How to Create a Successful Team of Freelancers
Starting a business employing freelance workers can be intimidating. You want to provide a service that engages talented staff regardless of where they live, but you may be unsure how to get started. Stokhaus Media offers some tips to help you begin realizing your goal.
Finding Great Freelancers
Before you can hire any employees, freelance or otherwise, you must understand your needs. Once you assess the work you plan to hire out, you should decide how much you are willing to pay to have the work completed. This will require finding a balance between paying so little that you receive poor-quality output and paying so much that you are left with a pittance for profit.
To find top-notch professionals, there are multiple websites that enable companies seeking independent contractors to vet and hire workers. One good website for hiring project-based employees is Fiverr. This hiring platform enables businesses to vet potential candidates using portfolio samples, pay rates, experience, years active, and ratings from previous clients. Another great online resource for finding contract-based workers is through online job boards. You can find candidates online in the Philippines using sites like Truelancer. In addition to online resources, asking people within your own personal network can help you gain reliable freelance workers.
Understanding What Type of Freelancers are Suited for Remote Work
Certain occupations are better-suited to freelancing remotely than others. For example, hiring a contracted copywriter can be very beneficial, while hiring a freelance personal assistant will likely cost you more than you would pay to hire a full-time assistant. Other examples of effective per-project hires are:
Digital marketing consultants
Search engine optimization specialists
Social media managers
Web designers
Communicating With Your Employees
Studies show that effective communication is key to employee productivity and organizational performance. If you plan to hire only remote or freelance workers, you will need a method of disseminating information to them. One way to get the ball rolling with excellent communication is to set clear expectations from the moment you make contact with a potential contractor. Another way to ensure your staff receives important business information is to ask for their preferred method of transmission. Perhaps one employee needs phone calls to adequately comprehend client needs while another lacks the time for calls and prefers detailed emails.
Paying Employees From Other Countries
If you need to pay workers in the Philippines, keep in mind that using typical payment platforms and international wire transfers can entail paying astronomical fees. Rather, you can use a reliable, low-fee money transfer service like Remitly to pay your Filipino freelancers with no fees for certain services.
Remember that in most locations even self-employed individuals will be responsible for paying taxes. Each country has its own tax law, so remind your contractors of applicable tax responsibilities. On the U.S. side, your freelancers may need to complete paperwork to attest to their non-residency.
Improving Efficiency When Working Remotely
Projects that involve numerous people working from various locations can become jumbled. One way to streamline the process of consolidating everyone's input is to utilize a portable digital file merging tool. This allows users to add their work to one file, thereby saving time often spent searching through multiple files for the ones needed. PDF files even allow you to combine multiple documents into one and move pages to put the content in the intended order.
Hiring freelance employees can save your business precious funds that can be allocated to grow the company. Do your homework before embarking upon your journey into hiring per-project workers.