This post contains affiliate links. You may read my affiliate disclosure on my Terms & Conditions page, #6 Links. Affiliate or not, Fiverr is a platform I use and recommend for business owners. I’ve personally seen it boost my productivity. It’s simply a great tool for business owners. You can sign up for free here.
Answering phone calls, creating a budget, coming up with a slogan, making a logo, managing your social media presence, creating a website, conceptualizing a business plan, managing talent acquisition, performing supply chain optimization, filing reports…
Overwhelmed yet? Yeah, sounds like the typical job description of a solopreneur starting a business. The goal is to have a business running on autopilot, a business that runs by itself. But realistically, most business owners start off juggling everything. Even when starting a business with a team, it’s rare to have a team that’s able to cover all the bases. Some aspiring business owners get so overwhelmed that they fail at the most important step — to just START!
Juggling everything, in the beginning, has its merits though. It’s an opportunity to understand your business thoroughly and a chance to know which tasks you enjoy doing. But never fall for the trap of always doing everything yourself. Your business will never grow. Michael E. Gerber said it best in his book, The E-Myth Revisited: Why Small Businesses Don’t Work and What to Do About It:
Work ON your business, not IN your business.
You’ll have to take a step back and see the big picture, and probably need to outsource some tasks — tasks you don’t enjoy doing or tasks you’re not good at.
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Fiverr for business owners
Fiverr is a platform that I think can help. It’s a collection of global freelancers and makes the outsourcing process super easy. What’s great is your payments are always protected by Fiverr because they work as an escrow between the business owner and the freelancer. All payments are held by Fiverr until both parties agree that the transaction has been fulfilled.
From graphics & design to programming & tech, a freelancer is probably available on Fiverr. I’ve had architectural renderings, logo designs, and web analytics performed by freelancers from the US, India, and the Philippines!
You can create an account on Fiverr for free.
(Related: Best free software for small businesses)
Know which tasks to outsource
Perhaps it’s easy for most people to know which tasks are best outsourced by them. But I struggled with this. The DIY mindset is one of the mentalities I’ve been trying to rid myself of — especially when it comes to business. As a very frugal person, I still find it difficult to pay someone Php5,000 for a task I could do in a week. I try to remind myself that it’s not costing me Php5,000; it’s actually costing me 1 week’s worth of productive work! But I digress.
So how do you know which to outsource? This has helped a lot:
What responsibilities do you procrastinate the most?
I can’t take credit for the idea, I think I heard it over a podcast, but the question leads to extremely helpful insights about yourself. If you’re procrastinating something, it’s probably because you’re not good at it. For example, I have no problems getting on Canva to design a logo, but I’d rather check on our spreadsheets first. It’s probably best to hire a graphic designer then and use the freed-up time for more productive things. (I’m not saying be lazy. What I’m saying is to be productive and do tasks that’ll earn more than what it costs to outsource the freed-up tasks.)
Search for a freelancer
Now that you know what to outsource, it’s time to search for a freelancer. Here are a couple of points to note before buying anything.
Save favorite freelancers:
I encourage searching and surveying first. Fiverr allows you to save as favorites your… favorites. This ties into the next point. Talk to your shortlist of freelancers.
Contact the seller before buying:
Fiverr sellers have Gigs on their profiles. These are templates of their offerings you can purchase without talking to them. But I say it’s best to coordinate with a seller first to set expectations.
Feel free to use this embedded Fiverr search tool to check out some of the millions of freelancers on the platform:
Negotiate a budget
Another nice thing about Fiverr, for business owners, is you’re able to negotiate a budget that works for you and your business. Sometimes you do get what you pay for, but other times you get lucky and land on a rising star with amazing credentials but zero clients. That’s because Fiverr is constantly growing, with new sellers coming in regularly.
If you do take this route, try your luck with smaller projects before booking a big one. But always close a deal on Fiverr’s platform to protect your payment and ensure delivery.
Relax, revise, review
At this point, all that’s left to do is wait for the freelancer to finish. You may or may not be allowed revisions depending on what was agreed with the seller. By the end, you are encouraged to leave a review. The seller will also be asked to review you as a buyer.
Bonus step
Once you sign up on Fiverr, you can also log in as a seller! It’s a cool way to make some money but be careful not to fall in love with active work — remember that it will take time away from your business. I tried the selling part last month and got 3 gigs. One even gave me a $5 tip! 😅 Sweet.
Fiverr for business owners
I am a fan of the Fiverr platform because it eliminates a lot of the excuses starting business owners have. Not good with accounting? You can outsource that. Bad with marketing? You can also outsource that. Now that I think about it, you should probably outsource even some tasks you’re good at if they are low-value tasks — as long as you replace the free time with high-value tasks. And when you consider the fact that you’re tapping a global market of freelancers, there’s little reason not to be on the platform. It’s certainly a smart way of boosting productivity.
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