Websites let users outsource personal tasks

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Monday, October 11, 2010 (SF Chronicle)
Websites let users outsource personal tasks
Ellen Lee, Special to The Chronicle

Julie Seymour was running out the door one morning when she realized that
she was almost out of food for her two hungry 18-pound cats.
Seymour, who commutes from San Francisco to San Jose and often doesn't
return home until 9 p.m., knew she would not have time to pick up cat food
in the next few days. And by then, it'd be too late.
So she made an offer online: $15 for someone to drive to a particular pet
store, pick up the food and deliver it to her home the next evening.
Within 10 minutes, someone signed up to do it.
"She easily saved an hour of my time," said Seymour, who used the service
again to pick up some groceries before she entertained friends over the
weekend.
That's the mission for Taskrabbit, a San Francisco startup that helps
connect busy people with someone who can help get things done. It's one of
a growing number of outsourcing websites, enabled with social networking
and made attractive by the recession, which make it easy to find an expert
or just an able body to pick up a package from the post office, take care
of bookkeeping or walk the dog.
"At any given time in a neighborhood, there are people who need help and
there are people who can help," said Leah Busque, CEO of Taskrabbit. "We
are the platform to make those connections." Service fee collected
On Taskrabbit, customers post something they need done and the price
they're willing to pay. Local pre-screened runners make an offer on the
task. The customer picks one. Once the job is done, Taskrabbit manages the
payment, taking a small percentage as a service fee.
Sure, there's Craigslist. But the outsourcing sites take advantage of
social-networking elements to add a layer of security and community.
Runners on Taskrabbit create profiles, posting a photo and a description
of their expertise and background. Their customers can rate them.
By handling the money, the sites also remove the awkwardness that can come
with such gigs. The customer pays the agreed amount online and the funds
are distributed to the runner's account.
In some cases, the sites allow users to search the globe for assistance.
Through Etsy's Alchemy, consumers can tap crafty people around the world
to take on custom projects, from sewing a Lady Gaga Halloween costume for
a plus-size woman to designing a wedding invitation.
Ultimately, the outsourcing sites, which also include San Mateo's
Redbeacon for local services and Mountain View's Elance for professional
services, ease one of the biggest burdens about finding help: the often
drawn-out process of searching for recommendations, vetting them,
soliciting price quotes and scheduling them.
Redbeacon, founded by three former Google employees, was born out of the
frustration of calling around to book a moving company. "No one was making
life easier for people who needed to find a service," said CEO Ethan
Anderson.
Instead of just a directory and ratings of local service providers,
Redbeacon lets consumers post the job they need done, such as trimming a
tree or fixing a leaky pipe, and receive bids from reputable businesses.
Most requests receive four to six offers. Through a connection with
Facebook, consumers can even survey their friends to see which one to pick
and seek recommendations. Consumers can then schedule the service on the
website. Boost to freelancers
The down economy has especially opened the doors for outsourcing sites.
Elance, a marketplace for services such as bookkeeping, graphic design and
web development, has a growing pool of more than 167,000 professionals,
who altogether have been paid nearly $308 million in the past 10 years -
$100 million of that was made in the past year. In the most recent
quarter, about 120,000 employers posted nearly 100,000 jobs.
The reality, said Ellen Pack, Elance's vice president of marketing, is
that, in some cases, it's more cost effective for businesses to hire
freelancers than full-time staff. Meanwhile, for out-of-work
professionals, freelancing helps keep them afloat between jobs - or could
turn into a career unto itself.
"We put you in control of your career," Pack said. Random, fun errands
For Diane Barghouthy, a credentialed teacher, becoming one of Taskrabbit's
300 to 500 runners in the Bay Area has helped pad her income while she
looks for a full-time teaching job.
In the course of a week, Barghouthy has picked up groceries at Whole
Foods, staked out a premium spot at the Hardly Strictly Bluegrass
Festival, mailed a package to Croatia, delivered a pound of coffee and
dropped off clothes and toys at Goodwill. For her efforts, she's been paid
between $10 and $100 for each task.
"I'm loving it," said the 26-year-old from San Francisco. "I'm doing these
random fun tasks that I never thought I'd be doing." Outsourcing sites
-- Elance: Professional services such as Web design, bookkeeping and
copywriting (elance.com).
-- Etsy Alchemy: Custom arts and craft projects (etsy.com/alchemy).
-- Redbeacon: Local services such as a plumbing, gardening and dog walking
(redbeacon.com).
-- Taskrabbit: Errand running and other local services, such as picking up
groceries, assembling furniture and delivering a gift (taskrabbit.com).
Source: Chronicle research
E-mail Ellen Lee at business@sfchronicle.com. ----------------------------------------------------------------------
Copyright 2010 SF Chronicle