But first of all, let us understand:
Who is a freelancer?
Today, when almost everyone has switched to remote working, it seems like the entire world has started freelancing. However, freelancing does not only imply working remotely and with a flexible schedule. One of the vital characteristics of freelancers is that they work mainly with short-term contracts and usually have several clients at once. So do not expect them to be your full-time remote worker. They might not be willing to engage in too many meetings with you. Although it might seem bad news, it has a lot of advantages too. You don’t have to provide too much guidance to your freelancers and can still expect them to give you the final product in the way you wanted. So, if we have it all cleared up, let’s move on to the next question.
How to hire the best freelancers?
Another question for complete beginners is how they can hire freelancers. It might seem easy, but once you start doing it, it gets all complicated. So here is how you can hire freelancers:
Through Freelancing Platforms
One of the easiest ways to find freelancers is to visit freelancing platforms. Some of the popular ones like Upwork or Freelancer already have established professionals whom you can trust. However, you can also try out the newcomers in the industry, such as the ItHire that has a large pool of expert developers and designers with way more affordable prices.
Through your networking
Another way you can find good freelancers is through personal networking or referrals. Sometimes, you might even not know that your friend does freelancing on the side and would love to work for you. Referrals are also great as you know for sure that the person you’ll be hiring has already satisfied one of your acquaintances.
Through events and conferences
Finally, the last way you can find freelancers is through attending events and conferences that they visit. If there is a talk on freelancing tips in your neighborhood or a similar event that you think freelancers would participate in, then join it without thinking. This way, you will meet potential freelancers face to face and offer them the position more easily. Now that you’ve learned how to hire a freelancer, it is time to understand what to expect from them.
Freelancer Best Skills
Here are some of the skills you should be looking for in a freelancer
Time management
One of the most crucial skills for any freelancer is to manage their time wisely. Sometimes it gets hard to deal with multiple projects at the same time. As they have too many clients with very different projects, their priority tasks can shift from time to time. That is why you should make sure they never leave your project unattended or don’t start doing it at the last minute. But no worries. Most of the freelancers will work with time tracking tools that will allow you to see at which point of your project they are in right now. If you hire from freelancing platforms, they might also come with the personal project manager, who will control all the workflow for you. However, it is still desirable that your freelancer has the skill of time management himself. It will simplify your life and make the working process smoother.
Communication skills
It does not matter how professional your freelancer is. If he cannot communicate well, your cooperation will not be as efficient. When you are working with someone remotely, you have time for only a few calls. So, it is vital to make those calls as effective as possible. Your freelancer should be able to communicate his skills and understand your expectations. If there is something that he cannot do, you should know about it right away and not in the middle of the project. If your freelancer has good communication skills, then there will be no misunderstandings, and both of you will be on the same page. So although this is a very soft skill, it is indispensable for freelancers.
Creativity
Finally, make sure your freelancer is creative. Especially if you have a large project which is vital for you or your company, the creativity of your freelancer is the key to success. To check how creative your potential employee is, skim through their portfolios or give them a test task. It should be enough.
How to pay freelancers?
There are different ways you can pay your freelancers. The most common one is by hourly rate. You give them a time tracking tool and pay them a fixed amount of money per hour. However, this might not be the best method for all freelancers. More creative work sometimes cannot be put in hours. For instance, if you hire a copywriter, she might write a win-win copy only in ten minutes, but it does not mean that it took her ten minutes to come up with it. It took her years of education, experience, and practice. So in these cases, they might ask you to pay for the final product. Finally, if you want to pay a fixed price but don’t want to pay it all at once, you can set some milestones and pay for them. For instance, you can pay 50% once you get the drift of the final product and the other 50% once you get the result. At some freelancing platforms, they will even let you pay when you are satisfied with the work. If you hire a developer online from ItHire, you can work with that method: you pay when you’re happy. It allows you to ask for as many revisions as you like. It seems like we have covered all the questions! All it remains for us to say is good luck! We’re sure you will find the best matching freelancer for your project.
