Growing your business is hard and it is expensive. Sometimes hiring staff can be a huge expense. This is why many start-ups begin to hire the best freelancers for roles, to get the work done. Freelancers allow for talent to perform tasks at a low cost and with a minimal commitment. Here the team at Retaliate1st lay out our tips for hiring the best freelancers.
3 Tips for Hiring the Best Freelancers
- Shop Around
The reality is that no matter how good a freelancer looks on paper, you won’t know how good they are until they do work for you.
When you find potential candidates, start them off with small tasks with a clear deadline and expectations. Handing them the responsibility of redesigning the company website without having seen how they handle instructions, time-pressures, or setbacks is asking for disaster.
- Learn to Communicate Your Needs
Most freelancers are honest, hardworking people eager to do great work for your business. But, if you are incapable of communicating what you want, in exact terms, frustration will strike.
Remember that not all freelancers are native English speakers. Until you can ascertain their fluency, keep sentences short, use bullet points, and avoid idiomatic language.
Do you want 3 three article so a few?
Do you want the graphic to be 650 x 350 pixels, or around the size of a 5×7 picture?
Language concerns aside, being clear cuts down on the time you spend managing freelancers. Tell them what to do, on the first try, and you’ll have less back-and-forth. Remember, you’re hiring them to cut down on your workload by assigning them tasks that free you up to do more important things.
Freelancer Payments
- Split Payment
This is just good business. Pay half up front, half upon completion. If you find freelancers willing to work for a smaller percentage up front, that’s even more ideal.
Again, most freelancers are honest, but there are crooks and scammers in every field. Losing fifty bucks on a starter payment is a lot more manageable than losing five thousand by paying upfront.
- Find People Who Are Better Than You
This is the old Henry Ford philosophy. No matter what you sell or which services you offer, chances are you’re the best at one or two things. Trying to do everything is going to lead to frustration and lack of profits. This problem hits very small businesses and solo-preneurs the hardest.
If you are a baker, stop trying to design your website. Web design takes thousands of hours to master. Doing it yourself in order to save a few bucks will cost you thousands. That’s time you could be making cakes, learning new techniques, or working with a marketer to develop your brand and get your name out into the community. Those things put money in the till. Sitting hunched over your laptop at 3am with an HTML for Dummies book splayed-out in your lap costs you money.
Finding the best people takes time, and effort, to get started. But, once you get your team established, it’ll pay off many times over in bigger profits, and more free time for you.
