Why is Hiring a Company Better Than Freelancers Though They Are on Peak Today?
Freelancers contributed around $1.28 trillion to the U.S. economy.
With the rise of startups like Uber, Lyft, and Fiverr, the freelance or the gig economy is rising like a hot air balloon. Companies do love this no strings attached concept of freelancing They do not need to hire full-time employees and can outsource the work in any corner of the world at cheap rates.
But is freelancing a viable solution as compared to hiring a company? Think again as there are a lot of threats associated with freelancing.
Disadvantages of Hiring Freelancers
☛ Freelancers have other priorities
For most freelancers, the web/app development gigs are side hustles and not their primary source of income. It is highly likely that the freelancers might be having full-time jobs, and hence the freelance assignments will always be on second priority. Many freelancers try to squeeze time between their 9 to 5 jobs; this creates many quality issues.
Also, unmet deadlines are a common occurrence with freelancers as their side gig is not their #1 priority. Thus, creating a lot of stress for the company which has given them the project.
☛ No Long-term Relationships
While it is common for clients to have long-term relationships with professional companies, it is rare to hear the same for freelancers.
The matter with freelancers is that they do not have massive bills to pay or employees to give salaries to; hence, they will hop and skip to the best paying or the least bothering client often. This creates troubles for businesses as they cannot rely on a freelancer for future projects. The situation also creates a lot of stress for businesses as they need to always look for new freelancers to finish their work in time
☛ Ideas are at risk
One of the worst nightmares for companies outsourcing their work is that their idea will be stolen. With professional companies, there are some safeguards like an NDA (Non-Disclosure Agreement). But with freelancers, such an arrangement is not thought to be essential and fraudulent freelancers take advantage of this.
While companies fear a loss of future business, reputation, and legal hassles, this fear is not there in the minds of freelancers.
☛ Freelancers Can Go Rogue
Dealing with a single human being as compared to dealing with an organization has a significant pitfall that the freelancer can go easily rogue.
There have been numerous instances where the freelancers have disappeared with the client’s money leaving them with a half-baked product which no one else would like to take up. There are more severe frauds where the freelancers extort money from the clients by holding the website hostage.
A business can try and avoid such a situation by always owning the rights of the project. For instance, in case the company has outsourced web development, then it should never let the web developers build the website under their own hosting.
☛ Draft the contract
Many companies make the mistake of not drafting a proper freelancer contract to protect their business. While most agencies won’t start the work without a formal contract, the same cannot be said about freelancers.
While preparing the contract, a business should ensure that all the necessary details like exact deliverables, deadlines, and budget are mentioned clearly.
With development agencies, a company won’t need to draft a contract themselves, as they would already have one. The business will just need to go through the contract once and see if it works for them.
☛ Freelancers Don’t Have Back-Ups
While working with one person instead of a company, there is a risk of having too much faith in a single person. If the freelancer has some emergency or a system failure, then the client is left in the middle of nowhere.
There have been instances where the freelancers do not know the solution for a particular problem, and as they do not have a team to depend upon, the solution is not provided within time. Such instances are rare with reliable companies because the company would have a vast array of resources at its disposal.
☛ Scaling is difficult
Scaling with freelancers can prove to be quite difficult. A client cannot expect a freelancer to scale up and provide 2 or 3 times the work which makes it difficult when there is a lot of urgent workloads.
The scaling costs with freelancers can prove to be highly expensive. Also, finding the correct freelancers both from skill as well as a cultural perspective can prove to be a pretty daunting experience for a company. This factor puts brakes on the scaling plan.
☛ Failed deadlines
It is pretty common for freelancers to miss deadlines as it is difficult for an individual to meet stringent deadlines every time. The freelancers sometimes do not bother to inform the client that they won’t be able to finish work on time.
For a professional company, missing a deadline is not an option. No development company can progress without adhering consistently to deadlines.
☛ Fake portfolio
With freelancers, the probability of finding fake portfolios is much higher as compared to professional development companies. There is no guarantee that the freelancer coded the particular website or designed the UI for this specific app which the freelancer has put up on the online profile.
While some fake portfolios are easy to spot, others are pretty difficult as professional scammers can scam even their documents, increasing the probability of online fraud.
This factor acts as a significant hindrance for a business that is on the quest for a genuine freelancer.
☛ Constant communication
Many clients have the experience that it is challenging to communicate with freelancers. They end up chatting and sending screenshots to the freelancers way more than anticipated. The arrangement turns out to be counterproductive for the clients as they have to manage the workflow consistently.
With a development firm, the communication part is smoothened out because usually, the firm offers the client a project manager who acts as a bridge between the team and the client.
☛ No quality guarantee
Businesses that opted for freelancers based only on the high ratings provided on sites like Upwork and Fiverr were up for a rude surprise. The thing is that there are freelancers providing services like pushing the ratings up by giving fake reviews.
The credibility of freelancers can only be ascertained by asking them to complete a test task. But some freelancers won’t do a test task and are even offended by the proposal.
With a development company, the possibility of getting a subpar finished product is low. This is because a bad reputation can seriously harm the prospects of a company. You should understand that companies who have invested in building a team and in procuring systems do not want to offend clients with substandard products.
Moreover, most development agencies are happy to provide the references of their old clients with whom the prospective customers can talk to gauge the efficacy level of the development firm.
☛ Not available when you need them
The freelancers do not work according to the standard office timing, and this creates an obstacle in terms of availability. Also, as the freelancers work on multiple projects simultaneously, scheduling a convenient time for a meeting is a big issue.
As a development company works within a fixed schedule, these problems won’t arise with them.
Summing up
While it is true that outsourcing IT projects to freelancers has its own benefits, the disadvantages are serious. On the other hand, a professional development company comes with a dedicated project manager, an experienced team of developers, designers, and testers, an NDA, and a work contract along with better communication. Having said that, you should always prefer hiring an IT service provider to individual freelancers for your personal or professional software needs.
