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Webinar: Are You Exposed? How to Minimize Your 1099 Freelancer Compliance Risk
Work Market is hosting a webinar on Wednesday, March 12, from 1:00-1:30 EST.
Register today!
Join presenter Jeff Wald, COO and cofounder of Work Market, as he discusses the newly implemented IRS regulations that will affect businesses who use an on-demand workforce.
In this webinar, Jeff will review the following topics:
IRS regulations that will affect your business
Best practices for internal compliance
How to enforce compliance in your labor chain
Tools that ensure insurance compliance
Take advantage of this webinar to get a better grasp on worker misclassification and other regulations that your company needs to know.
Attention: you have been hacked. This article is nothing but a job posting for a NYC Growth Hacker, upvoted by the team at Work Market.
Work Market is one of the fastest growing enterprise startups in the world, providing software for companies to find and manage onsite freelance workforces.
Now you know why you are here, we’d like you to join our USV and Spark Capital funded startup and help grow our database of freelance onsite professionals.
It’s a challenging job, but we know you may be the right fit. Seriously…you are reading the right blog. So read through the details and drop us an application, and we’ll talk.
An IT Consultant, Rick McKeen, was sent an assignment on Work Market to extend a circuit in a remote Native American reservation home to the Havasupai Indians.
The reservation is enclosed in the steep, sharp canyons of Supai Arizona, and not accessible by car. Rick took video of his awesome ride into the reservation and was kind enough to share it with us.
As our friend passes over the last cliff at about 3:37, this Havasupai village of lush greens comes into view and triggers some awesome emotion as the pilot lowers into the canyon. Definitely check it out!
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7 Things Freelancers Should Know About How Clients View Freelance Work
Ever wonder what your clients are thinking? Wish you could get inside their heads and find out what drives them? Showing that you are perceptive and understand client wants and needs can help you stand out and receive more quality work from them in the future.
At Work Market we spend a lot of time talking to companies who hire freelance workers. We asked them for what makes the perfect freelancer. The following are seven key tips to making clients happy (and getting more work) - straight from the source.
Uphold the client’s brand. If your project is onsite, maintain professionalism and procure necessary information about the project and the brand prior to arriving onsite. Dress professionally, arrive on time and come prepared with all required equipment and tools. You are the face of their brand and are expected to act courteously and well-informed. This generally results in repeat business and strong ratings, which then brings more projects for both you and the client.
Continue to evolve. More workers are seeing the benefits of going freelance. An increase in the “talent pool” means an increase in competition. It is more important than ever to maintain skills and certifications. Clients want you to evolve as well. You have to so you do not fall behind. Invest in training and education to stay ahead of the curve.
Competition is increasing for buyers. Believe it or not, increased competition also holds true on client side as more companies are discovering the advantages in utilizing an on-demand workforce. This means a boost in quality jobs for the best of the best. This also means better pay and honest ratings. Why? Clients know they will miss out on quality contract workers if they do not prove themselves to be fair. They want to make it easy for you to work with them. Using online staffing marketplaces, like Work Market, and a fully functioning mobile application are two ways they can do just that.
Go mobile. Soon enough, all work will be managed and conducted over your mobile device. If you do not have a smartphone yet, get one. If you have not downloaded a client’s app yet, do it now. Clients want their onsite workforce to have the ability to upload required documents and obtain signatures while on location. They know that mobile is the workforce solution of the future. You simply have to be there.
Be a business. Cultivate a professional identity to stand out to clients looking for a contractor. Trademark your business. Get insurance. Enhance your LinkedIn page. Since they will never meet you, presenting yourself as a serious professional online will lessen any hesitation they might have in conducting business transactions with you.
Clients want to build a relationship with you. Securing trust from a client leads to higher ratings and can help in getting references, both which help you attain more work. Gain trust by performing consistent, quality work and communicating effectively both during and upon completion of a project.
We hope this insight helps you in working with current and future clients. Comment below with any additional advice!
Is January 2014 the Tipping Point of Online Marketplaces for Freelance On-Site/Local Workers?
By Diego Lomanto, VP Marketing
There was quite a bit of buzz last week in regards to Work Market’s announcement of SAP choosing to build and manage an on-demand workforce of pre-sales consultants on our platform. Between this news and a report released by Andrew Karpie of Staffing Industry Analysts last week, we now have two major events occurring within the first ten days of the new year that indicate something big is happening in the online marketplace for freelance onsite, local workers.
First, let’s look at the report. Here’s what Andrew predicts that the total market for online staffing will be in 2020:
In the report he breaks the market down further into 3 sub-segments which are roughly a third each. They are:
- Remote/Virtual Work performed for Small Businesses
- Remote/Virtual Work performed for Larger Businesses
- Onsite/Local Work performed for All-size Businesses
Most people are very familiar with the the first two sub-segments, the remote/virtual work markets. These are the classic web designer, programmer, writer, SEO jobs that Elance, oDesk, Freelancer.com have built their businesses on. Right now, most of the traction in freelance marketplaces is around the remote work for SMBs. That’s because of the 1.5B in spend today, about 80% is remote for SMBs. Remote for enterprise and onsite/local make up the other 20% today combined.
If you wanted any proof that the remote market is already starting to push past early adoption, just look at the buzz around the Elance/oDesk merger announced last month. Chess pieces are being moved.
It makes perfect sense for remote work to be the first market to tip. The ecosystem required to manage this work isn't "simple" but it's far less complex than onsite work. The investments required to build out that ecosystem were less, with lower barriers to entry.
Now, think about making all the pieces come together for someone to show up on-site, with the right skills, right tools, at the right time. And, think about doing this tens of thousands of times a day. To build an online ecosystem to manage that is not easy, and requires a bit of investment.
These systems are just starting to come to fruition. In fact Work Market is only 3 years old and we were in stealth mode for the first 1.5 years building our platform.
In lieu of platforms, many companies traditionally put their onsite workers on W2s. This gives them more control and is easier to manage when they are on staff. And if you want to drive some sort of variability, at the very least you go through a staffing firm and hire people part-time. It’s not ideal but it’s better than hiring full-time W2s for variable work.
But it’s inefficient, and that's where the pent-up demand for online onsite/local freelance marketplaces is coming from. Many onsite projects are variable in nature and could benefit for more dynamic management of resources. That’s what’s so exciting. When you combine the people function with technology for process management you can scale your workforce to meet demand fluidly.
And what’s even more amazing about this is that this is exactly how many people WANT to work. Check out the MBO report: State of Independence in America. By 2020 50% of people will have spent time as self-employed. The benefits are very well known…freedom, flexibility, constant exposure to new types of work, etc. It’s all dovetailing into what looks to be a tremendous new market.
It’s estimated that this market is about ~$200M today. And growing to anywhere between $5.5B to $15.5B in 6 years. That’s incredible growth.
When you combine the release of pent-up demand that is there, with the actions taken this week by SAP I think you may be seeing the tipping point. SAP is taking an extremely complex process and integral component of their business and using our platform to allow partners to freely staff and manage this on-site work. It’s highly complex work. Pre-sales consulting on SAP requires skill. Lots of skill. And now it can be staffed online. This announcement is a nod to the viability of online marketplaces for extended workforces. One of the best software companies in the world looked at Work Market software and decided it can help them build a better workforce - online.
So, between the recent SIA report and this major event the marketplace for an on-site, local extended workforce has seen two major events in less than 7 days. Is this the tipping point? In 2020, if the market reaches $15.5B as predicted we could be looking back at the first week of 2014 and say that’s when the pieces really started moving fast. Work Market is excited to be part of making this transformation happen. More people working the way they want. More companies hiring the way they want. Isn’t that what a marketplace is all about?
To learn more about how Work Market can help you find and manage an freelance onsite workforce please visit www.workmarket.com.
Managing Independent Contractors: The Do's and Don'ts
We joined our partners at World Alliance Retail for Excellence & Standards for our most recent webinar, "Using Technology to Build and Manage an On-Demand Workforce". Jeff Wald, co-founder and COO of Work Market, went into detail about the best ways for an organization to stay within the IRS guidelines when managing an extended onsite and local workforce. Here are some highlights:
The Do's
Make sure independent contractors work with other buyers
Have a contract that establishes your engagement
Get bids from multiple independent contractors for work
Make sure they are truly a business
The Dont's
Engage former employees as independent contractors
Provide leads to an outsourced sales
Pay hourly, daily weekly, etc. (instead, pay by the task!)
Work with same independent contractors repeatedly
With the growing trend of contracted labor, Wald stated, companies need to ensure they are properly classifying their workforce and applying the necessary audit trails. Along with end to end workforce management, online platforms like Work Market provide organizations with the tools to avoid worker misclassification.
Follow this link to watch the recorded presentation.
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How DataStar USA Uses Work Market to Drive More Revenue
In case you missed our latest webinar, How to Win & Manage More Business Using On-Demand Talent, check out our recap of the 5 key takeaways from Steve Speidel, COO of DataStar USA.
1. Don't Be Afraid To Start Big: Once you land that big deal, your reputation with clients, competition, and independent contractors will thrive and you will be set up for future successul projects on Work Market.
2. Your Projects Can Easily Scale - And Work Market Can Help: DataStar USA used customized tests, bulk upload tools, and groups to better manage their projects. Work Market is scalable; built to handle any size project. Let our tools help your team manage the workflow from end to end.
3. There Are Ways To Extend Your Cash Flow: Work Market's payment terms extend your cash flow, giving you the opportunity to bid on larger scale projects. Payment terms enable businesses to send and fulfill projects without pre-funding their account on Work Market.
4. You Can Easily Vet And Train Contractors at Scale: Create training, tests, and set customized requirements to build a quality workforce. Ensure techs are trained and compliant before they step foot on the job with the Learning Management System on Work Market.
5. You Don't Have To Comprimise On Quality: DataStar USA used customized filters in Work Market's people search, filtering contractors with a high scorecard rating, and a completed drug test and background check. With this information, they created several robust groups to manage their work. In doing this, DataStar USA gained a quality network of contractors, all of whom are happy to work with them again!
To watch the entire presentation, follow this link.
Only the most agile companies will survive the changing labor marketplace. The most recent Forrester Report, along with defining just what agility is, examines the impending change. All businesses have the opportunity to be agile - or the right to consistently embrace change as a matter of routine. They need the right information and, more importantly, the right technology to do so. Service delivery companies that leverage contractors and freelancers know the challenges with building and scaling a workforce of this type. The rise of the freelance workforce poses danger to agility efforts. The new organizational composition of on-demand workers will throw a wrench in communication effectiveness and the overall makeup of the organization as it is known today. Businesses without the proper processes implemented to embrace the new changes risk falling behind; only to get lost in the shuffle of dated and non-productive labor methods. The transition to a hybrid labor model of full-time and freelance is undeniable and those who have not yet given in need to realize that the time for change is now. The underlying factor on finding success in making the transition to this hybrid workforce is ultimately the right people, process, and technology that enables any business from any industry to embrace the new marketplace and jump in.
Communicating with on-demand staff lies in the hands of technology. The right technology enables both the business and the contracted worker to communicate from both ends. The days of institutional knowledge: memos on cork boards, team emails, weekly meetings, or even daily standups are nearing the end. Businesses need to share information quickly so the job can get done as soon as possible, without it being a chore. Innovative technology, like Work Market, is designed for automated, mass communication to anyone on your workforce.
Lower-level employees must be empowered with new technology in order for an agile business to remain at the top. They hold the hierarchy in the future org chart. In this new, fast-paced environment, the traditional hierarchical organization is transforming to a more flat, interconnected network of team members. The Forrester Report emulates the reality of an organization facing the freelance workforce. Often, it is not the CEO of the company with total comprehension of functionality of the business. Instead, it is the employees working closely with customers that have a greater idea of potential business inefficiencies. The most important members of a team are no longer just the ones signing the paychecks. They are the dispatchers, the project managers, the service coordinators; the ones running the show from the front line.
Work Market allows companies to achieve communication with our Integrated Communication Tools, our stream of live notifications that update both parties the status of their workflow, and customized messaging that empowers clear and concise communication for all involved. Our technology is built to manage all aspects of the workflow from end to end. We empower companies to stay agile in the transition to a 1099 workforce by giving those who operate the flow of work everyday the tools they need. Work Market is the answer to agility for many companies. Those who do not are not using Work Market to manage their on-demand labor, might get left behind.
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Billions in Spending Coming to the Freelance Economy — 4 Things Freelancers Need to Know to Get Paid
by Jeff Wald, COO and co-founder of Work Market, follow @JeffreyWald
The world's largest companies are beginning to adjust their workforces and processes to engage more freelancers. The requirements that these companies will enforce in their labor supply chain will become the new de facto standard of the freelance world. As this increased spending causes the size of the freelance economy to explode, are you ready? Are you prepared to adapt with the evolving requirements and increased spending that is coming?
At Work Market, we help companies like Omnicom, Lockheed Martin, NCR and SAP, who collectively might spend several billion dollars on freelancers in a year, by providing a platform that allows them to work with thousands of people everyday. The way these large companies on-board and work with people is very different from how small and medium-sized businesses work with their freelancers. As we have helped large businesses evolve their labor engagement process, we want to share how you can best work with them, massively improving your pay and experience.
1) Make sure you really are a freelancer. Many people who call themselves a freelancer actually don't meet the IRS regulations for a freelancer. The IRS sets out what you need to be qualified as a freelancer; the further you are from that, the less likely a large company will want to do business with you. The guidelines want you to act as an actual business that performs a service for a host of customers. They suggest freelancers form a corporation, create a website, make a logo, open a business bank account and have a physical office. Large companies with HR and procurement departments are very aware of worker misclassification claims and know that the more formal the business they are engaging is, the less likely that the business will be deemed an employee. Some large companies simply will not work with individuals who are not incorporated. Some will not take the compliance risk of you being misclassified as a full-time employee (along with all the fines and penalties).
2) Get business insurance. Work Market's buyers are increasingly requiring business insurance in order for freelancers to work with them. This includes general and professional liability insurance, as well as worker compensation. The minimum coverage needed is usually $1 million. In order to work with most large companies, your freelancer agreements will require that you are covered so that if you are injured, or cause injury or damage to a person or place, you are able to pay for the damage. This can be a challenge sometimes as insurance brokers and underwriters rarely want to go through the process of working with sole proprietors (often times being too much work for not enough commission). At Work Market, we created an innovative partnership with Insureon that allows individuals and small companies to procure the right insurance our buyers need through an online procurement process.
3) Invest in your "human capital." Large companies cannot put much value on personal relationships. They are simply working with too many people and therefore must rely on data. Data will drive the decision-making process as to which freelancer should work on which projects. Freelancers who spend time being thoughtful and articulate about their skills, expertise and knowledge are more likely viewed as relevant in a search algorithm. In addition, buyers are increasingly requiring background checks and drug tests for those who work with them. Again, as you get away from personal relationships, companies need some method for determining if they can trust the people who are working on their teams, their projects and with their clients. Background checks and drug tests are easy hurdles to set up and monitor, so companies are making them a standard. Invest in your human capital and the returns will be measured in increased work.
4) Monitor your feedback and networks. The most important factors a hiring manager will use in determining the right resource for a project are: "Have they worked for me or someone I know and trust before, and did they do it well?" Again, data will determine this by using search algorithms and network connections. In the freelance economy, all data will be captured and most will be shared. You will no longer be able to escape a project done poorly, an assignment you didn't show up for or a customer not treated well. This will go beyond just your work feedback. If you are going to work with a new buyer and you know 10 people in common, both sides of the trade feel the added comfort of overlapping professional networks; you don't cheat people in your ecosystem. All freelance labor platforms incorporate a feedback mechanism. From the simple five-star ratings metric, to the more complex quality metrics Work Market has pioneered, all that data is being captured and utilized to drive future decision-making by companies or relevancy in search algorithms. Monitor your networks and ensure you always get the best feedback... there is no hiding in the new freelance economy.
More and more companies are looking to engage with freelancers. The requirements placed by large businesses are more difficult than what small companies with personal relationships require. However, large companies have larger dollar projects, a higher quantity of projects and longer-term projects. As companies adopt the technology necessary to manage contractors in scale, the freelance economy, which has grown so rapidly over the last 10 years, will explode.
Are you ready for the billions in spending that is coming your way?
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