Benefits of Hiring Freelancers Instead Of Agencies
When you decide it’s time to outsource tasks for relocation, you may wonder which is right for you: an agency or a freelancer. You may not even fully understand what advantages freelancers have over agencies. This post will discuss how freelancers differ from an agency, and why you may be better off hiring a freelancer to relocate abroad.
In today’s remote business environment, geography is no longer a required consideration as you outsource work. Your relocation tasks and logistics can be completed through remote freelancers.
This new economy, without geographic restrictions, is beneficial for both clients and self employed workers. Remote working has increased by almost 150% from 2005. And, 16% of companies now actually prefer to work with people who are remote (according to a study by Freeup).
The trend toward remote hiring has had a lot of benefits. Working with experts and freelancers without geographic restrictions holds great opportunity:
- It’s often easier to manage remote hires through data, sheets, and recorded messages.
- It costs less. Companies no longer need a physical working space, which cuts down on expenses like rent, bills, maintenance, and multiple other charges.
- Working remote is easier for experts. Commuting long hours to get to an office is nearly a thing of the past. Experts can attend meetings, complete projects, and communicate from afar.
- Remote agencies and freelancers are more likely to form a long-term relationship with companies when they help them remotely for a year.
- It is very possible to hold remote freelancers and agencies accountable as their work directly reflects the targets that the company sets for them.
- Remote temporary working also minimizes office politics and lets everyone focus on moving the company goals forward.
Freelancer | Agency | |
Cost | Low | High |
Cost Structure | Hourly or project-based | Hourly or project-based |
Skills | Specialized | Depends on agency |
Project Style | Often starts off short-term and moves to long-term | Relatively stable for long-term contracts |
Work Type | Individual | Team input |
Replacement | Find a different, similar freelancer | Individual changes are handled by the agency |
Management | Manage a single person | Work with a team via a single contact |
Accountability | Yes | Yes (depends on agency) |
A freelancer is an individual who can be hired on an as-needed basis. They can have a number of responsibilities, depending on their skill set, experience, and other factors. Hiring freelancers provides a great deal of flexibility—they can be hired for anywhere from a few hours to 40 hours per week or more.
In general, unless otherwise specified, the work you assign to a freelancer is completed by the individual person you hire. Freelancers are self-employed and therefore in full control of their work, setting their own prices, rules, and working hours.
Benefits of Hiring a Freelancer
There are many different pros that come along with bringing on a remote freelancer.
1. Cost Effective
One benefit of hiring a freelancer, as compared to an agency, is that it is often more cost-effective. Agencies have overhead and tend to have higher costs per hour and per project. Agencies also tend to have minimum dollar amounts for their engagements, which means you’re locked in even if the situation changes.
2. Specialized Skills
If you need a specific type of task completed, you can find a freelancer capable of taking on the exact project requirements. When you hire a freelancer, you know the specific skill level and expertise of the person completing your project. With an agency, you may get a senior person, but it could also be an entry-level trainee who completes the work. The latter most likely as senior staff often focus on dealing with the bigger clients.
3. Spread the Responsibility
You can affordably hire multiple freelancers for your projects instead of relying on a single one. The freelancers can work together—this happens quite often. For example, a freelance Property Agent and a freelance Property Lawyer can coordinate on your offshore home purchase. While it sounds like working with a makeshift agency, this approach gives you more control over who’s working on your relocation project and both can answer to you directly.
4. Flexibility
Freelancers are the epitome of hiring flexibility. You can find a freelancer (or several) to work whatever number of hours you need when you need them. Unlike agencies, freelancers generally don’t require minimum engagement levels or long-term contracts. However, since the freelancer is in control of their business, some may have stipulations, so be sure to ask.
Things to Consider When Hiring an Agency
While agencies have many benefits, they do have downsides compared to freelancers.
1. More Expensive
In comparison with freelancers, agencies are often more expensive—both on a per-project and per hour basis. Depending on a lot of factors, agencies can be 2X – 4X more expensive than freelancers. This is because they have overhead to cover, professional salaries to pay, and non-billable people to account for.
2. Coordination and Communication
Where freelancers are the only point of contact when you work with them, agencies have multiple people involved in every client’s projects. With an agency, you’ll have an account manager and may also have a trainee consultant, assistant, advisor, legal, assistant manager and other skilled professionals on your account. Communication is usually routed from you through the account manager to the experts. This is done for a reason but can sometimes feel like a game of telephone. Some agencies do allow direct access to the people delivering your project, but not always.
3. Big Fish Get the Attention
Agencies can only survive with revenue consistency. So when they land a large client, they need to keep that large client. Sometimes that means that smaller accounts get slightly less attention. Senior staff will mostly be focused on the large client while the trainees or other consultants are passed on to your relocation project. This isn’t true with all agencies, but if you’ll be an agency’s smaller client, make sure their service is up to your expectations.
When to Hire a Freelancer
Freelancers are great at working on short-term projects. You can start with a small project to makes sure you’re compatible and then move on to larger or longer-term projects. You can hire a freelancer for your regular moving tasks like hiring a man and van for removals or delivery, or a one-time project of relocation consultancy to find out more about the current state of the city/country you want to live in.
You can also hire as many freelancers as you want as long you can manage them properly. If your project is small and easy to manage, a freelancer or two could be your ideal setup.
If you desire (or require) direct communication with the experts completing your project, a freelancer is the way to go. Since freelancers tend to work solo, you’ll have a much closer relationship with the individual.
Freelancing Platforms To Consider
When you decide on a freelancer, here are the platforms we recommend:
Settlu
(A little shameless self plug..)
You can hire qualified freelancers who work specifically in the relocation and travel industries from the Settlu marketplace. This platform allows companies and individuals to hire pre-vetted freelancers and agencies for their projects, as fast as within a single day.
Create your free client Settlu account here.
Upwork
Upwork is a well-known freelancing platform in the market. It connects businesses that have projects they need done with freelancers and agencies that can complete those projects.
Freelancer
Freelancer is a platform that has a large database of freelancers at various levels of experience and expertise.
The Bottom Line
Now you know the benefits of hiring a freelancer vs an agency. You can determine which is right for you and use Settlu to find and hire a relocation/travel freelancer.