Freelancers or Full-timers?

| September 29, 2015

Freelancers or Full-timers?

When you’re just starting to expand your business, you might find that you need more people to get the work done. However, when you’re a small business, even a single extra person being on your payroll can mean a major regular expense. Some entrepreneurs aren’t all that willing to take on more expenses. Most would rather work harder instead.

Sometimes, for the sake of growth, just working harder isn’t enough. You need more employees to handle a larger workload. Here then comes the dilemma of choosing between independent contractors or freelancers and full-time employees.

Independent Contractors and Freelancers

When you’re in a bind, need some work done quickly; engaging the services of a freelancer can be a blessed relief. There are many people out there willing to work at competitive rates. Your responsibility is to find the right person who might be able to provide you with quality service. An independent contractor would generally advertise their services on different websites. You might even get to see people reviewing their work and offering comments that would help you decide.

Freelancers have their advantages. One of the major advantages is that you can unload some urgent work on them. Most freelancers don’t stick to the 9 to 5 schedule and might even accommodate an urgent project that you need to get done. They have the flexibility in time, especially if you’re outsourcing your work to a different time zone.

For example, if you need work done by the following morning, you can send it to a person whose day is just starting while you’re burning the midnight oil. For the most part, it is best to actually hire local freelancers and contractors, but in a bind, that trick works wonders. This, of course doesn’t work with every type of project.

A good freelancer also has a wide variety of skills and experience, having worked with many different people and on different projects. In a way, they’ve challenged themselves more and you might be able to benefit from that.

Full time Employees

You might wonder, if freelancers are more convenient, why pick full-time employees? The answer to that is simple. Full-time employees are a part of your company, work overtime, they’re loyal to your business and would invest great effort into building and sustaining it. Freelancers are a great option when you’re just starting off, have limited resources and can’t afford to keep someone on a fixed payroll.

But if you’re truly looking to expand your company and make it grow, a permanent, full-time employee would be a better financial decision. You can offer them training so that they can attend to the requirements of your company more efficiently.

Moreover, you might hit gold at the first stroke of the hammer, but finding a great freelancer requires time and effort most of the time. With a full-time worker, you’re at least aware of what you’re getting.