Reviews Of Freelancers

My name is Michelle, and I’m an entrepreneur.

I became a netepreneur about 6-7 years ago after first becoming a true nettie. It took me quite a while to get the hang of doing business online, but once I was hooked, there was no going back.

Unfortunately one of my biggest struggles has been finding a quality team to help me grow my business.

I don’t want to have just one business online, I want to have several, and of course like any true entrepreneur, I want them all to be a smashing success.

My issue is I don’t have a lot of capital, therefore I’m on a tight budget, but saying all that, I learned within 2-3 years of running my business online, that it didn’t matter what the independent contractor (freelancer) was charging, if they were bad, they were bad.

People who charge high prices like to “claim” you get what you pay for.

That’s BS in my opinion.

I’ve hired people at $40/hr., and I’ve hired people who charged me $2,500 to do my website copy & a few auto responders.

It’s not the price they charge, it’s who they are as a person that matters in the end.

Are they…

skilled in what they do, or are they just pretending to know what they are doing?

do they tell you they can do everything for you, but aren’t worth anything in any of the positions you hired them for?

do they disappear right after you’ve hired them?

do they disappear when you tell them they made a mistake?

do they get upset and throw a tantrum if you call them on their mistake?

do they have problems reading what you write and following through? Remember for me, 90% of all communication in a virtual setting is via e-mail. 5% is via IM (instant messaging) & the other 5% is via the phone.

do they blame you for their misunderstandings?

do they take forever to do the work?

do they miss days of work even though their schedule says they will be available?

do they take vacations without even notifying you?

do you end up having to hire someone new just to get the work done correctly?

These are just some of the issues I’ve encountered with freelancers who I now call Independent Contractors.

I stopped calling them freelancers because inside the word “freelancer” is the word “free”, meaning they are free to do whatever the hell they want, no matter what you hired them for.

I don’t want to hire employers for obvious reasons, but still, independent contractors should be responsible, and not think that just because they are freelancers, that they can just do whatever they want no matter what the consequences to the company are.

If it was a 1 day project, okay, fine, I can see that, but almost all my positions are ongoing part time leading into full time.

Another experience I’ve encountered is that I would also get the ego maniacs who think they are soooo great, or the ones who have extreme emotional issues.

I wasn’t able to handle it.

Then there was who are always sick, or their family members were sick, or have an excuse for everything.

At first I thought it was just me, but then after talking to a few other small businesses online, I realized it’s NOT just me.

I’m not saying some companies don’t have these problems because they have mastered a plan, or they pay above average rates, are more strict, or have a larger organization.

I believe they are the minority, and that small businesses all over the net are failing because they can’t hire a good team and like me, they spend 90% of their time chasing workers to do the work, or playing the recruiting role instead of working on the business.

I have piles of work just sitting here because there is no one to do the work and most of the time I end up having to do it myself and if it doesn’t get done, it seriously affects my bottom line.

I am starting this blog because I’m SICK AND TIRED OF ALL THE BS.

As I mentioned on my other page, there are quite a few message boards and community sites out there where these freelancers (ICs) hang out. You get a bunch of females into one room (online of course) and oh my god, you have no idea what happens. It was on one of those WAHM sites.

Even on one of the copywriting boards I belong to, http://www.copywritersboard.com/ where you would expect mature, ethical people, I was bashed because of the nature of my business. They also lied about me saying I rip freelancers off when nothing could be further from the truth.

I did have many problems with copywriters and I will be detailed in my posts.

These egomaniac writers sit around all day with nothing better to do, than lie about innocent people by gossiping. I ask a simple question on the board and they ignore me.

Unfortunately the net does seem to draw a lot of really insecure people who are bored with their lives and have nothing better to do with their time. It’s really a shame they can’t use their time to help people instead of pretending they know how to write, charging people a fortune, and then getting upset when the person calls them on it.

I’m lucky I’ve only had a few people rip me off monetarily, but the most time consuming cost consuming issue I have is my constant screening, interviewing, and hiring, only to have to do it all over again.

There were only 3 times I ever found a really good VA or OM, and both times they either became sick and disappeared, or I found out one had a hubby who was a drug addict and she was a former one. I don’t have a problem hiring people who have former addiction issues, but it has to be “former”, and have cleaned up their act.

I do admit I’m very picky and I require very intelligent sharp team members, but so what. Doesn’t every company want those types of A+ people?

I learned a long time ago that not every entrepreneur is smart, so no, not all companies require intelligent people working for them.

So, to wrap up, this blog is a way for us small businesses to have a place of our own to make sure we aren’t about to interview or hire someone who’s been rated as a problem.

I will sign off here, and leave you to search to see if the person I have listed is someone you are about to hire.

Feel free to comment and provide me with your list of nutcases.

Thanks a ton for visiting, and TTYL

Michelle