When is the right time to hire a freelance content writer?
Are you wondering whether to hire a freelance content writer or work with a full-time content writer? Before you can decide you first need to understand what are your content requirements, what budgetary and resource constraints you have, and what are your short-term and long-term goals.
The very fact that you are contemplating different options implies that you need content and you know what role it can play in your overall business growth. The only pressing question is, what sort of person you should hire in order to meet the requirement. The sort of content writer you will eventually hire depends on your business, your preference and your content requirement. In this article, since I’m talking about a time that is right for hiring a freelance writer I’m going to consider factors that can help you decide when to hire one. The following are the reasons people and businesses opt for a freelance content writer instead of a full-time one.
You don’t want to spend lots of money
Hiring full-time staff always means higher expenses. You don’t just pay salary, you also allocate office space, and also provide resources in order to enable that person to deliver his or her services. For instance, when someone visits your office every day to prepare your content he or she is not going to bring along his or her laptop or computer. You will have to arrange these yourself. Add to that electricity, Internet, telecommunications, stationery, furniture, and so on. Of course, there are other monetary benefits that you have to provide to your staff. There are many legal obligations that you have to follow that entail further expenses.
On the other hand, when you hire a freelance content writer all you pay for is the content that you get. There are no peripheral and secondary expenses. You don’t pay for infrastructure and paraphernalia and you don’t need to allocate extra resources to that person. You don’t have to pay health benefits, and you don’t have to pay compensation or risk litigation in case you suddenly have to fire your employee. There is no expense involved in hiring other than scouring through the Internet in order to find the right talent for your business.
You want to access a wider talent pool
Since there is no intricate procedure involved in hiring a freelancer you can pick and choose according to your preference. Just as you have found writer A you can also easily find writer B. Living in an English-speaking region of the world doesn’t mean that you’re going to get a capable content writer for your business. Of course native speakers have an edge over those who use English as a second language (just an assumption, you can very well hire freelance content writers from neighboring areas) but when it comes to writing down ideas and communicating your business message, it is a totally different ball game. Not everybody can do that. It doesn’t just require good writing skills, it also requires communication skills, creativity, lots of experience and a flair for using imagination. So it isn’t always possible that you are going to find the right content writer in your area itself.
Hiring a freelance content writer, especially via the Internet, widens your reach. Sitting in Australia you can easily work with a freelance content writer in, let us say USA, Britain, the Philippines or India; all you need is that the person should be able to deliver what you want.
You don’t want to stifle your work environment in a 9-5 job profile
When you work with a freelance content writer, again, especially via the Internet, you don’t have to constrain yourself within the 9-5 hours convention. He or she is not going to enter your office at 9 AM and then leave it at 5 PM whether your work is done or not. Once he or she has promised that you will have your document with you within the next 24 hours, you will get it. There are no limited working hours when you partner with a freelance content writer. If he or she has committed to deliver your document at 2 PM next day, your work is not going to be delayed simply because your content writer “went home”.
You want a professional content writer who immediately understands you need
A professional content writer knows a lot more than your average content writer that you hire simply because a professional/freelance content writer needs to work for numerous clients in a single month. He or she is not merely handling a single topic/subject. He or she has to wear different hats to create different categories of content for different clients. You may have some concerns regarding expertise and vertical knowledge, but with little input from you even that gap can be bridged.
Aside from writing content, a freelance content writer managing his or her own business also has to take care of many more aspects so he or she will be in a better position to empathize with you, that you can never expect from an employee.
There can be countless more reasons why you should hire a freelance content writer but right now I’m just going to list the ones mentioned above.
