When we own a company or a business and we want to start up some new project to be more competitive or to get more clients, we often don’t know whether it is more convenient to outsource the service, build up a fixed working team or resort to some specialized freelancer.

According to Forbes, freelancers are the solution of the future and 90% of companies decide for them -but is that your best choice at this moment? This article will help you gauge very simply the pros and cons of the options available, so that you can clear up your doubts, make the choice that best suits you and start right away.

External agency? Internal employees? Or freelancers?

Typical case: hundreds of startups and SMEs have begun to migrate their traditional marketing schemes to modern digital marketing strategies.

Many of them barely know where to start from or how to pick among independent agencies, their own teams or specialized freelancers.

Another example: you own an e-commerce and there’ll be a Hot Sale soon on a special date, and your customer service demand will grow considerably. You need to count on more collaborators right away, but just for a few days. What’s the wisest thing to do? There are agencies that can provide temps but you might also hire more people for your staff, though you might find a freelancer as well.

In both cases, making the right decision might translate into a resounding success while making the wrong decision might end up in a vicious cycle, resulting in a waste of time and money, with awful management of personnel or services.

Let’s see some specific situations where it’s wisest to make one choice or the other:

When is it convenient to outsource with an independent digital marketing agency?

• When you need some very specific and expensive tools and programs: Usually, specialized agencies and consulting firms can afford the latest Software, equipment and methodologies to offer a top service to their clients. They might become a good partner if these sort of tools are a must for your company.
• When you count on enough cash to face the fixed monthly cost they represent: Outsourced service agencies are often costly and represent a high fixed monthly cost. Check your finance and analyze if you can afford this expense with some affluence.
• When you want the other party to take over absolutely everything: If you’re looking for a partner to trust blindly and you prefer not to get too much involved in the project development, a specialized agency is a good choice for you. It will save you planning time and strategy analysis.

If you’ve concluded that this is your best option, you’ll be happy to know that in Workana you can also find many specialized agencies from different industries, and even better, you can check their reviews and ratings from previous clients.

When is it convenient to hire more employees or build up a fixed working team?

• When you need a group of people just focus on your business needs: If you need inevitably to hire full time employees, you might consider opening up new vacant posts and hires.
• When you want permanent collaborators: Some of your projects will be ongoing, that is to say that, you’ll need one or two more fixed employees in certain areas for as long as the company exists.
• When you can easily face the hiring costs: Do you need just one employee? Or are you going to put up a team of four, five or maybe more people? Think about all the payroll costs in advance, as well as rotation costs they might represent, and analyze carefully whether your company is ready to address such commitment.
• When you have time availability to put together a solid work team: Hiring fixed personnel is a mission that demands lots of time and effort, as the investment we do in each new hire is strong, so we have to reduce rotation risks to a minimum.

If you’ve concluded that this is your best option, but you want a solution with the advantages and flexibility of remote work, you can learn more about the challenges and advantages of building remote working team through Workana.

When is it convenient to hire specialized freelancers?

According to the information gathered by our report on independent work in Latin America 2018, 54% of clients hire freelancers to do specific tasks of their business, 26% to have someone to help them and 20% to supplement the work team after an increased demand. Among the main reasons which might make you resort to this option we can mention:

• When you need to get back to work at once, on a very specialized task for just a single time: Do you need a video editor as a fixed employee if you just need to make one video? O an in-company Portuguese translator if you only have one task in that language? Think of all those specific assignments that might be solved efficiently with a high performance freelancer.
• When you need an experienced and proactive partner: In Workana, it’s really easy to find a star freelancer with lots of experience on similar projects.
• When you need the utmost flexibility for your project: In Workana you can find very versatile and specialized freelance profiles, and you’re given the chance to pick among many bids and decide which one adapts better to your project requirements.

If you still can’t make up your mind between freelancers, an agency or a fixed employee, check our article “How and when to resort to freelancers for your company instead of hiring new staff”.

In conclusion, specialized freelancers are usually the best choice for small and medium-sized companies which want a quick growth and need great flexibility but don’t count on the budget, time and resources of large corporations.

Whatever your final decision might be, remember that Workana is a reliable and efficient platform to find agencies and consulting firms, build up full remote working teams and/or find the ideal freelancer.