A project has come up and you need some freelance work done. Maybe it was unforeseeable, or possibly you (and your business) regularly work alongside freelancers. It could be that you’re building a business of your own and are on a tight budget; or you just don’t have the time, energy, or skill to execute it yourself.
There are plenty of wonderful reasons to work with freelancers – more specifically, freelancers found on Upwork. But hiring through Upwork isn’t perfect either.
Here is an Upwork FAQ
Sometimes you need a clean line of communication and the platform Upwork provides does offer that. You just have to remember a lot of people aren’t from the USA.
This is a big positive when it comes to Upwork. Depending on the location of the Freelancer, Upwork is responsible for sending tax documents.
Yes, you can most definitely find US freelancers on Upwork. Be prepared to negotiate prices when it comes to the hiring process.
You have multiple options when you sign up. You can either pay a flat fee each month or choose to pay a percentage per job.
I’ve found that I haven’t dealt with too many bad people on Upwork, however, the quality of the job being done is always a concern.
What is UPWORK?
UPWORK is a platform that functions like a job board or a marketplace. Businesses post the work that they need to be done while freelancers are able to browse hundreds of postings, submitting proposals for the ones that they’re interested in.
The freelancer offers the hiring party a quote for the job upon their proposal submission. Then the businesses (or a sole person who is looking to hire) picks the candidate which they prefer.
Sounds simple enough. And it really is. This is one of its greats draws. In addition to it being extremely cost-effective.
THE GOOD
It’s cheap – Using Upwork is the cost-effective choice. How much cheaper it is than sourcing work from other outlets is really difficult to say, since in theory; it’s as cheap as you want it to be.
This, of course, has its drawbacks, as I will explain below. But you can essentially advertise to pay out any price to a freelancer and guarantee at least somebody will bite.
So, if you choose to, you can come out of the gate low. But even better is that freelancers who submit their proposals to you also submit a quote. This puts you in even more control with how much you’d like to spend on for a project.
Writers, writers, writers – Upwork seems to be ruled by writers. This is good if you’re looking for a writer. Anything and everything from articles, content, bios, product reviews, books, Wikipedia entries, you name it. If you want to add to your profitable blog this is a good place to look.
Easy to hire- Upwork is a one-stop-shop that does most of the work for you. You simply post a job and let the proposals flow in. You choose to engage with the freelancers that you’re interested in based upon their reviews, samples, and portfolios.
Upwork even allows you to send out invites to freelancers that you are interested in.
Other than that, Upwork does most of the work for you. You pay Upwork, who then gets a cut and pays the rest to the freelancer once the job is complete (or after an achieved milestone is reached).
And when it comes to payment issues, Upwork has you covered on that as well.
You are protected – Upwork has many protection policies that ensure both you and the freelancers are protected. Most importantly, Upwork doesn’t release the money to the freelancer until both you and Upwork approve it – leaving the chances of getting ripped off slim to none.
Some of the reasons why I’ve used Upwork are below.
- All kinds of writing styles
- Development
- Web Hosting Integration
- API assistance
- Data Entry
- Data Research
THE BAD, WHICH IS ALSO THE UGLY
Lower rates, lower quality – While you might feel good about paying next-to-nothing for a job; this can translate into a lower quality of work. This could either because the freelancer is new, generally inexperienced, not a native speaker, or experienced but isn’t prioritizing their lower-paying jobs.
This isn’t always the case. If you weed through the candidates properly, Upwork is a great place to score experienced freelancers at inexpensive prices.
Schedule conflicts – Freelancers on Upwork have their own schedule, which could create conflict. Possibly, it’s that they are overseas, in a different time zone, or keep different work hours than you. This could make communication an inconvenience, but not impossible.
Freelancers on Upwork also do not work directly for you. So a schedule conflict could result in freelancing being a side hustle of theirs, or the possibility that you find yourself just one of many clients in line.
Freelancers may bail – I don’t know how common this is, although I have heard stories. The good news is that the freelancers do not bail with any money; since Upwork’s policies protect against that.
But they can bail midway through a project; having decided to move on, ghosting the client – which can be anything from a minor to a major annoyance.
FURTHERMORE
Upwork has been and remains to be a great place to hire freelancers. But it’s important to be clear on what your expectations are; both what you expect to really get out of Upwork as well as your expectations for the freelancers. If you do the proper vetting; reviewing your candidate’s previous work and credentials, there is no question that you will get a great deal and come out on top.
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