The unreasonable effectiveness of hiring freelancers

Keep in mind that freelancers can be very hit-and-miss. Here's how to leverage them effectively.

• Document objectives and requirements meticulously.
• Review their work regularly and keep an open line of communication around how they're doing.
• Ask them for hard (and realistic) deadlines on everything and hold them accountable.
• Stick to your processes, even (especially) when things get busy.
• Set a regular meeting to regroup.
• Build a real relationship with the person.
• Once you know and trust the person, retainers are a good way to go for tasks, as they will ensure availability. For project contracts, get a fixed bid.
• Be specific about terms and when your payment will be released (preferably at certain project milestones).
• Remember that you get what you pay for.

In case it's helpful, I wrote an article on the topic a while back.

Freelancers do not cut it for long term projects unless you use the same one the whole time. They aren't thinking long term. They're opting for the quickest easiest solution, checking off their task, getting their pay and they're out of there. Then six months later, you try to add a new feature and your code is so janky it's impossible.

Hiring experts can be helpful for sure, but senior designer/programmer cost starts at around 3000 EUR/USD per week. I am considering looking into hiring some students for "copy/paste marketing", that should be more affordable.

I think it's great you were able to identify what your business needed but this approach won't work for everyone. It completely depends on what you need the freelancer for. In my experience, freelancers can cause more problems than they're worth, especially if they don't understand your vision. Maintaining control of my business ultimately led to its success. Yes, it took longer to get there, but I did get there.

I used to freelance, for over 8 years. I remember one project that I refused to update.

It was a WordPress plugin development for a Stripe feature. Any other day, I would quote ~$1,500 for that plugin. But I just got back from a vacation and needed some money urgently. So quoted $300 only. The client accepted, pulled an all-nighter, and got that plugin up and running. The client was happy.

He got back two years later when the plugin stopped working because of API changes. By then, I changed my stack to Python, Django and was really not interested in php and nitty-gritty WordPress codex anymore. Besides, I was charging $75/hr and it would have taken me 10-15 hours to understand and update. The client thought he can get that 'small' thing fixed for $100-$150. Finally had to reject and saw an angry face.

Freelancers are great to get things done and ship fast.

But for long-term? May be not a good idea. Priority changes!

Hell yeah I totally agree. Freelancers can be hit or miss. But if you know how to hire them, or better yet, have a roster of trusted partners, it can work so well. I've found that when I work with a freelancer I like, they'll sometimes hire me.

When I'm freelancing, I'm also making connections to the other contractors on what they do, what they enjoy and what they're working on. This technique has allowed me to expand my network for professionals that I can trust.

Also, it's worth talking to your freelancers' references. It might seem extreme but it's helped me in the past.

I've had several horrible experiences with freelancers which eventually inspired me to go about things in a different way. Now, I give them the the equivalent of a code challenge in whatever area I'm needing. Something that shouldn't take them longer than an hour and won't cost me more than a hundred dollars. The main reason I do this is to see if we can effectively communicate. Because that's what I've had the most issues with - seemingly impossible communication challenges.

Can you give breakup of how much you spend on freelancers, their hourly rate and how did you evaluated them? I have no idea if someone is good or bad at marketing how do i evaluate them?

Okay everyone, stop the excuses.

Just like you build MVPs, you could also hire for an "mvp project/feature" and limit your costs. I see excuses here on how full time freelancers cost 4-figs, etc. Trying to hire someone fulltime for the first time is like trying to build a fully-fledged software from the first try. Start small.

The catch-22, of course, is you need money first to hire freelancers, but you need the freelancers first to make the money. The reality is for most founders, including me, hiring freelancers is a luxury. We can often justify the time we spend hustling but we can't justify spending the money for someone else to hustle for us, and that's probably where most of us go wrong.