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freelancer

Where do I find a freelancer?

leestijd: 4min | # principals #collaborating with freelancers | 27 October 2021 | Amber Verduijn

You are looking for a freelancer to help build the success of your business. But how do you find the right freelancer for your business? The number of freelancers continues to rise. In Flanders, 142,446 freelancers were already working in August 2020. Although there is plenty of supply, it can still be quite a task to find the right match. Read below how to proceed.

 

Own network

A primary way to find a freelancer is to rely on your own network. Recent market research by GIGHOUSE found that 90% of participating freelancers still use their own network to find assignments. So it is definitely interesting to let your network know about available assignments. If you poll people in your trusted circle, you stand a chance of being presented with some good suggestions. If no one in your immediate circle is a freelancer or knows freelancers, you can use social media. By placing a simple call on Facebook or LinkedIn, you can reach interested parties. Also, by using the right hashtag on Twitter, you stand a chance of getting responses.

However, a lot of time goes into finding a freelancer through your own network. You have to wait for responses from freelancers and then screen the candidates yourself. After checking their specific expertise, experience and cultural match, you also need to check if the agendas of both parties match. Freelancers often have multiple assignments running simultaneously, so matching schedules can be a challenge. So checking off all the criteria on your list can be quite a chore. That's why it can be helpful to enlist the help of specific websites, platforms or intermediaries. Below we outline the most popular examples.

 

Online marketplaces and job sites

Another way to find a freelancer yourself is to post an assignment publicly on specific sites. Clients post job openings and freelancers can respond to them. The disadvantage of this method is that freelancers often offer the lowest possible rate in order to beat other candidates, thus lowering the quality of the freelancer. Thus, you often find a cheap freelancer but fail to get the highest quality result or the best match with the company. There are also sites where freelancers post their profiles, allowing companies to search for the right person. However, this is often paying for the freelancer so they dare to raise their rates to offset the cost. Although the use of such sites is free for clients, as a client you still pay indirectly.

Also, freelancers often don't share the full picture because those sites are open to everyone. They don't like to share their rate, availabilities and contact information for the entire Internet. This makes it a lot harder as a company to select potential candidates. After all, if you have to contact all those candidates individually, it will cost you a lot of time. In addition, a lot of freelancers will still try to apply for assignments that are not entirely within their area of expertise if they are not offered enough assignments. As a result, you will get a lot of candidates who do not have the expertise your company needs. So this is especially a good option if you have a lot of time for the selection process and want to pay as little as possible. If you want more assistance in finding the right freelancer, you can use an intermediary.

 

Intermediate

If you want to find the right match quickly, you can use an intermediary. For example, you can hire an office that will look for the profile you are looking for. You explain the vacancy and then they present you with the most suitable candidates. Most intermediaries work with a fixed percentage to be paid on top of the freelancer's rate, according to the hours worked. A modern form of such an intermediary is a freelanceplatform.

 

Working with a freelancer yourself?

Want to make sure you find the perfect match based on talent and skills? Then fill out this form and our account managers will contact you soon to help you further!

 

Sources:

NextConomy
Officient
Unizo

 

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