vWorker recently conducted case studies of successful employers and workers on the site. During the next few weeks, we’ll be releasing stories describing how employers have used vWorker to develop/enhance their business and how workers have been able to financially support themselves through the site.
Daniel Offer:
Daniel Offer (screen name: Athena IT Limited) is from Swindon, Wiltshire, United Kingdom. Daniel graduated from college with a degree in Finance in 2008, which unfortunately was the same time the global banking crisis started. So he struggled to find a job in his field. Realizing that he needed to take matters into his own hands, Daniel started dabbling in several business ventures. He realized there was a need for a desktop Facebook messaging app, so he used vWorker to outsource the development of Chit Chat for Facebook. This application has gone viral and is downloaded more than 10,000 times a day! Daniel now uses vWorker to outsource marketing, research, and writing work for his company.Daniel shared the following with us about his experiences on vWorker.
1. Describe your story. Why did you start your business?
Well, the background story really starts in July of 2008. I had just graduated from Warwick University (England, United Kingdom) with a BSc in Accounting and Finance. I didn’t do as well in college as I did in high school, and I received just a 2:2. (In the UK, the degree system rankings are 1st, 2:1 (upper second), 2:2 (lower second), 3rd, and fail.) It was my own fault, really…I had chosen too many tough options in my second year.
Despite graduating from a well regarded University, I struggled to find a job. The year was 2008, and as you may remember, that was the time of the banking crisis – a year of recession for many countries, including my own. So trying to find a job in Finance was somewhat problematic, to say the least.
In short, I struggled to find any job – I was too qualified for some jobs and didn’t have enough experience for others. I went to tens of graduate scheme interviews, only to be turned away at the very final hurdle (they have a lot of rounds – normally four or five) or for the scheme to be cancelled.
In the end, I managed to get a job with Intel UK on a one year contract as a "green badge" (temp worker) within the Finance department. Whilst it was a good job and I was very grateful for the opportunity, I never felt secure in my role. It had a very short termination notice (one week), and the area in which I worked was under the legal and financial spotlight. Moreover, it was made clear to me early on that the job was temporary, and at the end of the one year, assuming it lasted that long, my time would be up. To give a little more background…that year, Intel had scrapped its graduate scheme and put a bar on hiring full time.
With the economy still looking bleak, and finding myself essentially stuck, I decided I needed to take matters into my own hands.
I had done a little bit of enterprise activity in the past, most notably, Emoinstaller back in 2002ish when MSN Emoticons were all the rage. I had the software developed by someone I'd found off on Planet Source Code and then recreated by another programmer in 2005. Despite learning some basic Visual Basic 6, programming wasn't my forte. This had helped me pay my way to some extent through college.
So, after settling in my job, I started to brainstorm. I was thinking about enterprise again – what I could do, what I could work on, what was a good idea.
Previous Project Failures
Now, I should probably mention some project failures before I talk about the success of Chit Chat for Facebook, because those failures were really important feedback for my path.
In my second year of college in 2007, I had got into my head that a petition and questionnaire app for Facebook was a brilliant idea. I was forever being sent petitions and questionnaires to my Facebook inbox. Therefore, I developed "Petpoll." (Well I say I developed it. I really planned the application and then outsourced it to a worker.) Unfortunately, it was a complete flop – I lost all my money and time. It didn’t fail because it was a bad idea; it failed because Facebook changed the way in which the invite system worked, as soon as it was ready for launch. Rather than allowing you to invite all your friends, you could only invite five a day. Who wants to run a questionnaire or petition where you can only invite five people a day?
I learnt a valuable lesson from it – developing on someone else's platform is risky. Moreover, I see it as a precious learning experience on handling and bug testing highly complex projects.
Another important "feedback" lesson was when I developed (well again, had someone else develop for me) a blog spider tool that sought out abandoned blogs that still had a page rank. The idea was simple – find the blogs/websites and re-register them for their page rank and existing Google ranking. The app worked just fine, however, it seems I wasn't the only one with the idea, and my app just wasn't quick enough to compete. Moreover, most of the sites that were abandoned had very limited amounts of traffic and page rank anyhow.
I learnt that "black hat" SEO doesn't really work – you're better off forming relationships for marketing and having something of value (a product or service that is news worthy).
Project Launch
So returning to why I started the business "Chit Chat" – I was feeling stuck in a job that had no foreseeable long term prospects at that time and the economy was looking bleak, so I had to take things into my own hands. If no one else was going to give me an opportunity, I had to make one for myself.
It was never anticipated that our desktop Facebook software app came into being. Indeed, at the time of launch, we had the only Facebook messaging application for your desktop, which arguably influenced the development of rival products. There was a long list of projects considered, and a desktop Facebook software application was thought of as a precursor to raise enough money to start a different project I had in mind. As it turned out, I decided to stick with the Facebook messaging app for the longer term, developing it for other platforms such as the Blackberry and iPhone.2. What unique need/niche do you fulfill?
At the time of development, there wasn’t a good solution to using Facebook chat on your desktop. I was finding that an increasing amount of my friends were shifting from using MSN Messenger to Facebook chat for instant messaging. As good as Facebook is, it's a very distracting environment. Keeping Facebook open on your browser makes it hard to focus on working on the task at hand – for example: work, your homework, or even shopping!
Chit Chat lets you passively stay connected to Facebook chat, letting you chat with people when you want to.
Due to the success of the desktop version, we recently launched our Facebook Blackberry chat version. Whilst Facebook has launched an official version of their chat app, it isn't very good at handling many conversations at once or customization.
3. How did you find vWorker? What obstacles did you run into that vWorker helped you solve?
Well, I found vWorker – back when it was RentACoder – through Planet Source Code. I used to (well, try to) tinker about with programming when I was younger. I remember a poll that was placed on Planet Source Code asking visitors about a concept that Ian had thought of regarding renting a programmer. Of course, as a poor teenage student at the time, I selected that I had no interest. How things change…
Simply put, I love using vWorker. I feel that it's important to use an outsourcing platform like vWorker in order to reduce the risk of project failure, ensure you're getting credible candidates for projects, and – when things do go wrong – there is an affordable (free) arbitration process in place ready to take care of things.
I find that vWorker is brilliant when it comes to the very beginning of a project (finding candidates) and at the very end (payment). Escrowing monies provides security to both the employer and the worker. vWorker helps me find credible candidates for each task that I have in mind, at affordable prices…and sometimes, more importantly, at short notice…for each aspect of my business.
So, whilst I started out entirely focused on programming, I soon moved into outsourcing marketing, research, and writing work on vWorker. So for example, I recently have been using LEdmiston to do press release writing for me, and I used Ayeshaahmed to do research on making our application more accessible to those with visual disabilities.
We use vWorker's recommended tool Assembla for management of the "development" side of most of our projects.
4. How has your business grown?
The business started off with a few hundred pounds (GBP). Two years later, we have a popular desktop version of our Facebook app and a Blackberry version. Furthermore, at the time of writing, we have an iPhone version and web messenger version about to be launched.
Put simply, vWorker helps you to get you're projects done.
Chit Chat's website currently gets over 14,000 unique visitors and over 10,000 downloads of our Facebook messaging application each day.
5. What advice do you have for others who are starting the same way you did?
Firstly, only risk as much as you can afford to lose, but also recognize that unless you pay "enough" for a project, that project will never come to fruition. At the end of the day, everyone has to make a living.
Secondly, developing for someone else's platform is a risky business – avoid it if possible. Develop for your own server.
Thirdly, everything takes much more time than you'd expect – ensure that you have workers commit to using Assembla, weekly reporting, and phased releases. A rogue worker can easily delay a project by months, so check, check, check that they're working on the project. If they're not, let go of them and get someone else.
Moreover, be both firm and fair – give credit where it's due – but equally, don't be afraid to drop someone or a team and enter arbitration if it's not working out. It's better to cut your losses.
You won't win every time – be prepared to lose small, to win bigger.
Make sure you get your programming done in the RIGHT language – ask several programmers about the pros and cons before you make your choice if you don't understand the difference. For example, I've seen firms start out with their sites entirely in flash, which is a bad idea if you want organic traffic from Google, as Google can't read flash.
Lastly, don't blow your entire budget on your website and/or programming – you will need money to market your solution. While some people are too frugal, some spend way more than they need to.
6. What is your favorite feature on vWorker?
Timecards – it's fairly new, and I run into a problem every now and again, but it has really has made it possible to turn project work into longer term work. It allows me to ensure that workers are accurately reporting their time worked and they are paid fairly for doing so.
7. What has been your experience in mediation/arbitration?
I've mostly had good experiences and been able to reach self-mediated solutions. When I say "good" I mean that in relative terms. This is because if I've outsourced a project, I generally want it finished and completed within the allotted time. I don't want my money back…I want the "deliverables".
Unfortunately, a sizeable proportion of projects end up in arbitration for whatever reason.
However, I did have one programmer whom provided a poorly written solution that just about met the specification but broke other things within the code. While he technically met the specification, his solution wasn't ethical, nor did it meet my needs. To describe the situation, he wanted more money for a proper solution he argued outside vWorker whilst placing the project into arbitration. I felt that he was trying to hold me for money as he'd seen I'd paid a bonus to workers in the past. In the end, when it came to the crunch, he fixed it properly for no additional money.
8. Do you have any tips/tricks/secrets about vWorker that you’ve learned that you’d like to share?
Yes, of course. At the outset, when reviewing workers, ensure they have relevant skills and experience that you require for your project. If you're outsourcing a large job, don't be afraid to ask them to take a relevant ExpertRating test, which vWorker provides for free.
Secondly, always ask the level of time that a worker can commit to a project – do they work full time, in their spare time, after work, or a couple of hours every other week? Then, ask yourself, does that matter to you and your project?
Thirdly, always create a legal agreement on a large project that prevents a worker from working on a rival project after they're done working with you. Consider also using a legal agreement (NDA) on smaller projects with access to confidential code.
Lastly, develop relationships with people – get to know which programmers are good at what, which marketers are good at what, etc. Knowing someone trustworthy that can do a job for you is better than finding someone new each time.
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