Launching 'Hire' as a gig portal for coworking members.
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Craig Baute - Creative Density Coworking
Nov 1, 2012, 1:46:29 PM11/1/12
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Yesterday I launched Hire on Creative Density's site where local Denver companies can submit projects to the freelancers that cowork at Creative Density. I'm branding it as a personal recommendation service for freelancers versus a straight jobs connector because so many of those already exist and this is a more curated service. How it works is pretty simple, companies say what type of project they want to work on, the budget, and further details. I then respond to the company with three or less recommendations of people that I know would be interested and meet the job requirements. This process will change as membership increases and the community will be asked for input into the process because I want to avoid favoring people and creating politics. I simply want to give honest feedback to companies on freelancers that I work with on a daily basis and understand their strengths and passions.
I take no cut of work and it is a service and benefit to the coworkers.
The need CD is trying to solve:
Companies don't know where to go to find talent. They often just post on Craigslist or go through their current networks. This is a long process or the company is limited to how many freelancers they actually know. Hire becomes a hub for local talent.
Freelancers have a new opportunity to work with local companies and get discovered. They get more work, able to spend more time coworking, we build a stronger community.
Creative Density benefits by becoming a hub and support system for freelancers. As Tony would say, we'd help fix this stupid job crisis. In addition, I'm starting to see more work passed between members and I'm getting approached by companies looking for talent already. Hire will provide a formal outlet for outside companies and to encourage them to use coworking members for gigs. What I don't want is for people to join Creative Density just because of job leads, but I'm going to react versus worry too much about it up front because I think good community management and culture can overcome this problem.
I'm not sure if any other coworking spaces are launching services like this but I would love to know your reactions or how you'd change it. This is a beta and will be adjusted as need.
Craig
Creative Density
Denver, CO
Tony Bacigalupo
Nov 1, 2012, 1:50:46 PM11/1/12
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Looks great Craig! Nice photo on the /Hire/ page :)
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Alex Hillman
Nov 1, 2012, 2:03:28 PM11/1/12
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Cool, very cool. Been looking into options to solve this problem ourselves. This is simple and elegant, looking forward to hearing how the experiment turns out.
Do you have any criteria for gigs to make it through to the freelancers? What wouldn't make the cut? Any accountability on your part for helping make the link if something goes wrong?
I'm usually not one to focus on the negative sides of a model like this, I'm just wondering what you've thought through and determined?
Craig Baute - Creative Density Coworking
Nov 1, 2012, 5:39:55 PM11/1/12
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Criteria for gigs: None right now. If the budgets are insulting to the members then I'll have a sense over time what is too low for them to consider. I'll just reply back saying we don't have anyone that matches their needs.
What wouldn't make the cut? I don't know yet. I think the more interesting unknown is how large of projects will come through this channel.
Accountability? None. I'm only creating the connection, but I was thinking about stating at the bottom something that explains members' work are not associated with Creative Density.
Toni Hogan
Nov 2, 2012, 12:01:22 PM11/2/12
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This is awesome! We're implementing a similar service.
Toni Hogan
Toni Hogan
The Office Connexion
11920 Walters Road (map)
Houston, TX 77067
832-534-CONX (2669)
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Craig Baute - Creative Density Coworking
Nov 16, 2012, 11:29:50 AM11/16/12
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Quick update:
One interesting and unexpected development after a community meeting this week is that members actually encouraged me to start charging up to $25 for making the connection. I haven't decided whether or not I'll do this, but the members believe that by charging even something as little as $5 will actually be a screening mechanism that ups the quality and budget of projects coming through. I'm going to keep it free for now but list a price and mark it free as a promotion so I have the option later on.
Steve King
Nov 16, 2012, 1:56:58 PM11/16/12
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The single biggest business issue facing independent workers and micro businesses (less than 5 employees) is demand generation. Because of this, we've long thought acting as a talent agency of some sort makes a lot of sense for coworking spaces. We're looking forward to following your experiment.
Alec Grant
Nov 17, 2012, 2:16:51 AM11/17/12
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Craig,
--
Love the idea and it's something that I was looking at doing as part of the coworking space that I'm setting up here in Surrey in the UK. After spending some time trying to figure out exactly how I could make it work, I realised that I was trying to re-invent the wheel and that what I should look at doing is to make the most of any existing networks that exist. So I'm approaching local & regional business networking groups to see if they're interested in combining efforts to make this happen. One of the networks wants to start working on this early next year and another already has a job board and projects board. One of the services offered by my coworking space will be to connect coworkers up with these existing groups in addition to any local connections that can be made within the space.
Regards,
Alec
On 16 November 2012 18:56, Steve King <sk...@emergentresearch.com> wrote:
The single biggest business issue facing independent workers and micro businesses (less than 5 employees) is demand generation. Because of this, we've long thought acting as a talent agency of some sort makes a lot of sense for coworking spaces. We're looking forward to following your experiment.
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Alec Grant
The Digital Work Hub
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Benji Decker
Nov 21, 2012, 11:43:55 PM11/21/12
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interested as well... more for our freelancers than our hirers, but happy to hear more
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