Tips to Separate the Best Freelancers from the Rest Outsourcing at least some of your work can be one of the most beneficial things that you ever undertake to do. However, the unfortunate fact of the matter is that even this seemingly simple act of outsourcing can provide a lot of obstacles that need to be dealt with. From these obstacles stem the flow of horror stories regarding outsourcing. With all these horror stories, it is no surprise that many beginners choose not to outsource, having heard of the bad experiences of others. While sure, you could carry on doing things yourself pretty indefinitely, the reality is that if you do try to do everything yourself, your business is not going to be able to grow in the way that it should. After all, there are only so many hours in the day, and once you’ve filled all those hours with ‘stuff to do’, you’re going to reach a plateau in terms of what you can do with your business. From there on out, you’re bound to stagnate. In short, unless you want your business ending up hitting a huge brick wall, you need to start considering outsourcing. Bearing this in mind, there is going to be a real need for you to actually be able to evaluate your outsourcing. It isn’t going to be enough to just go out there and advertise, because that’s the mistake that everyone ends up making. Basically, it’s a bad assumption to assume that just because you advertise well, you’re going to end up only having people who are fully qualified applying. Invariably, among all the people who express interest in your outsourcing advertisement, there are bound to be some who are not up to scratch. Worse, they may be some who appear to be exactly the type of person you’re looking for, but turn out to just be a sham. Think of it this way: You’re going to have to weed out the ‘good’ freelancers, from the ‘bad’ ones. And doing so can be tricky. It can take time, effort, and if you don’t go about it the right way, you could still end up getting it all wrong.
But if you do know how to separate the good from the bad, and end up with a reliable and trustworthy freelancer that is going to deliver you the goods that you desire, well, then and only then can you truly tap into the power of outsourcing. Over the course of this guide, we’re going to be looking at how you can ensure that the freelancer you end up with is the right one for you. More importantly, we’re going to look at some of the simple yet effective things you can do so that your outsourcing will not end up being the next ‘horror story’ to add to the collection of ones that are already out there. By the time you’re done with this guide, you should have no problem getting exactly what you want out of your outsourcing. Think you’re ready to begin? Contrary to what you might expect, we’re not going to jump straight into the ‘how to hire a freelancer’ part of the guide. No – so that you’re able to best understand what you’re dealing with, let’s start from the beginning. And that means that we should have a little chat about the problems that you may face, and have to overcome.
Pitfalls of Hiring Freelancers Have you ever actually tried to hire a freelancer before? Maybe you went to a freelancing hub and posted an advertisement? Or maybe you used some other advertising service? Did you get what you were looking for? Chances are, you didn’t, otherwise you wouldn’t be reading these words. As we mentioned previously though, you’re not alone in facing problems when outsourcing, so there’s no need to be bashful about it. Truth is, with all the problems faced when hiring freelancers; it is tough to find a marketer that hasn’t faced some issue or other, at some point in their career. But the big question that we’re interested in is: What are these ‘problems’ exactly? Frankly speaking, there are too many problems to categorically go through them one by one, but most fall under a few broad umbrellas: 1. Delivered a finished product of inferior quality
2. Delivered a finished product that did not fit the specifications 3. Did not deliver on time (i.e. delivered late) 4. Did not deliver at all At some point or other, you may have faced one, two, or all of these problems. Mainly though, the first three are the ones that are most often faced. Why? Well, the truth about outsourcing online is that promises are easily made and not kept. Just because the freelancer you appear to be hiring seems to understand what you’re saying, know what you want, and be able to deliver exactly that – this still is not a good enough indication of whether or not he or she actually will deliver. In some cases, you may even find that the freelancer you appear to be hiring actually is merely part of a larger outsourcing organization that is going to take your job, and outsource it in turn for a fraction of the cost. Such cases normally can compromise the quality quite a bit – and we’ll deal with this later. However, for now, let’s just say that with all these problems occurring on a day in, day out basis, you need to be able to really distinguish between the best and the rest. After all, imagine that you had an extremely time-sensitive product which you needed to be in your hands by a certain time. So you hired a freelancer, and when you got the finished product, it was not up to scratch and would need to be redesigned. Or worse, it was delayed. Or even worse, the freelancer simply vanished mid-project. As you can probably well appreciate, you’d basically be in one very annoying fix. And the worst part is, once things reach that point in time, you’d have very little options in terms of how you can solve the matter. Due to this, it is much better to solve these kinds of problems before they ever take place. Sure, it might not be ‘ideal’ to have to check and ensure that every freelancer you hire is going to be up to the standards you expect. But in the long run, it’s worth spending the time doing just that, and avoiding being put in a situation where your business is adversely impacted by your choice of freelancer. That should give you enough motivation to really want to learn what we’re about to get into.
Yes, now it’s time to move on and start looking at the actual things you can do to select the best possible freelancer for your outsourcing needs. And you may be surprised at how early on in the outsourcing process this starts…
Defining Requirements in a Clear and Precise Fashion Although you may have a very good idea of what it is that you desire – chances are, no matter how good a freelancer is, he or she won’t unless you can somehow explain it well. Bear in mind that this is especially true when you’re outsourcing some task that you’ve been performing yourself for a long time. In such situations, many tend to make the mistake of oversimplifying the task, or not explaining it enough. Of course this is only natural. After spending a lot of time performing any task, we all kind of tend to get used to it. However, when you’re hiring a freelancer for the first time, chances are that he or she will not be used to it. Or at least, not used to performing the task exactly the way you normally do. Even for tasks that are totally new, the onus is on you, as the ‘boss’, to somehow define what you want in a way that can be understood. And you should do this before you even think about hiring a freelancer, just so that everything is ready long before the point at which you’re going to need it. Matter of fact, if you know what task you intend to outsource, you could sit down and define it, right here, right now. Truthfully speaking, there isn’t much that is too difficult about defining a task, and if you follow the outline below, you should do fine: 1. Explain the overall goal and end result of the task Sometimes the best way to begin is by beginning at the end. If you were to explain, right from the start, what exactly you expect the end result of your outsourcing to be, then from the very first part of your explanation, the project itself will be clearly defined. So if you, for example, want an eBook on blogging to make money – well, that’s the final result right there. Or, if you want a piece of software designed to help automate social bookmarking – once again, that’s your end result.
Be clear, but more importantly, be sure to state what it is you expect to have in your hands at the end of the day. Don’t be too worried about specifics yet, that will come next. 2. List down an in depth set of requirements In the last step, we looked at the frame of the entire project. Now, it’s time to get down and dirty with the itty bitty details. This is where you really need to pay as close an eye to detail as possible. Essentially, the idea is to list down a set of requirements that describe the project from start to finish, including everything that falls in between. Precise details are going to be needed. If you can provide as many details as possible, your chances of getting exactly what you expect out of outsourcing are going to be greatly increased. Go over the project in your mind. If it is something that you’ve done before, try to describe exactly how you would do it, and what you’re trying to achieve when you perform the task. For tasks that aren’t really the kind of things that you’ve performed in the past, just list your expectations, and what you desire the final product to fulfill. Remember: This is going to be what your product is based on, so make it count! Armed with this set of requirements, you’re one step closer to finding the right kind of freelancer. Sure, it may seem right now as though all you’re doing is helping any freelancer fulfill your needs, but as you’ll soon notice – there’s more to it than that. Once you’re done defining the project that you wish to outsource, you’re going to rely on it to be your base. With any project that you undertake, this should be the irreplaceable first step. Nothing else is more important than being able to fully detail the specifics of what you desire, and nothing else will get you closer to achieving it. For now, since we’re done with this stage, it’s time to move on and look at actually selecting a freelancer from all of those that applied.
Initial Short-Listing of Freelancers