Hiring Freelancers Online: Exposing The Myths And Superstitions

Hiring freelancers and getting work done from them remotely is a very efficient and cost-effective strategy for employers, especially those who are startups and small businesses.


Its increasingly becoming the trend these days. However, this area is also plagued with a lot of misinformation and myths about hiring which need to be clarified and exposed.




As a prospective employer, its very important for you to know about them, otherwise you'll be left without the competitive advantage that outsourcing or online hiring offers over traditional hiring methods in the first place.

  1. You absolutely need an online platform like Upwork or Toptal to hire Freelancers: Many online articles may try to scare you by repeating this myth, but nothing could be further from truth. These platforms are mere middlemen or facilitators who provide you an online PHP app to find employers/freelancers. For merely using their app, you allow platforms like Upwork to take a good 20% commission on each payment you make on a project or contract. Upwork even charges an additional fee of 2.7% as processing fees from you, as an employer or client.

    If you have the right skills, you can yourself find skilled freelancers on free social networking platforms like Linkedin, Twitter, Reddit, etc. Most freelancers maintain their updated profiles on Linkedin where their colleagues/clients provide them with feedback or endorsements (you can do it too, once your work gets done). Instead of paying high commissions to facilitator platforms like Upwork, you can use the same money to gain a competitive advantage by hiring a better freelancer if you go through the Linkedin route!

    Then comes the question of managing the project. Again, there are N number of online platforms like Trello, Asana, Basecamp, etc. Some are even self-hosted and fully open source like OpenProject and OrangeScrum.

  2. Freelancers from Developing/Asian countries are always fraud: This is one of the largest myths being perpetuated by either the platforms or those who don't want the freelance model to succeed. It obviously benefits both of them if only costlier options are presented to the prospective employers. This is just like that other myth going around in electronics world: "All Chinese gadgets are crap". The truth is that even Apple's and IBM's gadgetry is all made in China due to lower cost of production, its just their Q/A that matters. Most freelancers from Asian nations are very sincere and hard working dudes, you just need to know how to separate the wheat from the chaff.

    In fact, because of the relatively lower cost of living in many Asian countries, these sincere dudes may provide you exactly what you are looking for: The best talent for your next project (programmer/tester/designer/etc.) at a price which is light on your pockets! Isn't this exactly what you are looking for as a startup or small-business owner?

  3. Freelance platforms take care of paperwork and legal formalities: This is yet another myth. The Platforms only offer you a false sense of security, your legal position is no different while working on a platform than without them. Head over to /r/Freelance sub on Reddit and you'll find innumerable stories of both clients and freelancers who were sued (or were threatened to) by the other party and no platform came to their rescue.

  4. Freelance platforms are needed for paying or getting paid: Another myth. A bank-to-bank Wire-Transfer is usually the most cost-effective way for employers to pay a freelancer, followed by probably PayPal. The Platforms merely add their additional layer of fees over and above these established ways of payment. There are many other methods too like Skrill, Payoneer, Google Pay, etc. using which you can avoid the platforms altogether.

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