Had to pick between Upwork and a local referral network for 6 months

Last year I was stuck deciding if I should keep grinding on Upwork or switch entirely to a local business referral group I heard about. I went with the referral group because I hated the race to the bottom on Upwork where everyone bids $15 an hour for web work. It cost me $200 to join the group plus a monthly fee, but within 3 months I landed two solid clients who paid $50 an hour. The downside was that referrals come in slow and I spent a lot of time at breakfast meetings instead of actually working. Meanwhile my buddy stayed on Upwork and made more money month to month but dealt with terrible clients who ghosted him. Has anyone else tried going local and seen it work out better in the long run?

3 comments

3 Comments

park.aaron21h ago

Wait hold on you paid $200 just to join a referral group and then a monthly fee on top of that? That's wild to me. I looked into those groups a couple years back and the entry cost alone made me nope out fast. I mean sure you landed two clients at $50 an hour which is solid but how much did you sink in before you saw any money back? Between the membership dues and all those breakfast meetings you could have just put that time into sending proposals on Upwork or even cold emailing local businesses. People seriously underestimate how much time those meetings eat up when you could be actually doing the work.

angelamurphy19h ago

Yeah I read something similar about BNI groups a while back. A buddy of mine joined one of those and said the same thing about the fees and time commitment. @park.aaron makes a good point about the upfront cost being steep. I tried a local chamber of commerce networking thing once and it was basically the same deal - $150 to join and then you're stuck in meetings where half the people are just selling to each other instead of referring real business out.

-1

rowan_ross19h ago

$200 just to join, and then a monthly fee on top? That's insane to me. I mean I get that networking has value but that sounds more like a subscription to a sales pitch club than a referral group. Your buddy's experience pretty much confirms what I figured - it's a lot of talking to the same people and not much actual business leaving the room. Half the time those groups feel like you're paying for the privilege of being sold to by everyone else.