Freelance sales staff boost small biz during recession

PeoplePerHour.com, a UK marketplace for small business services, revealed the first findings from the survey of its top 316 small business users and data from its 43,000-strong user base.

PeoplePerHour.com’s report – entitled The emergence of a remote, home-based salesforce, shows how demand for sales-related freelancers outstrips every other business service by over 150%.

Since January 2008, sales have accounted for a staggering 25 percent of 12,000+ project listings on PeoplePerHour.com, despite being one of over 30 skills categories on the site.

The growth in demand for remote freelance sales staff has been fuelled by the recession, which has forced small business owners focus on cost-cutting but equally on ramping up their sales in as cost-effective and scalable way as possible. The average survey respondent reported annual saving of £24.5k on a turnover of £314k.

PeoplePerHour.com calculate that increased demand has led to more than 750,000 sales agents operating in a freelance capacity in the UK.

75 percent of survey respondents said they will continue using freelancers after economic recovery, which suggests the trend reflects a long-term structural change in the labour market.

PeoplePerHour.com founder Xenios Thrasyvoulou believes increasing numbers of small businesses will choose a flexible freelance sales force instead of costly in-house staff.

“What we are seeing may have been accelerated by the recession but it’s a more deep-rooted change in the way companies operate that is here to stay,” he says.

“Tapping into the now ample and readily-available freelance sales force just makes sense from a cost, flexibility and scalability perspective. Through PeoplePerHour.com you can now build a large network of sales agents across the country, quickly – something that in the brick-and-mortar world would take a lot of time and capital. Furthermore, risk is minimal as you’re paying for results.”

Click here to download the report in full.

PeoplePerHour.com Background Information

www.PeoplePerHour.com

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