Is Upwork The Right Outsourcing Platform For Me?

If you are a business owner looking to hire your first virtual assistant, I will discuss what are the pros & cons of using Upwork.

Hopefully, this review is helpful and saves you time and hassle if you are trying to hire a virtual assistant with them for the first time.

If you have any questions on freelancing, remote work, or Virtual Assistant you can reach out to me in the comments or visit our website and other social media pages.

I’ve laid out a few pros & cons for you to decide on

Pros of Upwork:
1. Huge talent pool & variety of skills
There is a lot of talent and range on Upwork. Anything that you may be looking for is most certainly available.

2. Cost
Whatever your budget is, you will be able to find a freelancer or virtual assistant for you. Starts at $3-4 all the way to $160-200 depending on the speciality skill.

3. Has its own productivity management
Freelancer can use the tool to track time and you can manage deliverables straight from their site.

Cons of Upwork
1. Huge talent pool & variety of skills
Upwork’s biggest pro can also be the biggest con. The competition is high with the number of talent pool available on Upwork.

2. Anyone can sign up on Upwork
You would not be able to screen through the people applying for you. There are no strings attached with people who work on the site. While there are a lot of great workers on Upwork, it’s a hit or miss, there is a high probability that you will find unreliable freelancers that do not get the project done.

3. It’s impersonal
If you are looking for a 1 project gig, then Upwork does the job well. However, if you are meaning to create a team that will stay loyal to you then Upwork may not be the best platform for you. If you’re looking to have a relationship with your team and would like to hire continuously then you’re better off partnering with a Virtual Assistant Agency like TSU or recruiting yourself.

At the end of the day, it comes down to you and what resources you have.

If you’re strapped for cash and have time on you hands, then you can recruit and comb through applications on UpWork yourself & manage those people you hire for certain projects. PLUS there is less of a commitment if you don’t have ongoing work. 

However, if you are a little bit more established & are time-savvy, then hiring through a Virtual Assistant Company may be your best bet. A Virtual Recruitment Agency like The Speed Up Co handles all the recruiting, HR, legal, payroll & admin, while all you have to do is choose your value-matched Virtual Coworker and get delegating.