Which end of this deal would YOU rather be on?

Written by Trish - October 24, 2006 0 Comments

Here is a great example of the difference between a vpreneur and a freelancer, both operating in the same market space.

Vogue Ads is a company based in India and is a provider on Elance. According to the company’s profile, the company was set up in 1985 by a "hard core" marketing guy. As of today, they show earnings on Elance for the past 6 months of just under $17K, and total earnings since they signed on to the board of just over $130K. Not too shabby (for reference, 4R shows a 6 month total of just over $14K and a running total from October 2004 of just under $67K).

On Saturday, Vogue Ads was awarded a project for a real estate company’s corporate profile. Though I don’t know what the award amount was (it was a Select project, which keeps bid amounts confidential), the buyer posted a budget of $250 to $500.

Vogue Ads is also a buyer on GetAFreelancer. On Sunday, they posted a project there that matches up with the job they were awarded on Elance:

We require a 5/6 page copy (about 400 words to a page)for a corporate profile for a real estate company in US.The copy should be crisp and compelling.Only those with experience in writing corporate brochures/profiles are invited to bid along with samples. Budget: $50-60

Let’s do some math. Say that Vogue Ads lowballed, going even below the posted budget, and bid $200. They will pay around $15 in fees to Elance for that award, leaving $185. At the most, they will pay a contractor on GetAFreelancer $60 (don’t get me started about only paying $10 per page and expecting crisp, compelling, professional results!!!).

Net: $125. Yes, they will probably need to do some quality assurance and project oversight, but how much time will that take?

So…tell me…which end of this deal would you rather be on? The vpreneur end, or the freelancer end?

One note: There is a risk for vpreneurs who pursue this kind of approach. I’ll talk about it in a future post. For now, here’s a hint: Vogue Ads has a running feedback rating of 4.6 on Elance, which is pretty low.