Agencies

[msublette]

I've read a lot of information on this forum and also on the Upwork site, but I'm still confused about the logistics of agencies.

So let's say I get more invitations than I could ever possibly do the work for here each week.  But I have a friend with the same or similar skills and experience as I do that I'd love to be either able to share the work with or pass off to him.

However, I don't really want to have an agency in my name.  I'm not sure why, except that I've worked really hard for my Upwork reputation and while I completely trust my friend and his awesome skills, he is new to Upwork.  He hasn't had any jobs and he has no JSS yet. 

In this case, what would happen if he created the agency for us?  How does that affect my JSS?  Neither one of us will be exclusive (or I won't, I guess if the agency is in his name it doesn't matter to him).  Is there any way to co-own an agency so that both people involved can look at the work and assign it?

It's all so confusing to me.  My goal really is to be able to be able to take on more projects, but get help on them when I need them as many of my projects are longer term and then the work comes in spurts so it's sometimes unpredictable how much work I will have in a given week.

Thanks for any advice you can share!

[gilbert-phyllis]

Following this in hopes of learning. I'm in sort of the same boat.

[msublette]

Hmmm...so no one knows the answers to these questions?  Or can point me to the place that I can find them?  I know that agencies are often looked down upon here, but it seems like Upwork is missing a niche for highly-skilled, highly-specialized people to work together. If there were more of these groups, then maybe agencies would be more highly regarded.  I get that clients come here to work with individuals when they don't want to hire companies, but sometimes it really does take more than one person to do the work.

[suzytino]

Yep, looking for the same answer here. I would like to add one person, so we can split projects sometimes, but he doesn't have any rating yet. How would this affect me?

[michaeljornlin]

Hi Michelle,

I know you posted this a couple months ago, but you don't seem to have received an answer. I'd like to assist!

When you create an agency, you maintain your freelancer profile. So, you can continue to complete contracts on your own, but it will show that you do belong to an agency in the right column of your profile. It is important to note that the agency owner's Job Success Score (JSS) will match that of the agency as the agency owner is ultimately responsible for the agency. You can learn more abou the agency JSS here. You could have your friend create the agency, but he would first need to have an approved freelancer profile.

An agency can only have one owner, but you can give nearly identical permissions to another agency member by making them an Administrator and a Business Manager. You can learn more about member roles and permissions here.

You can find additional articles about the specifics of running an agency here, but please let me know if I can be of further assistance.

Sincerely,

Mike