Flexibility
Flexibility is one word that stood out the most in my conversation with Michael Brooks, CEO of goLance.com, an emerging marketplace for freelancers, for the Freelance Blend Podcast.
“Flexibility is the foundation of our business,” said Michael as he detailed to me his philosophy on how freelancer platforms should work and how he applies that philosophy in goLance.
With goLance, freelancers can create as many companies (similar to agencies in Upwork) as they like under one account and hire different subcontractors for each company that they create. What’s more, freelancers can create multiple payout structures, where they can opt to split payments among their subcontractors.
In terms of restrictions when applying for gigs, there’s absolutely none. Freelancers can apply for as many gigs as they like because Michael feels having any of these restrictions is counter to the culture of goLance.
Harmony
Harmony is another remarkable word that I took away from my conversation with Michael.
He said: “Our goal is not to become a multimillion dollar company. Our plan is to be here for decades and make relationships with people around the world, going to the places where our competitors won’t.”
I truly believe in building harmonious relationships not only with the people you love (that should be a given) but with the people you work with in your business — be it your clients, colleagues, bosses, employees, janitors, etc. Because that’s how I built Freelance Blend, by connecting with influencers, freelancers and partners. You wouldn’t be reading this blog post or listening to the podcast now without those relationship that I slowly built for almost 3 years. Money and fame can easily disappear but the relationships that you built won’t.
And now, here is Michael, a CEO of a tech company who goes old school and travels around the world, flys out as far as Siberia, to meet with clients and freelancers face to face! As he said, he’s in it for the long haul. That gives you enough confidence to invest your freelance business in goLance.com.
Meanwhile, please tune in to the Freelance Blend Podcast to learn more about Michael Brooks and goLance.com.
SHOW HIGHLIGHTS
In this episode, Michael and I discussed:
- How Michael started in entrepreneurship
- Michael’s experiences with bad and good mentors
- Michael’s first business pursuit
- The sickness in the freelancing business
- How Michael discovered outsourcing in freelance platforms as an intelligent and powerful business strategy
- Why Michael fell in love with the freelancers he was able to work with
- Why Michael decided to dedicate the next 40 years of his life serving freelancers and employers in the freelancer industry
- Michael’s advice on working with difficult people
- Why Michael travels around the world to collect freelancer profiles which he then features at the goLance blog
- The success story of a Filipino goLancer named Mark
- The 3 main pillars why clients love working with Michael and the goLance team
- goLance’s flexible payment structure
- Why goLance’s smaller freelancer market can give freelancers a better chance to get clients.
- goLance’s goCredit and CashBack features for employers
- Michael’s surprising response about service fees in goLance
- Why other marketplaces can be “MySpaced” in a minute
- How to freelancers can withdraw their payments
QUOTES
“My number 1 recommendation is to work from the heart.”
“Our plan is not to go make a billion dollars in 5 years… our plan is decades. Decades in the business and making friends around the world and going to the places where our competitors won’t.”
“We will absolutely never charge or limit the amount that people can apply themselves.”
“At the end of the day, you, me, the employers, the goLancers around the world, we all have to take care of our families.”
MICHAEL’S ADVICE TO FREELANCERS
- The freelance marketplace is a competitive space. Put your freelancer profiles in every freelancer platform possible.
- Link all of your social media accounts on your profile.
- Promote your profile.
- Spend at least 40 hours a week writing content about the work that you do.
- Create your own blog.
- Be as digitally out there as possible
LINKS AND RESOURCES
- Michael Brooks’ website: www.michael-a-brooks.com
- Marv’s LinkedIn page
- The goLance blog: blog.golance.com
- Michael’s favorite book: Rich Dad, Poor Dad
- Transfast
- Payoneer
- Go sign up now at: goLance.com (an affiliate link)
(Editor’s note: Special thanks to Simon Peter Domingo, Ryan Kung, Cath Quiambao and Althea Sagayno for sending me their questions for Michael and the goLance team via our Facebook group.)
