BusyBee: Social Networking for Freelancers

Posted by Timothy Smith on March 10th, 2011
iPhone App - Designed for iPhone, compatible with iPad

What do worker bees and freelancers have in common? Well, they both strive to stay busy. I don't know why the bees do it (instinct I guess), but I know freelancers usually love their job, and they always need the money. BusyBee is an iPhone app that aims to keep freelancers busy by creating a social network for worker bees (freelancers) and lead bees (users looking for services). Basically, you can list yourself as a contractor, create a profile, and keep in touch with other small businesses and freelancers, or you can log in and search your area for specific services (writer, mechanic, artist, etc.) and find a list of workers. It is more interactive than a typical job search, and it allows users to connect with each other instantly via phone or chat. Some of the highlighted features include:

BusyBee features:

Business profile builder
Find work opportunities or find workers, based on your location
Chat tool for instant communications
Quick message - send quick, pre-built or custom messages to other users
Recommends - Recommend colleagues to other users and have them displayed in your profile
Multi-profile/Multi-skill - A single user can have multiple profiles that contain multiple skills, to allow flexibility
Feed - This will allow the user to instantly be aware of opportunities for their skill, plus a synopsis of their activity (still working on this feature)

So, if you're a freelancer, contractor, or small business, or you are just someone looking for special services then BusyBee might be the right tool for the job. At any rate, it's a free app, and I can see it being very useful in some circles.

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