Small Business Blog

This article is the first of a series on working with freelancers and independent contractors. Because giving up control is extraordinarily difficult for any entrepreneur or small business owner, our first conversation in this discussion will cover the advantages that come from working with a freelance professional.

Think about the progression of a regular work day in your life. You rise early, work long and hard throughout the day, have a few hurried meals, put out a few fires, and then go to bed thinking about all the things you didn’t get done. Am I close? You have too many tasks to accomplish in any given day. And you have trouble delegating, probably because you’ve learned the hard way that no one does things the way that you’d do them. You don’t feel great about paying an employee to do a shoddy job, when you can do a better job yourself. Trust me, I understand your perspective completely.

The thing is, doing everything yourself always eventually ends up being counterproductive. You work diligently to grow your business, and you end up with more customers to manage, more employees to lead, more inventory to buy, more dollars to watch, etc. The more successful you are at controlling every aspect of your business independently, the more likely it becomes that you will ultimately fail to keep up with your daily responsibilities. To avoid this, you have to get in the habit of moving your watchful eye to progressively higher levels of responsibility.

Of course, you will have a hard time doing this if you hold onto the notion that you can do everything better yourself. Remember before you opened your business, you had to put a considerable amount of thought into what would differentiate you among your competitors. You had to define your business’ focus, and then create a plan to pursue that focus. Well, the same concepts apply to you as a small business owner and leader. You cannot be all things to all people. You have to set your focus on growing your business and inspiring your customers. If you get bogged down with designing logos, writing content, calculating payroll deductions, and so on, your business ultimately suffers for two reasons. First, you don’t have enough time in the day to do it all. And second, the future of your business will be resting entirely on your ideas and expertise. You know what kind of risk is involved if you don’t diversify your portfolio, but have you thought about the consequences of failing to diversify the know-how that drives your business forward?

Advantages of Hiring an Independent Contractor or Freelancer

Here’s where independent contractors and freelancers come into play. A competent freelancer can free you up for more important tasks, while enhancing your business with a valuable outside perspective. I mention these two factors first, because both are directly linked to the ongoing health and longevity of your business. But there are other advantages as well, including:

• Independent contractors cost less than employees (you incur no payroll taxes or benefits costs)
• Independent contractors are business owners who value productivity, just like you
• Independent contractors will get the job done more quickly than you can
• Independent contractors charge less than large agencies
• Independent contractors want to work and want to earn your referrals

You can hire independent contractors to complete one-time projects like:

• Revamping your Web site content and/or design
• Overhauling your marketing messages
• Reviewing your marketing plan for inefficiencies/overlap
• Designing a new logo
• Adding new features to your Web site

Independent contractors can also be effective for longer-term arrangements, such as:

• Link-building campaigns
• Article marketing campaigns
• Bookkeeping tasks
• Web site or blog management
• Socia media campaigns

Next up, we’ll talk about how to select the right independent professional. Questions? Send them to us at questions@businessmorgue.com, and include your Web site link so we can post it on the site.