I know. It sounds crazy. But for freelancers, there may be times when hiring other freelancers can save them money, time and stress. Depending on your own skill set, another freelancer may be the ideal person to…
Run your Social Media Platforms
Although there’s a host of clever apps and sites that can help to create, schedule and publish social media posts, learning how to use them and how to get the best from social media can be time consuming. However, you’re probably aware that there are freelancers out there who run social media accounts for others for a living.
They are skilled. They know when to retweet and when to quote a tweet instead. They know the best time of day to post on your Facebook page for maximum engagement and how to hashtag that Instagram photo so that it’s shared far and wide. They look at those little engagement graphs that social media platforms send you and understand them. Their fee for using their highly-honed skills on your behalf could be well worth it, when compared to the hours of earning time you might waste to achieve the same (or, more likely, poorer result.)
Design, Update and Maintain Your Website
Again, while it’s not beyond the capabilities of most of us to throw up some kind of website to advertise our services, websites can go wrong, get hacked, fail to be search-friendly or suffer constant spam bombardment.
If you’re not confident in your ability to design an attractive and easy-to-navigate website, and don’t have the time to keep it updated and bug free, consider handing the job over to an expert.
Handle Your Admin
Unless your admin skills are what you’re selling, then chances are, your time could be better spent on using and touting your talent. If your work generates a lot of necessary admin and frequent phone calls, a virtual PA or freelancer could handle this side of your business for you, letting you focus on doing what you’re good at.
Handle Your Accounts
Book-keeping and tax returns are the banes of many freelancers’ lives. Not only do they cause you stress and take up your time, you’re always left with that nagging doubt as to whether you’ve remembered everything and completed your tax return properly – particularly because you’re aware that failing to complete your tax return correctly and on time can incur a fine.
Should you have claimed those Christmas cards sent to clients as a business expense? How much should you claim for utilities if you work from home part-time?
A freelance accountant or an accountancy service can handle all these queries and issues for you, and also ensure that you keep every penny possible away from the grasp of HMRC – potentially earning you more than their fee.
Take on Projects you’d rather Delegate or Share
You know how it is. You like client X. Client X was a valuable and reliable source of income when you were starting out, and you wouldn’t want to let them go. But just now, you’re being offered other, more exciting projects that possibly pay better, too. And you haven’t got time to do everything.
Or perhaps your issue is that you’ve been asked to take on a project requiring a range of skills, one or more of which you haven’t got. Maybe you can write great content for a brochure and know how it should be laid out, but don’t have the art and design skills to complete the finished product the client desires?
Sometimes, the solution may be to hire other freelancers – either to complete the regular, more run-of-the-mill work while you focus on new and exciting projects, or to help you win and complete those new and exciting projects as a team!
If you do decide to hire a freelancer, remember – it’s up to them to impress you and hit agreed deadlines, but it’s up to you to communicate efficiently and provide a clear brief. Think about what makes your difficult clients difficult, and resolve not to become one!