Can you name a business skill that has skyrocketed in importance but still isn’t formally taught to even the most savvy executives? Here’s an obvious one: How to hire a freelancer.
That’s right. While freelancing has steadily increased in popularity in the past decade, education on how to hire a freelancer has not. Founders, hiring managers, and executives are often left to decide if they should hire full-time employees or freelancers. Then, if they decide on freelancers, what comes next?
The research that ensues likely leads one to discover any number of possible solutions for hiring a freelancer. And like any search for a product or service, not all solutions are created equal. At 10x Management, we take great pride in being a provider of the tech industry’s best and brightest freelancers. In this post, we review how to hire a freelancer with 10x, and some of the key benefits of hiring freelancers from our top-class talent roster.
The 10x Difference
At 10x, our talent is the ultimate reason we are able to generate top-tier results. We get the best talent because our business model creates aligned interests with our talent. When they do well, we do well.
Curation also separates what we’re doing from most of the other resources available to today’s hiring managers. At 10x, we extensively vet all of our tech talent, and we spend time with our customers to understand all of the elements that make their project unique.
Our 10x agents know our talent roster backward and forward, and they’re able to match contractors to projects with a high degree of efficiency. In fact, 95% of 10x customers hire the first freelancer that we suggest.
One way to look at it: 10x is your personal shopper. We find out what you need and present a pre-vetted, exceptional candidate to you, drastically reducing the time to product development and relieving our customers of having to do the heavy lifting themselves.
How to Hire a Freelancer from 10x
So what is it like to hire a freelancer from 10x, from the perspective of the customer? Because we do so much of the heavy lifting, the process is actually quite simple.
The search for the perfect 10xer typically begins with a discussion with a 10x agent around the project requirements and desired freelancer competencies (this can be truncated when there is a written project or role description). In most development projects, we will need to understand which technology, coding languages, frameworks, and tools are being used. This informs our internal matchmaking process as we consider who on the 10x roster will make for a great fit.
Also of note is that our matchmaking process involves some analysis of the “soft skills” required for project success. The perfect match is achieved when we are able to align not just technical skills between 10xer and customer, but also interests, values, and culture.
Our matchmaking process can be as quick as 24 hours, and our freelancers sometimes get involved in new projects in as little as 48 hours. Our ability to quickly deliver freelancers typically depends on the speed at which our customers are able to move. When initial discussions are rooted in clear project parameters, we are able to match that same efficiency to ensure a short time-to-hire window.
Once a freelancer is selected and suggested to the customer, a formal proposal is created and signed. Then the project kicks off, and our role shifts to a project advocate, which means our agents check in regularly to help ensure everything is running smoothly. At this point in the process, meeting cadence, communication mediums, and any specifics around the engagement are dealt with directly between the 10xer and customer.
3 Key Benefits of Hiring a 10x Freelancer
Now that you understand how to hire a freelancer from 10x, some of the key benefits might be obvious. To summarize, here are a few of our customers’ top reasons for loving 10xers.
1. 10x is a huge time saver
According to Workable, the global average for hiring open tech roles is 62 days. For companies looking to stay nimble and make progress on projects immediately, 10xers can act as a huge time saver. In many cases, entire projects are completed in less than 62 days when working with 10x! And even when committing to a full-time employee search, companies can benefit from hiring freelancers in the interim. We call this approach, “Hire Slow, Rent Fast.”
2. 10x greatly reduces risk
Because our roster of tech experts are so richly experienced and skilled, customers take comfort knowing their engagement will run smoothly. While the cost of making a bad full-time hire can be “astronomical,” the chances of hiring a bad 10xer are low because all of our talent is pre-vetted to meet our industry-leading standards. And if for some reason it doesn’t work out as intended, cutting ties is simple.
3. 10x produces top results
With 10x, customers can expect their toughest tech challenges to be met with the skill of professionals who are seasoned veterans of the freelancing world. As a result, our customers’ projects, products, and services go on to do great things that stand the test of time. With that said, we also recognize that no company or service is perfect. In the rare instance where a 10x project hits bumps in the road, we are committed to helping sort things out at every step.
Conquering the Challenge of How to Hire a Freelancer
One of our favorite byproducts of the 10x service is that we are able to act as a “secret weapon” for hiring managers, CTOs, and founders who struggle to find great talent.
It’s true that most of us have never been trained on how to hire a freelancer. But with 10x, you don’t have to be an expert. Hiring great talent is a skill best outsourced to an agency like ours, as we serve to take the pain out of hiring freelancers for our customers.