How To Find Freelancers for Your Business
Finding a freelancer for a job is as easy as pie. But, finding a person who has the right experience and fits your budget, while being reliable at the same time, is like searching for a needle in a stack of hay. So, where do you even start? And once you’ve found the one, how do you manage your relationship with the pro? Below, we will discuss where can you find a reliable freelancer.
Where can you find a freelancer?
Maybe you need a freelancer because you want to ease your team’s workload, or maybe your project requires specific expertise. No matter if you’re looking for an app developer, a graphic designer, copywriter or a freelance video creator, the task of finding freelancers is always daunting if you don’t know where to start.
We suggest that you begin your search here:
- Freelance job websites – It might seem like a no-brainer for most who choose to browse freelance websites such as UpWork, but you will hardly find your gem of a freelancer there. That’s because it’s an old platform where the prices have been pushed down by cheap labour with questionable quality of work. So all respected freelancers have been driven off the website in search of a more fitting space. If you want to find a reliable expert, the rule of thumb is that you should choose the road less travelled. Check less known freelance websites such as Partners.Place or CloudPeeps where reliable freelancers hang around.
- Freelance communities – Joining freelance communities is a good way to source an expert for your project. The groups allow organic communication between freelancers and talent seekers as well as general feedback on your job posting. Make sure to check the Facebook groups and Slack communities for any relevant experts in the field that you need help with.
- Your personal network – It’s easy to forget to ask your circle of friends and acquaintances if they know somebody who might be interested in your job offer. However, this is the method that will work best if you have a large network of people. One thing to have in mind is that people often recommend relatives or friends more than a person who will genuinely do the best work, so have that in mind when speaking to freelancers that way.
Now that you have a good idea of where you can find your freelancer, it’s time to discuss how to properly choose one.
- Do your research – You need to know what are the specifics of the task that needs to be done. For example, if you look for a freelance writer, you need to have all the details of the job before you: the topic, the style of content, the length, which language, and so on and so forth. Things like the scope of the project and how often will you be needing a freelancer’s help are also important.
- Check their experience – When choosing your freelancer make sure that experience and expertise are the number one thing you’re looking for, and not their pricing. You can always drive the eventual cost of the job down by negotiating a longer period of time to work on or by changing other factors. However, the quality of work can be ensured only by a freelancer who has the experience to back up their claims of quality work.
- Use a set of criteria to evaluate the freelancers – These will depend on the role you are looking to hire for but in general, you need to check:
- their experience;
- reviews and references (and not only the top ones);
- communication;
- project management abilities.
Once you’ve narrowed down your search for a freelancer, it’s time to interview your selected few. Ask questions such as:
- What is your experience and can I see some samples of your work?
- Do you have any reviews or references from people that I could reach out to? How do you communicate during a project?
- Are you willing to sign a contract or NDA?
- What are your fees and how do you handle project management?
- What is your availability for this job?
A great freelancer is a hot commodity. Finding one is hard, and keeping them around and happy with the job opportunity requires proactivity from your side. Make sure to appreciate your freelancer and make them feel like a part of your team, and you won’t regret it.
