When you’re swamped with work and every helping hand is tied up elsewhere, you’ll need to decide between hiring a full-time employee or a freelancer. Wrong decisions can play mightily on your cash flow and productivity (two pretty important factors for startups), so here are some thoughts to keep in mind.
1. Look in the mirror
First take a good look at what you’re best at. If your team is marketing focused, you might not have the skills in-house to create a website or mobile app. You also might not know what makes for a good developer. In this case, it makes sense to find freelancers. Ditto for startup teams who are tech-focused — hire freelance marketing experts to match precise skills to projects.
2. Keep the best for yourself
Since you’re working 16 hour days to get your startup up and running, make sure you’re doing the work you love doing. If you’re an “idea” person, it’s OK to spend the day doodling on napkins and dreaming big. Don’t feel guilty for hiring a product manager to supervise bringing your ideas to life. You’ll also be fresh and invigorated, giving you the freedom to come up with even more great ideas.
3. Consider client interaction
If the job involves a lot of face-to-face time with your clients, it’s often better to have full-time employees who have up-to-the-minute insights into all aspects of your company. Exceptions might be freelance telesales teams who can build their own relationships, and customer support teams for help.
4. Guess the job length
Some jobs need to be done ASAP, while others can wait. For instance if something is broken (say your website is down or your emails are bouncing back), a freelancer can start working that day. Hiring a full-time person can take weeks and bring you to the brink of collapse.
5. Estimate hand-holding time
Some jobs demand a lot of one-on-one collaboration with your own team. If constant supervision is a must, full-time workers are often a better solution. This is especially true if a job has multiple facets (such as define the problem, decide how to solve the problem, and build a solution to solve the problem).
6. Keep training wheels in mind
Similarly, take into account the amount of training you’ll need to provide workers. Full-timers make sense on jobs that demand a single skill, but if the skill requirements are going to change from month to month, a freelancer could be the way to go. With new skill requirements evolving regularly in web programming and social media, hiring freelancers who are already well-versed in the skill can save time and money.
Here are some specific scenarios which may apply to your startup:
- Need to get the job done super-fast? Hire freelancers to do the job or support your staff.
- Looking for someone to grow into another position? Hire a full-timer and groom him/her into a bigger role by building multiple skills.
- Money super tight? Do it yourself, and hire a freelancer to add the final touches.
- Does the person need to be on-site? Hire a full-time staffer who lives nearby.
- Will you lose work if the job is delayed? Hire a freelancer to knock it out ASAP.
In other words, if there’s a long-term commitment to the role, bring on a full-time staffer as soon as there’s money. But choose a freelancer when you need flexibility, speed and affordability.