Nibletz Staff
In the midst of starting a company, you will at some point hit a snag. It is nothing that is worth worrying about, these things were made to try us. It is inevitable as the business progresses you will bump into issues along the way. Staffing is one of those issues. When companies start, there is the big question of cost hanging over everything. Can you afford to hire full-time members of staff when you are a primitive startup company? A lot of people bypass this by going for the outsourcing method, where you hire a freelancer to come in and do whatever needs to be done quickly, and exit the process. As a small business owner, this could be an absolutely ideal way to get the tasks you need doing, but at a fraction of the cost. There are pros and cons to having permanent staff and freelancers at any one time.
The communication between an employer and freelancer is something that can be frustrating at points. The freelancer mindset is to swoop in and out. Do the job and leave. If you want to inject a sense of cohesion and transparency in your business, it may be very hard to achieve when you are met with this approach to work. On the other hand, if you are the type of leader that likes to give the order and expect no questions, this is a suitable approach to take. Contact can be minimal if you give a very detailed level of information with a deadline, which gives you more time to get on with the important stuff.
On the other hand, freelancers can give a fresh point of view on your company, maybe in ways that you have never seen it before. Outsourced IT companies can look at your technical infrastructure and tell you where you are falling down. By having another point of view on proceedings, it helps to flag up potential problems before they get worse.
A permanent member of staff is not just someone who clocks in and out. This is a person who is invested in the company and its ethos. At least that’s what you should be looking for when you are doing the hiring process. Having someone work for you on a permanent basis is more of an investment than a freelancer, and you would not need to school them up in the ways of the business and how it is run, as they would already know this. From a perspective of a business owner, time is not wasted in training up someone in the fine details of the company for them to disappear as soon as their work is done.
Looking at both sides of the coin in the freelancer versus permanent worker debate is one that can go on forever. You need to ask yourself, do I need someone to be an investment in my business so I can build a great team, or do I want to go it alone for a bit longer, getting help when I may need it? I hope you find the answer.
