Airtasker stories: Harvey the Techbloke

It’s not uncommon for Airtaskers to find full time work or regular clients after a few tasks, especially if they impress on the job. But for new Australian resident Harvey L. his Airtasker experience to led something grander: it evolved into a business.

Harvey sold his house in the Philippines to move to Australia on a skilled migrant visa last year, with wife and four-year-old daughter.

It cost him $15,000 to migrate, after a year of planning. Harvey and his family stayed with a friend for the first few weeks before moving to apartment in Melbourne CBD.

Aside from the friend and his family, Harvey knew no-one in Australia, so he joined Airtasker to get some work and meet people. Without a car, he used public transport to get around Melbourne for all sorts of tasks.

“The strangest job I did was cleaning a fish pond – the lady had owned the fish for about two years and she wanted the pond cleaned,” he says. “In high school, in the Philippines, one of my hobbies was tropical fish, so I knew a lot about maintaining fish ponds.”

He started of with “simple” tasks but soon started to pick up some IT work – his area of expertise..

Airtasker helped build up his network, and it wasn’t long until he started to impress clients with his 13 years of IT experience.

“After about 30 tasks I had met some business owners,” he says. “They encouraged me to get my own ABN and that opened some doors for me.”

Once Harvey built up his contacts he started to make serious money. One week in January he was number one on Airtasker and I made about $1,500. On average, when he was using it regularly, he was making $500 to $1,000 a week.

By January this year the 31-year-old was running his own IT business and working for several different companies.

He still uses Airtasker occasionally to search for clients for his website. “For someone new to Australia, with skills and a lot to prove, Airtasker is a great website,” he says. “As a business owner it is really helpful to connect me with clients in the area.”

Harvey fondly remembers one of his best jobs. “There was a business in Sydney – They posted a task wanting to migrate their website, which had really high traffic,”he says. “I transferred the whole system in two days and they were very impressed.

Harvey said Airtasker is a great way to meet make new friends and business contacts for a new migrant to Australia. “I have some have some friends who are arriving here and in Sydney and I encourage them to use Airtasker,” he says.

“I want to say thank you to Airtasker – you opened doors for me where I least expected.”