Being a freelancer often means holding multiple highly specialized roles simultaneously: you’re a developer, designer, or copywriter, AND your own marketer, recruiter, and human resources manager.
A thriving freelance marketplace will support you before, during, and after the vetting process and be your rock star advocate to its trusted partner organizations. Working in this environment allows you to be part of a well-oiled machine while maintaining professional freedom.
Read on to find out what a freelance marketplace is, how working with one benefits you as a freelancer, and how to avoid partnering with the wrong business.
Going it alone as a freelancer
Choosing the freedom and flexibility of being your own boss often means losing the support, resources, perks, and benefits of being a full-time employee.
Establishing yourself as a successful freelancer requires planning and the time, energy, and resources to implement your plan.
No matter your field, freelancing can include thankless jobs that turn you into a jack of all trades and requires you to wear multiple hats without extra compensation:
Sales and marketing consultant
As a freelance writer, web development dynamo, graphic design whizz, or something totally different, you are compelled to wear multiple hats. Aside from your everyday business, you must also become a one-person sales and marketing team—it’s your responsibility alone to brand, market, and sell your skills and services.
According to a 2017 Payoneer survey, most freelancers spend as much as a third of their billable time looking for new jobs. While preparing quotes and looking for new jobs, you are not completing quality work or earning an income.
Diverting your efforts toward project sourcing often leads to the feast or famine cycle typical of freelance work. Despite wanting to focus on project work and enhance your overall productivity, you cost yourself time and money by doing administrative tasks.
Recruiter and contract negotiator
If you think negotiating with a client as a lone freelancer without support is challenging, try vetting potential clients appropriately! It can be virtually impossible.
When you use automated online marketplaces, you can only rely on client reviews by other freelancers, and these reviews may be dubious or incomplete.
Professional recruiters are expert contract negotiators who rely on a vast network to match talent to the right client.
Recruiters have also gained years of experience and deep insights into their clients’ niche industries and the market-based salaries and pay ranges you can command based on your skills and qualifications.
Human resources consultant
As a freelancer, you are responsible for your career progression and eventual success. You must be on the lookout for continuing education and skill development opportunities.
Internationally accredited courses, programs, and boot camps that aim to increase your marketability are often expensive and time-consuming.
Customer success manager
Customer success management is one of the most challenging aspects of going it alone as a freelancer. Working as a freelance contractor means constantly balancing between keeping your clients happy and keeping a tight reign on project scopes.
You often have little support, and there aren’t other team members to bounce ideas with. There may be a disconnect between you and the client’s established team, and you can feel like you’re working in a vacuum.
Accountant and bookkeeper
Finally, we get to the least enjoyable part of being your own boss: chasing payments and paying taxes. The irregularity with which some of your clients settle invoices may further worsen the feast or famine cycle in which you find yourself as a freelance contractor. Most freelancers can wait between two weeks and a month for invoices to be paid by businesses after completing quality jobs. While time is money, you are not always in a position to alienate a problematic client, and you simply have to grind your teeth and wait.
What is a freelance marketplace?
A freelance marketplace, also known as an outsourcing company or a recruitment process outsourcing (RPO) provider, partners with an organization to manage and oversee all or part of the organization’s recruitment processes.
According to the Recruitment Process Outsourcing Association (RPOA), an outsourcing company “assumes ownership of the design and management of the recruitment process and the responsibility of results.
Outsourcing companies partner with organizations from small-to-medium local businesses to large global enterprises and offer their services across a wide range of sectors and industries.
Outsourcing company models
Outsourcing companies engage with their client organizations in various ways by combining two or more of the following models:
On-demand recruitment process outsourcing
Contract-based, and the provider’s focus is restricted to specific projects with limited time and scope.
Function-based recruitment process outsourcing services
The provider’s focus is a particular department or division within an organization on an ad-hoc, temporary, or long-term basis.
Full recruitment process outsourcing services
The provider takes on the complete human resources responsibilities for its partner organization.
What can a freelance marketplace do for you?
A freelance marketplace like Quickly Hire can leverage its deep knowledge of its partner organizations and its insights into the industry in which they operate to help you navigate the recruitment process quickly and efficiently so that you can focus on what you do best.
Two-way benefit
While an organization or employer benefits significantly from a strategic partnership with an RPO provider, so can you as a professional, independent contractor. By working with a freelance marketplace, you can avoid typical freelancer headaches such as:
- Unsteady roller-coaster income
- Chasing outstanding unpaid invoices
- Uncooperative clients
- Administrative burden
- Lack of career progression
Dedicated team to help you
When an outsourcing company is doing its job, you can expect to be supported at every step of the recruitment process. Team members from the best freelance marketplaces often go above and beyond to find you the assignments that fit your specific skills and requirements.
Your outsourcing services consultant is a subject matter expert in your field and understands the business operations in the employer’s field. Expert outsourcing companies know precisely who an organization is looking for and will walk you through the vetting process to ensure a match made in hiring heaven.
Spot the red flags!
Not all freelance marketplaces are created equal, and you should keep an eye out for unscrupulous outsourcing companies.
A reputable freelance company focuses on treating you as a member of a community. Not just another body to fill a position. Based on relationship-building, A+ outsourcing services should always make time for you because relationships are built and nurtured on connection and communication.
Things to avoid when joining an outsourcing company
- Application fees or processing charges during the registration process.
- Minimal communication or exclusively via email.
- Little or no guidance or information before interviews.
- Promises of long-term employment from the get-go.
- No learning or continuing education opportunities
The Quickly Hire promise
While you won’t be our only candidate at Quickly Hire, you’ll definitely feel like you are. Our Quickly Hire account managers will be your experienced partners as you navigate the vetting and recruitment processes of some of the most trusted organizations worldwide.
The Quickly Hire contractor marketplace is where you manage your assignments and projects, log payments, and handle all your paperwork.
Joining Quickly Hire gives you access to the highest-quality outsourcing services on the web.
