Freelancer bids to create 50,000 firms

ISTANBUL - Hürriyet Daily News

Turkish pepole are keen to start their own businesses, Freelancer’s Mark Barrie says.

Freelancer, one of the world’s largest outsourcing and crowd-sourcing marketplaces, has launched a Turkish website, which the company expects will create 50,000 new businesses in just six months.

“Turkey has a strong entrepreneurial culture, which created strong economic growth before the credit crunch and recession across Europe,” Freelancer CEO Matt Barrie told the Hürriyet Daily News when asked why Turkey had been chosen.

“Unemployment is rising and businesses are struggling to grow, yet the Turkish people are keen to start their own businesses and trade using technology, such as online marketplaces like Freelancer, across the world. Freelancer.com aims to reach out to these people wanting to start businesses and small businesses, which want to grow and access new markets,” he added.

Before the launch of Freelancer.com, many Turkish entrepreneurs had already discovered the convenience, ease, and the business-related benefits of outsourcing and crowd-sourcing through Freelancer.com – the English language version of the website.

“Already 26,248 Turks are registered on the English language version of the site, this will grow exponentially with the Turkish language version of the site,” Barrie said.

The Australia-based company has a Turkish country manager who runs a local office and a Turkish PR firm. The launch of Freelancer.com in Turkish is about connecting Turkish businesses and freelancers with businesses and freelancers around the world, helping them to grow and trade around the globe. A recent survey of 2000 small businesses in Turkey found that 64 percent of respondents believe the launch of Freelancer in Turkey will make easier than ever before to start a business in Turkey. 71 percent believe that given the state of the economy Turkish people will have to take the lead and start opening more businesses and work for themselves.

New features such as being able to conduct transactions in euro’s and use local payment methods make it easier to post opportunities and find work in Turkish on Freelancer.com.

If one looks at the jobs available on Freelancer, the amounts of money a potential employer wants to spend seem incredibly low compared with current rates charged in Turkey. The thought occurs that this might discourage Turkish freelancers from bidding on jobs, but Barrıe denies this. “There is a large range of prices on the site. Not every employer wants to hire the cheapest freelancer. In fact, many U.S. and U.K. firms will pay for quality. At the same time, if you are business you can hire a freelancer through the site to with skills that you can’t hire locally. Many small businesses now have to be tech savvy and have sophisticated e-commerce sites. Rather than spending their time, they can hire a skilled freelancer to do it for them,” he said.

“All freelancers are reviewed and all money is paid into an escrow account, protecting both the freelancer and small business owners. Money is only released once you are happy with the work, and freelancers can be sure to get payment as the small business owner has put the money into escrow,” Barrie added.

Freelancer.com has already helped more than 4 million people start up and grow businesses or become self-employed freelancers worldwide, helping them turn their ideas into real money-making businesses at a fraction of the cost.

Through the Webby award-winning website, employers can hire freelancers to do work in areas such as software, writing, data entry and design, through to engineering and the sciences, sales and marketing, and accounting and legal services. Jobs start at €20, and the average job is under €150, making Freelancer.com extremely cost effective for small businesses and entrepreneurs, which often need a wide variety of jobs to be done, but cannot justify the expense of hiring full time.