Pretty much how every year goes when it’s paper filing time.
As 2017 is taking off, we are gathering and preparing all the paperwork to be sent to the accountant, end of year forms to be sent to the State, etc. My newest assistant, Brent, asked me why we only hire freelancers. There is a long answer to this involving taxes, workman’s comp, ACA, monetary concerns, and just character preference. You see, Insanitek is by no means a rich company. It’s so bad that we had to go from money ttransparency reports (last year) to quarterly ones this year. A quick glance at those reports tells you that we operate on a very thin line — and I still put a lot of money into the company instead of making anything.
But, rather than become rich myself, I wanted to spread the wealth to people who could do some things better than I can. Things like writing, graphic design, and even a part-time webmaster.
To do this, I had to be able to afford them. If I was going to hire someone, I’d have to guarantee work. As a very small company that has only a few clients, that’s just not possible. There is a thing called balance. If you hire someone with the promise of work, then there is nothing to do, it’s not only a money sink, but also a waste of everyone’s time.
Plus, there are other practical decisions, such as paying them healthcare, making sure they have workman’s comp coverage, and other things that come out in state and federal taxes. One of my business mentors, who also happens to own and operate an orchard with 2 full-time employees, 2 part-time employees, and a handful of seasonal workers noted, the paperwork is a bitch no matter how you slice it. And the accounting is worse.
I had other things to think about, such as growth. Making sure employees had work to help them grow professionally and keep them rolling in the money was far more pressing than juggling hellish paperwork.
Freelancers were lookin’ pretty good at this point, but I wasn’t sold. Easy is not my sole reason for anything.
As I sat down to make decisions about who could pick up the work that I, quite frankly, sucked at, I got to thinking about who I’d want to work with. Not in name, but in character. As I was running around, getting clients, making things grow, doing my own work, and trying to work two jobs to keep a roof over my head, I needed someone reliable. Someone that could do the work. Someone that didn’t need this job as their sole means of income to keep a roof over their head.
After all… what if I failed?
The word “freelancer” floated in front of my face again, but as I was looking for a freelance writing job. As I browsed forums, I realised there are freelancers for everything. It was fortuitous. I could help out another individual grow personally and professionally AND build a company.
And thus an idea formed. Sadly, the experience in hiring was still… green.
Tips for hiring freelancers
1.) Know what you need done. Apparently you can’t just run up to people and say, “I need a graphic designer!” Or writer. Or editor. Or …. anything. You need to know what you need done. Hat tip to Rachel Peterson, founder of RMCleveland Designs, and my first graphic designer for being patient, flexible, and strong enough to teach me how to be a better owner.
Rachel taught me how to communicate with clarity to those you need help from. What, project, exactly, do you need done? Do you have specifics in mind, such as style or tone? Time frame? Budget? What are you trying to accomplish with it? Long term? Short term? Be as clear as possible on every aspect of a project before you start advertising your needs so you can get the right person.
2.) Look at their previous work with a critical eye. There are a lot of smooth talkers out there that haven’t done anything. They can be coaches, writers, designers, web developers, coders, sales people, etc. They make a lot of really shiny promises, but there is nothing behind the excessive quantity of hot air, fancy branding, and motivational posts.
Ali made this mistake by hiring the wrong people to help him out when we were first getting Insanitek started. They screwed up our site more times than you can count. Sometimes the mistakes came out hilarious, like this logo where they mistook our dapper Prentice the Platypus for an old man/duck combo. Laugh, but learn your lesson.
When looking at people’s work, I also suggest you talk to a previous client. If you don’t, you might be in for some surprises. A lot of those testimonials on sites are fake, played up, etc. You don’t want to find out after the fact that it’s a nightmare.
3.) Learn to communicate in different ways. I worked with Rachel for over a year. It was awesome. We had a system going, and I knew how she worked. Then, she got married and went on an extended honeymoon (hooray!), and I had to learn the ropes all over again with another graphic designer. When I found Denishia of Macon Designs, her style was so different from Rae’s that I was instantly in love. She checked out on all fronts as a legit, hard-working. inspiring, motivated woman, so I hired her.
Then… I realised that the two incredible ladies working styles are so very different. I had a lot of work to do to make sure I was clear on my end and make sure Denishia was aware of it and able to communicate her needs better.
We’re still working out the finer wrinkles, but I think the major kinks are out a couple small projects later.
4.) Take gambles with smaller, relatively insignificant projects. Whether you’re trying out someone new to the field or just new to your process, give them a smaller project without much impact on your bottom line first. This way you can see if everything meshes between the two of you. It’s a great time to work out kinks in communication, see if your mission is something they can work with, and all the other bits and bobs that happen along the way.
I found this is hardest when your field of interest and business mission don’t match with what they want out of life. For example, we’ve lost a lot of great writer simply because they are not used to writing blog posts with citations — and this is a very stringent requirement I have for our accountability. (No accusations of fake news here!) We’ve also lost a lot of scientists that wanted to write because they weren’t being legally held to a hard and fast schedule written into a job offer.
It’s a lot of work to find a match, both for you and for the freelancers. Sometimes you’ll be a good match for a while, other times it’s a long-term love. Either way, don’t take it too personally. Just do your best for both sides of the equation.
