There are a lot of ways that your business can thrive and cut costs. One of those ways is by hiring freelancers in place of actual employees. You can start off by having a clear idea of your business projects at hand. After that, there are a number of freelancing platforms where you can post your business project and begin working with freelancers, such as on Upwork or Fiverr.
To acquire a freelancing team, your job posting needs to include a summary of what you expect so that you can attract the right freelancers with the quality you’re expecting. Next, you can set up interviews, and figure out the details with the freelancer best suited for the job.
You will need to agree on things such as the time it will take to complete the project, as well as their work availability they can provide you with. Then, when you’ve shuffled through potential freelancers until you’ve picked out the best one for your business, you’re ready to sign a contract.
This contract needs to specifically state that you’re not signing an employer/employee contract. It should include a timetable and payment rights. Many freelance platforms include safety contracts in their service outline, which you can use when working with freelancers.
Should I Hire a Freelancer or Employee?
You might be thinking, why should I work with a freelancer instead of an employee? It turns out that there are many reasons why people pick to work with freelancers over employees. Here are a few of the pros to hiring a freelancer over an employee:
- Gives your company financial savings
- Lowered risk
- No need to pay for the freelancer’s benefits
- No need to buy office supplies
- Larger talent pool
- No long term commitment
The benefits and training you would typically give a regular employee aren’t given to a freelancer typically, which gives your company a big financial savings. There are lower risks working with freelancers, too, because the contract doesn’t include a right for the freelancer to collect unemployment insurance, workers’ compensation benefits, no right to sue over harassment or discrimination. It is also easier to terminate a freelancer and replace him or her. There is no long-term commitment, which is a big positive.
Additionally, there is less of a need to buy office supplies, when your freelancer WFH. In fact, your freelancer could be anywhere in the world. That is one more benefit to working with freelancers. If you want the best of the best and you live in FL, your perfect talent could come from England.
What are the Cons of Hiring a Freelancer?
As mentioned above, there are many benefits to hiring and working with a freelancer. Some of the cons include:
- Freelancer becomes unavailable suddenly
- Be prepared for training and supervision
- Commitment Issues
It is possible for a freelancer to suddenly become unavailable and unresponsive. In that case, it’s up to you to make sure you’re very clear about the project’s details with him or her, to lessen the confusion or pressure if there is too much. If you hire a team of freelancers, you can reach out to a different freelancer when the one you need is unavailable.
There is also the case where a freelancer will need training and supervision, which leaves you to decide whether that’s worth you time and money investments. It might be wiser to hire any employee at that point.
A freelancer might not value his or her position as much as they would if they were a full-time employee. They may feel a lack of connection to your business. You might want to consider keep a good, reliable line of communication open with him or her in order to build a sturdier relationship.
Why Is It Better to Hire a Freelancer?
As mentioned previously, hiring a freelancer saves tremendous money for the business owner. From training to payroll taxes, from health insurance to PTO, your business can save by hiring a freelancer. Another fact, which I previously mentioned, is that there is a larger pool of talent to choose from when you hire a freelancer. Freelance platforms allow you to go beyond previous geographical limits to find the best hire for your team.
On that note, working with freelancers allows for schedule flexibility and tackling short-term deadlines, too. If you’re troubleshooting your website, for example, and one of your pages isn’t working, you might want to find a freelancer to resolve the issue quickly–that is, quicker than your own team, who might be on vacation.
Freelancing platforms give you access to specialized talent and typically faster performance times. This is because they have the ability to focus on one project at a time, instead of multitasking.
With a lot of freelancers available from all over the globe, hiring a freelancer might help to increase your business’s diversity by bringing in a fresh perspective, as well. Freelancers come from all over, with different cultural backgrounds and different experiences. Adding more diversity to your team could increase the flow of ideas in your business and help you tackle problems more efficiently.
Effectively Communicating Requirements with Freelancers
Once you’ve hired your freelancer, it’s important to effectively communicate with them. If you’re forming an international business team, it’s important to state your availability. For example someone in Florida might have a hard time contacting someone in England because of the time zones.
In addition to this example, every other part of your contract should be locateable in writing. From major decisions to progress reports, it’s important to write it all down, because you or the freelancer could forget about it later. You should be prepared to jump in and start working with your first freelancer now!
