In my last blog, I touched upon 10 B2B Marketplaces that every product manufacturer should be on. This time around, let’s take a look at the other side of the spectrum of B2B marketplaces- the services marketplaces.

If you’re a B2B service provider- IT services, Accounting Services, Advertising, Taxation, Legal or any of the other host of services that typically business buy, being on a B2B Services marketplace is a great way to get your name upfront among your potential audiences. Services marketplaces work in an almost similar manner as product marketplaces like Alibaba- It’s where buyers of services come to source, identify and hire service providers.

1. Legal Services

The legal services marketplace is yet to undergo the transformation other marketplaces have had especially the B2B product marketplace area. A few bold people have been creating waves by bravely entering this space. www.rocketlawyer.comThis legal services marketplace has over 2000 lawyers and makes it extremely easy for businesses to consult with a lawyer. You simply post your question and get your answers. The site also features some great downloadable free legal documents that every business would need at one time or the other.. Other in the same genre as Rocket lawyer are www.expertbids.com which has both legal and accounting services available on a bid-buy basis. www.avvo.com is still another site from the USA that provides legal services on a Q&A basis to both consumers and business. The downside – all of them are only available at present in US and UK

2. Accounting Services.

Another fundamental need of every business. Accounting services have a history of being out-sourced and hence it is no surprise to see several marketplaces operating in this space. If you provide or need B2B accounting service, it’s a good bet that you’ll find what you are looking for in the following marketplaces. http://www.mpacs.eu/ - provides accounting and tax services through a qualified brief that goes out to their registered accountants.http://www.financeaccountingmarketplace.com/ is another marketplace that while through the name appears to provide financial accounting, but on a deeper dive actually provides a host of service providers in several areas including IT product, software products & services, data warehousing and others. http://www.mclowd.com/ is yet another accounting services marketplace that also provides for a free self-managed super fund software to its small business user.

3. General Business Services

http://www.officearrow.com/ is a horizontal B2B services marketplace that offers a host of commonly used business services in a marketplace model under one roof. From Business Management to Accounting to Human Resources and Sales and Marketing, you can find service providers and access to business buyers.

4. IT Services.

Since the move to the cloud, this sector has seen several interesting marketplaces emerge offering both buy and sell side options. http://www.expertmetrix.com/ for instance offers business to business buyers and sellers for all IT and business processes.http://www.equinix.com/ is a cloud based service marketplace that integrates data centers and service providers into a holistic service offering for businesses around the globe.

5. Funding.

Ever since crowd-funding came into fashion, it’s been raining crowd-funding platforms all over the world. While there are too many to list here and everyone being just a few years old, I have taken the liberty of highlighting some key players both globally and locally. One caveat to all aspiring and current business owners- please do understand the legality of using crowd funding technique for your own local country before you jump into listing your company . My favorite is of course www.indiegogo.com . This crowd funding platform address both consumer funding for personal projects as well as funding from the crowd for business.https://www.fundingcircle.com/ provides business loans through crowd funding. Available at present only in the US and UK, the site claims to have funded loans to the extent of 250 Million pounds so far. Not bad!. https://angel.co or as it is better known Angel List is perhaps one of the best funding platform available that connects enterprises to a host of global VC’s, Accelerators and Angel Investors around the globe. Still others one might want to take a look at are http://www.startupcrowdfunding.com/ , http://crowdbaron.com/,http://www.crowdvalley.com/ ,  http://www.tradeupfund.com/ , https://microventures.co/ And if you’re a business focused on consumer brands, here’s one crowd funding platform just for you https://circleup.com/ , that focusses only on investors interested in investing in consumer brand.

6.Marketing & Advertising.

This is another domain of expertise often ignored by businesses and an area where businesses can deeply benefit by leveraging the power of marketplaces to either buy or sell their services. The entire gamut of marketing- advertising, marketing services and digital marketing is seeing un precedented growth thanks to few enterprising businesses.www.freelancer.com is by far the largest operator in this domain. If you’re a freelancer looking for work or a business looking to hire a freelancer, this is the place to go. You could also try similar moonlighting based marketplaces such as www.elance.com, www.odesk.com orwww.guru.com if you’re looking for consultants, you might try to be on http://consultants.com/If you are in the advertising publishing or buying business you might try www.buysellads.comor www.adonion.com . If you are business looking to buy outdoor media, you might go looking for the right outdoor media on https://www.eatads.com/. Finally if you’re in the marketing communication business or a small/medium business looking for the right agency around the world, you got to be on agencyonnet.com