Upwork exchange as a source of orders for an IT company?

Question

Freelance

Hello!
We are a young IT company (6 people), we specialize in the development of corporate systems (mainly JAVA platform), we sit in the office. We make projects that are quite large by the standards of freelance for 300 - 2000 man-hours. There are not so many customers and orders in the Russian Federation yet, so we are interested in the UPWORK exchange. As a freelancer has never worked, there is an idea to register your company as an agency on UPWORK (website, presentation, portfolio available). Having studied the issue, I realized that there are projects worth $3,000 or more on UPWORK - and this is exactly what we need.
The main idea is that all work is done through me as the head of the company, i.e.:
* The customer did not see the characteristics and profiles of my developers
* The developer did not see the characteristics of the order and customer profiles
1. If you work on fixed price orders with the help of agencies - how can you implement such a scheme so that no one sees anyone?
2. Does it make sense to use pre-created noname profiles (I will have logins and passwords for them) just to fill the agency with developers for visibility?
3. If you work at an hourly rate - is it possible to make sure that the developers do not see the rate at which we work?
4. If offhand - how difficult (in terms of time and in the number of completed projects) will it be possible to get the first order with a volume of 3000 - 5000 $?
Thank you!

Answer 1

Come on the wrong side.
The biggest problem is to TAKE a normal order on the UpWork exchange.
Well, as a businessman, you should take such orders REGULARLY in order to provide your staff with a constant work load.
All the other problems you mentioned are complete nonsense and are not a problem at all against the backdrop of the problem that it will really be difficult for you to solve in order to start your activity on Upwork - REGULARLY TAKE GOOD ORDERS.
Good specialists have been working on Upwork for years - and their ultimate dream is "to take an order for $ 500", and you immediately open your mouth for permanent orders of $ 3000 ....
If you don't want your final contractors to see your orders and customers - work with contractors outside of Upwork, and only work with customers through Upwork - what's the problem????
From the fact that your employees find out that you take orders through Upwork, nothing fundamentally changes.
1. It is not so easy for a single specialist to take large orders.
2. It takes time to get promoted on Upwork, and for quite a long time a beginner receives not very interesting and not very money offers.
3. If you provide employees with a constant flow of work, they will not look for additional. earnings on sites like Upwork.
4. Not everyone needs this hemorrhoid with a direct customer. The vast majority of people in the world work in some firms and get a job through the boss, or even through a large chain of bosses ... Many people are much more comfortable that way.
You will have a problem only in one case - if you bite off a hefty percentage, while NOT ADDING YOUR OWN CONTRIBUTION.
But nowadays, when almost everyone knows about Upwork, you can’t fix this problem in any way.
Only by making your additional contribution (for example, excellent knowledge of the English language, constant insight into the depth of projects and the fact that you will be extremely careful about your reputation on Upwork and will work on your reputation for many months) will you be insured that it will be more profitable to work through you, than directly.

Answer 2

The agency profile does not have to include employees, employees do not have to talk about upwork (if you really want to be secretive). The main thing is to fill out the profile with high quality and constantly monitor interesting orders and send applications for them. The first order may take a week or two, or maybe a month or two - as lucky. In terms of time - well, half an hour, an hour or two a day for searching / answering applications. 60 answers per month are free, additional ones cost money.

Answer 3

IMHO, there is a lot of competition in the form of dumping on the freelance exchange.
Probably better to establish a channel through partners in the same America.
Maybe some salespeople will work for a percentage of the transaction?

Answer 4

So-so source. It is better to work with local businesses.

Answer 5

You will not receive $3k monthly, there are few such projects and it will be unrealistic to take it. Indians constantly dampen and are ready to make it for $500. So it's better to find customers directly.

Answer 6

1. If you work on fixed price orders with the help of agencies - how can you implement such a scheme so that no one sees anyone?

Such a scheme can only work on Fix price. If I'm not mistaken (let others correct me), then you can create just an Agency with one employee - you. The fact that you have a team of 6 people behind you is of no interest to anyone, you are already an Agency and you are not required to add all your employees to Upwork (as far as I know) .
The question is to convince the customer that you have a sufficient team. It seems to me that your portfolio is already enough, the rest is up to your art of negotiation.
This is definitely forbidden and you should not do it, you still won’t be able to keep your profiles up to date. Also, if Upwork notices this, then you will be asked for a lot of documents for each employee, which you are unlikely to be able to provide, as a result, you will be blocked and the money will not be returned to your account, and you will also have problems with re-registration.
Unfortunately, no, Upwork is too transparent in this sense, it sometimes saddens me too, but you can’t do anything about it.
Here, in general, how lucky, if you fill out your profile coolly and negotiate well, then you can get it at least on the first day, or you can in 2 months, it's like playing roulette. I do not recommend dumping in the beginning, as well as competing with the Indians, this will add a cheap order to your profile and customers will be guided by this price in the future, evaluating your level. You can drive yourself into the low-price segment, if you don’t plan to work there, then don’t even start.

Answer 7

1) the customer sees everything in the agency the
developer sees everything about the customer, including how he pays
2) unless the developer is a member of the agency
noneme profiles are prohibited and you will immediately get banned the
developer sees everything
for several weeks if you know how to work well