Meet Sandy Sandler, corporate gift expert and creator of Bowdabra, a bow-making tool.
Sandy started her product development/marketing business, Nuvelle Crafts, in 1996. Like most businesses, Sandy started small – only employing herself and one part–time assistant to run the day-to-day operations. Her business strategy has also included the idea of hiring on demand. She started the business knowing she would hire contractors and service providers to help it grow.
“When I started my business, I realized that it was a lot more cost effective to work from home rather than rent space for an office and hire employees,” said Sandy. “So from day one I have outsourced everything from warehousing to bookkeeping to public relations.”
Sandy discovered Elance while searching for someone to complete writing and computer programming projects for her company. She has hired many Elance service providers to complete projects in literally every part of her business:
- Administrative support – Sandy hired Tabitha Perdue (username: Excel_Doctor) to rework the format of an existing Excel spreadsheet to make it compatible with specific uploading requirements.
- Legal – Rod Underhill (username: TeamUnderhill) gave legal advice and wrote the rules and regulations for a nationwide company contest.
- Writing – Sandy has hired many Elance writers to write several articles to be used as web and newsletter content. Writers include usernames: Tradecom, WebCurry, NorthernLightsPress and Flour89.
“When my business is strong, I hire people online to complete media, website development and writing projects. During weaker periods, it’s great because I don’t have to worry about letting people go or downsizing.”
Sandy continues to hire Elancers to complete projects for her growing business and plans to hire an Elancer to help write an ebook on gift wrapping in the near future.
