Press release
For immediate release - 5th October 2017
New Zealand’s first official hub for freelancers launched
A new hub that connects businesses with freelancers - the first of its kind in New Zealand - has been launched.
The Freelance Village is a central platform for New Zealand freelancers to showcase their talents and enables them to be
contacted directly by any business that requires their services. The website can be accessed for free, to encourage a
greater working relationship between small business owners and self-employed workers.
Founder Erin Harrison said the point of the venture was to break down barriers between businesses who need casual or
on-call ‘employees’ without the hassle and cost of advertising, or having to go through a recruiter.
“For a SME business, who may only need one or two blogs written a month, it’s often too time-consuming to go to market
and sort through applications.
“With The Freelance Village, you bypass this. Available contractors are all in one place so you can check out their
profiles, experience and portfolios then contact them directly. There are no sign-up fees, forms to fill out or hoops to
jump through.”
While some freelancing sites already exist in New Zealand, they are tend to be extensions of overseas frameworks and
don’t have a lot of authority in the New Zealand marketplace, said Mrs Harrison.
“On these sites, freelancers often have to ‘bid’ on projects, essentially creating competition between individuals and
pretty much forcing people to lower their rates just to get work.
“We like to do things differently in our corner of the world, and that’s where I saw a need for a website that was
created by Kiwis, for Kiwis,” she said.
All that’s needed now, says Erin, is for more New Zealand businesses to understand the value that freelancers can bring
to their organisations.
"There’s almost always something on the ‘to-do’ list of smaller organisations that isn’t getting done, simply because
there isn’t enough money in the budget to hire a full time, or even part time employee. But with a freelancer you get
the right expertise, when you need it, without any huge commitment or large financial outlay."
End.