Solving The Problem Of Finding a Helper

Up until now, if you wanted day labor and were "in the know", you might drive to your local Home Depot parking lot and see who was hanging around.  If you needed moving help, it meant begging friends and family to pitch in and owing tons of "favors" afterward.  Needing a little assistance taking care of your lawn meant a full blown, costly landscaping crew, or the neighbor's kid who can't mow in a straight line.

Now that has changed, with an online solutuon to the problem of finding good help: HireAHelper.  This is a Web 2.0 app for the suburban set, pairing busy professionals with the people they need to get their small projects done around the home and office. It's actually a pretty darn good idea. 

It eliminates the need to drive around looking for quasi-legal day laborers in construction supply lots, or to beg favors from friends and family.  It eliminates the need to pay with cash (if you are like me, you don't deal in a lot of cash anymore).  Not only that, it lets someone else vet the potential employees' credibility, so you don't have to.

At the moment, the only drawback to the service seems to be the number of helpers available outside of the larger cities.  When I did a search for "house cleaning help" using a Boston zip code, I got back several results. Each result popped up wih a description of services offered, a description of the company or person, their rate and their travel charges and the distance they would go to a job.

When I did the same search for my own zip code, a much smaller town in New England, I got fewer results, all from people who were farther away. This means that until or unless word gets around about this service and they get more helpers in their database, the service will be most cost effective in the major metropolitan areas.  For me to pay the travel rate plus the houry on the results I got would make it cheaper just to put an ad up at the local college job board or in the local paper, or just buy my friends some beers and owe the favor. 

Sign up for the site is easy, and free. Even better, you can search the database without signing up. This gives you a chance to see if they have helpers in your area without spending the time to fill in the sign up form.  If you do find helpers that make signing up worth while, the company will require a valid credit card number from you.

They use the credit card number to pay the people you hire for the day.  You pay online, you receive a confirmation code. The helper(s) you hire do the work. When they are done, you don't pay them - you simply give them the confirmation number generated by the site. They then punch that number in once they get back to thier own computer, and HireAHelper then pays them.  It's all very civilized and painless, and eliminates that awkward wallet fumbling moment at the end of the day.

As to how HireAHelper can afford to offer this middle man service, they take a percentage out of the helpers' fee.  According to their FAQ, it is 100% free to search the site for helpers, and 100% free to list your self as a helper.  They then take a whopping 15% out of the amount the helper quotes you for their service.  (I thought 15% was somewhat high, but it seems on par with the extensive fees charged by temp agencies and the like in the brick and mortar world.) 

One last thing to note: it is the buyer's responsibility to make sure the helper they hire is bonded and insured. HireAHelper does not provide insurance for the helpers listed on their site. This means that damage to your home would not be covered by HireAHelper, but by the person you hired to do the work. So take the extra time to ask in your request for service for proof of insurance! 

This company seems to have some growing pains to work out, but all in all I was impressed by the nice site design, the concept, and the ease of use.  All they need now is a larger list of helpers in more places outside of metro areas and they have an idea that could be around for a long time to come.

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