Why don't you IT Tech Geeks do this?

by BlueStar Banned
15 replies
So many people here with skills building websites, blogs, SEO, social bookmarking, uploading videos, etc...

and a lot of you constantly complain about NO money.

Very frustrating to people like me who are looking for Qualified people who have skills but don't have the time to research IT people with skills and integrity.

Let me tell you for a FACT!

I own several brick and mortar businesses and I am willling to Spend money.

Not everyone here is BROKE.

Why don't one of you who is good at Internet skills put together a Team and let us (offline bus consultants) book our business thru YOU.

I guarantee there are many people here like me who have money but don't have the time nor patience to go thru the learning curve.

I could handle waaaaaaaaaaay more business if I could OUTSOURCE work to people I TRUST. I am also a Bus Consultant and I turn down work because I deal with so many IT peope who are NOT reliable, can't get jobs completed on time, and have issues.

I am willing to pay a Premium. Let's say someone signs up with you as a resource and wants $20 hour to build sites, blogs, whatever... add another 20-25% markup to their rates and bill me. Charge an initial setup fee, etc...

This would be a great business for many of you. You would need the skills to know who is real and who is winging it. You can prequalify these people and bring the best on board. YOU do the work of monitoring these people and we pay you a Premium for this.

I would think this is a great opportunity for the right person. Basically you would be an Elance, Agents of Value, etc... but you can find the right people and handle work I don't want to do.

I dont want to outsource to other countries. I would prefer that people who do my work understand and speak English. That's why I would like to work with peope here in the US and Canada.

Someone please tell me why this has not been done.

Thanks
#geeks #tech
  • Profile picture of the author TheRichJerksNet
    I thought that is what the webdesign / programming / for hire forum was for...

    I have said it many times because I have built websites for over 15 years, it is best to build a relationship with someone.. Building up a relationship and having that trust is very important. I understand about many that do not deliver on time, I have had many clients because they left the programmer or designer that did not do the work and they came to me..

    James
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    • Profile picture of the author BlueStar
      Banned
      Originally Posted by TheRichJerksNet View Post

      I thought that is what the webdesign / programming / for hire forum was for...

      I have said it many times because I have built websites for over 15 years, it is best to build a relationship with someone.. Building up a relationship and having that trust is very important. I understand about many that do not deliver on time, I have had many clients because they left the programmer or designer that did not do the work and they came to me..

      James

      I need several people and I don't have time to monitor them or build a relationship. Nor do I have time to constantly look over their work.

      I'd rather be out drumming up new business than making sure soemone is building a blog or doing my SEO.

      I would rather THEY build the relationship with them and I pay a premium for this service.

      Thanks
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      • Profile picture of the author TheRichJerksNet
        Originally Posted by BlueStar View Post

        I need several people and I don't have time to monitor them or build a relationship. Nor do I have time to constantly look over their work.

        I'd rather be out drumming up new business than making sure soemone is building a blog or doing my SEO.

        I would rather THEY build the relationship with them and I pay a premium for this service.

        Thanks
        Ok understood .. Personally I like to build relationships with my clients, I am online 16 - 18 hours a day 7 days a week. Most of the time I am on IM ready for my clients if they need something.

        To me it is better to build a relationship, ok you want to pay a premium price which is "RARE" but it also pays off in the long run to build that relationship. That does not mean you need to watch over someone's shoulder 24/7 .. Heck pay me and I will go do the work, I have been online for over 20 years and I do not need someone to watch me work.

        It's just that to me it makes business sense to build a relationship because one thing I have always told my clients.. "If you do not trust me to do what you pay me to do, then don't bother hiring me" ... Trust means a great deal to me and I feel higher quality is produced when that trust factor is there...

        I have built small html websites to very highly dynamic quality database driven sites. I have done small jobs and I have done large jobs that range in $20,000+ but with each and every website I always try to build a relationship with my client. I have clients still to this day that I had 8 years ago ....

        James
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    • Profile picture of the author LibertyUnc
      Personally, I am fairly good with the technical details ( getting better with sales and marketing finally, but still terrible on the art side ).

      I considered doing something like that a while back, even though I'm a "nobody" in the tech world.

      The reason I decided not to?

      Because I did a couple small projects some time back and while some were great, others were a nightmare...not because I could not do the work, but because I constantly had to learn entirely new vocabularies just to comprehend what, specifically, was wanted.

      Add to that the problem that many people unfamiliar with the technical side of things have comprehending that two things that might seem the same when presented on the web might be completely different, and all kinds of seemingly quick projects can become insane quite quickly.

      And if anything I said seems offensive, I apologize. Just being bluntly honest as to why I, personally, decided it made a lot more sense to use my technical knowledge for myself rather than trying to sell it to others. Well, that and the fact that at some point I clued into the fact that selling my time by the hour or project was a very self-limiting way to do business.
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  • Profile picture of the author Rob Whisonant
    I have been offering my programming and IT services for years. Seems hardly anyone is willing to pay over a few dollars to get anything done so I put that on the back burner.

    If you need serious programming or IT work done, hit me up. I'm based in the US and do all the programming and a lot of the IT services. Have been programming since the mid 70's (showing my age now)

    Re's
    Rob Whisonant
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    • Profile picture of the author TheRichJerksNet
      Originally Posted by Rob Whisonant View Post

      I have been offering my programming and IT services for years. Seems hardly anyone is willing to pay over a few dollars to get anything done so I put that on the back burner.

      If you need serious programming or IT work done, hit me up. I'm based in the US and do all the programming and a lot of the IT services. Have been programming since the mid 70's (showing my age now)

      Re's
      Rob Whisonant
      The exact reason why I left freelnace sites.. buyers want a $5,000 dynamic website built for $50 ...

      James
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    • Profile picture of the author BlueStar
      Banned
      Originally Posted by Rob Whisonant View Post

      I have been offering my programming and IT services for years. Seems hardly anyone is willing to pay over a few dollars to get anything done so I put that on the back burner.

      If you need serious programming or IT work done, hit me up. I'm based in the US and do all the programming and a lot of the IT services. Have been programming since the mid 70's (showing my age now)

      Re's
      Rob Whisonant

      That's ironic. I had you at the top of my list of 3.

      I'll be calling you.
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    • Profile picture of the author bgmacaw
      Originally Posted by Rob Whisonant View Post

      I have been offering my programming and IT services for years. Seems hardly anyone is willing to pay over a few dollars to get anything done so I put that on the back burner.
      Same here. Most aren't willing to really pay until it hits the fan unless they're a deep pocketed corporation. That's why I concentrate on Microsoft .NET, SQL Server and Oracle rather than PHP and MySQL because that's where the corporate money is.
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      • Profile picture of the author JazzOscar
        Originally Posted by Rob Whisonant View Post

        I have been offering my programming and IT services for years. Seems hardly anyone is willing to pay over a few dollars to get anything done so I put that on the back burner.

        If you need serious programming or IT work done, hit me up. I'm based in the US and do all the programming and a lot of the IT services. Have been programming since the mid 70's (showing my age now)

        Re's
        Rob Whisonant
        Originally Posted by bgmacaw View Post

        Same here. Most aren't willing to really pay until it hits the fan unless they're a deep pocketed corporation. That's why I concentrate on Microsoft .NET, SQL Server and Oracle rather than PHP and MySQL because that's where the corporate money is.
        I'm with the two of you.

        Having been an offline IT consultant/programmer/data equipment reseller to small businesses for more than 25 years now I think I know my stuff. I even taught other people how to develop software in both assembler and COBOL back in the good old days. Being a one man business leaves you with a rather diverse skill set after some years. You are the programmer, the one maintaining networks, the one selling and installing hardware and software and the one making hardware repairs for your customers.

        Although I would have to adapt myself to some new stuff in the online programming world I don't see that as a problem. A skilled programmer with the right understanding of logics does this rather quickly.

        What holds me back from offering my knowledge online in a forum like this is the pricing of services online. You have to compete against people from countries where they don't have to ask as high a price pr. hour to make a good living as we have to in Europe. This gives people an impression that programming services is cheap. It really isn't if you use qualified people from your own country.

        At the moment I'm doing some programming work for a client of mine. My estimated total earnings from that project is somewhere close to $ 13,000. I get paid pr. hour, the rate being something like $ 75/hour. Why should I then be offering my services for a lot less online?

        As time goes by I might be going into online programming/services, but then I think it would be to produce my own sellable products.
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  • Profile picture of the author Kael41
    Lol, now you're speaking my language. The problem is that many freelancers think small time because they don't have a management back end. They're producers- and most are pretty damn good around here. I'll be honest, i'm in the content production field myself, but i don't produce a single word of content for my customers. Never claimed that I have either.

    Instead, i'm the marketer, the owner, the contract producer, the guy on the phone, the guy going before a corporate panel to land a content production RFI, and ultimately the guy who at the end of the day has his name on the work contract..not my writers.

    To go from having one small idea of "wow, it would be cool to have a company that does this for webmasters" to "where can i land my next 45k contact?" is a MONUMENTAL leap in faith for many people.

    I forgot who said it best, but, in the world of football, one should let "The managers manage, the players play, and the owners own". It's a rare site to see a player rise to the ranks of ownership, and very rarely can an owner play as well as a player.
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    • Profile picture of the author BlueStar
      Banned
      Originally Posted by Kael41 View Post

      Lol, now you're speaking my language. The problem is that many freelancers think small time because they don't have a management back end. They're producers- and most are pretty damn good around here. I'll be honest, i'm in the content production field myself, but i don't produce a single word of content for my customers. Never claimed that I have either.

      Instead, i'm the marketer, the owner, the contract producer, the guy on the phone, the guy going before a corporate panel to land a content production RFI, and ultimately the guy who at the end of the day has his name on the work contract..not my writers.

      To go from having one small idea of "wow, it would be cool to have a company that does this for webmasters" to "where can i land my next 45k contact?" is a MONUMENTAL leap in faith for many people.

      I forgot who said it best, but, in the world of football, one should let "The managers manage, the players play, and the owners own". It's a rare site to see a player rise to the ranks of ownership, and very rarely can an owner play as well as a player.
      Are we related? That's me.
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  • Profile picture of the author Maria Gudelis
    BlueStar - you could also contact biz dev person at a bigger reliable U.S firm that does do what you want..and private label their services...I'm doing that for my ppc as I hate that part of the offline consulting world.

    alas - as you know though...in those leagues - your customer list will be mined for sure no matter what agreements are in place.
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  • Profile picture of the author Steve Diamond
    Your post sounded great right up to "$20 hour," where you lost me. That's little more than an offshore rate. Top-notch, reliable experts in North American get several times that. And I would have to add either a hefty markup or my own fee for defining and managing each project. If you're willing to think along the lines of $80 - $100 an hour, then we might have a basis for discussion.
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    • Profile picture of the author JazzOscar
      Originally Posted by Steve Diamond View Post

      Your post sounded great right up to "$20 hour," where you lost me. That's little more than an offshore rate. Top-notch, reliable experts in North American get several times that. And I would have to add either a hefty markup or my own fee for defining and managing each project. If you're willing to think along the lines of $80 - $100 an hour, then we might have a basis for discussion.
      I see we agree closely on the proper rate/hour for qualified professionals.

      With the exchange rates we had before things really started to go downhill economically your side of the ocean, the $ 75/hour i mentioned in my post above would have been $ 90-95/hour.
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