Please welcome Ethel, from Legacy Based Living, who has written this guest post on tips for using freelance contractors for your business.
Utilizing freelancers in your business has never made more sense. Today’s technology makes it easier than ever to assemble a high-quality team regardless of location to give your company a strong advantage over competitors and keep it primed for growth. Check out this guide to finding and managing freelancers for your business.
1. Don’t Limit Yourself
Only hiring domestic workers severely limits your pool of options and could end up costing you more money, as the exchange rates in some countries mean that a worker needs less pay to maintain a similar lifestyle there. Broaden your search by using online job boards to hire both local and international remote freelancers. You can even search exclusively for candidates in certain countries.
2. Prep for Employing Freelancers
Consider forming a limited liability company. LLCs come with many advantages, including easier paperwork during tax time. They also offer an extra level of protection for your assets, as the liability you personally have if the business goes south is minimized. Filing doesn’t have to be expensive either; do it yourself using an online formation service and save the money you would’ve spent on a lawyer. Check with your area’s regulations ahead of time, though, as these can vary between states.
3. Use Remote Hiring Best Practices
Hiring remote workers is similar to the process of hiring in-office ones, but there are certain steps you can take to get the best results. Try providing a video introduction to yourself to potential hires, as this allows you to craft a strong first impression that helps connect you to applicants. Since new hires won’t have the benefit of experiencing a day in the office firsthand, it’s vital that you lay out your expectations for remote work from the outset so workers are clear about what their responsibilities are. Be prepared to answer questions such as how often you will meet with the freelancer individually and as a team, what time zone work will be conducted in, and if work hours are scheduled or deadline-driven.
4. Decide On Your Communications Practices
When team members aren’t working together in person, communication takes on a whole new level of priority. While email is an inevitable piece of this, you’ll also need to choose a communication platform where team members can work together on project planning and execution. Programs like Slack allow for workers to easily interact with their co-workers even when they are spread out across the globe.
Other tools such as JPG-to-PDF converters may come in handy when trying to share large files. If you are communicating with a designer or marketing professional, for example, and want to send them pictures of ideas for campaigns, you may find the files are too big to easily share over email. You may be tempted to compress them. This can lead to degradation of picture quality, though, so a better option is to use a JPG-to-PDF converter, which can make the file easier to send without sacrificing quality. You can even convert several files into one PDF to minimize the number of email attachments.
Remote work is good for workers, employers, and a business’s bottom line. Take advantage of today’s climate and start developing your remote freelance team today.
