The Next Phase of Fiverr—the Freelance Marketplace Expands Into Hiring

I'll start with a quick confession that will provide context for the remainder of this article.

I've used plenty of Fiverr experts to grow and maintain my business. This includes video editors, graphic designers and I even hired a pro to walk me through setting up my first Apollo email campaign.

But here's the confession, I don't directly hire most of these experts anymore. Instead, a member of my team is responsible for sourcing and vetting. This is because I'm not that good at describing my business needs. I gloss over details - which leaves the Fiverr expert I'm considering working with confused - and that often leads to a project fizzling-out due to my lack of direction.

For this reason, it's easier for me to identify the core business need, then let someone on my team handle explaining all the nuances.

While this works, it's also inefficient since I'm making the process more complicated than it needs to be. And I know we often hear how important it is to outsource our weaknesses, but not everyone has the time or resources to do so.

It appears Fiverr may have recently solved that problem with a few new features that can help you no matter how large your team or budget is.

Related : 5 Reasons Why Delegation is a Must for Entrepreneurs

Search smarter with AI

Like I said earlier, I tend to leave out important information whenever I'm planning something. Just ask my wife; and she can attest to this. Fiverr has a new AI search agent, Neo, that is built to eliminate that issue.

In this example I'm looking for someone to create a trailer for a documentary that I was featured in. I started with a simple prompt, and Neo chimed in to make sure I didn't miss out on any important details.

I'd say it worked pretty well since this person fits my budget, time frame and has experience in creating the exact type of content I'm looking for.

Not only did Neo save me time, it also helped me avoid the paradox of choice . And, in case you're not familiar with that term, I'll explain.

The paradox of choice means that having too many options can actually make people less happy and more stressed. Instead of feeling liberated by the variety, people often feel overwhelmed, make poorer decisions, and are less satisfied with their choices. In simpler terms, sometimes less is more.

So based on this theory, Neo could make it easier for you to find the right expert and you'll also avoid the overwhelm and potential disappointment that comes from sifting through too many options.

Outsource the outsourcing

Okay, so Neo helped me with this relatively small project, but what if you need a whole team of experts? Unless you have a project manager, this can be challenging to coordinate. And even if you do, they may not have the bandwidth to handle additional responsibilities.

Fiverr now appears to have that issue covered with their Business Partner service.

As per their website, you'll get paired with an experienced business partner who understands your industry and will put together a team of top freelance talent to ensure you get the best results, quickly and within your budget.

Now you might be thinking "Won't it cost more to have someone manage all this stuff?" Well, clearly you have to pay the business partner, but you can save a lot of time and money by having them assemble and manage your team.

As Fiverr reports, buyers who leverage business partners have completed their projects 40% faster while reducing costs by 60%.

Gal Tsemach, Head of New Revenue Streams at Unilever , had this to say "When we heard the price, we didn't believe we'd get the product we wanted. Eventually, we got much more than that! And we saved so much time. The process was so smooth and professional, we'd gladly do it again."

Related: 5 Delegation Strategies To Help You Flourish With Less Stress

Find your next hire

While working with freelancers is great for one-off projects when you find the right person - with the right set of skills - it makes sense to continue engaging with them. This is why I hired my director of operations after initially working with her as a freelancer.

Fiverr is trying to make it easier for you to find your next remote or fractional worker by leveraging Fiverr's professions catalog.

With this new catalog view, you can assess freelancers based on their professional backgrounds, portfolios, and previous experience. The goal is to make it easier for you to find the right match for projects that require experts with T-Shaped skills.

If you're not familiar with the term, a T-shaped person has deep expertise in one area (the vertical part of the "T") and a broad range of knowledge in other areas (the horizontal part of the "T"). This combination allows them to excel in their specialty while also understanding and collaborating across different fields. In simple terms, they're both a specialist and a generalist.

The new professions catalog can help you quickly identify and vet these T-shaped pros but of course, you'll still want to do some additional vetting.

In regard to hiring for your company, it's similar to LinkedIn but you'll only see results for people who are available for work and fit your exact criteria. Plus, you can avoid those cringe-worthy posts that somehow manage to go viral.

So will this be a game changer for hiring talent? It's a bit too early to tell, but it certainly makes it easier.