Why freelancers are cost-effective

You read that right. Freelancers are cost-effective. Let’s get back to basics first and explain what a freelancer typically is. They’re people with a set of specialist skills who offer their services to businesses or organisations for a set period of time, whether it’s for a one-off project or on an ongoing basis. Freelancers tend to charge higher hourly rates, but this doesn’t mean they’re always more expensive. Let me explain.

Say you need a logo created for your business and perhaps some monthly imagery you can use on social media. You may already have a social media manager as a full-time employee, but not a designer. Your social media manager may have some design-related skills you could utilise to get some of the work done, however there are two things to consider here: job overwhelm and quality output. You’ll put more pressure on your social media manager who then may not be able to deliver their original job to their full potential, and the quality of design outputs may not be the best standard they could be.

Hiring a freelance designer to create your logo and a series of content for social media will mean someone with top-quality skills will be able to create and deliver quality content. And it will be delivered in a fraction of the time too. Yes, they may come with a higher hourly rate, but you don’t pay them sick leave, annual leave, Kiwisaver, etc. And you don’t end up with an under-utilised full-timer. You can engage them as and when you need them.

The under-utilised employee situation is an interesting one, too. You could consider employing a full-timer at $60,000 per year to proofread content. There may be times where there isn’t much for this employee to do. Alternatively, you could employ a freelancer to proofread content on an as-needed basis.

Although freelancers are typically more expensive by the hour, take a moment to do the math in terms of how much you’re saving by not overloading your existing staff, as well as the return on investment you’ll get thanks to a few hours of a freelancer’s time.