The online work marketplaces are clear exemplifications of the saying "good things come to those who wait". Just like in case of starting a new business, an employee needs to work hard on dozens of smaller and bigger projects until after getting noticed by employers applying best practices in field of outsourcing.
These best practices are as diverse as the technologies and the customer needs they serve. I'm going to describe a few employer types proven themselves as successful outsourcers during my years spent as a freelancer.
The Craftsman: skilled worker with sound portfolio, good resource management skills and sufficient soft skills to build a team and maintain a positive working atmosphere, even if his or her business is limited by its nature.
The Consultant: highly skilled specialist with a proven track record, who has chosen to start a boutique consulting company, being many more interested in the technical aspects of his or her area of activity than the business aspects. He or she usually hires a complementary team of 1-2 assistants who are able to take care of the administrative tasks.
The Middleman: is usually starting his or her career as a worker with more or less technical skills but great people skills and interest in growing to take up the role of an agency manager. He or she is perceiving the problems as opportunities to acquire the right human resources to solve them, being a magnet to tasks and workforce.
The Scrum Master: a tenacious, constructive person with a rare combination of technical and people skills, acting as a mediator between executives, managers and customers in order to get the job done on time, on budget, and on spec. My personal experience as a member of various scrum teams is verifying the general opinion that performing well as a scrum master is hard, and "many called, few are chosen".
The Growth Hacker: his or her job history is listing managerial roles. None of those roles mentions explicitly the mission of upsizing the business, but the company was growing and its results were improving while he or she was making decisions. Scaling a company is a big challenge and be grateful if you have on your team someone who has the skills to do it right.
