Outsourcing has received a lot of bad press lately, but if you are a small business it may be a lifesaver. Contracting work out is any easy way to save yourself a lot of time and money because you don’t have to hire skilled long-term employees that often call for high salaries and you can still find people that specialize in the skills you need to get the job done.
Using Freelancers to Save Time and Money
You’ve probably heard about the business of contracting if you haven’t participated in it yourself. Essentially, all it means is that Business A pays Business B to do something Business A requires. Do you think every business builds its own buildings? No, they don’t possess the skill to do so; therefore they hire a contractor to do it.
It’s the same thing with freelancers. If you run a website but do not have the time or skill required to make it the best, you have to outsource if you want it to be top notch. Fortunately, there are some websites in place that make it easy to find these individuals and protect both you and them against fraud.
Elance.com, Guru.com, and GetAFreelancer.com are the top three freelancer websites, in that order. Elance has the deepest and most skilled talent pool, Guru is a step behind, and GetAFreelancer lags behind due to a lack of freelancers for whom English is their primary language. While this may not be a huge problem for your project, here we are assuming that your project requires a grasp of English because that is the language in which we are communicating. Regardless, always keep in mind that you always get what you pay for on these websites and while that $50 job bid may look enticing, you may end up paying a second freelancer to clean up the first one’s mess.
The best thing about using freelancers:
- Saving time – Freelancers can devote themselves totally to your project without worrying about ancillary issues with your business. This gives you time to handle all the other facets of your business.
- Saving money – Freelancers do not come with the burdens that employees do, i.e. benefits and long-term salaries. This allows you to put the money you save back into your business.
Getting What You Need
Whether you need a data entry clerk or a web designer to build your business’ perfect site, you can find a freelancer that can handle it for you. Though many freelancers are entrepreneurs working out of a home office, many are actually firms unto themselves. If you have a large job, don’t be afraid to ask questions about the freelancers bidding on it. Many data entry companies, for example, are comprised of many individuals functioning under a single profile on one of these freelancer sites. Such companies often advertise this fact on their profile page to let possible providers know that no job is too big for them. You can also find teams of web designers, writers, and illustrators functioning in the same fashion.
Ray T. Lewis lives just outside of Dallas, Texas with his wife and three children. He reads extensively, and he’s worked as an editor and writer for askdeb.com for a little over two years. His goal is to give you realistic advice when it comes to finding information about data entry jobs. Visitors to askdeb.com can expect to find extensive, detailed answers to reader-submitted questions.
