Notes from Chris

Episode 1291

It was five years ago when Chris Russell lost his job as a Director of Digital Recruiting. Having his income instantly halted was tough … but Chris still possessed all the skills that made him a valuable employee, even though he no longer was one. His ability to find good candidates and place them in the right jobs with minimal headache was a skill lots of businesses needed.

So, instead of diving in and looking for another 9-5 job, Chris decided to try his hand at freelancing. And for the next five years he made a living doing just that. He’d hustle, find temporary work somewhere among the large network he’d built up during his career, then move onto the next gig.

It was a flexible but not always lucrative arrangement. Chris was always on the lookout for his next gig. He often had periods where he wasn’t sure if the next one would even come.

In an effort to find something different Chris investigated the website Upwork, the world's largest marketplace for freelancers. There he found some people looking for HR experts, but since Upwork skews more toward tech projects they were few and far between. Also, Upwork takes a large commission from each job, sometimes making it prohibitively expensive to use.

Chris felt like there had to be another way. And if there wasn’t, he was starting to think he was as good a person as any to make one.

His time on Upwork showed a need for a cheaper, niche version of the site aimed specifically at the HR industry. In his vision, just like Upwork, employers could post jobs on the site and freelancers could submit proposals to complete that work.

So instead of going the difficult route, Chris scoured the web looking for an ‘out of the box’ solution; a pre-made piece of software that he could simply purchase as is. You can find these for a lot of different sites. They allow you to pay to effectively create a clone of an existing site's functions using your own branding.

Best of all was that he was able to install and configure it himself.

At the same time, he identified a dozen HR consultants he thought would be a good fit and contacted them, letting them know his new service would be a place that had regular gigs for freelance HR consultants. Almost immediately someone committed to a yearly subscription for eighty-nine dollars.

That’s when Chris knew he was onto something. He hadn’t even officially launched, and yet someone still believed in the concept enough that they were willing to put real money down.

He ‘officially’ launched HRLancers.com in January 2020. He posted about it to all of his Connections and mentioned it in the groups he was a part of. So what happened?

Well, in the first thirty days HRLancers.com received five thousand website visitors and hundreds of HR experts signed up to the service—most of them on the free version he offered, but some for the paid service, which offered featured placement on posts. Companies were posting gigs, and freelancers were applying for them.

The coronavirus slowdown isn’t stopping Chris. He’s continuing to network and attract more interest in the site. It’s nowhere near a full-time gig yet, so he still relies heavily on his own freelancing to make a living. But he is hoping that one day HRLancers.com will turn into the big promotion he always wanted, and aid in securing his financial future.

 

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  MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE:

• Check out Chris's website, HRLancers.com.
• Looking to freelance (or just curious about job marketplaces), check out sites like Upwork and Fiverr.
• Stripe: a popular online payment processor for those looking to sell something on their website.

SEE ALSO:

• Lawyer Earns $400/Month With Stock Music Side Hustle: An online music marketplace offers a young lawyer an opportunity to fulfill his dreams of having his music heard, and also provides him with a new source of passive income.
• Trade-Up! Fashionable Flipped Threads Lead to Fabulous Profits: A British fashionista turns £20 into £2,000/month flipping her vintage thread finds online.
• Product Manager Profits From Carnivorous Plants: When a PayPal employee turns his childhood obsession with carnivorous plants into an online resource, he earns an income with a marketplace that doesn’t leaf anyone out.

Inspiration is good; inspiration combined with action is better. Now get back to work!

Yours in the revolution,

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