Outsourcing: Million-Dollar Freelancer: Ignacio Galarraga, CEO of NetMen Corp (Part 5)

Sramana Mitra: What is the composition of your customers? You said you have 500 projects a month, right?

Ignacio Galarraga: Yes, we handle 500 projects a month.

SM: And over the course of the years, you’ve handled more than 5,000 projects?

IG: We have done 15,000 projects. >>>

Outsourcing: Million-Dollar Freelancer: Ignacio Galarraga, CEO of NetMen Corp (Part 4)

Sramana Mitra: You said you get invited to bid on a lot of projects. And that’s because you have a track record. What qualifies somebody to be invited to bid on projects?

Igancio Galarraga: I there are a lot of things that interact there. First of all, your price. Elance has two options when you set up your membership. You’re able to showcase how much you’re earning through Elance, or you’re able to keep your earnings private. I showcase my earnings because that way when somebody comes into the marketplace and browses the providers, he’s able to see how much I sell each product for. So, if somebody’s coming in for something cheap, he’s going to see that my company doesn’t sell things for cheap prices. They’re not going to invite me to bid. If I have my options in private, nobody is able to see how much I sell each product for, so I would be receiving a lot of invitations from people who have lower projects. I keep my earnings open to everybody. Then, I have a nice portfolio that shows examples from each category. When somebody’s looking for packaging, I have a packaging portfolio. When somebody’s looking for print, I have a print portfolio. And Elance lets everybody see the reviews. >>>

Outsourcing: Million-Dollar Freelancer: Ignacio Galarraga, CEO of NetMen Corp (Part 3)

Sramana Mitra: I have a specific question about the bidding process on Elance. Do you have somebody monitoring requests for proposals as projects come online 24 hours a day?

Ignacio Garraga: Not 24 hours. I work 10 hours a day. There are two types of processes when somebody posts a proposal. You can go into the marketplace, browse all the job descriptions based on the category, and then go bid. Or the customer, when he starts posting his job, can browse the suggested providers and invite them to bid. As my company is rated in a lot of categories, I receive a lot of invites. I don’t have to go and search. I do two things: I search for projects, and I post bids. I also receive invites to bid. >>>

Outsourcing: Million-Dollar Freelancer: Ignacio Galarraga, CEO of NetMen Corp (Part 2)

Sramana Mitra: How does that translate when you are working on Elance? You deliver customer satisfaction by having good discipline about when you deliver projects, and then you get your customers to review you on Elance, right?

Ignacio Galarraga: Right. That’s correct.

SM: Besides that, when it comes to bidding for projects and sending proposals, would you talk a bit about what some of the practices that you’ve learned over time? >>>

Outsourcing: Million-Dollar Freelancer: Ignacio Galarraga, CEO of NetMen Corp (Part 1)

Most of the people who register to work as freelancers on Elance don’t end up earning $1 million or more in annual revenue. Ignacio Galarraga did it with his graphic design company NetMen. As my conversation with him will reveal, Galarraga started out on Elance in much the same way as Sanjay Dange started out on Freelancer.com. Both cite the production of excellent products along with a singular dedication to customer satisfaction as the keys to their unusual success.

Sramana Mitra: Hi, Ignacio. First and foremost, congratulations on reaching the elusive $1 million in your entrepreneurial journey. >>>

Outsourcing: Rick Ferry, COO of C3 (Part 7)

Sramana Mitra: The sectors that you talked about, are these sectors that you have major strategies to penetrate with onshore offerings?

Rick Ferry: Yes, we do. We identified those fairly early on. We’re working with the companies that have accepted our services, thankfully, not only to bring them up here in the U.S. and do the best job that we can do for them here, but also because there are certain subsets of those programs that we can’t offshore. Then when you blend that type of rate, there’s a significant savings that can be represented by blending. That’s another approach to the strategy. I don’t think any strategy has to be a one-way strategy. It doesn’t have to be an all-in type of strategy. There are certain parts of any of those applications that I just spoke of outside of the ones that have a regulatory requirement to be serviced in the U.S. that can be bifurcated. >>>

Outsourcing: Rick Ferry, COO of C3 (Part 6)

Sramana Mitra: Let me clarify a few things. Universities are not known to train call center reps. What are you talking about?

Rick Ferry: Not so much training the call center rep per se, but training the student with a desire to matriculate in a related field. So, maybe in computer engineering, computer sciences, marketing, sales and marketing management, that type of thing. For example, take a specific vertical, hotel/motel management. There are many universities around the world, ranging from Ivy League universities like Cornell in Ithaca, New York, to the University of Glasgow, that have degree-oriented programs in hotel/motel management. They place very highly educated people throughout the world. Well, one of our core verticals is hospitality management. >>>

Outsourcing: Rick Ferry, COO of C3 (Part 5)

SM: Now, talk to me about the training. Especially, in the political debate right now, it comes up all the time that there are plenty of jobs. There are not enough skilled people to fill them. Talk to me about that in respect to your industry, which has traditionally been quite good with on-the-job training. It sounds like your company in particular is focused on that. >>>