If you have a business and haven’t tried using a freelance teleworker,

major corporation) and gets several days’ work done in one day with
no meetings and few telephone calls to distract her.
If you have a business and haven’t tried using a freelance teleworker,
Elance may provide a money-saving opportunity for you to experiment
with out-of-the-office workers; that is, you can “outsource” the
work. If you have an eBay business, you will need some kind of white
collar work occasionally, if not regularly, and Elance may provide just
what you need.
Hiring
Your first reaction might be that it’s hard to hire people in distant
places. You can’t meet them. You won’t have any local references for
them. And they can’t come into the office to do part of their work.
That’s all true and perhaps will prevent you from hiring some freelancers
for some tasks. Nonetheless, for many tasks or projects, such
considerations will not be a barrier.
First, although you can’t meet them, you can have an extensive telephone
conservation with them, perhaps more conveniently than meeting
them. Second, you can review a freelancer’s track record on
Elance. It’s perhaps easier to do via Elance than it is to do for a local
freelancer. Third, email and the capability to attach a file to an email
message greatly improves business communication. It means that you
can expect to pass back and forth with a freelancer almost any type of
information required for productive work. In addition, there are dozens
of ways for workers to collaborate via the Internet. In fact, working
with people you’ve never met and never see face to face has become
commonplace.
Habit Breaking
What do you do when you want to make 10,000 entries in your database
from electronic documents and your staff is too thin to handle it?
Do you ask around to find out if anyone knows someone? Do you run
468 EBAY THE SMART WAY
a classified ad? Do you call a temporary employment service? Do you
post a Help Wanted ad at the local supermarket? It seems like using
Elance might be the easiest way to get this task done.
It’s not easy, however, to break old habits. You have to try something
new and be successful. Elance provides you with a chance to try something
new conveniently, get the job done, save money, and perhaps get
even higher quality services than you might otherwise.
On the front end, your eBay business is a virtual business. It exists primarily
on a computer connected to a network (i.e., the Internet).
Elance gives you the opportunity to make your back office operations
virtual too. And the intensive use of computers and communications
in business means greater efficiency and lower labor costs.
Give Elance a good look soon. You may find something there that you
can use in your business, even for small tasks and projects.
eBay Services
eBay has indicated that it is trying to develop effective ways to sell services
on eBay itself. In the future, look for eBay to try some new
schemes in its normal auctions to enhance the sale of services.
Conclusion
The jury is still out on whether Elance will be successful. If it isn’t, all
is not lost. Normal eBay auctions have potential for marketing professional
services. And if you’re a buyer of services, both Elance and the
normal eBay auctions offer you real opportunities to get your project
done at a reasonable cost.