On Tuesday, I talked about How To Hire Freelancers on Fiver, and today I want to expound on best practices for hiring freelancers in general. In the last decade, I have worked with countless freelancers in different sectors of my business. Some experiences were fantastic, and I still work with them today, and others were lessons learned. These are the four tips I can share for best practices for hiring freelancers.
The Ability To Buy Back Time
One of the most important things you need to remember when thinking about the best practices for hiring freelancers is they are allowing you to buy back time. You probably currently use freelancers in your personal life when you order an Instant Cart or order through Doordash and finally ride in an Uber. They are 1099 contractors or fancier term; they are freelancing. All three of those elements allow you to buy back time in your personal life. You will be buying back time to create the content vs. spend hours creating, editing, scheduling, and much more.
Establishing A Budget
When I am looking to hire a freelancer for various projects, I do two things first. Outline the duties I need them to complete and research the going rate for these projects. Understanding if I am hiring someone to take over my Facebook ads completely will not be cheap, for example. However, if I am outsourcing the various elements of the project, the pricing might be different. Please do your due diligence by researching to understand better what it will cost you over time.
Outline Their Duties
One of the biggest mistakes I first made when hiring freelancers was not outlining their duties. I assumed that the freelancer could understand what I was saying and thinking, thus causing delays in projects. It is better to over-communicate than assume someone understands. As I was building a course over the last two months, I went into great detail and provided examples of what I needed. Then I gave them the benchmarks and stakeholders needed to accomplish this task.
By doing this, I did not have to micromanage them and instead waited until they submitted information via the project management tool I implemented recently. I hate to micromanage, and outlining the duties with thorough communication helps achieve goals faster.
Research Feedback & Business Relationships
Peep the reviews on the freelancer’s website or the platform you find them on. I spent hours searching through feedback others left to see if 1. They rehired them 2. What mistakes happen 3. Where deliverables are sent at the deadline. When a freelancer does a fantastic job, I love showing off their work and sending them endless referrals. As a small business owner, I know how important it is to refer others.
Handle Legal Aspects
Once you have established a relationship with someone, make sure that you handle all legal aspects that need to put in place, such as; Nondisclosure agreements and contracts. You can hire a lawyer to draft these agreements for you and use them forever. If you are hiring remote freelancers, make sure you have legal guidelines set up for that. You can utilize such programs as Docsign or hellosign for them to fill out necessary documentation. In addition that, note things such as who owns the rights to projects they have worked on for you and if you allow them to share your projects on their platforms.
Places Find Freelancers
- Fiverr
- Creative Market
- Etsy
- UpWork
- Indeed
- MarketHire
- Freelancer
- FlexJobs
After a decade of being a business owner, these best practices for hiring freelancers have served me well, especially in the last couple of months, I scale my digital presence online.
Photo by Rodeo Project Management Software on Unsplash
