In this episode, Connor Gillivan and I had a great conversation about his journey in entrepreneurship. We also talk about why he started his company, Freeeup and how his focus on the top 1% has allowed him to carve out his niche. The content that we discuss can help many of the entrepreneurs that are in our audience with their own businesses in a very real way. You will have to listen to see what I mean. For anyone who relies on freelancing for income and/or for your team, this is a “must listen to” episode. Enjoy!
Conversation Notes from this Episode
- FreeeUp is a similar to Upwork, Freelancer, eLance or odesk, however they actually interview and train all freelancers in network before they become available to business owner. They take care of interviews up front and make sure that business owners are only introduced to the top 1% of freelancers out there.
- Through Freeeup.com before a freelancer can become available they must past 15 pages of communication guidelines before they get into the network. It ensures excellent communication standards for any business owners who may hire them.
- Hiring just one remote worker can be extremely beneficial to your business. Be sure you hire the right people and utilize them in the right way.
- There is a mental hurdle a lot of business owners have with trying to control and do everything, but sometimes by bringing in the right person it is just what the company needs to free up your time and make you available to take your business to the next level.
- If you are thinking of hiring a freelancer, sit down and look at where you are spending your time. Find out what you don’t need to be doing and what you could you pass to someone else.
- A big mistake business owners make is trying to hire workers at the lowest rate possible, you get what you pay for. If you can only afford the lowest rate worker then go ahead and hire, but understand there may be additional training you have to do.
- Freeeup’s 3 levels of freelancers:
- Lower level– More of a doer. May have some experience, but going to require training up front on your end. There are anomalies that will do a really great job, but for the most part you get what you pay for.
- Mid level– Usually in the $10-25 an hour range. They are more of specialist, have years of experience, know what they are doing and just need specific training to your company.
- Top Tier or Experts– High level consultant. Worked in corporations, continue to run own business and may consult for other companies. They create game plans and get things rolling.
- With Freelancers, if you are going to start at all then start slow. Prove to yourself that the person can be reliable. Then when you see them doing well it takes some stress away, and you can continue to move forward.
- 3 Ways that remote workers can take a business to the next level:
- As you build your business one important thing is setting up systems and processes for everything you are doing. Once you have a process bring someone in, so you can move to the next task and create a system there.
- Make sure that once you get to place where you can’t take on something, or it is not your expertise, bring in someone who can set it up for you and manage it for you. Do it slowly, hire them maybe 5 hours a week and then build slow, it if doesn’t work you can always take them out of the equation.
- Hire a remote worker to handle your bookkeeping. This can be the most labor intensive process and most time consuming. It is a great place to outsource and take something off your plate.
- Take your strengths and try to make them stronger and outsource everything else.
- If you are looking to start a business, find an area where you are an expert and start your side hustle as a consultant.
About Connor
Connor Gillivan is a 27 year old serial entrepreneur and an expert in eCommerce and online hiring. He co-founded his first eCommerce company out of his dorm room in 2009 and scaled it to sell over $20 million on the Amazon Marketplace. While scaling, he and his co-founders started outsourcing operations and became experts at hiring online.
In 2015, Connor co-founded and became the CMO of FreeeUp, an online hiring marketplace specialized for the eCommerce and digital marketing industries. He and his co-founder wanted a better way to hire reliable remote workers without having to spend hours upfront recruiting and interviewing. Today, FreeeUp serves over 2,000 online businesses and is rapidly becoming a favorite destination to hire online.
Connor is a best-selling author with his book titled Free Up Your Business: 50 Secrets to Bootstrap Million Dollar Companies. The book shares secrets that he and his business partner have developed over the 7 years of working together and outlines how entrepreneurs can scale their business to over $1 million.
Finally, Connor owns his own blog, ConnorGillivan.com, where he writes about starting eCommerce businesses, growing as an entrepreneur, and navigating the startup world.
Website: FreeeUp.com
Email: connor@freeeup.com
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/cdgillivan