Since the beginning of the 21st century, the global workforce has shown an increased preference for independent jobs. Earlier individual freelancers only accepted contractual work because of reasons such as unemployment and inflation. But today they favor doing them over conventional career paths because of benefits such as better work-life balance and more autonomy in the job. This change in work preferences led to the rise of micro job websites and marketplaces.
A micro job marketplace is a platform where service seekers can find thousands of freelancers for doing small gigs or micro-jobs such as graphic designing, programming, marketing, or even home services like plumbing, electrician, cleaning, roofing, and HVAC. Once the micro job ends, the freelancer can select another micro-job and adjust it in their work schedule. The micro-job industry is also expected to flourish in the upcoming years.
If we consider the freelance market, its estimated market size is expected to grow from $4.9 billion to $11.7 billion in the projected period 2022-2028. On the other hand, the handyman services market is also doing well with a Compound Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) of 16.5% in the forecast period 2023-2028. Considering the ease of finding jobs that micro-job marketplaces bring, it is safe to say that the industry holds lucrative opportunities for entrepreneurship.
This article will guide you through how you build your micro-job marketplace and enter the industry most efficiently.
The growth statistics of the micro-job industry are quite astonishing and highlight the profitability of launching a micro-job marketplace very affirmingly. There are also a few incumbents in the industry to take inspiration from. These incumbents are mentioned in the following table.
| Fiverr | 2010 | $367 million |
| Toptal | 2010 | $167 million |
| UpWork | 2013 | $780 million |
| Freelancer | 2009 | $34.4 million |
Moreover, as per the Freelancing in America Report, 70% of freelancers claim to find jobs through online marketplace. We have also provided a detailed breakdown of the most demanded freelance services on micro-job marketplaces like Fiverr and UpWork.
For exploring the freelance market of different geographic regions or planning a cross-border operations marketplace, you should have a look at the following growth rates:
| Country Wise Microjob Market Growth Rates (2023) | |
| USA | 78% (Estimated) |
| Canada | 71% |
| Australia | 86% |
| Spain | 66% |
| Argentina | 66% |
| Mexico | 72% |
| Japan | 87% |
| India | 160% |
| Philippines | 208% |
| Hong Kong | 79% |
| Pakistan | 69% |
To build a micro-job marketplace, it is essential to select a feasible business model that you can easily promote and follow for years. Additionally, the model should be easy to incorporate into your website. At the same time, you need to ensure that the business model is market-fit, which can also be a hybrid model – one of the three feasible models mentioned below.
In the direct hiring model, service seekers visit your micro-job website and browse freelancer profiles. When selecting a freelancer, seekers can directly invite them for a job.
Workflow Reference for the Direct Hiring Model
In the second model, service seekers upload jobs, gigs, or tasks on the platform and freelancers place their bids after reviewing those jobs. If a bid gets selected, that freelancer gets hired for the job.
Workflow Reference for the Job Posting and Bidding Model
Due to consumer preferences and market trends, it has become essential to provide both direct hiring and job posting models on a single platform. Not only doing so will help you meet user expectations, but will also provide you with a competitive edge.
Workflow Reference for the Hybrid Model
As the entire micro-job marketplace model works online, it is easily accessible by a lot of consumers, service providers, and other entrepreneurs. This accessibility offers more revenue-generation models than traditional businesses where the physical boundaries remain a primary limitation. Some of the viable revenue generation strategies that you can implement on your micro job marketplace are:
To develop a micro-job marketplace, it is essential to understand the features and functionalities that you require in your solution. Not only will these help you develop a market-fit solution but also provide a general cost estimate of the software. A readymade solution with all these features will further simplify and shorten the entire development process.
Thus, to cater to all such requirements, your micro-job software should support all these job types.
After selecting your preferred business model and identifying the key features, we can move forward with the development process.
There are multiple approaches to developing your micro job marketplace. While traditional development includes bespoke development from scratch, the modern approach involves using readymade software. Let’s discuss them both for proper evaluation:
The bespoke development approach includes searching for a software development firm, selecting your tech stack, and paying for the waterfall or agile development process on an hourly basis. As everything is required to be developed from scratch, the overall cost of the project is very high. Moreover, the development time frame is also quite long. Even after the completion of the project, there remains the risk of developing a solution that may fail to meet the purpose.
The modern approach to software development, i.e., using a readymade software has made the entire development process considerably easier and cost-efficient for all entrepreneurs. In the freelancing industry, there are a few no-code and low-code solutions available that you can use to create and deploy your marketplace. These include both SaaS solutions and Self-hosted solutions. While the former are hosted on the software provider’s very own servers, the latter provide the hosting server choice to the entrepreneur. Due to this, we often see limitations in the number of listings and transactions in SaaS solutions, whereas self-hosted solutions are fully customizable.
A micro-job marketplace is a complex software that includes various interfaces and numerous web pages. On top of it, the marketplace requires vast functions to operate. Thus, the overall timeframe to custom develop the software can take up to 1000 hours or even more. On the other hand, readymade solutions come with all essential features and webpages pre-built into the software. As the marketplace owner, you only need to configure readymade software. Because of this, readymade solutions can help you get started with your business operations within 2-4 business days.
For an accurate cost evaluation, check out the following table.
| Development Approach | Cost EstimateIn USD | Analysis |
| Bespoke Development | $50,000 – $200,000 | Micro job marketplace is a complex solution, including hundreds of pages, multiple interfaces, and a plethora of features. As this approach also includes hourly development costs, it is very expensive. |
| SaaS Software | $5,000 – $15,000 for 5 years | SaaS software come with all basic features built into the software. However, they have lifetime recurring costs with numerous limitations related to transactions, listings, and features on all primary packages. (For a fair evaluation with other development approaches, we have considered SaaS software’s 5 years of cost) |
| Self-Hosted Software | $2,000 – $10,000 for lifetime | Self-hosted solutions come with all basic and advanced features and a lifetime license. Additionally, as the software is hosted on your selected hosting server, there are no limitations on listings and transactions. This makes self-hosted software highly scalable and cost-effective in the long run. |
While SaaS software is already deployed on the software provider’s server, the other two approaches require you to deploy it on your own server. This can either be an on-premise server installed in your work premises or a reliable third-party server like Amazon Web Services or Bluehost. Our best recommendation is to select a fast server with high security to ensure quick load times, 100% uptime, and invulnerability to cyber attacks.
Once deployed, you need to configure the following settings and web pages on your marketplace.
Some payment gateways may be pre-integrated in your software solution, you can simply activate those payment gateways and add your banking details. On the other hand, some readymade software may allow you to add more payment gateways. If you feel the need for the same, then you can select a payment gateway based on the following criteria:
To provide your micro-job marketplace with an identity, set up all branding elements, which include logos, icons, slogans, social media handles, and other trademarks. All these elements will assist you in developing a recognizable marketplace. Additionally, you will also need to select a color scheme and a writing style that will remain consistent across all official channels including the marketplace, emails, social media platforms, and other marketing channels.
Your micro-job marketplace content will help users receive a thorough understanding of your services. Additionally, it will help secure high SEO rankings on search engines. As per our evaluation, there are a few primary web pages whose content you need to set up:
Test the marketplace to verify whether all features are functioning as intended. Your micro-job marketplace will have 4 interfaces, which are:
To effectively check out the various features and functionalities in these interfaces along with the user experience, create a testing account and register yourself as the admin, customer, and client. Place an order on the user front-end while analyzing various sections of the interface, such as content blocks, buttons, scrolling, payment gateways, payment methods, transactions, cart, notifications, and more.
After placing an order from the user front end, log in to the freelancer dashboard and mark status updates. These updates should be visible in the admin dashboard. Also test other features such as chat messenger, payment withdrawal settings, and more. You can also log in to the admin dashboard to see the placement of a new order. The same should be reflected in your earnings.
Lastly, test the interlinking on the platform including navigation, social media handles, and external links. See whether all the forms are working as intended and as the customer or freelancer, you are easily able to fill in and submit the forms.
Note: Selecting a tried and tested solution that has already been evaluated on the diverse use cases by the software provider can vastly reduce your testing efforts. Thus, it is wiser to carefully select your micro-job marketplace solution.
To start business operations, you need to onboard some freelancers. This can be done by providing various incentives to the first freelancers, such as zero commission rates and featured listing spaces on the marketplace. At the same time, you need to promote the micro job marketplace to attract customers. SEO will be beneficial in fulfilling this purpose. With accurate search terms (for example: hire graphic designer online), you can compete with other players in this space.
Additionally, launch various markdown strategies to draw customers. These can either be discounts on the first three jobs or a referral bonus strategy. After customers find out the convenience of finding freelancers on your micro-job marketplace, you can expect them to become repeat customers and increase their customer lifetime value.
As your marketplace will be comparatively new, you will need to focus your marketing efforts on paid campaigning as well. When your organic SEO presence grows strong, you can reduce your expenditure on paid campaigns. Doing so will help you stabilize your overall customer acquisition costs and reach the breakeven point faster.
Yo!Gigs is a future-ready solution that is made to launch robust marketplaces like Fiverr, UpWork, Toptal, and Thumbtack. Its new version was launched in the year 2024, making it the most advanced micro-job marketplace software with industry-leading features including all the ones mentioned above. As Yo!Gigs is meticulously developed to help you with numerous marketplace use cases, it can be easily used to deliver, manage, and enhance freelancer and handyman services.
Some other reasons to select Yo!Gigs are:
During times of adversity when unemployment increases, micro-job marketplaces emerge as the only solution to help talented professionals survive. The great economic recession of 2008 and the COVID-19 pandemic are evidence to that. However, once professionals get used to working on these marketplaces, they don’t want to switch back to traditional 9-5 jobs because of several benefits such as higher profit margins and work autonomy. Additionally, the change in the modern workforce mindset remains to be a strong growth factor for the marketplace industry.
The cost of developing a micro job website depends on the selected software technology and development approach. Via the traditional development approach that is charged on a per-hour basis, the overall cost can range between $60,000-$150,000. Via the no-code or low-code development method, you can easily drop this cost to $3,000 – $40,000.
Onboarding freelancers is the primary challenge that micro job website owners face. Secondly, they also have to ensure a smooth browsing experience and secure payments. Along with these, ensuring job satisfaction via timely delivery and quality of the work is a must. All such problems can be easily dealt with by investing in a tried and tested readymade software. To discuss the challenges that FATbit’s Yo!Gigs helps micro job website owners deal with, get in touch with our industry experts.
Yes, at FATbit, we have a readymade micro job marketplace solution – Yo!Gigs. Revamped in the year 2024, Yo!Gigs is the most advanced job marketplace software that helps you deal with numerous use cases. It comes with next-gen features, supports 24/7 payments, and can help you seamlessly connect freelancers with customers. For more information or to get a price quote, contact our experts.
ketplace software that helps you deal with numerous use cases. It comes with next-gen features, supports 24/7 payments and can help you seamlessly connect freelancers with customers. For more information or to get a price quote, contact our experts.
All innovation starts with an idea to solve real-world problems. At FATbit Technologies we are passionate about driving digital transformation to prepare businesses for a digital-first tomorrow. Let’s discuss your BIG idea NOW.
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Abhishek Kataria is a business consultant at FATbit Technologies. He assists entrepreneurs and business owners in developing viable digital touchpoints and marketplaces. Abhishek is curious about exploring and analyzing new business trends and has a keen eye for the latest developments in the eCommerce sector. Apart from consulting, you can find him practicing French and exploring his creativity in Photoshop.
