Enjoying all the advantages of remote work is now easier than ever thanks to Workana. If you own a venture, a startup or an already established company, and need to add talent to grow quickly, efficiently and paying only for what you need, hiring one or more freelancers is, by far, your wisest choice. 

Although our platform is designed so as to grant users the simplest and most intuitive experience along the creation of a project in any of our categories, there are a few points you should take into account to make sure you’ll get the best bids and pick the ideal freelancer.

Consider these 10 tips:

What elements should you consider before creating your project?

1. Invest some time in developing a good project description

When you create a project in Workana, the system automatically takes you along a series of strategic steps to easily decide on most of its relevant aspects, such as category, specific skills or abilities, estimated budget, etc.

However, it’s worthwhile checking if the description actually reflects your needs, the schedule or process of deliveries, as well as the expected final product. Remember that the more specific you are, the better bids from freelancers you’ll get.

This is an example of a project description that isn’t detailed enough:

But the one below will surely get amazing bids:

2. Define your budget and your payment method

Although there is a default option when you set the budget range for your project, it’s always a good idea to be more specific about this on your project description. Making it clear from the very start on how much you can afford is a great way to filter bids and make sure you’ll only get those which fit your budget.

You can also pick the hourly payment model -the freelance gets paid only for the time spent on the project, and you can follow up the working hours through our Workana Time Report tool. If you want to know more about freelancer fees by category and skills, check out our freelance hour-rate calculator.

3. Set delivery schedules very clearly

Sometimes, work involves doing many partial deliveries throughout the project, instead of just one final, general deadline. It’s not unusual ether to have customers asking to see real-time progress of freelancers in order to request changes on the fly and thus avoid going all over it again at the end if there was some previous misunderstanding.

Take this advice. Be very specific on what you need and also on how and when you need it. You may attach a small schedule of activities, for instance. Then, only those who can keep up with it will apply and you won’t even need to negotiate the schedule.

4. Describe the necessary skills or abilities

There’s a special section for project creation to enter the skills you’ll require. However, remember this is a tool mostly for freelancers to filter the proposals of their interest. As such, it’s important that you can include what skills, focus and experience you’re looking for, as in the example below:

5. Say what you expect from the final product

Finally, don’t forget to round up the description of your project with a summary of the expected final product, as this client did:

What elements should you consider when choosing a freelancer?

Once you post your project, you’ll start getting bids from interested freelancers. To pick the best, follow these recommendations:

1. Check out the profile of the freelancer, not just the bid

When you like a bid, take some time to visit the freelancer’s profile; there you can find a lot of additional information about their career, skills, experience and even attitude. 

2. Learn what each badge means

You must have already seen many freelancers hold a series of medals or “badges”. To give you a quick idea of ​​the quality and experience of each one, we suggest that you learn what they mean. For instance, this is a Hero freelancer, ranked among the top 100 on the site and with a verified payment method:

3. Have a look at their Reviews

Reviews are the comments and ratings left by customers on the freelancer’s profile once they’ve completed a project. It is, by far, one of the best ways to know the quality of their work, their communication skills and delivery times.

4. Ask for samples of previous work

Ask those with the best bids to send you samples of the work which might be most similar to what you’re asking from them. This is a very effective way to make up your mind when you have two or more prospects who seem equally good.

5. Assess the clarity, innovation, and detail of the bid

Freelancers who take their time to write a very clear, straight-forward bid, explaining step by step how they’re planning to develop the work required and stating why their experience makes them your best choice, will surely be fully dedicated professionals to work with later on. 

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That’s it! Now you have absolutely everything you need to create a good project and make the smartest decision when the time comes to pick a collaborator among our wide range of independent talent.

 At Workana, we together with our freelancers work daily on becoming the best remote work platform in the world. If you have not yet dared to take the first step, consider all the benefits you can get from working with professionals by project.