Businesses of all sizes can extend their capacity by means of the strategic use of contractors. Bringing the right talent and expertise on board for specialist projects can give your business access to top talent and produce more impressive outcomes without the high overhead and onboarding costs of bringing in permanent team members who, necessarily, must have more general skills. There are many areas that you can outsource to contractors, allowing you to run a lean team without sacrificing on quality or capacity.
Web design, development, and marketing are common areas that businesses can offload to specialist contractors. By working with studios or independent contractors for defined one-time projects or recurring services, your business can accomplish outcomes for which your permanent staff aren’t able to devote the time and energy, or don’t have the right skills and expertise. For instance, contractors can help you see big results from a strategic brand refresh, a targeted campaign, a new site design, or a social media push.
Expert contractors can do everything from helping you identify the right direction for your marketing, online properties, or brand strategy, to making sure that the nuts and bolts are screwed in securely behind the scenes, freeing up in-house staff to keep day-to-day operations running smoothly. You want an experienced professional handling your security, site performance, or campaign targeting to get the most out of your investment without costly oversights or missteps. On the other hand, even if you have sufficient in-house expertise, you might bring in contractors to help handle a surge in workload or a special project.
When it comes to sourcing contractors for your projects, you want to make sure that they’re reliable, experienced, skilled, and trustworthy. Using an umbrella company can increase your peace of mind and security by putting a buffer between your company and any risks such as contractor pay issues or tax and insurance concerns. Particularly if you’re using multiple contractors or adding new experts to a team, centralizing your administrative efforts through an organization such as this can cut down on the effort required from you or your management team.
Asking for references and reviewing portfolios is another way to make sure that you’re adding the right expertise to the team when working with contractors. This covers two different dimensions. You need to know that the contractor has the right skills for the job, and evidence of similar projects completed in the past as well as personal recommendations will assure you of the contractor’s capacity. Talking to their previous clients also helps you establish trustworthiness and good working relationships and communication. You want contractors who are not only talented, skilled, and experienced but also a pleasure to work with and who will be able to work within your preferred modes of communication and collaboration.
The benefits of working with contractors are generally financial, as well as in improved quality and polish. While a contractor’s hourly or project rate may seem higher than an employee’s, the additional fees and taxes that you pay on employee salaries should be factored in to their total cost to you. In addition, you have employee downtime or underutilization to consider in the arithmetic of team formation. Also, an experienced contractor will be able to take your designs and ideas further, faster, and with less errors, mistakes, or omissions than an employee who has many concerns and is less experienced or unspecialized.
You may also find working with contractors to be less challenging from a management point of view. While they do need clear communication in order to be able to deliver projects that meet your needs in a timely manner, they don’t require the constant interaction, feedback, and reviews that onsite, permanent employees usually experience. A contract relationship tends to be more direct and focused on tasks and deliverables, which can provide efficiency and a lower emotional toll on the part of managers.
Contractors also tend to be happier, more focused, and more relaxed by virtue of being able to specialize and work independently, which contributes to the success of your projects and a more pleasant working relationship. Their ability to navigate their work-life balance dovetails with your need for flexible, project-based, or cyclical specialist services.
You can benefit from the use of contractors by assessing your business needs. Special projects, temporary surges in workload, and repetitive but specialist needs are all good candidates for outsourcing to contractors. Use client reviews and recommendations and portfolio work to assemble a trustworthy, skilled expert team of contractors to grow your business and extend its capacity today.
