Low budget jobs: Please stop offering Budget options in line with hourlie rates
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Can you please stop suggesting a budget in line with an hourlie, when people post jobs. Hourlie's are just automated repetitive task based jobs, people who post a job are looking for something custom made.
When you suggest a budget of £100, for something that will take a minimum of £750, there's no way we can get the client to buy in to the true cost of the project.. The expectation of a fair price is £100 to them.. This not only hurts your profits, it makes it harder to be competitive and offer a decent service.
Thanks
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Well said, George. We are seeing projects posted at a fraction of what they are really worth. It is not always a case of a client trying to get a job done on the cheap. Often the client does not have a feel for the magnitude of a project and they are following PPH's lead and posting a low figure.
Unfortunately, PPH seem to think they can automate everything and somewhere there is an algorithm that defines the budget for a fixed project, based on a few keywords and the Cert ranking of the freelancer. -
Thanks Simon, exactly. Clients have no idea, and their expectation is often shaped, by what is offered by PPH, as a suggested budget, when the client posts a job.
It's a good first step on PPH's part. But a better way of doing things, might be to get a group of freelancers from each sector, to price up the main types of jobs for that sector through a survey, and then use those results for a pricing system.Another thing, that Upwork do, is setup jobs for UK based freelancers with UK based clients at UK prices. No way we can or should compete with ppl in India, Bangladesh etc.. on price.. We're already doing highly skilled work at below minimum wage.. Its no wonder that the top UK freelancers atleast in my sector, have left PPH.
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It could be a good way forward to use some of the freelancers as moderators for each sector, if PPH are reluctant to recruit directly. I wish PPH would step up and be more of an employment agency and less of an internet forum. A lot of the projects, especially the UK based commercial projects, could be charged at much higher rates, if PPH were part of the negotiation process. As it is, there is too much competition on prices and nobody standing up for the freelancer. This idea of suggesting budgets without a real person reading the specification is something that needs to stop.
Eventually I will probably give up and do something with better pay and conditions, like filling shelves in a supermarket. I would get the minimum wage. I would be paid for every hour I worked. I wouldn't suddenly have to take a pay cut to match the price somebody in India has offered to work for. I would be in some kind of pension scheme and I wouldn't be expected to buy my own equipment or pay for my own electricity.
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