Finding skilled and reliable freelancers to contribute to your business operations can seem like a tall task. You’ll have to know where to find them, how to pay them, and how to set up your business to facilitate this, especially if you’re hiring international freelancers. Building a strong team of freelancers and retaining them can be crucial to the success of your business. eSEOspace presents tips to help you start building your team.
Figure Out What Kind of Freelancers You’ll Need
Depending on the type of business you’re running, the kinds of freelancers you’ll need to recruit will vary immensely. For instance, if you run an online store, you probably want to recruit some copywriters, graphic designers, coders, and photographers. However, if you run a travel blog, you’ll need freelance writers from different countries. However, not all jobs are suitable for remote work. Some, you’ll oversee in person, and others may need to be done on-site due to security or privacy concerns.
Finding Freelancers
Recruiting freelancers online creates opportunities for your business to engage with a wider variety of potential candidates. There are online job boards, both international and country-specific, that cater to generalized and niche skilled labor needs — FreelanceINDIA.com provides freelancers in India, for example.
Communicating With Your Freelancers
Steady and efficient communication is a must if you’re going to be hiring people from all over the world. You’ll need to select a communication platform where you can text as well as talk and video conference and another platform where you can create folders and exchange documents securely.
Compensating Your Freelancers
Paying your freelancers is obviously crucial if you want to retain your team, but you’ll need to keep in mind the overhead this creates for your business. Many money transfer services include extensive fees, which add up quickly across multiple workers and countries. For instance, you can use Remitly to transfer money to freelancers in India without fees when over a certain amount (usually $1,001).
Preparing Your Business for Freelancers
To avoid legal or financial issues down the line, you should ensure that your business is properly structured. It’s a good idea to create an LLC (or another appropriate entity type) if you haven’t already. The LLC structure can protect your personal assets from a certain level of liability and benefit you concerning taxes. However, you’ll have to follow the guidelines imposed by the state where you form your LLC. If you find the process difficult, a business formation service can help and potentially save money compared to the costs of using a business lawyer.
Manage Paperwork
There are convenient tools you can use to manage the large volume of paperwork exchanged between yourself and your freelancers. Soda PDF’s conversion tool enables you to convert .docx files to PDFs for an easy, convenient way to store and combine files.
Build a Reliable Team
If you take advantage of resources such as online job boards, money exchange programs like Remitly, and business formation tools, you can more easily and efficiently build and maintain your team. Consider the circumstances of your freelancers, and maintain constant communication for the best results.
