Every entrepreneur falls prey to the temptation of doing everything himself. That’s typically a mistake and one easily avoided. Before assuming the burden of doing everything yourself, remember why you went into business: probably to build upon a particular expertise. That expertise does not translate to all aspects of running a business. That leaves the entrepreneur who wants things done well with three choices: hire additional staff, hire an agency, or hire an independent contractor.
Writing for Recruiterbox, Riia O’Donnell states, “By 2020, 40 percent of the U.S. workforce is expected to be independent contractors.” If you wondered whether the gig economy was real, wonder no more. It’s here and it’s growing. Intuit predicted this in 2010. Freelancing, says Entrepreneur, no longer makes for an “unreliable career choice.”
Experienced workers are leaving corporate employment in droves. They seek autonomy, flexibility, and the luxury of choosing their own clients and projects. An increasingly socialized economy supports freelancer ambitions, since workers no longer necessarily need rely upon employer-provided healthcare and dental plans and retirement savings accounts options have expanded to accommodate entrepreneurs.
A corporate environment may serve best for young adults entering the workforce as places where they can acquire on-the-job training, build skills and portfolios, and develop their professional reputations. However, executives running small companies may not be able to afford or may not want to hire additional staff for various reasons: expense, a preference for keeping the company small, a disinclination or insufficient time to train, etc.
Sanchita Dash, also writing for Entrepreneur, laments the necessity of hiring independent contractors when a company cannot hire new employees to do a job. She acknowledges that freelancers often cost less than employees: mitigated or no training expenses, no expenses paid for employee benefits, no annual salary. Deterrents to hiring independent contractors run from a lack of understanding of the company’s mission and vision to a lack of dedication to irregular communication. Her conclusion: freelancers don’t deliver the same value as a trained, dedicated employee.
For the company seeking to hire talent for service that existing staff hasn’t the experience or the know-how to provide, an independent contractor makes excellent sense. The plethora of freelance sites aggregates a wide range of talent across diverse fields of expertise. Search deeply enough and you’ll find someone with just the right kind of experience.
Carly Frances Wilden speaks to her decade of freelancing and notes the many advantages of independent contractors, not the least of which is the temporary basis of employment. A business can hire someone one for the duration of the project, include the contractor’s fee in the project fee (pass the cost to their client), and get a high degree of skill on an as-needed basis. Freelancers, she says, are limited in their scope, which means that they tend to focus on one project at a time, unlike agencies which may have hundreds of projects running at any given time. She notes that such agencies also hire freelancers and advises that companies cut out the middlemen: “The project you just spent £1000 a day to complete, well I did it for you anyway and the agency didn’t pay me that much.”
Superior quality, price, and efficiency contribute to the advantages of hiring an independent contractor. Repeated business with a particular freelancer also adds the benefit of that freelancer not only working for you (not your marketing consultant or your company), but also learning your preferences and dedicating the effort necessary to help you succeed. Their success depends upon yours.
Jayne Heggen, CEO of the Heggen Group, offers independent business consulting to improve processes and operations. Available on an as-needed basis, she dedicates decades of expertise to helping your staff perform at peak ability and efficiency which will impress and satisfy your clients.
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