Freelance dumping: how to deal with a problem?

Dumping is really a big problem both for freelancers and for owners of various freelance marketplace. This problem is really complex and in order to better understand the seriousness of this economic phenomenon, we need to recall the original meaning of the word “dumping”. Since many people use this term not quite accurately, speaking about dumping in the context of remote work, it is worthwhile to dwell on this issue in more detail.

Dumping is the sale of goods at very low prices, sometimes even at a price lower than the cost of production. Of course, there can be no competition with dumping prices, since the one with the lowest prices wins. In many countries, there are pre-dumping laws, since such practice leads to the emergence of monopolies, which generally negatively affects the economic situation.

But what can you sell cheaply on the freelance exchange? Of course, your own work! How does this happen? On a freelance resource, the customer has the opportunity to choose an artist from several candidates at once. As a rule, the customer immediately announces how much he is willing to pay for the work. At the dawn of the development of freelance, the prices of these or those services of freelancers were quite high – much higher than the salary of an ordinary office worker.

Over time, freelance gained popularity, the ability to engage in remote work appeared for everyone who had computer skills. And then dumping appeared. Since there are many more applicants than employers, getting an order in private communication or getting a client thanks to an exceptionally high-quality portfolio has become much more difficult. And many freelancers began to bring down the price.

Golden Time has come for customers – now they could get everything they needed at a price of two, three, or even ten times lower. For a while, everyone was at a loss, as no one could figure out what to do with freelancers practicing dumping prices. But when customers realized that at too cheap a price, quality work could not be expected, the situation began to improve gradually.

Today, many freelance resources try to deal with dumping. This is done both by the owners of the sites because too low estrangements from freelancers reduce their income, as do freelancers themselves, creating communities in which everything related to the use of dumping when receiving an order is highlighted. The damage caused by dumping is really a serious problem. After all, the damper does not care about the quality of his work – all he needs is to quickly earn money. For the professional, this approach is unacceptable.

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