What is a good price for outsourcing a ______?
Yeah, outsourcing is great fun until it hits your wallet… but it does not have to be that way if you learn to master the answer to the question above.
Right now, we’re in the process of building a 3d game for Wii, Mac, PC and web. The entire game series is done by freelancers from all over the world. We did not write any line of code, did not do any art pieces. We just manage the process.
The project is a monster.
So far, we have had to create (individual) jobs for:
42 concept art jobs
25 2D art jobs
19 3D modeling jobs
14 programming jobs
8 legal document jobs
That’s a humble 108 jobs for one project. I cannot even tell you how many hours that is in total.
When people hear about this, they think we’re dropping millions on this project. The truth is, our outsourcing budget for this project hasn’t crossed 10k yet. That’s an average of 93 dollars per job! Not impressed? That includes lawyers!
The secret of getting things done well for little, is:
1 – Setting a start-price that is ridiculously low.
2 – Knowing exactly what you want
Our western-minds by default think $30 USD per hour or more, but there’s a whole bunch of people that don’t think that way. Those are the ones you’re trying to reach. On top of that, there’s are millions of professionals that are used to high wages that look for a job well thought through. All of the sudden the price doesn’t matter much anymore.
Alright, let’s get to it. Here’s your start-bid-shopping-list:
A Custom WordPress Template with widgets
Fee: $45
You deliver: A photoshop document with the exact look & feel you’re after
Days to deliver: Two. Revisions can add one more.
An internet research job “Find 100 …”
Fee: $50
You deliver: An exact description of what you’re after and excel file setup
Days to deliver: Two. Ask to send the first 25 in for review before continuing.
A low-poly 3D Character
Fee: $50
You deliver: Exact concept art from 3 angles (model sheet)
Days to deliver: One. Revisions can add one more.
Writing blog posts
Fee: $10 per post
You deliver: Exact description per post and maximum amount of words
Days to deliver: 2 hrs per post
Translation job
Fee: $10 per letter size page
You deliver: The pages
Days to deliver: 1 day for 4 pages
Legal document
Fee: $100 per 4-page document
You deliver: Exact description of what you want. Find someone in the same country or state as the document’s law-base you’re after. Stay in good, constant communication.
Days to deliver: 3 days.
I know these prices are ridiculously low, but they serve to start the bidding. Professional translators usually want to charge you per-word and such, I never go into that. I love having a fixed fee per project, no stings attached. If the professionals ignore you, there will be students that are just as good.
Outsourcing has to be a win-win deal for both you and the freelancer – internet allows the two to meet.
Let me know what else you need in this list and I’ll add it!
Yours,
-Efraim
More priceless outsourcing advice?
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