Eight tips for using and abusing freelancers successfully

Eight tips for using and abusing freelancers successfully

Freelancers can extend the reach of your business. A one-man business can be transformed into a full service agency with a liberal dose of freelance goodness. Let's take a quick look at how you can get the most from your freelancers and avoid problems.

Here are eight tips for making your interactions with freelancers profitable, fruitful and happy:

1. Praise them.

Tell them what you LIKE about their work more than you tell them what you don't like about their work. However confident and assured your freelancer is, they'll still love to hear what you like about their work.

2. Motivate them.

It's better to guide people with praise than with criticism. Lead them towards what you love by telling them what you like. Quietly make it clear what you don't like, but tread carefully over their ego. The fastest way to demotivate your freelancer is with unmitigated criticism. And creative people don't create very well when their ego is struggling to recover from your hard knocks.

3. Don't knock their prices down.

If you pay them substandard rates, they'll do substandard work. If they're too expensive, find another freelancer. You might think that haggling over the cost of work is a clever trick, but you inevitably reduce the quality of the work you receive. Not so clever after all.

4. Brief them well.

If you want perfect work from your freelancer, make sure their understanding of your needs is as solid as yours. Without a clear brief, how can you complain if they get it wrong?

5. Pay them quickly.

Freelancers are poor. Send them money. If you delay payments to freelancers their children will starve, their partners will go naked and their pets will die in agony.

6. Take their advice, trust their judgement.

Don't hire a designer and then tell them how to design stuff. You are not a designer. And if you are a designer, do the work yourself and stop wasting freelancers' time. Resist the urge to meddle in your freelancer's output. Have faith in their expertise. After all, it's what they do every day, for many varied clients.

7. Don't waste their time.

Be considerate of your freelancer's time. A freelancer's time is their only product. Wasting their time is like stealing. Would you steal a CD? No. Would you rob a bank? No. So don't waste a freelancer's time.

8. Don't forget that you know your business, they probably don't.

As much as you should listen to your freelancer and heed their advice, remember that you know more about your industry and your business than they do. So teach them. Share your knowledge and help them produce better work.

• Top of page