Freelance workers are a great way to add in a level of flexible working to your business. They can usually offer many benefits to drive your company forward, without the long-term commitment.

This article should give you an insight into what flexible working is, the many reasons it can be a good decision for your business, how you start hiring a freelance worker, and why people make the choice to be a freelancer. 

Flexible working – what does that really mean? 

As we are coming out of a global pandemic that forced many to work from home, the term flexible working has been used more so than ever before. 

An official explanation from a government-funded initiative called fit for work, describes flexible working as:

anything that breaks away from the rigid 9-5 routine, or the fixed hours working pattern that has traditionally dominated working life over the past 150 years. 

Flexibility in work doesn’t only cover working hours, but it also covers – 

  • Days worked – part-time or weekend working
  • Location – such as home working or hybrid models
  • Nature of the job contract – freelance, fixed-term, contract work or temporary 

But flexible working has been around for some time, mostly in relation to freelance workers. 

So, what is a freelance worker?

Freelance workers, or freelancers for short, are usually people who are self-employed and work for multiple clients at once. Not held down with a fixed contract, freelancers usually work on a contract basis either based on regular set deliverables, or one-off projects. Freelancers usually follow the flexible working idea. And as the ‘free’ in freelancer implies, you’re free to make your own rules as to how and when you choose to work.

At Spero solutions, we fully embrace the flexible working philosophy. We class ourselves as freelance virtual assistants and freelance virtual business managers.

Within my business, I’ve implemented an outcome-based work culture. Which in layman’s terms means, if you get the work done to schedule and to a high standard, then you can do the work whatever time and day of the week that works for you.

Freelance workers can charge in different ways, depending on what their industry and specialism is. Often freelancers charge on a project fee basis, but freelancers also work based on daily and hourly rates. 

Now as we emerge from the pandemic, lots of business owners have had to reconsider the future of work. We have said goodbye to the days when managers counted the number of hours people sat at their desks in order to assess performance. From my experience, for many business owners, bringing on a freelancer and embracing the flexible working philosophy can be a sticking point.

Questions come up like – 

  • How can I trust them?
  • How will I know if the work has been completed?
  • How do I know who to hire as a freelance worker?

The key to any good relationship is communication. It’s worth having open and honest conversations with any potential freelance workers about your expectations. Make sure they’re a good fit and create a vetting process. 

For freelance virtual assistants, read the guide on how to find the best virtual assistant for your business for more tips on finding the best fit.

Benefits of using a freelance virtual assistant

There are lots of freelance workers in different industries you might consider. This list is specific to working with a freelance virtual assistant but applies to many other freelancers – 

  • No hidden costs – pay only for the time they are working and for the services you have agreed when working with a freelance virtual assistant.
  • Allows for scaling up and down – easily change the number of hours when demands change in your business.
  • No overheads – a freelance virtual assistant is self-employed. They pay for their own office, computers, pensions, equipment, and holidays, so your overheads are minimal. 
  • No training time – a freelance virtual assistant already knows how to do the jobs you need done.  You get someone highly skilled with lots of experience, without fronting the training bill. 
  • You get a seasoned professional at an affordable price compared to their full-time salary – communicate your desired outcomes and they can hit the ground running. 
  • Freelance workers can bring fresh ideas and expertise – they can also offer their expanded networks to your business. 

These benefits clearly explain the surge in popularity in recent years. Recent studies show 64% of UK businesses currently rely on freelancers in some capacity. 

Why do people choose to be freelance workers over salaried jobs? 

It might sound great from a business point of view working with freelance workers, but why do they choose this over an employed role? 

If you’re considering taking the leap, or want to understand what makes a freelancer tick, the main benefit is fully utilising flexible working and defining their own rules.

As well as flexibility, freelancers get to work on projects they’re passionate about and the variation of the work keeps your work/life exciting and fresh. Earnings for freelancers were also found to be far higher than regular employees. 

From my own experience, achieving a healthy work/life balance can be a juggling act and an impossible goal… especially when you’re a parent. You’re left with a constant sense of guilt that you’re not able to give work and home life as much time and energy as you would like. 

For me, I could not have juggled being a working mum in my previous role in a traditional corporate lifestyle. Starting my own business and becoming a freelance virtual assistant has a been a wonderful, challenging, fulfilling, and economically sound choice for me. Most importantly, has helped me to achieve the elusive work/life balance. 

So, hopefully that gives you a good idea why hiring a freelance worker in your business can be extremely beneficial, but also what motivates freelancers to do what they do. If you need help to stay control of your business, rather than it controlling you, get in touch to hire a freelance virtual assistant.