New to Upwork

[bdf3c098]

Hello.

I am new to Upwork, and quite frankly I'm a little scared. I've never worked with a VA before and so far I've interviewd one person who acted a little anxious to get the job. One of my fears is that I end up paying more that it was established from the start and I can't get my money back.

[prestonhunter · Accepted solution]

Welcome. 

Don't worry so much, there is nothing to fear.

You WILL make mistakes. That is part of business and part of hiring.

You should not hire only one person, of course. Definitely hire at least three. I would personally hire five or more. And continue working only with the one or ones that you value the most.

Some will be great! Some will be terrible. Many will be in between. There is no way to know until you hire them and work with them. At the very least I think you will need to work with somebody for an hour or two to see how they work out for you.

If you only hire one person, how will you compare her? How will you know you are getting the best value for your money?

[prestonhunter]

re: "One of my fears is that I end up paying more that it was established from the start and I can't get my money back."

I can set your mind at ease right now.

You can NOT get your money back.

Sometimes you WILL pay more money than you had planned to. Sometimes you will pay less.

When you hire using hourly contracts, you are paying for  freelancer's time. You are not paying for a particular outcome.

If you hire through Upwork, you WILL waste money sometimes. That money will be insignificant compared to the large amount of money you will save.

I have hired over 80 freelancers through Upwork. I think my total savings are huge... Almost ridiculous. I'm a big fan.

[richard_wein]

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@Preston H wrote:

I have hired over 80 freelancers through Upwork. I think my total savings are huge... Almost ridiculous. I'm a big fan.

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 Hi Preston. I'm curious. Given that you like to hire 5 freelancers when you need one, do mean that you've hired 400 freelancers and continued working with 80 of them, or that you've hired 80 and continued working with 16?

[VladimirG]

Hi Juan, welcome to Upwork!

Please make sure to discuss your job scope, requirements, expectations and timeline in detail with a freelancer before agreeing on the terms and creating a job offer. Use Upwork Payment Protection programs on your contract in order to protect your payment and review other advise and best-practice tips included in the client resources.

Let us know if you have any questions and if you'd like to receive help from our team with shortlisting freelancers with the right skill set and experience, and inviting them to your job.

[joanbonjoc]

Hi Moshiur,

I checked your account and there was ticket created for you. You may post any questions you have on the ticket thread and the team will get back to you with more information.