When we think of outsourcing work to contractors, we usually only imagine it as something that corporations or SMEs should undertake. However, this isn’t a business practice that should only be used by businesses and companies. In actual fact, it’s something that freelancers can benefit from as well.
You might think that there is no need for freelancers to outsource their work or admin to other contractors and freelancers, and that it would just be an added expense for them to deal with. But that isn’t always the case. Freelancers can take advantage of all the benefits that outsourcing brings to big businesses too. They just need to make sure that they are doing it right.
Are you thinking of outsourcing as a freelancer? Here are some reasons why it will be really worth it.
Offers Quick Fixes To Tech Problems
We’re not all gifted with a natural flair for tech and IT. In fact, those freelancers who specialize in more creative sectors, such as content writing and photography, probably haven’t got a clue how to go about fixing any issues that may arise with their laptop or internet. Sometimes, the most serious of problems could take a couple of days to sort out, which will set you back with work and will make it even more stressful to hit your deadlines. There is one way around this, though; you just need to find some outsourced IT support from a tech company who can step in to help you at a moment’s notice. Most IT firms offer freelancers the chance to sign up for tech-support helplines so you can call and speak to tech professionals whenever you have an issue. They’ll also be able to send someone out to help you if they can’t fix things over the phone. This isn’t the only service these firms offer as most will also help you with cybersecurity and cloud computing solutions.
It Saves Money On Accounting
There are lots of freelancers out there who try and save money by not hiring an accountant. On the surface, this may seem like a reasonable thing to do as many accountants charge some very high fees for their work. However, you might be surprised to read that hiring an accountant is actually one of the best ways you can save money in the long run. Sure, you need to pay their expensive fees unfortunately – there’s no getting away from that! But once you have an accountant working for you, you might be very shocked to see just how much money they can shave off your tax bills. In fact, most good accountants will save you so much money that you should be able to easily afford their services.
Can Help You Work Up To Becoming A Business
Most freelancers aim to set up their own business after a few years of being freelance. For many, this is the ultimate goal – the run their own company and have their very own team of staff behind them. The journey you need to take to get to this point is a very long one, though, and will require a lot of hard work and dedication. Plus, you need to be able to build up your work load so that you have enough money coming into your new company so that you can hire employees. Most freelancers try to increase their workload while they are working as a sole-trader. Obviously, you might find that you don’t have enough hours in the day to take on all this extra work. This is where outsourcing comes into play. As you start to take on more work and extra contracts, you can outsource some of this to remote freelancers. These will be a lot cheaper to pay compared to full-time employees. That’s because you don’t have to provide freelance and contract workers with any of the benefits that full-time staff are entitled to, such as paid vacation and sick leave. Plus, you can just pay freelancers for the work they carry out, so you can hire them for short-term projects as and when they are needed.
Good For Unorganized Freelancers
Being organized doesn’t come easy to some people. If this sounds like you, then you might get easily flustered with trying to work for yourself sometimes. You could find it very difficult to keep track of appointments and meetings, and you might even forget some of your deadlines sometimes. There will be some people out there who find it hard to stay organized no matter how much they try to use diaries and to-do lists. Does this sound like you? Well, fear not; there are some contractors that you can outsource work to that will help you stay a lot more organized. For example, you could hire a virtual assistant (VA). There are many people who now work as VAs who act just like a personal assistant would. There’s just one catch – they don’t share an office with you! But they will be able to Skype and call you whenever you need. It’s the responsibility of most VAs to organize travel, meetings, and to give you a nudge whenever there is a big deadline or appointment coming up!
Find Someone To Market You
Freelancers need to continually market themselves to try and minimize the time that they spend without work in between projects. Trying to do this on top of your usual workload can take a lot of time, and you might find it very overwhelming. Thankfully, this is something that can be easily outsourced. If you take a look on websites like Upwork, you will see that there are many social media and content marketing experts who you can outsource your whole marketing to. The more you market yourself, the more business you will get, so this outsourcing should eventually pay for itself!
Hopefully, this blog post has shown you that outsourcing as a freelancer really is possible. Once you start, you might wonder why you didn’t start to outsource sooner!
