Have you ever met someone that has successfully outsourced most of their company’s daily tasks? Even better, outsourced their life? It has become more and more common as businesses have turned to the Internet, but it’s still weird to hear someone say, “my entire team is overseas.”
In this article, I’m going to tell you about the story of Nathan Hirsch and how he has built his company, FreeeUp, into one of the leading platforms for eCommerce companies to hire remote workers. He shares his insights on what inspired him and his co-founder, Connor Gillivan, and what steps you can take to get started with remote hiring today.
If you’re unfamiliar with the concept of remote hiring, it is the practice of digitally recruiting, interviewing, and hiring freelancers from around the world to fulfill your business needs. Entrepreneurs have been taking advantage of remote hiring since the Internet introduced platforms like Freelancer.com, Elance.com, Fiverr.com, and oDesk.com.
On these platforms, you can post a job and handfuls of applicants submit cover letters vying for the position. You have the ability to set special filters, such as: price, location, and experience among many others. You can do your best to hone in on the best applicant.
As I spoke with Nate, I started to learn more about his experiences with these sites, and how he decided to start his own.
Hirsch’s desire to start his own hiring platform specialized for the eCommerce industry stemmed from the frustrations that he and his co-founder experienced with their first eCommerce company selling on Amazon.com.
“I built FreeeUp based on what I wished I had through the 7+ years of hiring in eCommerce. I spent countless hours posting jobs, sitting in interview rooms, chatting on Skype calls, and replacing workers. They were hours I couldn’t get back.”
This stood out to me because it was a frustration that they were having as business owners. You always hear of entrepreneurs starting businesses to solve a problem they think exists in the market. In this situation, Hirsch was actually the one experiencing the pain and saw others going through the same issues.
I dug deeper in hopes of discovering where Hirsch saw the company going when he first started it just one short year ago. His answer opened my eyes to the determination he has to make this a reality.
“A place for eCommerce business owners to quickly and easily get access to remote workers they need without having to go through long interviews. I liked the hire-fast mentality because I am a fast moving person and everyone hates dealing with HR. I wanted to replicate that hire-fast experience for the entire industry.”
The past year is evidence that Hirsch did not let any frustrations weigh him down. He put on his entrepreneurial hat and got to work.
The FreeeUp network now boasts over 200 remote workers and has signed up over 600 eCommerce clients interested in using their new solution to remote hiring. Within only 9 months, of operation, the company was on pace to exceed $1 million in yearly revenue. Now, that’s some hard work.
I asked Nate to look back on the past year and provide some insight.
“It has exceeded expectations. Whenever you start a new business, you don’t know what kind of reactions clients will have. The feedback has been overwhelmingly positive. We went through a period of setting up systems and processes, testing marketing strategies, and offering different services. We are now at a point where we know what our clients want, and we know there is a demand for our service. The next year should be fun because it is all about execution.”
Who knew remote hiring would have become as popular as it is today? Millions of people make a good living working through online platforms like the one Hirsch has built. It’s a testament to the Internet.
If you haven’t already, think of where the remote hiring and working world may cross paths with your professional career. With the pace of its growth, it’s bound to happen soon.
Before I go, let me leave you with a piece of advice from Hirsch that particularly stuck with me.
“Find out what makes your customers happy. Make tweaks until you are doing exactly that. Turn complaints into feedback that changes your business for the better. Don’t look at an upset customer as one more thing you have to deal with…look at it as a way to be proactive and improve your systems for future users.”
Don’t be afraid to pass tasks off to more qualified experts or assistants to help your company grow. There are millions of workers out there. You just have to find the right one!
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