How to Build a Productive and Successful Team of Freelancers

In the United States, there are more than 89 million freelance workers. This number keeps growing by the day, giving businesses the opportunity to find skilled professionals through online job boards. If you want to hire quickly, one of the best places to find a professional team is on freelancing platforms.

There are different benefits to working with independent contractors, including that you don’t need to maintain full-time staff. Also, you only pay a set rate for an agreed period of time.

If hiring freelancers to help grow your business sounds like a great option, check out these tips on how to do it.

For all your administrative, graphic design, social media, and project management needs, connect with Stellar Virtual Assistant Services. Call or Text 502-487-2490 for a quote!

Decide Who You Want in Your Team

The first step in building a team of freelancers is to decide what kind of team you need for the project. You need to determine the scope of the tasks to understand the kind of people who would be suited for the job. Also, layout the amount you want to pay for the tasks per hour or per task, depending on whichever option you find most suitable. The other thing you need is to find freelancers.

One of the best ways to find freelancers is to use platforms like Fiverr. On Fiverr, you can vet freelancers by experience, rates, ratings, and samples. When you find the right professionals, contact them to discuss your requirements. And don’t stick to just US candidates either; widen your scope to include international workers from places like India, Pakistan, the Philippines so you have a varied and skilled talent pool.

After the interview phase, you can select the individuals who can deliver to your expectations and launch the project. The benefit of platforms like Fiverr is that you can track progress and also manage payments for completed tasks.

Build Relationships With Your Team

Freelancers on your team are business partners. Even if it’s a one-person shop, you must cultivate strong relationships like you would with a regular customer, supplier, or vendor. The relationship with freelancers will include more elements like how to treat your team, so take some time to know each of the team members.

If most of the workers in your business include freelancers, you will need to understand how to manage them and promote efficiency.

Provide Proper Documentation

To ensure your team does not have to keep contacting you for clarification, you need to provide clear documentation for all projects. This will allow them to deliver without delays and can also help them complete tasks more accurately. Relying on remote talent offers a greater potential talent pool.

The process saves commuting time and cost, and fewer office interruptions could mean more time to focus on the work at hand. To have a smooth progression with your remote team, find the right tools.

Set the Budget and Expectations

The agreement with freelancers should include clear project expectations and a budget for all the work. Show respect to the freelancer and pay them for any additional work. On their end, you should ask them to respect the agreement and always fulfill project requirements as agreed.

Always align the budget to the project details and ensure everyone is in agreement before you begin anything. If you’re paying an hourly rate, you need to map out related budgets and work expectations. Discuss how much they can do with the hourly allotment. Encourage the team to communicate any issues they face when working on the project.

If payroll poses an issue for international payments, you have other options. You could use your bank to transfer money to theirs, though this can get fairly expensive after a while, which can negate some of the cost savings when hiring a freelancer.

Another great option is to use a remittance service, which can be more cost-effective. For example, if you need to send payment to a freelancer in India, a site like Remitly allows you to promptly and securely send funds to their preferred bank, cash pickup location or UPI. You could even end up paying nothing in fees depending on how much you send.

Building a startup is a process that takes dedication and planning. One of the things you can do to streamline the process is to hire remote teams. Freelancers allow you to lower the costs of running the business as you don’t need to maintain the workforce in-house.