As a business owner, you need to manage expenses, but you also need a competent staff to achieve your goals. However, if you do not have the resources to hire full-time employees to fill every role, you can turn to over 59 million freelance workers with the expertise to help you grow your business.
Why Should You Hire Freelancers?
According to experts, hiring freelancers eliminates the expenses of permanent, full-time staff members filling temporary or part-time roles. Freelance workers do not require you to pay:
- Employee benefits
- Onboarding costs
- Payroll taxes
- Worker's compensation insurance
Where Can You Find Freelancers?
Although the number of workers opting for the flexibility that comes with freelancing is increasing, you may wonder how to find someone with the skills that match your needs. Fortunately, finding candidates is easier than you may think when you:
- Use customizable recruitment software
- Inquire at local universities
- Ask colleagues and friends for referrals
- Search online using keywords describing your task
What Roles Can Freelancers Fill?
Freelancers should be proficient in skills that complement your existing team's strengths and abilities to maximize your business's competitive advantage. They should also bolster areas of weakness that require expertise you lack to allow you to focus on your company's core competencies.
For example, your company's structure determines critical details, including liabilities, tax obligations, shareholders' compensation, and daily operations. Although you can research and select a business structure yourself, you risk misunderstandings, oversights, and mistakes, such as missing mandatory tax filing deadlines, which could lead to costly penalties. Instead, you can rely upon affordable online service providers or freelancers to explain your options, quickly and accurately file the necessary paperwork with your state, and provide you with copies of the official documents you need to establish and grow your business.
Many small- to medium-size companies also outsource their human resources functions. Freelance human resources consultants can step in to help you find, hire, and onboard permanent and temporary professionals, coordinate employee benefits, or submit periodic paperwork to ensure compliance with state and federal employment policies.
It also makes sense to hire freelancers for specific projects that require advanced technical skills. For example, you can hire freelancers for short-term, large-scale projects such as designing an accessible website, launching a new product, or coordinating a large-scale mailing campaign.
What Steps Should You Take When Choosing a Freelancer?
After deciding that freelancers can help you grow your company, taking specific steps and exercising due diligence before hiring someone is essential.
Start by making a list of requirements for your project's successful completion, such as a relevant degree, experience working in a specific niche, excellent time management, and strong references.
Next, research the industry rates for your project and set a budget to match. Although hiring freelancers can cut your expenses, allocating a reasonable budget will ensure the work quality you expect.
Narrow your choices down to a few candidates and schedule interviews to ascertain their communication skills. In addition, assign them tasks to complete within a specific deadline that demonstrates their ability to produce the results you expect. You may need to adjust your budget to compensate candidates for samples of their work.
Finally, be sure to create a contract with the freelancers you hire that clearly outlines your expectations to prevent miscommunications that could compromise your project and waste your money.
Finding and hiring competent freelancers is a strategic and cost-effective solution for ensuring a high caliber of work that can help your company grow and flourish.
