Outsourcing: Million-Dollar Freelancer: Ignacio Galarraga, CEO of NetMen Corp (Part 5)

Sramana Mitra: What is the composition of your customers? You said you have 500 projects a month, right?

Ignacio Galarraga: Yes, we handle 500 projects a month.

SM: And over the course of the years, you’ve handled more than 5,000 projects?

IG: We have done 15,000 projects.

SM: Where do these projects come from? Are you getting mostly North American projects?

IG: Yes, 75% of our customers are U.S. customers. The other 25% are from all over the world.

SM: So, that means your time zone is very compatible with the U.S.

IG: Yes. Our rate is competitive. It’s not the cheapest one, but it’s very competitive. So, for the U.S. market, they get nice, high-quality designs with good customer service. We work under the same time zone. I’m in the Eastern time zone, so the only difference I have is with the West Coast and the middle of the country. I don’t have to work after hours or on Sundays or Saturdays. I normally work from Monday to Friday, 8 am to 6 pm. Working with the U.S. is fine. And I also found that the American people value our work. I really appreciate that.

SM: It’s fairly easy for you to serve your customers because you’re in the same time zone. I work a lot with outsources elsewhere in the world, and we tend to work a lot with people in Asia. We have people in India and Pakistan and Malaysia and the Philippines, and these people are on the other side of the world. Often, they are awake and working while we are awake and working, but that’s really their nighttime.

IG: Yes, I know. I have customers in Australia. They are 13 hours ahead, so when everything goes fine, it’s fine. When you have a problem, it’s unbelievable. They are 13 hours ahead. They have to wait two days to receive feedback from me. That is very hard, and I don’t have a 24/7 company. I have a normal company that works in my time zone, so I have to try to find customers who I will be able to help during their working time. For that reason, I don’t get too much work from the other side of the world.

SM: What about Europe? Do you work with Europe?

IG: Yes, we work with the UK because we are only a few hours behind them. We have a couple of customers from there and France and Italy, but not so many. It’s mostly North America, Canada. Brazil has incorporated a lot of new customers on Elance, so we have customers from Brazil. So, Latin America, Mexico, Honduras, Colombia, we have customers from that area. We also have some from Spain because they want to have native Spanish-speaking [contractors].

SM: Good. Ignacio, this is nice story. I’m delighted to see that you’ve put together a nice company in Argentina.

IG: Yes, I enjoy working here, and it’s great to be working online and to be able to build this type of company online. Mostly, I have never seen any of my customers. So, that’s amazing. When I tell my friends, nobody can believe what I’ve done. How can you [build a graphic design service] without talking to or seeing someone in person? It’s very hard, but we have done it.

SM: You’re working 100% on Elance, but there are many other exchanges that also supply that kind of work. Have you not considered going to any of the other exchanges for business development?

IG: Yes. There is another marketplace called Guru.com. My company was the number one graphic design company there, too, but a couple of years ago I left it because the marketplace was not helping us. People were coming in and cheating on the payments. The system was not good. So, I left it. I stay with Elance because Elance is committed to helping providers and customers. They are very neutral, and for that reason, I work only with Elance. The other one, oDesk, is more for programming and Web development and not so much graphic design.

SM: What about 99Designs? Have you tried 99Designs?

IG: I know the owner. Because of my company’s exposure on Elance, crowdsourcing sites come to me and want my company there because of my track record and profile. So, I was in touch with the owner of 99Designs. I keep receiving invitations all day. But I don’t believe in this type of work-for-free job. There you have to go and do the presentation, and it is 100% risk because they are not going to pay if they don’t like it. They are receiving, say, 1,000 jobs at the same time. I never tried that, and I never will. I work on Elance because I make my proposal. I give a detailed description. I give the price I’m going to charge; it’s a fixed price. If someone wants to hire my company, he pays me, and that’s it. I don’t work for a risk. I don’t know what the future of crowdsourcing sites is, but I believe they won’t be around for too many more years.

SM: OK. Congratulations again, Ignacio. I really enjoyed talking to you.

IG: Yes, you, too. Thank you.

This segment is part 5 in the series : Outsourcing: Million-Dollar Freelancer: Ignacio Galarraga, CEO of NetMen Corp
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