Using Fiverr for initial intro meetings and proposal for work outside of Fiverr

[miketconley]

I'm a Fractional CTO. This type of service often is larger than a Fiverr gig. What I'm interested in doing is offering an in gig that is a meeting with me and then a proposal I deliver to the customer. The proposal would be for my services outside of Fiverr. If the customer agreed it would lead to a B2B contract for longer-term work outside of Fiverr. 

Is this business model OK on Fiverr? 

  

 

[vickieito]

6 minutes ago, miketconley said:

Is this business model OK on Fiverr? 

No. This violates Fiverr's ToS because you are taking clients off the platform.

8 minutes ago, miketconley said:

I'm a Fractional CTO. This type of service often is larger than a Fiverr gig.

I don't know why this can't be handled by a Fiverr gig. New Sellers can create custom offers up to $20,000. Just because there are a lot of sellers offering $5 gigs, doesn't mean you should. List your prices at what you are worth and show the credibility and professionalism to back those prices up. There are many sellers who have gigs listed in the thousand-dollar range.

[smashradio]

7 minutes ago, vickieito said:

No. This violates Fiverr's ToS because you are taking clients off the platform.

I don't know why this can't be handled by a Fiverr gig. New Sellers can create custom offers up to $20,000. Just because there are a lot of sellers offering $5 gigs, doesn't mean you should. List your prices at what you are worth and show the credibility and professionalism to back those prices up. There are many sellers who have gigs listed in the thousand-dollar range.

It's not larger than a Fiverr gig. It's larger than his willingness to pay the price of access to Fiverr. 🙂

[miketconley]

12 minutes ago, vickieito said:

No. This violates Fiverr's ToS because you are taking clients off the platform.

I don't know why this can't be handled by a Fiverr gig. New Sellers can create custom offers up to $20,000. Just because there are a lot of sellers offering $5 gigs, doesn't mean you should. List your prices at what you are worth and show the credibility and professionalism to back those prices up. There are many sellers who have gigs listed in the thousand-dollar range.

 

The contracts could be for 20 hours a week for 6 to 12 months at $150+ an hour.  So I'm looking at like $72,000 - $150,000 contracts. 

[miketconley]

8 minutes ago, smashradio said:

It's not larger than a Fiverr gig. It's larger than his willingness to pay the price of access to Fiverr. 🙂

 

 

That's jumping to conclusions.

I really am looking at larger contracts. $20k limit would not work for me. It depends on what the client needs, but almost all my engagements are much bigger than what Fiverr allows. 

[vickieito]

You will need to break it up unless you are okay with not getting paid for 6 or 12 months (I've made that mistake once). Also, realize that 20% of that price goes to Fiverr.

The buyer pays now, but you won't get paid until 14-days after you deliver the order (and the order is accepted by the buyer or auto-closes). I like to break up my deliveries into weekly or monthly payments, whichever works best, even for buyers who I know I'll still be working with for a year or more.

You could set this up as subscription orders or milestone orders with 20 hrs/week or $3,000/week (I would factor in extra costs due to Fiverr's fees).

Edited June 14, 2023 by vickieito

[miketconley]

3 minutes ago, vickieito said:

You will need to break it up unless you are okay with not getting paid for 6 or 12 months (I've made that mistake once). Also, realize that 20% of that price goes to Fiverr.

The buyer pays now, but you won't get paid until 14-days after you deliver the order (and the order is accepted by the buyer or auto-closes). I like to break up my deliveries into weekly or monthly payments, whichever works best, even for buyers who I know I'll still be working with for a year or more.

You could set this up as subscription orders or milestone orders.

 

Fiverr is probably not a good model for me then. As an Intro service, it would have been fine. Just not for the bigger contract work. Thanks for the info you provided. 

[smashradio]

15 minutes ago, miketconley said:

That's jumping to conclusions.

I really am looking at larger contracts. $20k limit would not work for me. It depends on what the client needs, but almost all my engagements are much bigger than what Fiverr allows. 

Perhaps so. My previous remark was an attempt at humor (granted, it may not have landed perfectly), as the answer to your query seemed quite apparent. No platform would permit such a practice when its revenue model hinges on a percentage cut from each transaction. It's just plain logic.

This scenario would require you to set up multiple orders. Alternatively, apply for a pro account, which allows you to establish custom offers up to $50,000. A trio of these custom offers, and you're there. It may not be ideal, but that's how Fiverr works.

Chances are, Fiverr isn't the ideal platform for your needs. Corporations hiring FCTO would likely source candidates through other channels. Even if you were to find a potential client, they would probably need to draft contracts and transfer funds directly to your bank account for their accounting records.

While I can't claim extensive knowledge of the cybersec or IT business beyond narrating some 100,000 words for various courses on the subject, my impression is that companies seeking FCTOs would typically resort to other recruitment options.

That said, you could tap into a different market: small to medium-sized businesses needing cybersecurity assistance or IT support. The orders you could expect from this clientele would likely be in the hundreds to a few thousand dollars, not $150,000, but then again, the job might entail securing a small client database, helping them develop a small-scale solution, implementing a new register for their cashiers, setting up a database on a laptop or dealing with the outcome of a medium business having a breach. 

Edited June 14, 2023 by smashradio

[vickieito]

12 minutes ago, miketconley said:

almost all my engagements are much bigger than what Fiverr allows. 

As a seller, you have the power to set your own terms for your gigs, so I believe you can accomplish what you want to do. However, it does take knowledge of Fiverr's platform and how things work here. I suggest you browse the Help Center and play around with the tools and features for your gigs to explore the possibilities of the platform.

You should also read the ToS and Community Standards to make sure everything that you're doing is in line with Fiverr's policy.