Looking to grow a specific part of your business but you can’t afford to hire an agency that specializes in that industry or bring that department in-house and staff it? Not to worry, “A new generation of online service marketplaces is giving small companies more opportunities than ever to find specialized expertise and affordable labor.” Websites such as Guru, Elance, and oDesk to name a few are “‘leveling the playing field between small and large businesses,’ said Thomas W. Malone, a professor at the Sloan School of Management at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. In some cases, the cost savings can be substantial: the hourly rates of programmers in Russia, India or Pakistan are a fraction of those in the United States. These freelance marketplaces also allow companies to assemble teams quickly, find specialized expertise, begin new initiatives and drop everything when it’s no longer needed. Organizations can remain flat and focus on their core missions.”