How to Hire a Freelancer to Assist Your Business

Consider the following scenario: If you go along with hiring a freelancer online to create your new logo. They're still debating the deeper meaning of color choices two months later, and you're stuck delaying your relaunch. Or, even worse, you paid a freelancer a 50 percent advance payment and they've since gone.

While most small companies are aware of the process of acquiring exceptional full-time staff, it is now critical to understand how to properly hire a competent freelancer as well. Conducting pre-employment background checks is also crucial. It might hurt your bottom line if you don't.

The word "freelancer" is commonly used to describe self-employed professionals who provide temporary creative labor, such as writers or graphic designers, but it may also apply to persons who perform any function, such as accountancy. Businesses find freelance professionals for freelance-specific jobs and recruit them for several reasons, including:

• Budgetary restrictions
• There isn't enough work to justify hiring a full-time worker.
• The employment is seasonal or only available for a limited time.

According to a LinkedIn poll, around 70% of small company owners have used a freelancer at some point in their careers.

In many cases, hiring a freelancer is less expensive than hiring full-time staff, especially if you only require assistance with one-time work. In 2019, the average hourly rate for freelancing and consulting work was $19. However, this varied greatly by sector and skill level.

Even if a freelancer is considerably more expensive than the average employee, it can still be less expensive than hiring a full-time employee if salaries, payroll taxes, benefits, and other employment costs are taken into account. Furthermore, once you've established connections with high-quality freelancers, you may frequently rehire them on a project-by-project basis.

Although employing a freelancer may seem like a good idea from a practical and budgetary standpoint, you must exercise extreme caution. Anyone may call oneself a "freelancer," just as anyone can call themselves an "artist." This emphasizes the importance of doing your homework and fully vetting all freelancers using a complete employment screening solution like ShareAble for Hires.

We'll take a deeper look at how to recruit a freelancer who suits your demands, budget, and company goals in this post.

When Should Your Small Business Hire a Freelancer?

Before hiring someone fresh, think about if you need a freelancer and what sort of work you could provide them. Hiring a freelancer for your small business can be beneficial when you need an additional pair of hands on a project, but you may not want to outsource work that is critical to your company's success.

Hiring a freelancer to manage client projects, for example, may not be a smart option because they are unlikely to be as familiar with your company's processes as a present employee. Hiring a freelancer to do graphic design or give social media consultancy, on the other hand, might be a perfect answer for your team's needs.

The following are examples of situations where a freelancer might be useful:

Specialized tasks: Writing, marketing, legal review, graphic design, and other specialized work may be outsourced to a freelancer by some small business owners.

Lower-skill tasks: Freelancers may take on low-skill work that takes up your time, enabling you to focus on building your business and using your specialist abilities. You could own an accounting company and want assistance with data input, spreadsheet generation, and data extraction. A freelancer with this sort of knowledge could assist you in completing these chores, allowing you to concentrate on expanding your business.

Lower-skill tasks: Freelancers may take on low-skill work that takes up your time, enabling you to focus on building your business and using your specialist abilities. You could own an accounting company and want assistance with data input, spreadsheet generation, and data extraction. A freelancer with this sort of knowledge could assist you in completing these chores, allowing you to concentrate on expanding your business.

Freelancers may help you optimize your everyday operations in several ways, and companies of all sizes are learning how to make use of these remote workers.

Select the Most Appropriate Freelance Job Board for Your Project

There are lots of freelancers to pick from in the expanding gig economy. According to a 2017 survey by Upwork, around 57.3 million freelancers were working in the United States in 2017, with 90.1 million expected by 2028.

As the number of job-seeking freelancers has grown, various freelance job forums for both general and specialist freelancers have emerged.

The Following are Some of the Most Prominent Job Boards to Help You With Your Freelance Recruiting Efforts:

1. Hire Software

Hire Software is one of the best freelancing marketplaces where you can discover the best remote developers and freelance jobs. Whether you’re a front-end programmer or a back-end engineer, you can hire remote developers, and job opportunities here that allow remote work. Hire Software does not let your location limit your search for the right programming.

2. Upwork

Upwork is a prominent freelancing marketplace with thousands of freelancers in a variety of fields, including marketing, legal, accounting, customer service, IT, writing, engineering, and architecture.

3. Guru

Guru is noted for its extensive network of skilled freelancers, claiming to have over 3 million available on its site. It's free to post a job, and Guru maintains notes of the freelancers you've employed in the past so you can quickly go back to them for future projects.

4. Fiverr

Simple, one-time assignments are ideal for Fiverr. Sellers establish "packages" of the services they offer, with a basic, standard, and premium level for three defined rates, similar to Etsy. Their visual interface is simple to use and includes seller ratings and reviews, much like other platforms.

5. Freelancer

Freelancer is a website that connects freelancers. Another prominent participant among freelancing platforms is Freelancer.com, which offers a clear, simplified, and intuitive job posting procedure. Aside from profile ratings, Freelancer also includes work examples from freelancers that you can look at ahead of time to see whether their work fits your standards.

Important Points to Remember

Hiring a freelancer may open up a whole new world of potential for small company owners in broad strokes. Hiring Freelancers online can help fill in the gaps in a developing company or take on activities that free up both the owner and current employees. However, although Hiring freelancers online might be a great method to increase productivity and revenues, it can also expose your business to a variety of hazards. When considering hiring freelancers, it's critical to do thorough personnel screening to prevent putting yourself in a bind.