Personal vs Agency

[94ec5b26]

Hi all,

I have 2 agency accounts (one for hiring and one for selling our services) and I also have a personal account that people hire me through as well.

I find people would prefer to hire a person with a name and a face rather than an agency on Upwork. The feedback I have is that people feel agencies will be expensive. However, when I start to work with the client they soon realize that they will need more people to work on the project (Zoom conference for example). I hire those people through my agency account. 

Then, I take the contract on my personal Upwork account and track my hours then hire my freelancers through my agency hiring account. Now I have a problem...how do I bill the client for the 3 other people who worked on their project?? If I put it on my personal account by adding some manual hours it will increase my 1099 and taxable income. Can I bill the client through my selling agency? If so how do I do that if they don't have a contract with my selling agency? Do I set one up? 

I want to focus on what is best for the customer by using Upwork to secure payment from them and track time. Since I hire people all over the world I would like to keep using Upwork to hire my freelancers. 

In the last 2 weeks I've secured 8 new clients and we have just completed 3 projects. I've paid my freelancers but now I'm not sure how to secure the outstanding money through Upwork without putting the hours on my own Upwork account that the client hired me through.

The only solution is that I ensure the client hires me through my agency account and add the freelancers to that but that will scare many small customers away IMHO. 

Let me know if you have a solution that you have used to make this all work.

Thanks in advance,

Gavin

[BojanS]

Hi Gavin,

An agency is a business that sells the services of multiple freelancers on Upwork. If you'd like to work on a client's projects with a team of freelancers, you'll need to list all team members in your agency so that client can hire them on separate hourly contracts created for each agency freelancer. 

Please, note that freelancers and agencies can subcontract work on fixed-price contracts. If a contract is hourly, only the person hired on that contract can work on it and track time. If you want another member of your agency to work on the same project for the client, please ask the client to hire them on a different contract.  For more information about that, please see section 2.1 of the User Agreement.

Thank you!

[94ec5b26]

Thank you for the feedback. I really appreciate it. 

Oh no, that won't work. We charge a flat-rate hourly fee for all people who work on a project say $50 per hour but I pay the contractors different rates and we make the difference on that rate. Hire video contractor for $10 per hour but client pays us $50. That is how agencies make money. Sounds like Upwork may not be a good fit or this type of set up. Is there another platform you recommend?

Also, we prefer not to work on fixed rate projects as what we do is so complicated that 9 times out of 10 clients start small but end up hiring us for a lot more. Example - they might hire me to run their Zoom conference then they need video editing, graphic design, etc. Also, we are in the trust business. I like to keep our charges visible to the client rather than trying to gouge them like most agencies.

Our whole mantra is transparency. That's why I love Upwork. I can show my clients my work diary. They can see what I have done and how long. It's fantastic. They love it and it builds a strong bond.

What about the Corporate Upwork? How does that work? Should I send clients there?

[BojanS]

We appreciate your feedback and sharing more information about how you prefer to work, Gavin. We are constantly working on improving Upwork and will inform our Community if there are any changes to the agency set up. For now, you can find more information about how agencies work here

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What about the Corporate Upwork? How does that work? Should I send clients there?

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Are you referring to Upwork Enterprise? If so, check out this help article and feel free to share it with your clients if you feel like they may be interested in this Membership.

[94ec5b26]

Hi Bojan,

Your first link didn't work. It went to a 404 error page.

you can find more information about how agencies work here

Gavin

[JoanneP]

Hi Gavin,

Could you please try this link?