Whether you are a part of a start-up, a small business owner, or just someone with a task in mind, you may find that there are times when you need some extra help with your work. You might consider trying to do the job yourself, or hiring a full-time employee. However, there is another option—hiring a freelancer who can help fill the gaps you may have in your current skills, staff, or workload.

Here are some reasons that hiring a freelancer can be beneficial for you and your business:

1. You get experts at your disposal

There are millions of freelancers around the world who are ready to work. You can hire anyone, with any kind of talent. You can reach out to your own network directly, or look for talent online. Many people are advertising their skills on the Internet, especially on social media or crowdsourcing marketplaces like some of the ones we mention in this article.

These websites allow you to search for expertise in a particular field usually in two different way—by posting a project for freelancers to bid on or apply too, or searching directly for the most suitable person for the job by looking at user profiles which should be complete with their skills and experience.

2. You have flexibility to scale up or down as needed

Having a full-time team brings lots of additional commitments. With freelancers, you can hire them depending on the project, and add or subtract people from the team as your requirements change—which is common in the start-up world. Plus, by hiring freelancers, often times they’ll be working remotely which allows you to have more options and flexibility on finding the perfect person for the job.

3. You decide on the budget and timeframe

You are the boss—so you can hire freelancers according to the rates and budget you can afford, and specify the times you would need them to work. This is a great option if you can only afford additional talent during certain times of the year.

If your budget is quite limited, newer freelancers might be more suitable for your needs (and wallet). Have a chat with the freelancer and make sure you understand what they can do for you before you hire them. Taking a look at past work samples they may have, may give you a better understanding of if they match your needs.

Freelancers can also work within your preferred deadline since they aren’t usually tied down to the usual 9 to 5. If you need people to work nights or weekends, there are people who are willing to do that. You can also easily hire someone in a different time zone to work while you are away.

4. You incur lower overhead expenses

When you hire freelancers, the rates you agree on are the exact numbers that will come out of your pocket. With full-time employees, you will also have to consider any additional overhead costs like other benefits, office supplies, equipment, and space. Freelancers can work from anywhere and already have their own tools, so you only have to worry about compensating for the work that they do. This way you will get the right person or team with the know-how without burning a hole through your pocket.

5. You can get your work done faster

When you have an overwhelming task at hand, doing it yourself can be difficult. Hiring a freelancer can get the job done in half the time it would have taken you to do it, and give you time to focus on other aspects of your business. With full-time employees, you have to post a job ad, go through CVs, and do long rounds of interviews before you can hire somebody to do the job. Going the freelance route lets you skip over the tiresome hiring process, and also allows you to test out a few different candidates without investing in hiring them full-time.

6. Get access to a wider pool of skills

Ultimately, working with freelancers will give you access to fresh talent and ideas, which will give you much more room for innovation. Different people bring in a roster of new ideas and perspectives, more so if they are from different parts of the world. When culture, race, education, experience, and other factors come together, you can expect unconventional outcomes, and results that stand out.

The bottom line is, getting help from freelancers is an easy, fast, cost-effective, and innovative way for you to grow your business. Finding the right freelancers not only saves you time but also saves you money so you can stop focusing on trying to do everything yourself.

Check out these other great articles and resources for hiring freelancers:

This article is a guest post written byEva Bandelj, who handles International Marketing and Communications atFreelancer.com. Eight-time Webby award-winning Freelancer.com is the world’s largest freelancing and crowdsourcing marketplace by total number of users and projects posted. More than 17.5 million registered users have posted over 9.2 million projects and contests to date in over 850 areas. Find out more and post a project at www.freelancer.com

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