Hiring Freelancers for Your Small Business? Heed These Tips!

If you need help managing your projects, check out Plutio!

You need help with your business but you’re not quite ready to hire full-time employees. Is there a feasible solution? Yes, and that solution is to hire freelancers to help out with your projects! Freelancers work as and when you need them, and finding reliable freelance help can be simple and stress-free. Here are a few tips for using freelancers in your business.

Saving With Freelancers

Wondering how much you can save by hiring freelancers? To figure this out, you need to factor in the average pay for a regular, full-time staff member, as well as any training or onboarding costs. When you hire a freelancer, that person typically comes with experience, training, and their own equipment, which can save your small business a fortune.

If you are interested in hiring international freelancers to work remotely, there are a few crucial points to consider. Being open to workers from other countries will certainly expand your talent pool, but you still have to keep tax obligations in mind. Another important consideration is payment, as it can be costly and complicated to transfer money overseas. Fortunately, a remittance service like Remitly can keep both the cost and complication to a minimum. If you’re thinking of hiring freelancers from India, for example, Remitly won’t charge you exorbitant fees to send payments to them directly.

Finding Freelance Help

Okay, you’re sold on hiring freelancers to help your small business grow. Now, you may be wondering where to look for dependable freelance help? Your best bet is to search for those freelancers online, and there are several websites you can use to make the task easier.

With freelancing becoming increasingly popular in business, sites like Upwork, Guru, Fiverr, and FlexJobs make connecting with freelance professionals simple. You just need to create a profile to start your search for freelancers to help out in your most pressing projects. Some job boards charge a fee, so make sure to factor this into your budget.

Another place you can look for reliable freelancers is social media. More specifically, you can use a dedicated search service from LinkedIn to find the right professionals to assist you with a variety of projects. You can also ask for recommendations from your existing network.

Managing Remote Freelancers

When you hire traditional employees, you generally work in the same space together. This can make supervising and collaborating with your staff convenient. But what about remote workers? How can you ensure that freelancers are getting the job done when you’re never in the same building — or even the same country — together? These are all understandable concerns.

There are countless tools that take the hassle and anxiety out of collaborating with any remote team. From calendar tools to social media management apps, there’s a solution for any issue or potential problem you can think up. Plutio’s suite of tools can help you and your team in everything from task management to invoicing.

There may also be times when you need to ‘meet’ with your freelancers. If you need to conduct a virtual interview or talk about works in progress, there are quite a few video conferencing services you can use. Zoom comes to mind because of its popularity, but you can also check out Webex, GoToMeeting, and Microsoft Teams for additional features and options.

When you want your small business to grow and thrive, sometimes the best answer is to stop trying to do it all on your own. Look for freelancers who have the expertise and experience to take your small business projects to the next level. Working with freelancers will also free up more of your valuable time. Best of all, freelancers will help keep your costs low.