Beyond Boundaries

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Dave Leng, a telecommunications contractor in Samoa, was having difficulty finding someone to do niche design work in this Pacific island. He was eyeing a local designer but the scope of the work proved to be quite challenging and the time frame and rates were not attractive. The US$3,000 quote for the maps alone was too prohibitive. So he did what any normal person would do—think outside the box. To overcome this particular limitation, he took his search beyond geographic boundaries.

Having been a member of Scriptlance (which was acquired by the world’s largest outsourcing marketplace Freelancer.com), he is no stranger to the talented pool of skilled workers from all over the world. So, he posted a Freelancer Contest to find the right designer to work on the design elements (maps, graphics, icons, page designs) for the local yellow pages. Selecting the winner was easy. He based his decision on the design/look of the entry and on feedback to determine the entrant’s reliability to complete the job.

“I prefer the contest format (compared to direct project posting) as I don’t have time to go through all the respondents in a bid,” he explains. “I’d rather get the work in and compare it.”

His method has been successful so far. “Freelancer allowed me to gain interest from a variety of designers. I found one suited for the cartoon style icons for maps from Pakistan and I’ve set up a project for another designer who responded to my design brief. Their styles were different and the other designer’s suited something else I had in mind, the page designs.”

With Freelancer.com, Dave has been able to save 50% of the budget and “got better results.” Proving that he is well satisfied with the quality of work done on Freelancer, he took a chance with a freelancer new to the platform in another contest he held and found a guy who could turn his maps into “some real art!”

“I’m so sold on the Freelancer concept,” he concludes.  “I currently have or had people working for me from China, Hong Kong, Chile, Pakistan, Singapore, Romania. All good, no—correct that, GREAT at what they do.”

Posted 10 November, 2015

Nikki Hernandez

Wired and Inspired | Content Coordinator, Freelancer.com

I'm the coordinator of Freelancer's Case Study Program. I write inspirational success stories of employers and freelancers. When not busy writing, I play video games.

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