Working with freelancers has plenty of benefits such as lower costs, first-rate output and shorter contracts just to name a few. This talent pool’s importance in the economy is growing because some workers value flexibility more than stability. However, despite the advantages of hiring a freelancer, challenges to outsourcing still exist.

 

Here are some of the problems you might encounter when hiring freelancers.

 

Unavailability at Certain Times

In some cases, the first-rate freelancers have multiple clients (including your company). They have a full schedule and only take in work they deem as valuable. They may be unavailable when you need to have a meeting or make changes to the output submitted. This may cause delays in corrections, identifying errors and moving to the next phase of the project.

Assess the experience and expertise of the freelancer you want to hire. After doing so, determine if they are the right fit for your needs. The freelancer might have multiple projects and may not focus on your company. To avoid this problem, agree on a regular meeting schedule and follow it. It also helps to have a flexible deadline schedule for the output needed for each phase of the project.

 

Too Dependent on Them

One of the challenges in working with freelancers is that you may become too reliant on them. Since they do different services for you such as social media manager, content creator, sales representative, virtual assistant or others, you might be left with a huge gap to fill once they leave. You may have to start from scratch, lack the skills to take over, fail to sustain clients or analyze data because your freelancers did all the work. Have someone or a team work with your freelancers so there is a smooth transfer of skills once the latter ends their contract.

 

Failure in Communication

Some freelancers prefer working remotely. This may cause communication mishaps because of possible time zone differences, scheduling and varying Internet connection speeds. The best freelancers also juggle multiple clients simultaneously. They may forget they have a meeting with you or can’t schedule one immediately because of their busy schedule.

 

Lack of Transparency

Some freelancers don’t show the entirety of their work process or delay outputs for no reason. The hourly rate of some freelancers may lead to conflicts because they benefit from stretching the hours. Identify a compromise schedule and deadline for outputs to avoid problems.

 

These are just a few of the problems you might encounter when working with freelancers. Understand these to not just avoid them, but also find ways to solve them if they happen. You can contact us here at Robookkeeper. We can connect you with reliable virtual bookkeepers.