{"id":1789,"date":"2016-09-29T06:08:53","date_gmt":"2016-09-29T06:08:53","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.capitalnumbers.com\/blog\/?p=1789"},"modified":"2025-08-11T11:06:13","modified_gmt":"2025-08-11T11:06:13","slug":"the-dangers-of-working-with-freelancers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.capitalnumbers.com\/blog\/the-dangers-of-working-with-freelancers\/","title":{"rendered":"The Dangers of Working with Freelancers"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-1790\" src=\"http:\/\/www.capitalnumbers.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/09\/CN_Blog_DangersOfWorkingWithFreelancers_27092016.png\" alt=\"cn_blog_dangersofworkingwithfreelancers_27092016\" width=\"1000\" height=\"600\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.capitalnumbers.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/09\/CN_Blog_DangersOfWorkingWithFreelancers_27092016.png 1000w, https:\/\/www.capitalnumbers.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/09\/CN_Blog_DangersOfWorkingWithFreelancers_27092016-300x180.png 300w, https:\/\/www.capitalnumbers.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/09\/CN_Blog_DangersOfWorkingWithFreelancers_27092016-768x461.png 768w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1000px) 100vw, 1000px\" \/><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Freelancers have become a great option for companies that need to outsource their work temporarily when their in-house staff lacks the specific skills for the job. There are a few precautions to keep in mind, though. This is not meant to antagonize freelancers or put them in a negative light; it\u2019s to share some of the possible adverse situations that could arise while working with them.<\/span><\/p>\n<h6><span style=\"color: #003366;\"><b>Freelancers should not be the lifeblood of your company<\/b><\/span><\/h6>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Before you even consider bringing in a freelancer to help, you need to understand the purpose of freelancing. Freelancers are not employees: they are not tied to any company and are merely offering their services on a project-by-project basis. Therefore, you shouldn\u2019t rely on them to complete the bulk of work on your projects. <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">For example, if you want to create a website that displays user submitted artwork, find local employees who can do everything you need to do to achieve your initial goals. Freelancers should only need to be brought on when A) no one on your team has the required skills to finish a task or B) when everyone is too swamped with other things to work on that they can\u2019t fit it into their schedule. By outsourcing all the integral parts of your project to people that may live in a variety of time zones, you are putting the fate of your website into the hands of the freelancers. Try to keep as much work as possible in-house to avoid complicated situations like the one aforementioned.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><!-- This site is converting visitors into subscribers and customers with OptinMonster - http:\/\/optinmonster.com :: Campaign Title: RemoteHiring --><\/p>\n<div id=\"om-kv9ydvtgjiv3iarz-holder\">&nbsp;<\/div>\n<p><script>var kv9ydvtgjiv3iarz,kv9ydvtgjiv3iarz_poll=function(){var r=0;return function(n,l){clearInterval(r),r=setInterval(n,l)}}();!function(e,t,n){if(e.getElementById(n)){kv9ydvtgjiv3iarz_poll(function(){if(window['om_loaded']){if(!kv9ydvtgjiv3iarz){kv9ydvtgjiv3iarz=new OptinMonsterApp();return kv9ydvtgjiv3iarz.init({\"u\":\"18402.333867\",\"staging\":0,\"dev\":0,\"beta\":0});}}},25);return;}var d=false,o=e.createElement(t);o.id=n,o.src=\"\/\/a.optnmnstr.com\/app\/js\/api.min.js\",o.onload=o.onreadystatechange=function(){if(!d){if(!this.readyState||this.readyState===\"loaded\"||this.readyState===\"complete\"){try{d=om_loaded=true;kv9ydvtgjiv3iarz=new OptinMonsterApp();kv9ydvtgjiv3iarz.init({\"u\":\"18402.333867\",\"staging\":0,\"dev\":0,\"beta\":0});o.onload=o.onreadystatechange=null;}catch(t){}}}};(document.getElementsByTagName(\"head\")[0]||document.documentElement).appendChild(o)}(document,\"script\",\"omapi-script\");<\/script><!-- \/ OptinMonster --><\/p>\n<h6><span style=\"color: #003366;\"><b>Multiple projects at once<\/b><\/span><\/h6>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The most common issue that comes with hiring freelancers is that your project most likely won\u2019t be the only one they\u2019re working on. Steady income for a freelancer requires them to have a constant stream of projects to work on, so keep that in mind. They may have 2 or 3 other jobs before they can give yours the proper attention it needs. With so many other things for them to work on, this can also mean that they may not finish your project by the established deadline, forcing you to either take what they have done or wait for them to finally complete it fully. Time is money and the more time you have to wait for them to finish what you ordered, you\u2019re losing valuable customers.<\/span><\/p>\n<h6><span style=\"color: #003366;\"><b>Sharing your intellectual property with a stranger<\/b><\/span><\/h6>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Hiring remote employees requires a lot of trust on your end. You are putting your faith in someone who you\u2019ve barely met before and hoping that they will follow the guidelines you set for them. The aspect that makes employers most nervous, though, is sharing their intellectual property with these people. Most freelancing sites have pre-screenings to make sure the people they are promoting are in good standing and reliable, but the fear that they may not handle your ideas with care can still be a deterring factor. <\/span><\/p>\n<h6><span style=\"color: #003366;\"><b>Inconsistent quality<\/b><\/span><\/h6>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Something to keep in mind while outsourcing to a freelancer is that their work is not guaranteed to be consistent from one project to another. Because they may be working on more than one project, there is a chance they may put more of their effort into another company\u2019s job than yours. This is one of the unfortunate realities of hiring freelancers. You can\u2019t just tell them that they need to prioritize your project because they already have enough on their plate as it is. Giving them a tight deadline won\u2019t help you either, because even though your task immediately becomes their first priority, the quality of the work will be subpar since they didn\u2019t have enough time to put substantial effort into it.<\/span><\/p>\n<h6><span style=\"color: #003366;\"><b>Could drop contact<\/b><\/span><\/h6>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The worst nightmare of any employer is when an employee spontaneously drops all contact. None of their calls are being answered and any frantic attempt to get in touch is returned with radio silence. Anxiety begins to set in about the uncertainty of the situation. \u201cWhat happened to them and are they okay? Will I have to find someone else to complete my project? Is my IP safe?\u201d You don\u2019t have any need for alarm, at least not right away. Start by trying to get in contact with them and putting the pieces together before getting worked up over nothing. <\/span><\/p>\n<p>The best case for this type of scenario is getting in touch with one of the freelancer\u2019s emergency contacts. Have them give you one or more of their emergency contacts so you\u2019ll be able to sort everything out in a timely fashion before hiring them. Hopefully you\u2019ll be able to trace their activity and figure out what happened to them, but it\u2019s no guarantee that you will.<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Freelancing has been a valuable asset for many companies, but understand the risks before you start hiring them. Just be aware that there are some troubling possibilities when you decide to bring a freelancer in to work on your project.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Freelancers have become a great option for companies that need to outsource their work temporarily when their in-house staff lacks the specific skills for the job. There are a few precautions to keep in mind, though. This is not meant to antagonize freelancers or put them in a negative light; it\u2019s to share some of &#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":12,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false},"categories":[731],"tags":[1212,1221],"acf":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.capitalnumbers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1789"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.capitalnumbers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.capitalnumbers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.capitalnumbers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/12"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.capitalnumbers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1789"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.capitalnumbers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1789\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":16238,"href":"https:\/\/www.capitalnumbers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1789\/revisions\/16238"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.capitalnumbers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1789"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.capitalnumbers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1789"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.capitalnumbers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1789"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}