What exactly does “freelancing” mean?
On the surface, it means people are filling their time doing the things they love and getting paid for it. While that’s certainly true in many instances, the word goes beyond a surface-level need for workers to enjoy their work.
Freelancing (and the gig economy as a whole) is helping businesses fill their skills gaps in balance sheet-friendly ways that benefit people on all sides of the interactions. In this new era of constant connectivity, businesses have highly skilled people at their fingertips—people who have advanced degrees, love delving into big data, or understand the importance of the written word. Gig workers are offering up their talents and niche sets of knowledge in exchange for flexible work hours, projects they actually enjoy, and the opportunity to make names for themselves when they would otherwise have just been cogs on the wheel in the corporate world.
How does this benefit marketers?
1. Hard-to-Fill Roles are Hard to Fill on Purpose
Maybe you’re looking for a biopharma expert who understands the intricacies involved with marketing pharmaceuticals. Perhaps you need an attorney who’s well-versed in the language necessary to speak to everyday citizens. As a company, you need to get your name out there, but as an industry, you’re asking employees to run through a lot of red tape.
If you’re trying to fill a job that’s notoriously impossible to find the right fit for, consider looking toward the gig economy for a little guidance. Maybe you can’t pay a full-time employee the salary that would be necessary to get a person to commit to 8-to-5 hours, but there are certainly people with the education and skills who would be willing to work for you as a consultant—for the right price.
Remember, you won’t be paying your freelancer benefits or giving Uncle Sam his extra commission when you hire a freelancer, which should free up a little money during your negotiations.
Focusing on finding people with the skills you need. The rest will fall into place.
2. Your Access to Talent Increases When You’re Open to Gig Work
Let’s say you want to undertake a big rebranding effort like the one Slack just unveiled. At a minimum, you’ll need:
- A graphic designer to create your logo
- Content writers to curate the words on your pages and write press releases
- A web designer to put everything where it needs to be
If you’re a small or medium-sized business, you’re probably biting off more than you can chew if you add these people to your payroll. Thanks to the gig economy, however, you can easily access talented individuals who can come together to rebrand your business in a way that makes sense to today’s audiences.
3. You and Your Freelancers are Free to Go When the Job is Done
Even at-will states make it difficult to let someone go if there’s nothing to do. You don’t have to let Steve sit in the corner, twiddling his thumbs when you go gig. Once the job is done, everyone goes about their own ways. The same is true if your freelancers aren’t adhering to their parts of the bargain. You don’t have to worry about finding ways to fill idle time or justifying your need to let Steve go. The project is finished, and you can both part ways.
You’ll gain impeccable amounts of insights while your freelancers are on your project. When the day comes for everyone to part ways, you simply shake virtual hands and ride off into the sunset. There’s no muss and no mess.
WriterAccess is a place where talented writers come together to meet the needs of marketers all over the country and beyond. From legal work to kitschy words, you’ll find the right writer for your needs right here.
Kristin B is interested in anything that teaches her something new or gives her a different perspective on something she already knew. She’s a self-proclaimed Learn Nerd, which means the world is her educational oyster, and she’s always seeking opportunities to learn from life’s experiences and her clients’ assignments.
