I am a freelancer. I have my own business and have clients who hire me on a monthly or PAYG basis. But some freelancers use their spare time to earn a little extra money on the side of their full-time jobs.
Not only am I a freelancer myself, I also outsource to freelancers when the need arises. When I set-up my business I hired someone to design my logo, and also customise my website theme (I wasn’t a WordPress expert at that point!).
I am quite particular what freelancer websites I use to hire freelancers and accept jobs from. I signed up to quite a few when I first started out, but it soon became clear that PeoplePerHour was one of the best. My very first client came from PeoplePerHour, and to this day I still get the odd job from this website even though I am not currently very active on there.
So how can a freelancer save you time and money?
Last week one of my clients asked me to perform a task that I just didn’t have time to complete myself. I decided that as the job was fairly simple, but would take probably 3 or 4 hours of my time, that I would likely find a freelancer who would be able to do the job for me. I popped over to PeoplePerHour and started looking for a freelancer who had the skills I was looking for. It didn’t take long to find quite a few freelancers who would be able to complete this task, so I spent some time looking at the feedback for my shortlist. I soon narrowed my shortlist down to one and dropped the freelancer a message asking if she’d be able to undertake the work for me. She came back to me within a few hours and agreed that she could take it on. I gave her further details, told her how long I wanted her to spend on the task and left her to it.
The task itself took the freelancer 4 hours and 48 minutes to complete. Her rate was very reasonable, and a lot less than my own hourly rate which meant I not only saved time myself, but also saved my client money in the process.
I appreciate that by hiring someone whose hourly rate is quite low is something many people have a problem with and in fact I used to have similar misconceptions about this. But everyone needs to earn a living, and if this freelancer can work for this rate and live comfortably then I am happy to pay them to get the job done. I never hire someone on rate alone, I look at their experience and the feedback from other clients.
Hourlies on PeoplePerHour
PeoplePerHour introduced Hourlies some time ago now, which have been extremely popular. I have a few of these hourlies set-up on my profile, I think they are useful for advertising single, one-off tasks you can complete quickly and easily.
Today I received an email from a member of PPH saying one of my hourlies had been included on the PPH blog and Facebook. I quickly clicked the link and found this great video showcasing some of his favourite hourlies of the week – I’m at 2.08!
Did you spot me? I like the fact he says “see how happy she is sorting out your inbox!”
Hiring a Freelancer
- Find a reputable freelancer website such as PeoplePerHour
- Create a shortlist of freelancers who you think can perform the job for you
- Look through each profile and the feedback from past clients
- Send an initial message to the freelancer and ask if they are able to complete the task and the timeframe
- Make a decision and hire the freelancer, if you’re purchasing an hourlie pay for it immediately so the freelancer can get going straight away
- Don’t forget to provide feedback following completion of the task, this is so important for freelancers!
Have you outsourced to a freelancer in the past? What have been the benefits for you?
Check out my PeoplePerHour profile and hourlies to see if there is something I can help you with.
