Why should I look for a freelancer?
A good freelancer can fill temporary gaps in your company and enable you to scale without investing money in permanent employees you don’t yet need. In other words, it’s an efficient way to hire talent.
If you need a job done but, for one reason or other, don’t want to hire a permanent employee, you’ve likely considered searching for a freelancer to take up the slack. It may be that your business is a startup without the resources to recruit someone full time, or perhaps qualified individuals are thin on the ground – a common problem in the crypto industry.
Either way, a talented, experienced freelancer can be a fantastic asset for your company, filling in the gaps in your operation without requiring a long-term commitment. In that respect, they can be worth more to your business than a full-time employee.
Finding that perfect freelancer, though, is not easy, especially when there’s intense competition for certain skills. In some instances, you might need to fill an entry-level role. The worst-case scenario, however, is that you’re forced to settle for someone under-qualified and inexperienced in a job where you can’t afford to compromise. But there are ways you can optimise your search and increase the odds of finding someone who will prove an outstanding investment in your business.
Word of Mouth: The Best Pipeline for New Talent
There is, quite simply, no substitute for a personal referral from someone you trust who has worked with a great freelancer. That word-of-mouth recommendation can cut through all of the uncertainty around recruiting, saving you time and putting you directly in touch (no recruiter fees) with someone who will do an amazing job. So, how do you go about finding such a referral?
Start by leveraging your social networks. Specifically, not only your immediate friends and connections, but their friends and connections. There’s a body of academic research and practical experience that shows it’s these second-order members of the network – the ‘weak ties’ – that yield the most promising leads. Try putting out a short job advert, asking people to share it with anyone they think might be suitable.
If that doesn’t work or isn’t an option, then it’s time to try more traditional methods. Even then, though, it pays not to be too conventional.
Cast a Global Net
There are lots of websites that enable customers to connect with expert freelancers around the world, giving them access to on-demand skills. But a few words of warning are in order:
- These sites can charge high fees (often 20-30%) making them unpopular with many freelancers
- They can act as filters, preventing some workers from registering for no apparent reason
- Because they settle funds using the legacy financial system, they may exclude those without bank accounts
If you want to find the best freelancers at the most competitive prices, you need to cast a wide net. That means using an open platform that anyone can use. A new generation of crypto-powered freelancer sites are putting freelancers and customers directly in touch. Borderless cryptocurrency payments make it possible to work with anyone, no matter where they are in the world – a truly global solution that won’t restrict your search unnecessarily.
Make Sure You Find Reliable Reviews
Another perennial problem users have with conventional freelancer sites is knowing who it’s safe to work with. In theory, reputation systems will indicate whether freelancers are competent and reliable, and whether customers pay on time. In practice, these systems are often gamed. Freelancers, in particular, can exaggerate their skills and experience, with the result that it’s easy to hire someone, only to find they’re not up to the job.
While some platforms simply use crypto for payments, others leverage blockchain technology more broadly to solve wider issues of recruitment. LaborX, for example, provides digital work agreements, powered by smart contracts, which enable users to organise work trustlessly. Payment is escrowed before work starts, and settled automatically upon completion. Blockchain is also used to establish users’ reputations. The decentralised reputation system takes into account completed jobs and payments, which are recorded on the blockchain, making it practically impossible to fake experience or skills.
Reliable reviews are the next best thing to word-of-mouth referrals, and should give you the confidence that the freelancer you’re working with is a professional who can get the job done to the required quality, on time. Even then, though, you may still be cautious.
Try Out a Small Job First
Working together successfully isn’t just about skills and experience. It’s about personality and various other practical factors. For example, if you regularly need work completed at very short notice, you might think twice about hiring someone who lives on the other side of the world and is likely to be asleep during your office hours.
If in doubt, start small. Offer the freelancer a trial job to test their skills, commitment, and suitability for your project or company. If a couple of these trials go well, you can think about offering them a more extensive piece of work. And if freelancing goes well for a longer period of time, then it could be worth offering them a part-time or full-time position. Lots of freelancers move on to more formal and permanent contracts once they have proved their value to a company in this way.
The Best of Both Worlds
A great freelancer can offer businesses the best of both worlds: a competent, reliable professional, who can be hired as demand dictates. Finding such a person, though, isn’t always easy. Word of mouth referrals can yield the best results, but that isn’t always an option. That’s why it pays to use a global platform that gives you the largest possible choice, rather than unnecessarily restricting yourself to a smaller pool.
To browse a global community of freelancers willing to get paid in crypto, or to post your job for anyone to find, check out LaborX.com.
