Mistakes to avoid while outsourcing a project to freelancers

Hiring a freelancer is easy, time saving and economical process nowadays. We see more and more businesses to opt for freelancers rather than full time employees.

On daily basis many employers post their first project for freelancers. Sometimes it happens that they don’t get proposals to choose from or the hiring get delayed because of some key attributes.

These are the general mistakes made in first job posting:

1.Missing details or vague description

Attracting the right freelancer could be little tricky if the description is vague or not descriptive. It is good to write down all your requirements as specifically as you can and then post the job. For example ‘Build a website’ or ‘Need writers for blog’ or ‘Make a software’ are vague descriptions freelancer wouldn’t understand. These look like good titles of the job but most of us put the same text in title and description. It does not give any idea about what you want and how you want it.

In the description part, define your requirements as clearly as you can. It might sound like time consuming but when you interact with the freelancer, it would save lot of your time and freelancer’s time. For example building a website is possible in more than 1000 ways, which one you want to choose, should be mentioned.

2. Vague budget

Most freelancers are the top notch talent in the industry. If the project budget is not clearly defined, it is hard to get good skilled freelancers on time. Budget could be on hourly basis or fixed. It is good to have a fair budget depending on the market rate. Fair is, most of the times, just a mean of the minimum and maximum amount you think you can invest for the project.

Also, avoid expecting the freelancer to negotiate on budget. Show your final fair amount you can invest in the project and mention the conditions in which the budget could go higher or lower than the mentioned amount. Be transparent, be clear.

3.Not knowing what exactly you want

You can expect the freelancer to give his opinions but expecting him to figure out what you want is little too much. Avoid using terms like ‘I would know what I like when I see it’. Define clearly what exactly your requirements are and then you can ask for freelancer’s advice. You can also provide a sample in attachments, if you see something similar of your requirements you can show it to freelancer. For example if you want him to design a website, give him a sample website similar to your requirements. On technology front, you can depend on freelancers opinion means you can ask which language or technology would serve your purpose best.

4. Unrealistic time deadlines

You want something to be done with quality, quality takes time. Be realistic in time deadlines, sometimes there is much more than you thought it was. Be realistic and logical in your time deadlines.

There is a hack to know what a fair timeline is. When you post a project, you will get many proposals, each with a time deadline freelancer would complete the work. Note down the timeline from every proposal, and calculate an average. There is the a fair amount of time you should give to the freelancer you hire.

5. Paying full in advance

When hiring a freelancer for the first time, this is the first thing to avoid. Do not pay in full in advance. Instead, setup the payment depending on the work he delivers. It is done with mutual agreement. It is more like paying a fixed amount after every milestone achieved by work.

You can pay around 25% upfront in advance so that freelancer would start working on your project. Then break down the total payment in parts like 25% more when 50% work completed and rest remaining payment when 100% work is submitted.

Last Modified: Mar 17, 2017