Over the past few years, the gig economy has been thriving in the USA. A study by Nasdaq predicts that 43% of the workforce will be freelance by 2020. In today’s hyper-competitive market space, you, as a business owner, need to weigh the pros and cons of a trend before following the herd, such as hire freelancers.
One of the reasons why the gig economy is on the rise is because it’s a cost-effective option and who doesn’t love saving money, right? You hire freelancers and they get your job done. But can you vouch for their work ethics or work-quality?
While saving money is crucial for your business, you have to ensure a consistent & superior product or service quality to woo your consumers & clients and make your mark in the industry. Let us digress from the topic a bit. Be it ‘a typical American business loses 15 percent of its customers each year’ or ‘11-20 percent of first-time customers don’t return to their business’, consumer retention statistics are getting worse each day. An article by Harvard Business School states that increasing customer retention rates by just 5% increases profits by 25% to 95%. Every client or customer you lose is more business for your competitors! Clearly, you cannot afford to compromise on the quality of your products/services.
Hiring freelancers has been a trending alternative for businesses to get their work done at a comparatively lower cost. But, consider this question.
Is hiring freelancers a bed of roses as being portrayed in the market?
I have laid down the expectations vs reality of hiring freelancers for your business. Let’s begin!
Good Read: Why Staff Augmentation vs Hiring Freelancers?
Expectation: I’ll save lots of money.
Reality: The entire work process is inefficient and, eventually, you end up spending more money than expected.
Let me break this down. You assign a task to your freelancer – Pete and he gets it done under the time limit you have specified. You need some changes and you ask your freelancer to change it. Pete changes it and sends it back to you. You get some new ideas and want to implement them in the project. You ask Pete to do that. After a few changes, Pete will charge you for any extra time being spent on your project. If the freelancer you have hired works in a different time-zone, the struggle is different altogether.
This to and fro with a freelancer makes the entire work process inefficient and you end up investing more money than expected. There have been cases when a business owner ends up redoing the entire thing to avoid any further frustration.
So, how can you actually benefit from hiring a remote employee? The answer is Staff Augmentation which gives you managed remote team of employees for your projects. This gives you better accountability, talent pool, and work-quality.
Takeaway: When working with a freelancer, the possibility of getting your work done exactly right the first time is quite low.
Expectation: All my clients will be happy or My client retention rate will get better.
Reality: Your company & clients’ needs are not relatable to a freelancer.
Hiring freelancers for a short-term or long project saves you money. You get the desired quality. What could go wrong? Well, think it through!
For getting the desired quality for a client, it is crucial to understand the exact needs of a project. What are your company’s core values? What are your clients’ needs? It becomes difficult to get through with a freelancer when questions like these are considered. A freelancer works with multiple clients (or on multiple projects) at the same time and, no matter how experienced a remote worker is, it is difficult for him/her to relate with how you want to serve your consumers or clients.
You and your clients cannot be the sole priority of freelancers unless you are paying them more than the usual rates but, saving money is the whole point, right? What to do when you maintain a satisfied & loyal clientele without hiring full-time employees?
Staff Augmentation companies, like Resourcifi, give you the opportunity to hire managed remote talents, say hire ReactJS developers or an RPA developer, on a full-time, half-time or even on an hourly basis for a short time or a long time project. Opting this, you can save money and maintain two-way communication to ensure that you and your remote resource team are on the same page.
Takeaway: Freelancers work with multiple clients at the same time and it is difficult for them to relate to & focus on your clients’ needs.
Expectation: I will get industry experts for my project.
Reality: Hiring freelancers come with unpredictable work quality. Besides, they have experience in bits & pieces.
When hiring a freelancer for your project, you expect an industry expert with lots of experience working for you. Remember Pete? Pete has worked on multiple projects and has good years of experience. Hiring him as a remote employee is a good option for your business or is it?
Read More (Find Pete): Remote Staff Augmentation for Startups: Get In the Ring with Big Brands
How much do you know about his experience? Are the projects he has worked on are similar to your requirements? Let’s say that Pete has worked on web app development projects for multiple clients. Do you think that this experience is relevant to your project needs if you are looking for a Laravel developer? Can anyone vouch for his work quality?
Before getting lost in answering these questions, here is another one for you: isn’t hiring responsibility one of the things you didn’t want when looking for a remote team of employees? Freelancers have experience of working on different projects which might or might not be relevant to your needs. Besides, there is always a risk of unpredictable work quality attached to hiring a freelancer.
Choosing the staff augmentation model for your offshore development team instead of hiring freelancers has two definitive advantages. One, you will be left with no hiring responsibilities (Yaay!). Two, you get trained experts with tonnes of experience in the industry for your project. Finally, instead of web developers, you can hire Laravel developer or any other dedicated developer as per your specific requirements.
Takeaway: Freelancers handle all kinds of projects and have experience that may or may not match your specific requirements.
Expectation: I’ll have access to global talent or Overseas talent pool will help my business grow at a faster pace.
Reality: You face difficulty in getting your work done on time due to unprofessional work ethics or generic excuses that hinder your day-to-day activities.
Do you know why the gig economy or the freelance industry is growing? People want to work for different clients on the go and be their own bosses! Not many freelancers are known for their strong work ethics. I have worked as a freelancer and, believe me, this cat very well represents what happens when your deadline approaches (Well, most of the time). You can imagine the quality of work done!
Let’s say that you find Pete. Now, Pete is an overseas freelancer with strong work ethics. But, here lies the problem! Pete works during different working hours as you. The difference in your timing zones is 8 or 9 hours. This means if you want to get something done during your working hours, Pete might be sleeping or out on a date night or maybe having some family time. But you are stuck, what do you do? You can’t have it both ways – either you get global talent working for your business or you get someone who works in the same time zone as you, or can you?
In today’s competitive & dynamic business world, you, as a business owner, can’t plan or predict everything you need for the day or the week beforehand. You need an overseas managed remote resource who can work during your working hours. Here’s a win-win for you! IT Staff Augmentation companies, like Resourcifi, offer managed remote team of talents that can work in your business hours and thus, giving you better work productivity.
Takeaway: Freelancers have their own working hours and convenient work ethics.
Read More: Setting up Your Own Offshore Development Team Is Easier Than You Think
Hiring Freelancers: The Final Verdict!
Hiring remote resources for your business can be cost-effective and productive but when you solely depend on freelancers, things might go south at any given point. Well then, this is some kind of a fix, isn’t? Don’t worry, we have got your back!
To get better accountability, work-quality, and flexibility, hiring managed remote staff is exactly what your company needs. Resourcifi has a large talent pool of well-trained remote employees such as web & mobile app developers. Choose industry experts as managed remote employees for your business on a quarterly, monthly or hourly basis and save lots of money. (That was the original plan, wasn’t it?) Hire 3 developers at the cost of 1 local developer at Resourcifi. Here is our savings calculator to give a better idea!
Have you worked with freelancers? Share your experience in the comment section below!
