Why Hiring Freelancers Benefits Your Business and Your Bottom Line

October 15, 2014 by Ed Becker

Many small businesses cannot afford to hire more employees, or any employees for that matter. But if you need a specific project completed, or something ongoing that can be done remotely hiring a freelancer is the perfect option.

How does a freelancer benefit your business?

• Knowledge. You get someone with expertise in their field and great skills and experience to work with you on your projects, you can hire each freelancer as a one-time gig or as ongoing assignments. This allows you to customize the freelancer with the job.
• It is an as-needed basis. Freelancers can be hired for a single item or certain amount of time for a project, or they can be sort of on retainer as you need them.
• It is cheaper than you may think. Freelancers have lower overhead, no commute, etc. So their rates can and usually are cheaper than hiring an agency or temp service employee. If you use an online freelance service there are minimal fees for hiring and for working.
• They are experts. Freelancers usually have worked for many years in their field before venturing out on their own. They can fill in the gaps in your knowledge of certain areas.
• Quicker turn around. Because they are experts and because they are not involved in all the other aspects of your business, the turnaround time is much quicker. In fact, you have the most say in setting deadlines.

Where to find a freelancer

• Check out online outsourcing sites or post ads on local craigslist.org.

It is very likely that you have freelancers in your local community. Talk to other small business owners to see if they have used anyone locally. Local freelancers are small businesses just like you are, supporting them is as important to your community as any other small business.

Tips for hiring a freelancer

• Review your state and federal laws on hiring independent contractors to ensure that the person and project qualifies as a contractor.
• Consider if you have to have someone local or remote. If you need someone local where will they work? From their home office or from your space?
• Appoint someone or set aside time for someone that will manage the freelancers and projects. Someone will need to be available to answer questions in a timely manner.
  Ask for and review samples of the freelancers work.
• Setup paid trials to ensure that it is a good fit for both parties.
• Ask about schedules and deadlines, if your project is time sensitive you need to know that the freelancer is immediately available.
• Some freelancers will want a written contract, some will refuse and some do not care either way. It is something you want to think about ahead of time, as well as a NDA (non-disclosure agreement) it simple states that the works completed for your company become the property of your company and cannot be used by the freelancer.

Hiring a freelancer does not have to be a long drawn out process. You simply need to know that they have the skills and expertise you are looking for, that their work is professional and they will complete your project on time. This easily can be done in a couple days through email, fax, and even Skype interviews. If you have a very time sensitive project you could push it along and hire someone in the same day. You may find that you will hire several different freelancers in different areas of expertise. It works well for both parties and helps your business grow without the expense of hiring and training employees.