Working Remotely: Can I Compete Online with Low Cost Countries?
This is a question I asked myself when I first entered the world of working remotely. When I saw the number of people applying for jobs at incredibly low rates of pay I wondered if there was actually any money to made. To illustrate this point I just jumped onto my Upwork account and clicked on the job at the top of my feed.
The majority of the people in this list and others are from the Philippines. India, Bangladesh and Indonesia are close behind. In this example, the advertised hourly rates ranged between $3.33 and $6 per hour. According to this article in Forbes there are 1.3 million Filipinos on Upwork and Elance. How can you compete online with these low prices?
Price vs Quality
There is an old adage that you get what you pay for. Never has this been more true than when working remotely. I will begin this section with the caveat that I have worked with great freelancers from the Philippines and other countries mentioned. However, I have had more than a few bad encounters and so have people I know. While you may find a web developer that only charges $5 per hour there are hidden costs. English skill, cultural differences and quality of training are 3 things that stand out.
- Copywritten articles with bizarre grammar and spellings
- Long delays with no communication
- A 10 bullet point specification and a product that only covers 7 of them
These are all problems that I and others have had to deal with. How do you deal with them? By spending your own time and money to reiterate requirements, correct work or hire someone else to do it better. With this in mind, clients are starting to realise that spending more at the beginning saves time and money in the long run. As you can see in this Fortune article, there is an upward trend in freelancer rates as a result. Employer tend to bypass the lower end of the pay scale and choose someone in the middle of pack.
How to Compete Online
People will pay for quality. I have picked up clients over the past year who came to me specifically because they wanted a native English speaker, with great feedback and solid experience.
Once bitten, twice shy
In general they had been burned before by using cheap labour. Although they could hire someone else for a quarter of my price they knew that it is better to pay more and get things right first time. In a virtuous circle, clients recommended me to others and provided glowing feedback. This in turn led to me getting more work at higher rates.
Offering a quality, professional service yields benefits. While some clients may want to get things done for the absolute cheapest price possible; these are not the kind of clients you want to build a long term relationship with. Demonstrate your quality and the right clients at the right rates will come.
This is one of the reasons that we created no9to5. We have developed our online presence and learned how to compete with low cost countries. Get in contact and we'd love to help you get started.