SellYourTime wants to become Snapdeal of service industry

Friday March 06, 2015 , 4 min Read

While we see plenty of e-commerce marketplaces where merchants can sell products, there are very few marketplaces meant for selling services (part-time or freelancing assignments) online. To fill this vacuum, here comes SellYourTime – it’s a marketplace where people sell their time for their skills, knowledge and experience or by virtue of their status and position in the society.

With SellYourTime sellers will be able to command a price for an hour of his time and as per his availability. The platform allows freelancers as well as businesses in the services space to market themselves on the portal and generate business. At present, it has more than 450 service categories from which one can find reliable service providers and business leads.

You can find the right service provider or leads online and connect. Importantly, all money and task related discussions can be carried out offline.

“Whether you’re a tutor, trainer, blogger, business consultant, IT professional, finance expert, actor, celebrity, wedding planner or an electrician, you’re selling your time for your skills, knowledge, experience and/or position in the society. And there are buyers for it who want services within their area,in their budget and as per their availability,” says Akshay Arora, Founder, SellYourTime.

Evolution of the idea

Idea of the portal SYT came into existence while Akshay was sitting in the plush office of a company, which is one of the top 10 brands in the world to work for. “Having a fixed salary for a job demands one’s time, energy, skills, knowledge, experience and much more. And while you sell your time for all or one of those at a fixed monthly salary, hourly rate can easily be calculated. Understanding what your time is worth helps take crucial decisions in life and realisation of what it should be worth,” says Akshay.

Akshay is an MBA in Marketing from SP Jain Dubai/Singapore with seven years of industry experience in some of the biggest global brands in the tech industry, like Samsung

Currently, SYT has eight major service categories and 450+ sub-categories under which you can sell and buy time. For buyers, SYT allows you to choose a service provider in your area, as per your budget, availability and factors like experience and knowledge. For sellers/service providers, SYT gives complete freedom to create a profile and sell services in an area at the price you wish to command, highlight experience and knowledge. You can also specify when you’re available to receive relevant enquiries.

The platform has been getting decent traction from businesses as well as individuals. “It’s not only getting popular in youth who want to make some extra money, but is also gaining interest from segments such as housewives and retired people who did not have a platform to sell their knowledge till now,” adds Akshay.

yourstory_SellYourTime_InsideArticle — SYT captures a unique space in the market as it has something for everyone. It’s different from freelancing websites, where all work, money transactions and payment takes place online. It’s also not a classifieds website where you just list your services for free or a featured listing to get unqualified leads. “We’re positioning as a marketplace of time/services, where a buyer can connect with the seller and take all discussions offline. Sellers get filtered business leads and buyers get trusted service providers,” says Akshay.

SYT also gives you your own dashboard to manage leads, posts, service providers and keep track of your activity to generate business. Moreover, you can chat with the person before revealing your contact details to maintain privacy. It also has a premium offering called SYT Club, which is an invitation-only club to meet almost anyone.

According to an industry estimate, the market for local services in India is highly disorganised and currently estimated to be worth INR 9 billion.

SYT plans to scale up and build a comprehensive marketplace of services where anyone can realise and put a value to his time. It aims to solve the problems of existing freelancers in the city and of people looking for trusted service providers. It’s soon gearing up to raise funding to expand the user base and enhance product features.

The company competes with Coatom, which claims to be the world’s first marketplace for professional coaching like leadership, executive, business, career and life coaching, among others. However, SellYourTime has horizontal and hybrid (online+offline) approach towards unorganised freelancing job market. It will be interesting to see how SellYourTime and Coatom fare in future.

Website: SellYourTime