Wondering why a US business would hire you from India when it could hire someone local? Most of the clients who hired me from India were small businesses with more small jobs than staff. Price played a part, and they came back for other reasons too: the work was ready when they woke up, they had one person they trusted with almost any small job, and I already knew how American clients work from my jobs in India.
How it looks from a small business owner's side
My second client was a man in the US who was starting a pharmacy with investment from his family and others. He had worked with my first client, and my first client gave him my name. He needed a few things done on a computer, and he wanted help he could trust. On our first call he could not say what he wanted. I listed everything I could do, from logos to websites to accounting and Excel work, and the call ended with no plan.
Look at that call from his side. A business that is just starting cannot put $5,000 or $10,000 into a logo and branding. It cannot afford a full-time accountant for two or three hours of work a month. So owners like him look for an affordable person they can rely on, and local help in the US is expensive.
$24.36
| Work | What a local provider charged | What I charged |
|---|---|---|
| A website for my pharmacy client | $3,000 to $5,000 at a web design shop in his country, as I learned later | $750 (about ₹72,0002) |
That was my price in my first years, a reference point, not a promise. Why clients abroad expect Indians to charge less, and why that should not last, is in Why clients expect Indian freelancers to be cheap.
Small businesses need help in bursts
The pharmacy owner came back two or three months after that first call and asked for a logo, which I made for $150. Then he needed a website. He sent me one of the biggest pharmacy websites in the US and said he wanted something like it. I struggled with it at first. His sister gave me feedback on margins, padding and spacing, words I was learning for the first time. The website took about two months, and he paid $750.
Then COVID arrived, and his pharmacy began running vaccination clinics. First he needed a system to fill in the patient forms, then a scheduling tool on the website so patients could book their vaccination, then a place to store the forms. That work went on for about three months, and it paid well.
I used to work day so that the things are ready for them in the morning. For example, if there is a vaccination clinic tomorrow, if they're planning for it, there are certain things that need to be completed before the clinic is set up.
His work came to me in bursts, the way small businesses need help. A website is finished in a month or two, and the vaccination paperwork lasted about three months. None of it adds up to a full-time job. What the owner needs is one person he already trusts who can take the next task when it appears. He gave me the vaccination work because I had built his website and done a little accounting for him. The person he trusts can live anywhere, and from India they can work while the client sleeps.
What to do with this
Offer your day as their night. In my years in India, clients often asked me to have work finished by their morning. India is nine and a half hours ahead of New York in the American summer, and ten and a half in winter.
| If you work 10 am to 6 pm in India, it is | In New York (summer time) | In London (summer time) | In Sydney (winter time) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Their clock | 12:30 am to 8:30 am | 5:30 am to 1:30 pm | 2:30 pm to 10:30 pm |
India does not change its clocks, so these shift by an hour when those cities move between summer and winter time.3 Some clients still need you during their working hours, which means your evening or your night. Decide which you can live with before you take one on.
Say yes to the small jobs around your main skill. When I started, I was open to working on almost anything my clients needed, and the work I do today began when one client asked if I could handle something new. Clients often have an idea and do not know whom to ask. One wanted a special animation on his website, and design studios quoted him thousands of dollars to build it from scratch. I set up a WordPress (opens in a new tab) plugin that cost twenty or thirty dollars to do the same, and still earned well on the job.
Count the foreign standards you already know. Before I freelanced, I had three jobs where I dealt with people in the US, starting with doctors in my first job. If you have written code for an overseas team, built marketing funnels for a company selling abroad, or worked in a BPO, you have also worked to a standard set in another country, even if you never met the client.
Do not wait for perfect English. My English worried me for years. On the pharmacy work I spoke with the manager, nurses, pharmacists and sometimes customers. When I missed what someone meant, I caught up as we went, and people tried to help me rather than judge me. If the first call worries you, How to talk to US clients on your first call goes through it.
See where you fit in a US client's day
- Add New York to the world clock on your phone.
- Look at your own evening, from 6 pm to 11 pm, and write down the hours when offices there are open and you are still at your desk.
- List five small jobs around your main skill that a small business in the US might hand to one person it trusts.
- Keep the list in your notes for a week, and tick a job each time you see a US business ask for it on Upwork (opens in a new tab) or LinkedIn (opens in a new tab).
Sources
- 1US Bureau of Labor Statistics, Occupational Outlook Handbook: Bookkeeping, Accounting, and Auditing Clerks (median pay, May 2025) (opens in a new tab)Checked 28 Sep 2026
- 2Federal Reserve, H.10 exchange rates for the Indian rupee (₹95.87 per dollar on 18 Sep 2026) (opens in a new tab)Checked 28 Sep 2026
- 3timeanddate.com, India Standard Time (UTC+5:30, no daylight saving) (opens in a new tab)Checked 28 Sep 2026