Why are people initially hesitant to freelance/ hire freelancers?

Often when entrepreneurs start out, they turn into freelancers to carry out their tasks and later become full time employees. This helps them save time, multi task and save money. It requires less paperwork and onboarding time. There are tons of freelancers working from all over the world with a range of skills. They do sound like an ideal solution to all your requirements but that is not all. When it comes to outsourcing the work, entrepreneurs choose freelancers over full time employees. Since the rates are lower than the ones prevailing in the market, it will help save a few bucks. Although there are various benefits of hiring freelancers, there is an initial hesitance among people.

Imagine waking up to the work you placed an order for, find a problem and email for a few changes. What if the freelancer is not available or is unable to deal with the problem until the next two days? Can you afford this issue if it pops up? Because of such issues, people avoid hiring freelancers. Sometimes freelancers promise to deliver the work on a given deadline but end up delaying the entire project, this hampers the work of the entire staff including the full time employees. Imagine negotiating a rate with a freelancer and them asking for more at the end moment of delivery of the work. Can you deal with this? This is why people prefer to deal with people in their region even if the rates are higher.

It is not right to say that you do not have great freelancers. There are people from different parts of the world who offer excellent work but are constantly being squeezed by lower and lower rates, this affects their quality and sometimes they flee to never return. When hiring freelancers, it is important to find the right person. While you are on the lookout, somewhere in the middle, you will find a committed freelancer who will stick by for a long time and will be more valuable to your company than full time employees. The rates maybe higher but the quality of work will be way higher. Local freelancers can be easily found online, through business networking groups and business owners. The internet has broken down many barriers which has made it possible to connect with someone online and manage work while you sit miles away. Offer the right pricing based on the work you are assigning the freelancer. Talk to business owners in the same industry and get an idea of the efforts that will be involved in your project. However, evaluating quotes based on the price will be counterproductive. It assumes that you only want to buy the time of the freelancer; instead you want to attain some results from the services being offered by them.

There have been instances where freelancers have committed to work and have disappeared as the deadline approached. An astute freelancer will take deep interest into your business and will understand the specifications. They will take the work to understand it and will help add value. They will sell you results throughout the process.

The trick is to pick the right one. It is ideal to tell the freelancer about your business and give them a small job for starters. Whatever you do, never ask the freelancer to do speculative work or complete a project for free. It is absolutely disrespectful for their time. You can check the portfolio of the freelancer and go through the references in order to gain confidence. Meeting online, or over the phone or in person will help you figure out if you can work with this person. Speak to the people they have worked with in the past and gain information about the quality of their work and their commitment towards the profession. There is an increasing demand of freelancers across the globe and a lot of professionals are choosing to work as freelancers due to the flexibility and the opportunity to work on multiple projects at the same time.