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A Please note that the official brand title for our business is OfficeCavalry.com and this should be used in all information published.

Our URL is http://www.officecavalry.com

All information supplied by Andy Turner – Co-Owner, Founder and Director of OfficeCavalry.com.

1. What inspired you to open Office Cavalry?

A With the world economy embroiled in the grip of recession and now Government cuts coming into place, businesses are reassessing a number of key operational facilities to ensure survival. There has been a dramatic shift in resource management with a major impact on the recruitment of permanent staff.  For businesses that are expanding, the vast majority are reluctant to employ more staff and are instead resorting to shorter-term hiring and outsourcing to freelancers. This suggests a significant change to the structure of the UK labour market as we know it; one that is more flexible, agile and responsive to business change and opportunity.

The shift change in working practices is not a temporary reaction to the recession, it has now become the norm and more and more businesses are looking to bring in freelance workers as part of their operational business strategy.   So the workforce is there and growing, the economies of freelance working makes perfect sense for both businesses and freelancers, and the Government is investing heavily in the technology to make it all happen – freelancing remotely on-line looks like it is here to stay.

UK businesses are turning to freelancers, particularly in Digital and New Media where the boom in social media and digital technology has fuelled desire among businesses to employ highly skilled freelancers to fill their identified skill gaps without the normal overheads and high costs associated with larger organisations.

With this as a backdrop and OfficeCavalry.com’s mantra of ‘Finding a new way of getting Britain back to work’, this seemed a perfect opportunity to fill the gap with a new business model that delivers an entry level solution, that is cost effective, reliable, quick, simple and easy to use.

We believe our solution benefits users and enables business with a skills shortfall to seek and fill this gap by engaging high quality freelancers from an organisation that specialises in brokering the two parties together and delivering a commercial relationship that ensures protecting for both parties.

We believe our market proposition is very strong and has been shaped by the needs and demands of freelancers and businesses alike and opens a new channel to the employment market, which matches the dramatic shift in how businesses are currently managing their operational resource models.

A It is our firm belief that professionals, regardless of their capacity, location, age or qualifications, have transferable skills that are valuable to businesses. Our vision is for professionals to have the choice and capacity to profile and sell their skills online to potential buyers, as and when required.

From this high level view, OfficeCavalry.com has been developed to address these needs and to provide an online marketplace that allows businesses to source and engage with skilled freelancers across six skill business areas of Creative, Tech, Marketing, Support, Accountant and  Legal. The service includes a bespoke search engine, a directory system, three payment services, invoicing, a rating process and a loyalty management scheme. Each cavalry has been designed so retraction and expansion of each sector can be easily achieved, with each operating as a micro site linked to the landing page of http://www.officecavalry.com

OfficeCavalry.com is still evolving as a new entrant to the market, primarily focused on building a stock of freelancers in parallel with PR and marketing activity to define the key attributes of our brand. We have a robust and fully functional platform with regards to the website and offer users an extremely competitive alternative to what is currently available.  However, our proposition will only succeed when we have gained market presence, trust, and stability in the eyes of the users.  We are confident that we have the appropriate offering, and will continue to evolve with new functionality and market awareness to drive users to the site.

Our aim is to be recognised by its users as the leading customer centric online marketplace within clearly defined skill markets, ensuring that the needs of businesses are met and that freelancers can maximise their careers and earning potential. We are confident that the service differentiates itself from existing operators by championing freelancers’ abilities, being operationally quick, easy, reliable and cost effective to use, whilst providing anonymity for both parties until there is a need to share selected information.

We have engaged on a number of focus groups and customer insight forums and listened to the concerns raised by our potential customers to ensure our service offering addresses some of the issues highlighted by Businesses and Freelancers alike.

We appreciate, as of yet, we do not have all the sophisticated functionality of our competition, however, we do have a robust service that ensures we are able to offer some of the best commercial rates to the users in the industry.  More functionality is planned for 2013.

A OfficeCavalry.com has been specifically designed for freelancers to profile themselves and to engage with businesses to deliver short to medium term deadline assignments. It provides a new channel to engage skilled individuals into work, utilising their skills remotely or in some instances at the premises of the hirer.

There are a number of unique points that make OfficeCavalry.com’s business model unique from its competitors. We allow businesses to ’view and select’ candidates or to post a project with a pre-defined scope and budget to individuals to maintain the highest quality of selection, negating a ‘Dutch Auction’ style bidding process. This method more accurately reflects freelancers’ true value based on their skills and abilities. We place the emphasis on the business to define a budget associated with a draft specification and expected time lines at the project creation stage.

OfficeCavalry.com believes that this approach is more appropriate for candidates who have built quality profiles to let businesses and projects come to them, rather than spending valuable time and effort bidding for non-specific, inadequately detailed assignments. This strategy has been one of the most contentious decisions taken in the business model evolution, but it has been clearly driven by freelancers who are discontented with market choice, and observe a majority of work outsourced to markets where underlying costs are cheaper, but not always reliable or qualified to deliver.

Fees on OfficeCavalry.com are transparent to ensure that all charges can be evaluated and managed by both parties from the outset. We have a simple Freelancer Membership and Fund Transfer cost structure that can be found at http://www.officecavalry.com/info/membership_options

Unlike many other marketplaces, there are no additional fees for freelancers to pay when their bid limits have been reached.  Freelancers do not have to bid for projects with OfficeCavalry.com, they just have to build a quality profile so that business owners can find and select best fit candidates by the sophisticated search engine functionality. This allows Project Owners to control the initial shortlisting and through interviewing an agreed price for the project can be set by both parties.  This maintains control for the Project Owner and reduces the volume of non-appropriate candidates applying for the project if it had been posted on an open job board.

There is a payment guarantee scheme to speed up payments and a rating mechanism, enabling their respective communities to review previous performances and minimise disputes. Finally, there is a loyalty scheme designed to reward individuals for delivering quality.  Most important is the Escrow payment service that ensures funds are stored in a secure holding account before any freelancer commences with a project. Therefore, when projects are completed to the agreed deliverables, payments are in place and will be made.

Finally, we have built a unique dispute process that we believe will negate and minimise debate if there is an issue throughout the delivery process of a project.  Information relating to this and any other Frequently Asked Questions can be found by visiting http://www.officecavalry.com/info/faq

We have also installed a selection of easy to follow video links that can assist both the freelancer and Project owner to use OfficeCavalry.com.  These can be found at http://www.officecavalry.com/info/how_it_works

Finally, OfficeCavalry.com has won two prestigious awards for design excellence and ease of use.

The winners of the 2010 Horizon Interactive Awards were announced in May this year with OfficeCavalry.com scooping a Silver Award in the B2B category.

This Silver comes just a few weeks after our Webby Award success, where we were awarded an ‘Official Honouree’ title in the category of employment.

A Thousands of businesses worldwide are now tapping into the vast resource pool, made available via the internet, to not only make huge cost savings but also allowing their organisations to remain flexible and to scale their business needs to meet new demands, quickly, without the cost and bureaucracy of traditional employment legislation.

Our short term vision is to enable every business to embrace this new way of working and to be recognised by Project Owners and Freelancers as the leading customer focused online market place within clearly defined skill markets.

OfficeCavalry.com has striven to deliver beyond expectations to implement new ideas that are marketing and customer centric, whilst ensuring that the needs of Project Owners are met and that Freelancers maximise their careers and earning potential.

We are confident that the service on offer differentiates itself from existing on-line market places by championing the abilities and reliability of all of its users.

The vision long term is to continue to strengthen the company’s portfolio of products and services,  to grow our  partnership philosophy and to work closely with providers to share best global industry practice and support effective knowledge transfer to provide a truly customer centric service. As we grow we envisage employing some of the best people in the business and taking pride in OfficeCavalry.coms’ development capability in creating new opportunities for customers, challenging received wisdom, and going far beyond what is currently possible.

A OfficeCavalry.com has been developed to address the needs of businesses seeking workers and operators in specific skill categories in an online marketplace. Our six skill categories are;  CreativeCavalry, TechCavalry, MarketingCavalry, SupportCavalry, AccountantCavalry & LegalCavalry.

A Considering we have only been active as a beta site since late last year, the response from both the freelancer and Project Owner base has been extremely positive.  Our initial strategy has been primarily to build the freelancer stock, supported by through-the-line marketing activities to ensure when Project Owners visit the site, there are quality candidates available.  We are now moving to phase two of our launch where we will be concentrating on delivering more projects to the site through the delivery of a secondary sales and marketing initiative.

As we are a new brand, with limited exposure to date, users of the service are adjusting to our new business model.  However, the response from both the freelancers and Project Owners has been positive and we continue to listen to all parties’ concerns and views and incorporate appropriate changes to ensure we meet with our vision and growth plans to be a customer centric alternative from our competitors.

A The following provides you with a simple list of points to consider regarding attributes required to become a freelancer.  If the answer to these questions is yes, register with OfficeCavalry.com.

• Do you have clear career goals, know what you want to achieve and how you are going to achieve it?
• Are you self-motivated, able to work on your own and drive yourself to find new opportunities on an on-going basis?
• Do you enjoy taking risks, and can undertake the necessary research beforehand?
• Do you have a strong self-belief that allows you to negotiate effectively with clients, get paid what you’re worth and keep on going even when things are difficult?
• Are you a clear communicator, able to discuss briefs and ensure that you are meeting your client’s expectations, as well as being able to get on with a range of different individuals?
• Do you possess the required skills and competencies to build a winning profile that attracts clients to seek you out?
• Are you able to develop an eye-catching portfolio and keep it up to date with your latest achievements?
• Are you aware of the financial and legal implications of being self-employed and able to keep abreast of the relevant legislation?

Planning helps you decide on your general direction and to develop a strategy, by looking at where you now, where you are going and how you will get there. It also helps with better time management and minimises risk by anticipating problems and making informed decisions, before they occur.

One of the biggest benefits of planning is that it puts you in control of your future so that you can choose what you want to do and how much you want to earn.

Registering with OfficeCavalry.com and ensuring you have the best profile available (and keeping it up to date), will ensure project owners recognise you ahead of the freelancer competition. The golden rule to freelancing and working via OfficeCavalry.com is to have your best profile available; if you invest time in how you present yourself, project owners will take time in you.

When you get noticed, always understand what your potential project owners require in terms of cost, quality, delivery and customer service, and how you will be able to meet their needs. This also helps identify how you compare with your competitors.  Finally, provide feedback to ensure you help others in your community.  This will also help get you noticed in the future.

Networking with other freelancers will ensure you gain an insight into all aspects of freelancing and how others have managed to stimulate interviews and work.  It is worth checking out our community forums on, Face book, LinkedIn and Twitter, to have your say and to gain useful advice from others in your field.

If you follow these simple rules, the work will come to you.

A Have a plan and budget and stick to it.  Ensure you have good people and partners around you who are prepared to go the extra mile to deliver your goals and aspirations, backed up with as much customer insight that you can digest.

A I co-founded OfficeCavalry.com and have been fundamental in the concept, strategy, build, marketing and delivery of the new online marketplace to its targeted customer base. I have in excess of 20 years of experience in Telecoms, Mobile Technology, Internet Services, e-commerce and Consultancy and have had a number of senior roles across several global organisations.My last major role before embarking on this new venture was at T-Mobile where I spent four years in several senior management positions, including UK Country Manager responsible for the roll-out of T-Mobile’s UK mobile portal and being Head of UK Product Management responsible for new portal developments.Previously in my career, I spent over ten years working at BT, gaining significant Telecoms experience within a range of sales, service, and business management roles including several general management posts with responsibility for sales, channel management and marketing with revenue responsibility in excess of £100 million per annum.I have gained global knowledge and experience by working across Europe and in Australia and I hold qualifications in Mechanical and Production Engineering and Business Studies in Industrial Management. I have attended Henley Management College and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology at the Sloan School of Management, USA.I possess a wide range of commercial and business acumen and can provide the leadership, management and vision necessary to ensure OfficeCavalry.com grows effectively and has the financial strength and operating efficiency to deliver a new business model into the ever expanding digital online marketplace.

Hobbies include internet interaction, cookery, entertaining and cycling.

Likes – My family, friends, social interaction and all sports.

Dislikes – I have learned to work around my dislikes and embrace things that bring pleasure to my lifestyle, family and friends.

A My children, as they give me the inspiration and drive to work hard and enjoy my successes.

A I believe that OfficeCavalry.com offers a unique business model around the standard principle of the competitive services in the market, and addresses more precisely the needs of the users. Currently there is a gap in the market to deliver a proposition that provides more control and stability to the UK freelancing community, and subsequent opportunities to develop the brand in lucrative market places across the whole of the world. Delivering what the target market wants will be fundamental to the success of the go-to-market strategy. If OfficeCavalry.com can achieve this goal, the business will create a loyal customer following and it will become a voice in the market by providing an exceptional experience that leaves a lasting impression with all of its users.

Executing our business development strategy will require new thought, knowledge management and resources to drive the proposition into the UK market and to ignite the brand. Therefore it’s never been a better time to post a job on OfficeCavalry.com as we are providing a number of financial incentives and support features including refunding Project Owners’ transaction management fees to help kick-start long term relationships.