Tasker Guidance
This resource is here to help you get the most out of Paperound.
Click the topics below to jump to the relevant section.
How to maximise your Paperound profile
Add to your LinkedIn
Many employers will browse LinkedIn to see if you’ve been active on there, so it’s good to keep your LinkedIn updated with your professional progress.
Adding your Paperound experience to your LinkedIn is a great way to let any connections know you are building your professional experience. Here’s two quick things you can do to make people aware:
Add to your LinkedIn Profile
Add a new Position to your LinkedIn profile and enter “Freelance Student Tasker” as the Title and Paperound as the Company Name. Then scroll down and click the option to Add Media – here you can paste in the link to your listing and it will show a nice preview on your LinkedIn profile.
Write a LinkedIn Post
Let your network know about your new experience by making a post. Keep it punchy, informative and provide a link straight to your Paperound listing so people can click through and check out what you’re doing!
Here’s an example: “Excited to begin working on freelance projects with UK businesses via @Paperound, I’m going to be helping organisations on tasks like market research, social media content and graphic design. Check out my Paperound page here (LINK). “
Calendly
Some of our more popular Taskers are set up on calendly.com – this is a free meeting scheduling tool that connects with your calendar. You can post one link for people to see your availability and book you for a meeting. It’s really useful to have on your listing and makes it easy for businesses to schedule a chat with you about a project.
(Remember to link a video meeting provider to this so it auto-generates a meeting link with your clients – Google or Zoom is fine).
Links to projects
It helps businesses if they can see any outputs of your work. This doesn’t have to be a professional portfolio, it can also be:
- Link to a social media page you’ve managed. If you do topical content from your personal page, you can link to that too
- Link to an event / society you’ve worked on
- A google drive with screenshots, concepts or pieces of written work
By making your profile stand out and look the part, your more likely to be contacted by businesses.
How do businesses contact me on Paperound
Businesses come to you
To avoid making you spend all your time reaching out to businesses, we bring businesses to you.
- Businesses post Tasks through the platform with details of what they are looking for.
- We then notify (via Whatsapp) the Taskers that fit the skillsets of that task.
- Open the link in the notfication and respond saying you are interested. Make sure to check out the details of the task, the due date, and the hours needed before replying.
- Taskers can also browse and respond to open tasks at anytime on paperound.com/tasks
- Once they’ve received your response, businesses will check out your listing and arrange to chat with you. You and the business will then scope out the project and get it booked in.
How to respond to Paperound enquiries well
Enthusiasm, Experience and Interest
We’re all human, and we all respond well to positive energy. Don’t forget to break the ice with asking a little bit about them and their business.
When responding to Posted Tasks or messages, it’s helpful to point out why you might be a good fit for their task. This might be through:
- Experience – letting them know about a previous experience you’ve been involved in that is relevant to them: perhaps the software they are using, the sector they are in, or the problem they are trying to solve
- Interest – if you don’t have previous experience to mention, stating interests you have about their industry or type of work is a good way to show your ethusiam for a project.
Arranging a discovery call
Most businesses will want to have a conversation before booking you in – suggesting some times for a video call is a great way to get the ball rolling on a project.
A quick video call (10-15 minutes) can clarify a lot about what the client is looking for, help you put a face to a name, and start to build the trust with your client.
Need to say no?
It’s not a problem if you need to decline working with a business. Sometimes you are too busy or you simply don’t have the skills that they are looking for.
Always reply anyway to let them know you can’t take on the task right now. Many businesses will keep you in mind for future tasks knowing that you are responsive and eager. Or some might even adjust the project deadlines/scope to fit your commitments and skill level.
Example:
“Thanks for the message Jake – sounds really interesting but unfortunately I can’t take this on right now. I’ll be more free at the end of this month if that’s helpful, otherwise I’m sure there are other Paperound Taskers that can take this on!
How to scope a Paperound project well
You've arranged a call and the the business is interested in booking you for some work. Here's some handy tips on how to scope out an effective and clear project with a Paperound client:
Get context
A good place to start is asking about their business – ‘what do they do, and how do they currently do it’.
Finding out about their sector and some industry terms they use can be a good way to kick off research to look at other businesses, topics, trends, and brands for inspiration or guidance.
Clarify x3
Scoping out the important details helps both parties understand what’s expected and helps lead to a great project. Here’s some things you can clarify at the start:
- Clarify what the output is. What exactly are they expecting from you at the end? Do they have a process in mind for the task already? Or are are they happy for you to come up with a way of getting there yourself? Is there any parts you can’t do? It’s worth stating upfront which bits you might struggle with and how important those parts are.
- Clarify the deadline. Is the deadline the most important factor? Or would they rather wait for something better? When do they need the task completed? Some businesses just want as much as done as possible by a certain date, others are less bothered about a deadline and would rather get exactly what they need. Sometimes it’s worth finding out.
- Clarify how long you’ll need. Some businesses will ask you for an estimate – be realistic with them, and give yourself some buffer time for understanding the project as well as potentially some extra time for tweaks they may want you to make at the end. Remember they can always book you in for some more hours if there is more to do!
Once you’ve scoped out the project, get it booked in.
How does the Paperound booking process work
Clients can click through to your listing to book you in straight from a conversation. If they are struggling to do this and you need to guide them to your page, you can get the link to your listing by going to the top right Icon on the marketplace, and clicking My Listings.
We want to make sure our Student Taskers are paid fairly for the time they put it in. So, all Paperound tasks follow an hourly rate system. Tasks are booked as a total number of hours to be worked, at the hourly rate set on the Tasker’s listing.
The Paperound booking process works as follows:
- You and your client agree to do some work
- Your client books in the number of hours required for the task on your listing
- You work on the task
- When you finish the task, your client Marks the task as complete
We recommend following this process for your first few tasks and for any first task with a new client.
Once you have worked on a first project with a client and you have more work coming through from them, you both may find it more practical to get going with work and come back to Paperound to enter the hours you have worked after the task.
That’s fine too if you are happy to trust the client to do this. Just make sure you have kept a record of how long you have been working on the task. We recommend not going past more than a week before inputting hours on any ongoing project – that way things are always up to date and accounted for.
Keep in mind – the client will still need to create the booking, you’ll still need to ‘Accept’ the task, then they will still need to mark the task as Complete, even if the work has already been completed.
For every task you complete make sure your client is leaving a great review!
How to make the most of a completed Project
Your task is coming to a deadline. Here's some useful things you can do to make the most out of it.
Get a positive review
Positive reviews really help your profile stand out. Ask your client if they are happy to leave a review for you.
Keep in mind that the client will write their review at the same time as when they Mark your project as Complete. So make sure to ask for a review before they do this.
PS – Even better… ask if you can use their review on your CV when you go to graduate interviews. A testimonial from another business is a huge tick for employers!
Get a referral or LinkedIn share
Businesses have networks, and you can tap into this by asking your client:
- “Do you have any founder friends that might have some tasks I can support on?” Give them the link to your listing and let them know they can it share directly with their business contacts
- “Would you mind posting about me on LinkedIn?” When they mark your task as Complete, the Paperound platform nudges them to post on LinkedIn about you. Tell your client to look out for this as it’s a great way of getting in front of their network!
Example:
“Hi Jake – really glad I could help on this task. You just need to mark the task as complete now. When you do this there will be a page to leave a review, as well as post on LinkedIn about me. If you could do both I’d really appreciate it, as it helps me get exposure in industry and develop my experience with more businesses.
How notifications work on Paperound
We try to keep things simple and clear on Paperound and will notify only when relevant things happen. We don't have a native app, so we run notifications in two ways:
We will notify via Whastapp when:
- You receive a message
- You are booked
- A booking status changes (e.g. to Complete)
- Someones leave you a review
- A Posted Task fits your criteria
You can open up the links in each Paperound Whatsapp message to go to the necessary action.
To receive Whatsapp notifications, make sure your number is added to your profile and includes the international prefix (e.g.+44). You can check this by going to marketplace.paperound.com > Top right icon > Settings > Profile Info.
You’ll also receive an email notification when:
- You receive a message
- You are booked
- A booking status changes (e.g. to Complete)
- Someones leave you a review
These emails will go to which ever email address you have entered on your account. We recommend using a personal email that you check often. You can change this at any time by going to: marketplace.paperound.com > Top Right Icon > Settings > Account.
Sometimes we’ll also send useful content about building experience and developing your professional skills, we’ll only do this by email though, this way you know that Whatsapp has the important (time sensitive) stuff.
Answers to common client questions
Not all businesses will be aware of the Paperound process for utilising student talent, and some might need a bit of guidance to get from start to finish. Here's the answers you need if they ask you (feel free to copy and paste).
How does the payment work?
Card details are captured at the start when you book a tasker, but no payment is transferred until the business marks the task as Complete.
Do I get a receipt?
When a Tasker accepts the task you will receive an email receipt of the booking. You can screenshot that for your records.
How do I mark the transaction as Complete?
On marketplace.paperound.com, head to Inbox which is found by hovering over your icon on the top right. Open the booking conversation (it will say In Progress on it), in there you can Mark as Complete.
I forgot to leave a review, can I still do it?
Yep! Just write your review in an email to jake@paperound.com and mention my name.
Can my friends join Paperound?
Absolutely! We trust that you’ll refer people who understand what will be expected of them, so as a rule, we let referrals from current Taskers skip the application stage!
Send your friend to paperound.com/become-a-paperound-tasker/ and they can get their pre-vetting interview booked in straight away.
Still not found your answer?
If you still can’t find the information you need on here, send your question on Whatsapp to Jake: +447522901444