Why Hire a Freelancer?

When faced with outsourcing a web design project, whether it’s building a site from scratch or enhancing an existing site, it’s important to understand your options regarding who you will work with to get the job done.  When you’ve had success with a freelancer or web design firm in the past, obviously your job is much easier.  However, if you don’t have experience in managing such a project from the client perspective, or have had less-than-stellar results with the resources you have worked with, the selection process is a critical one to ensure your project’s objectives are met within your budget.

Is a Freelancer Really an Option for Me?

Let me start by saying that, yes, there are inherent risks in choosing to outsource your web project to a freelancer rather than an established business organization.  However, choosing a company or freelancer does not determine whether your project will be successful.  As a matter of fact, project success can be predicted based upon the following:

1. Clear expectations
   1. Requirements
   2. Cost
   3. Timeline
2. Resource availability
   1. Depends upon project priority
   2. Includes ensuring adequate funds to cover the project costs
   3. Includes availability of properly qualified personnel
3. Effective project management

When a Freelancer Makes More Sense

Identifying a qualified and trustworthy freelancer can be an incredible asset to your organization.  In many cases, a freelancer is often preferred, for a number of reasons:

1. The project’s scope does not exceed the freelancer’s capacity to deliver within the required deadlines.
2. When capacity requirements are met, generally you should be able to acheive more for your money with a freelancer, due to the lower (or negligible) costs associated with that person being in business (as compared to the overhead of a typical web design firm).
3. Your expectations being met is critical to a freelancer, who is personally highly vested in achieving repeat business and referals.
4. It’s somewhat easier to learn whether you can extend trust to a freelancer, because you know exactly who you’re dealing with and who is working on your project.  Your point of contact is not an account manager, but someone who is going to know your project inside and out.
5. Hiring an effective freelancer avoids the waste inherent in involving a number of resources on a project.  Many times, multiple resources have multiple projects, and there’s not only communication gaps, but it necessitates additional formalities that add cost to the project.

What to Look for in a Freelancer

Effective project management

This is crucial (and unfortunately somewhat rare).  Your ideal freelancer has a Project Management Professional (PMP) certification, or at the very least exhibits and demonstrates sound and effective business processes to ensure your project is delivered on time and within budget.  Effective project management makes your job much easier and ensures the project stays on track on within budget.

Solid business acumen

You want to work with a professional who can not only deliver on your requirements, but can offer technical, business and marketing consultation can be of great value to your project.

Integrity

Integrity is one of those intangibles that can wind up saving or costing you time, money, and undue stress in completing your projects. Therefore, it’s worth checking references and meeting candidate freelancers face-to-face in order to determine your level of comfort with this attribute.

Technical qualifications

While a technical qualification can mean coding proficiency (XHTML, CSS, Flash, PHP, etc), this category can also include marketing (search engine optimization, pay per click setup and management, etc), copy writing and editing, and graphic design, depending upon your project’s objectives.

Recent and relevant portfolio of work

It’s considered good practice to not only review the portfolio of work, but to specifically ask for references for websites that are especially relevant to your project. Doing this, you should be able to get a good feel for what working with the candidate freelancer will be like.

Conclusion

Selecting the right resource(s) is one of the most important decisions you will make for your web design project.  Remember, it’s not whether you choose a freelancer or a company that determines your project’s success, but the specific people involved that will make the true difference. Spending adequate time up-front to make the right choice can save you money and time, as well as establish a mutually beneficial working relationship that can enhance your long-term business growth.

I wish you the best of success…