Just what the doctor ordered for startups

Getting a business off the ground requires a range of skills and expertise that a startup can find daunting and expensive. Outsourcing is an affordable way out. But the focus of outsourcing itself is changing from cost-saving to hiring the best talent at the lowest price.

The Internet is now opening up possibilities even for small businesses. PeoplePerHour.com, for instance, enables small businesses to gain access to “best practices” at a fraction of the price that larger companies pay management consultants and MBAs. It is Europe’s biggest online marketplace for businesses and it recently launched in India.

“What we are looking for is better talent, not necessarily a cheaper deal. I think successful companies historically, all over the world, have got great teams that conquered markets by getting great talent. If you always go in for a cheaper deal you will never build a strong business,” said Xenios Thrasyvoulou, founder and CEO of PeoplePerHour.com.

 

The site enables businesses to connect with a vibrant community of independent, reliable service providers (freelancers) based in over 150 countries worldwide, and available to work at the click of a button. India is third by usage levels, following the UK and the US. The site gives Indian SMEs access to a virtual, on-demand, global workforce that enables companies to scale up or down as required.

Thrasyvoulou said traditionally, online business marketplaces are characterised by Western businesses outsourcing to low-cost freelancers on the sub-continent. However, he had seen growing evidence of the reverse: Indian businesses outsourcing certain functions to freelancers based in Europe and the US.

Thrasyvoulou said examples of non-core activities in a business that could be outsourced included administration, office management or quality control. Among the services that can be obtained through the site are IT-related digital services, online designing, online marketing and digitisation. Translation and writing are key activities, placed third after online marketing and IT services.

Recalling the genesis of the website, Thrasyvoulou said, “In 2003 I was fresh out of university and started a business whereby companies and individuals could outsource project work to a team of virtual assistants remotely and pay on a ‘per hour’ basis.” Three-and-a-half-years later, he thought of a better way of connecting businesses with talent online. Thus was born Pay-Per-Hour.com, an online marketplace connecting small businesses with virtual assistants whose services can be obtained through online bidding.

Six months later, following the initial success of the model, it was rebranded as PeoplePerHour.com and expanded to over 10 service categories with 30 sub-categories each. The business is now spread across 150 countries. It has over 100,000 registered freelancers and a clientele of over 36,000 registered business clients, transacting business of over $5 million per month.

In the past year the site’s usage in India has grown seven times. India ranks third in terms of usage by clients and currently makes up 20 per cent of the global pie. “We see a huge opportunity in high-growth emerging economies that are developing the SME sector and India is one of them,” said Thrasyvoulou.