Ottawa Freelance

Hire the Right Freelancer for the Job
By Harrison Baker

Finding and hiring a freelancer that you can trust and depend on can be a rather daunting experience. While there is no fool proof method of hiring the right freelancer, there are several things that you can do to ensure your decision is sound.This article will walk you through the initial screening process, rates and where to find good freelancers here in Ottawa.

Where do I find a freelancer?

If you’re looking for an individual with a specific skill chances are you won’t find them in the yellow pages. Traditionally you would get to know of these individuals through referrals or if they had any marketing savvy they would have approached you. Today you can check out places such as Ottawa Freelance, or Kijiji and Craigslist for local talent. But how do you know if these freelancers are right for you?

Initial Screening

You usually want to use a freelancer that you can meet with face to face. If this is not a concern there are many sites on the internet that will provide you with a freelancer using an auction or bidding model - however, this brings its own assortment of problems, the biggest being you have no idea who you’re dealing with.

The initial screening is the time for you to determine if the freelancer has the qualifications you need for the project and more importantly will you be able to work with this person from what you see. The first thing you will want from a candidate is her or his resume, and then a portfolio of work and a client list with references. If they do not have a printed portfolio (software and internet developers) the resume, client list and references will suffice. When possible you should spend a period of time on the phone before inviting them to meet you in person.

Once you meet with them in person you should look for the following things:

1. The candidates level of interest and desire to work on your project.
2. Whether the candidate’s background, skill and ability will fit with your needs.
3. What the candidate can bring to the project based on these qualities.
4. Will the candidate give your project the priority you require.

Some freelancers look very good on the web or have a terrific portfolio or resume, but until you actually speak with them you will not know if they have a working knowledge of the job you’re asking them to do or if they have a realistic grasp on the client supplier relationship. These are things you will only find out in a face to face interview, it’s no different from hiring an employee.

What can you expect to pay for a freelancer?

Tough question - and the answer can be different every time you ask it. Freelancers, depending on experience can range anywhere from $ 20.00/hr to $ 125.00/hr. Usually they will quote on a job per job basis, be sure to get three to see what the general cost of doing your project would be. Sometimes your quotes can vary by thousands of dollars from one individual to the next. There are several reasons for this. Assuming they are all competent enough to do the work, they may quote very high because at the moment they’re swamped and are really hoping that you don’t choose them to do the work, however if you do - the high dollar return on their time means they won’t mind as much working late nights or a few weekends or they have achieved a level where they can pick and choose their jobs and charge accordingly. If the quote comes in really low it could mean they aren’t very busy and need the work at this point in time. Another reason for a low quote could mean they really don’t know what their services are worth, or they don’t have the same overhead as the next person. This doesn’t mean the quality of the work will be below par, it just means their business model may be a little different than the competitions. For example - they may be very quick and efficient at what they do and have many jobs on the go at once. Other reasons may be they want to get their foot in the door of your company in the hope that more work will come their way.

There are a lot of other reasons why quotes may vary so much for the same work, but usually the average hourly rate for anyone in this industry is between $ 35.00/hr and $ 65.00/hr. There’s a little trick that usually design firms like to play - it’s called AA’s or authors alterations. This is a legitimate request most of the time when the boss makes a last minute change to a piece of work that the freelancer has already completed - it would only be fair to the freelancer to charge for the additional time. However, beware of the individuals or agencies who will charge you AA’s for a change in something as simple as a font, or a change that takes them an additional 10 minutes, but they charge you a minimum 2 hour fee for just touching the project after the fact.

These are things you need to talk to the freelancer about in the interview and it’s always good to get a statement of work explaining exactly what it is they are responsible for and get it in writing.

Freelancers are a lot more flexible that agencies who have staff, office space and a number of other fixed overhead costs - they usually will not be flexible, they need a certain amount of money to come through the door every month and just like a retailer there’s no bartering and if there is, you can be guaranteed that something is going to suffer somewhere. Whereas a freelancer has the flexibility to barter their prices - so don’t be afraid to ask.

I hope this has given you a better insight into the work flow a freelancer experiences and will help you the next time you decide to go that route. In the long run as I always say. “Freelancers are usually higher skilled, harder working and more reasonably priced than agencies.”