The book "Freelancers and Shabashniki"

Two years ago, my wife and I moved to live outside the city. And from time to time I have to be in the shoes of the customer. So it turns out that the responsibilities of the owner of a private house, which in the city is usually performed utilities. Therefore, so that the roof was repaired, the sewage system was made, the courtyard was refined - you need to hire people. Only instead of freelancers they are called "shabashniki." Due to the fact that for most, the provision of such services is an additional income.

During the short time that we live outside the city, I have already managed to fill the bumps in working with builders and "shabashniki." As it turned out, these bumps are exactly the same as those of clients who work with freelancers and design studios. Namely:
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1. Poor quality of work that makes itself felt through time, at the most inopportune moment. Moreover, the services of the contractor may not be the cheapest.
2. Breaking deadlines. Believe me, to sit an additional week and a half without water is no less painful, as without design a week before the launch of an advertising campaign.
3. Performers on the recommendation, even from the best friends, can screw up a lot more.
4. If you do not properly control the process, then you will steal time, money and resources. When buying construction materials myself, I learned a few methods of how this is done.
5. If you do not understand the question, it is very easy for you to hang noodles on your ears.

The root of my problems when working with builders lay in the fact that I do not understand electrician, plumbing, metalworking, etc. I naively thought that I earned good enough so that other people could not do what I can do. . I thought that there was no need to go into all the details, because there are experts who know how to do this. That was probably my biggest mistake, which cost me a lot of money.

Most likely, this is not what you wanted to hear. Of course, I want to find a specialist who will take your "headache" with the repair (website) on yourself. Plus the fact that there are such specialists (I speak from my own experience). Minus - to find them you must, at least minimally, understand the topic. This raises the question:

“Why would I need someone then if I figure it out myself?”

First , you are unlikely to figure it all out. You can only understand the theoretical part of how to do it. And specialists pay for their skills, for the fact that they know how to do it (and not only know). As the saying goes: "You pay, the ruble for the nail and another 499 for the fact that the specialist knows where to hammer it."

Secondly , you free up time to earn money in the area in which you understand, and not to do the most repairs (website) and lose money.

Well, even if so, where does this knowledge come from?

I get knowledge from specialists who really know and know how to do everything efficiently. Somehow it turns out that after the “shabashnik” you usually find a specialist who shows what needs to be done and how.

For example, today I learned how to repair a check valve, repair an injector and diagnose a mini-tower. I learned that the mini-tower, which is responsible for the water supply in the house, needs to be checked every six months for problems.

Now it’s clear how this is done, but I’ll still refer to the specialist who showed me all this. Why? See the points "first" and "second".

With pipes and shabashniki understand what to do with sites and freelancers?

I plan to write a book about how to work with freelancers. And to the Hubs community, I ask for help to make the book as useful as possible.

In my work, your questions and problems that you had while working with freelancers will be useful to me.

In addition, I am looking for successful examples of cooperation with freelancers. How did you manage to organize the process of remote work.

The most painful problems and the best examples of their solutions will be added to the book. For anyone who responds to my request for help - will receive a free printed copy of the book.

Send your examples and questions to book@webster.co.ua
If you want to follow the process of writing a book, go to my blog: webster.co.ua

This book is for you and without your participation it will not be as cool as with you)
Thanks to all.