Exchange freelance vs. working directly - a few facts from the Payoneer survey

At Payoneer, we are constantly striving to improve our products to better meet the needs of users. That is why we systematically conduct research and surveys, through which we learn more about the business of our clients.

In particular, thanks to one of the latest surveys, we were able to learn a few facts about the specifics of working on freelance exchanges and with direct clients. We are sure that this topic is relevant for many readers of our blog and decided to share several observations.

A few words about the survey under the spoiler:

The study was conducted in 2016.
Survey participants: freelancers (79.7%) and company owners (18.1%) from Russia and Ukraine, providing the following services on the international market:

In total, 970 people took part in the survey.

What to prefer: work on freelance exchanges or directly with customers? Surely this question is relevant for any entrepreneur providing services to international clients. The results of our survey show that most of the participants are already working in both directions, taking advantage of both business approaches. At the same time, more than half of the participants noted that they work with a small pool of direct customers (from 1 to 5).

We asked survey participants with experience in both online sites and direct clients to prioritize the list of advantages of these solutions and obtained the following results.

Advantages of freelance exchanges

Survey participants had the opportunity to choose several response options, and as a result, their priorities were distributed as follows.

• The possibility of obtaining additional income remains an important argument in favor of freelance exchanges, even for those who cooperate with clients directly (63.9% of respondents).
• In second place, participants noted the possibility of finding new customers .
  It is important to note that answering the question about how to find new direct customers, the participants awarded first place to online exchanges (second place - word of mouth and recommendations of existing customers). Thus, the ability to search for customers remains the most important advantage of freelancing sites. In the network you can find a lot of information about how to stand out among competitors and find your customers on the stock exchanges, for example, a few examples of advice from the sales manager in an outsourcing company, Eugene Bregman in our blog
• Business diversification and payment guarantees share the third place with a slight difference.
  At the same time it is important to consider the issue of payment guarantees in more detail. Almost 90% of respondents said that they rarely face non-payment of the order, much more often the problem is the delay of payments (42% of respondents face it from time to time).
• In addition to the above, among the advantages of freelance exchanges was called the transparency of the rules.

Benefits of working with clients directly

In relation to working with clients directly, the priorities were as follows:

• Here again, the financial aspect takes the first place: 67.5% of respondents point out more favorable conditions for receiving payment as a top priority.
  It should be added here that the surveyed participants note the greater economic feasibility of working with direct clients as compared with projects on exchanges.
  
• Ease of communication with customers and the formation of business relationships are also leading factors.
  It is important to clarify that in the question of the main challenges that participants face when working with clients directly, it is the winning of client confidence that comes first. Many articles have also been written about customer relations, some tips can be found in an interview with entrepreneur Gleb Pereyaslavsky in our blog .
• In addition to the above reasons for working with clients, the desire of customers who suggested (or made a condition) to work in this way was directly stated.

One of the nuances of working with direct clients is the issue of receiving payment, we wrote about the corresponding payment solutions in a previous article . Thus, Payoneer account holders can work seamlessly with both online platforms and clients directly. If you do not have an account, you can register by this link .

We are sure that many of the readers of our blog have extensive experience working with foreign clients. We would be grateful if you supplement this article with your opinion, leaving comments and participating in the survey.