Maximizing Your Experience Hiring Freelancers

By: Michael | Published: August 27, 2010 | Filed under: Small Business Advice, Uncategorized

Being a small business owner can be overwhelming and many times you’ll want to bring on hired help. While it’s not always practical to have full time, salaried employees, the internet makes it easy to locate and hire freelance labor. However, there is no shortage of freelance horror stories. Let’s look at how your business can get the most out of utilizing freelance labor.Having a positive experience with a freelancer, starts with hiring a freelancer with a proven reputation. This can be established in one of two ways. First, you can begin hunting for freelancers by asking friends in your industry about freelancers they’re had good experiences with in the past. Word of mouth is one of the best ways to get reliable, freelance labor. Another excellent method is to look on the popular freelnace boards such as Freelnacer.com, Elance.com, Guru.com and oDesk.com. Each of these sites have a “review” profile of each freelancer on there. The most effective way to select a freelancer is to see who has reviews that were left on work completed that is similar to what you are looking to hire for. For example, if you are looking to hire a designer to create a logo for you, their ideal reviews should mention previous logos created for their clients. Chances are is people were happy with their logo creation in the past, you will be too. On top of looking for relevant previous jobs, check if anyone had a very unpleasant experience with the freelancer in the past. If they have reviews indicating things like failure to meet deadlines or poor communication, you may want to look elsewhere.Starting with a freelancer who has a proven reputation is a great way to maximize the potential of a positive experience. Another very helpful trick is to outsource only tasks that don’t require an in-depth understanding of your company’s goals or processes. Ideally, the projects should have a limited scope and duration. This will help you assess the freelancer on a per-project basis and limit your risk associated with the job. In this case, if you are underwhelmed by the efforts your freelancer puts in, you can select a new one for work in the future.Of course, while hiring the most qualified people and designating them only limited tasks can help minimize your risk, you will still want to maximize on labor that they are completing. Doing so requires management, and sometimes even micro management. The best way to get the most out of your freelancer is to require CONSTANT communication from them. If you are paying hourly, require hourly status updates. If you are paying on a per project basis, require the freelancer to communicate each milestone they accomplish. In the event they are unable to meet a deadline, require them to communicate this before hand so you can always be on the same page. Indicate to your freelancer how important deadlines and communication is and how it can break the deal with them if they are unable to do one or the other well.On top of hiring qualified freelancers, making them aware of, and accept your terms from the get go is a surefire way to maximize your success of hiring a freelancer. Of course, keep your expectations realistic to ensure that you are going to have them met every step of the way.