CircleSource closes talent gap between SMEs and big business
Announcement posted by Circle Source 29 Apr 2021
Small and medium enterprises can now attract the best Australian specialists for outsourced expertise, thanks to a new online marketplace that connects businesses (buyers) to expert service providers (suppliers) within minutes.
The CircleSource digital platform focuses on Australian specialists nationwide, to support Australian experts and Australian businesses; allowing both parties to communicate directly online and in-person offline.
The platform’s interactive map even lets you search by location, streamlining your search to your local area – particularly useful for organisations looking to build their community.
CircleSource is co-founded by Andrew Jarvis and Andrew Jackson, who built their decades-long careers in corporate HR, across numerous industry sectors; experiencing first-hand the need to engage external specialists at different stages throughout their journeys.
And as the number of independent contractors in the gig economy continues to grow rapidly, Jarvis says now is the time for SMEs to harness the full benefits of sourcing external specialists via a robust system.
“We know that external specialists inject much-needed fresh thinking and expert skills into organisations. It can save costs and increase productivity.
“But for too long, SMEs have been disadvantaged by the lack of resources and governance protocols to source the best people, relying heavily on personal networks and referrals or online search,” he said.
CircleSource removes this disadvantage, giving SMEs easy access to competing on a level playing field as big business; by providing
a sophisticated enterprise business management tool that cuts inefficiencies.
“Everything from the job brief, listing and bidding to communication, proposal review and data reporting, can be managed on the one dashboard.”
“Depending on how the individual business operates, there can be between 40%-70% cost savings in time and effort,” said Jarvis, who highlighted the fact that there is absolutely no cost to the buyer to use the platform. Suppliers only pay a one-off fee (which is capped) if they win a job.
Buyers and suppliers want transparency
Research, both academic and through CircleSource’s own market surveys, reveals that independent specialists want platforms that are truly transparent – no hidden costs such as fees for membership and lead generation; no barriers to buyer/supplier communication; and openness around how jobs get awarded.
As Dr. Amy Wrzesniewski, Professor at Yale School of Management explains in an interview published in Deloitte Insights, it matters a lot that people feel they understand how it all works, especially in the business side of things – where the money goes, how jobs get assigned – and that they feel fairly treated.
“At least right now, on a lot of these platforms, there is a sense of a lack of transparency or at worst, a sense of potentially being manipulated by the platform where gig workers feel the design is pushing them, but it’s for the benefit of the organisation, not the individual,” she said.
Jarvis: “Exactly why we built CircleSource on our core values of transparency and trust. To move beyond a financial transaction marketplace, into an ecosystem where real connections, relationships and collaborations grow. To deliver great outcomes for all parties in terms of quality, time and cost.”
For buyers
- Sign up for free and start searching for all suppliers on the platform. There are no barriers to reading their full profiles.
- You can follow them or mark them as favourites until you are ready to engage them.
- Create your job, post to the open market or directly invite selected suppliers and communicate directly via live chat.
- You can also invite experts from outside of the platform to bid at the same time.
- Receive notifications each time there is an action on the job.
- It is 100% free for buyers. Suppliers will only pay a fee of 7.5% of the agreed value of the job, capped at a maximum of $1250 if their proposal is accepted. No job, no fee – if you do not win a job, you pay nothing.
- Once a job is completed, you can choose to recommend a supplier and leave a written endorsement. It is how suppliers trend in CircleSource and appear higher in searches.
- You can manage all jobs in one dashboard and build your network of inner-circle suppliers for future engagement.
For suppliers
- Sign up for free and start searching for all jobs on the platform. There is no lock-in contract to participate.
- Showcase your expertise for free, to attract leads from companies outside of your usual business networks.
- Communicate directly with buyers to ask questions, discuss details and share information. There are no barriers to communication.
- No job, no fee. There is no limit on how many jobs you can pitch for.
- Only pay a fee of 7.5% of the agreed value of the job, capped at a maximum of $1250, if your proposal is accepted. So, for example, if you win a $50,000 job, the capped CircleSource fee is $1250, which is in fact only 2.5% of the engagement value.
- The more jobs you win through CircleSource, the higher you trend in searches of buyers looking for your expertise.
- Once a job is completed, you can choose to leave a written endorsement on what it was like to work with the buyer.
About CircleSource
An Australian-owned and founded business to help Aussie enterprises find and connect with a network of the best Aussie talent for service and project-based work. Our digital platform gives easy access to hundreds of qualified suppliers while generating leads for suppliers looking for work.
Winner of the 2017 Westpac Business of Tomorrow award, CircleSource won investment funding at the height of the COVID lockdown and launched in October 2020.
Media contact
Ping Chew
ping@brightowlmarketing.com.au
0439 570 789