charge a fee both to you and to the worker. That's bad. Then they incentivize people to quickly get a job, quickly finish that job, to get a review and move on to get another job. That's bad because that incentivizes turnover for your business, which, again, is bad. And okay, all of that, like, it still allowed you to find someone and get something done. That's fine. But there's more to it than that. It's the feeling behind what upwork is about that it really gets to the core at this. And let me explain. So I got an email from someone recently trying to justify to me why they were going to use upwork instead of online jobs. Here's what they say. Upwork charges a 10% fee to the worker. So if I pay $10 an hour on Upwork or on Onlinejobs ph, I still pay $10 an hour. Either way, the fees are up to the freelancer. That's not my problem. And my reaction to that, and I still get this reaction as I read it again, is, wow, that is so crappy of you. And I think you're wrong. I think you're wrong about it being up to the freelancer that I think you're wrong about, that's not your problem because as soon as you pay that person it is your problem because their incentive is to leave and get another job which creates turnover in your business. And I will tell you right now that it takes just as much effort to find someone on upwork as it does to find someone on Onlinejobs ph. The difference is at Onlinejobs ph you can have someone working for you 18 years later like I do, where at upwork you cannot have that happen and you must now spend that effort again to find someone the next time you do something. So I'm getting worked up. Let me read to you what Lauren says about this because my feelings are perfectly summed up by what Lauren said. Who Lauren also sent me an email today about this hired my 4th VA but my first long term intended ofs through onlinejobs ph using your one VA away course. Your process made it fun. And my new OFS is starting today handling the full administrative load of my mental health practice which I'm about 2.5 weeks behind on. So there's quite a bit of opportunity for recording training videos and giving practice tasks for her. I especially love that she gets paid the full amount billed for services and I pay you a flat fee for sourcing connections for me. Other connections that take a cut from the hourly rate has always felt bad and I get my project based assistance off of those platforms as fast as I can and keep paying them the full amount agreed upon. It feels so ethical and good to engage in business the way you've set it up and I'm grateful to have found you. That's the end of what Lauren says and there it is. It feels so ethical and good because a middleman doesn't feel good. An unnecessary salary markup doesn't feel good. Being forced to work inside of someone else's platform the way that they have set it up doesn't feel good. The constant threat of turnover doesn't feel good. Paying extra salary the first time is fine, the second time it doesn't feel good. The $100 of markup on $1,000 of salary at upwork isn't a big deal to you, but to the person making $1,000 a month, well, it doesn't feel very good. Now in all of this I'm not a feelings kind of person. In fact, my family says I don't have feelings and generally they're right. But I do have feelings towards ethical things and unethical things and feelings matter. And let me say this again. Upwork is good. It serves a good purpose. But there's a more ethical and equitable way for both you and the person you hire. Now, I say person because they're a person, not a worker or a freelancer or a robot, which is what so many people think when they get started doing this. They are a person you're hiring, a person that you're going to work with. So do what feels good in hiring that person.