Venture-based freelancers can accomplish all kinds of labor, from personalized Shopify themes and private apps to information entry and advertising. However how does an organization discover good freelancers?
For a lot of companies, hiring a freelancer begins on a labor market similar to Upwork, Guru, Toptal, and related. I’ve finished this myself. I’ve used marketplaces over the previous a number of years to rent dozens of freelance employees for numerous initiatives. I’m at the moment interviewing a number of candidates on Upwork.
Hiring experiences fluctuate. I’ve employed freelancers that — for my part — have been dishonest or did shoddy work. However I’ve additionally employed freelancers repeatedly on a number of initiatives, together with a database developer based mostly in India who has finished a couple of hundred hours of labor. Regardless of the undertaking, freelancers typically outnumber job posters by three to a number of.
Listed here are a couple of recommendations, based mostly on my expertise, for hiring freelancers from certainly one of these platforms.
It’s doable to rent good, hard-working freelancers from labor marketplaces. The secret is understanding learn how to choose the very best candidates.
5 Suggestions for Hiring Freelancers
1. Have a well-defined undertaking. An organization would possibly know that it wants a brand new ecommerce theme, an app or extension, or, maybe, assist in establishing a Google Adverts account. But it surely may not be sufficient to search out and rent the very best designer, developer, or marketer for the undertaking.
It is very important suppose by way of the behaviors wanted. Right here’s an instance. Say an organization utilizing Shopify’s fundamental plan wished a particular delivery habits. When a selected product is added to the cart, the delivery worth turns into zero no matter different delivery profiles or calculations. This sounds easy sufficient, however given the constraints of the fundamental plan, it requires a good quantity of labor.
On this case, it will not be sufficient to easily say, “We want a non-public app for buyer delivery.”
2. Talk undertaking particulars. As soon as a enterprise is aware of what it wants, it should clearly talk. Video could be probably the greatest methods to try this.
The corporate can create a video utilizing a display seize service similar to Loom or Apple’s QuickTime. The video can show the precise activity.
Returning to the personal app for Shopify, the video would possibly present the present habits on the location — when gadgets with completely different delivery profiles are added to the cart, the delivery prices are totaled — and describe the specified habits. In that instance, one product overrides all different delivery prices.
Complement the video with a superb written description and pictures.
3. Understand how a lot you’ll be able to spend. After defining the undertaking, set a practical price range for the work. Additionally, determine if the freelancer will likely be paid a flat charge or hourly.
A flat charge is less complicated for the corporate to price range. Nonetheless, it presents a few potential issues. If it takes extra work than a freelancer anticipated, the undertaking could possibly be “dumped,” that means that the freelancer merely quits and leaves the undertaking solely partly accomplished. This may occur on labor marketplaces and, in my expertise, is extra possible with new freelancers.
Conversely, hourly-based initiatives won’t possible get dumped, however they’ll develop costlier if the undertaking proves extra complicated than anticipated.
Neither technique — flat charge nor hourly — is ideal.
4. Interview a number of candidates. Many freelance labor marketplaces use a bidding or proposal system. An organization posts a job. Freelancers reply with charges, resumes, and proposals. A written dialog follows.
After getting narrowed the sphere to 2 or three candidates, arrange video calls. Many candidates will reside in time zones removed from your individual — be ready for the scheduling challenges. Nonetheless, you will note the candidate.
These video interviews are a possibility to debate the undertaking additional. You’ll be able to ask freelancers how they’d handle the undertaking and ensure they perceive the expectations. And you may assess working with an individual.
And, as a pro-tip, document these interviews.
5. Run a check undertaking. Take into account a check undertaking to vet candidates for bigger duties, similar to growing an app or making a advertising marketing campaign.
The check undertaking ought to be compensated. It isn’t acceptable to ask freelancers to do a check without cost. It must also be instantly associated to the bigger undertaking.
For instance, if that undertaking is for Shopify app growth, retain the candidate to develop a small personal app, maybe one which creates a product feed or an index of weblog articles.
Use the check undertaking to gauge the freelancer’s talent and pace.
Rent the Freelancer
If a enterprise has finished its greatest to outline the undertaking, it’s time to pick a freelancer and get began. Not each rent will work out. However most will.
