Well, that’s what we’re going to explore today by looking at some of the big pros and cons of freelancers versus office workers
Pro: You only have to pay freelancers when you use them
The big advantage to freelancers is that you pay them per job. When you don’t have a job, you don’t need to pay them anything. Instead, they’ll go find projects elsewhere. In this way, if you have a field where you sometimes need work done but not that often, freelancers can save you a lot of money.
Another bonus of only paying freelancers when you need to is that you can look for a freelancer that perfectly suits the job you’re trying to do. You don’t need a jack of all traits in the office. Instead, you get a different specialist to do the jobs for you.
Con: They’re more expensive per job
At the same time, great freelancers asks a lot of money for their job – more than you would pay them for doing the work if they were in the office. Of course, this makes sense as freelancers aren’t just doing the job, they also have to spend a lot of time hunting for jobs.
And as that latter activity does not get paid, they need to add that cost into their per-job cost if they want the life to stay viable.
Pro: If they do a crappy job you don’t use them again
With freelancers, it’s far easier to sort the wheat from the chaff. You give them a job. If they screw it up, then you don’t give them anymore. If they do a great job, then you keep using them. In this way, you’ll quickly have a stable of skilled talent on hand that you can call on when you need them – be it to help you with your marketing or if you need professional dissertation writers.
Con: It can be a lot of work to find good freelancers
Particularly if you’re just starting out, it can be really hard to know when you’ve got a good freelancer and when you don’t. It can feel like you’re interviewing for a job position for every single job. That can get exhausting.
Of course, it does get easier as you figure out what you need to pay attention to. Even better, you can call on the same freelancers again and again. Nonetheless, that doesn’t help you much when you’re starting out.
Pro: They can be brought in quickly
Particularly if you work with them a lot and you pay a good price, when there is a sudden surge of work, you can quickly bring in freelancers who can help you pick up the slack. In this way, you can be far more nimble than a company who relies entirely on office workers to do their work for them.
And as nimbleness is ever more important in this ever-changing marketplace, that’s a big bonus.
Con: They might not be available when you need them
Of course, it’s just as possible that when you’re looking for a freelancer to do a certain job for you, they might already be busy with other work. And that can be a real drag if you’ve found somebody who is really good at what they do and you don’t necessarily know where else to turn.
The verdict
There are really two ways to use freelancers. The first is to have a stable of many people with a lot of different talents who you can call on when you need them. This does mean a lot of coordinating, but can be very effective particularly if your business is fluid and the amount of work can change quickly.
The other strategy is to only rely on them for the jobs that only sometimes come along and rely on normal office workers for the jobs that are constant. This will help keep your costs down particularly if you have a steady amount of work coming in.
As an extra bonus, when you realize a job is getting to be really important to you, then you can always consider trying to bring a freelancer into the fold. Sometimes they might appreciate an office job for a while – perhaps you can even do it on a part-time basis so they keep their freedom at least part of the time.