Recruiting staff the freelance way – Subcontracting

4. Once you have a process and a job in mind, you can look for the subcontractor. There are many channels available hosting freelance talent details to choose from, a couple of which are listed here: Guru – www.guru.com, craigslist – www.craigslist.org and then look for your location (I think this one has some good potential).

5. Have a written agreement. And stick to it. Check out some examples of legal documents relating to subcontracting. http://allbusiness.findlaw.com/agreements/sagent/subcontract.html
http://www.ilrg.com/forms/contrctr.html

6. It’s crucial to remember that you must take legal advice before entering into any legal agreement, and that this site is in place to help you with ideas on how to start with some hard to deal with business areas such as staffing, managing and marketing. We are not a substitute to you taking legal and professional advice.

7. If at all possible, make sure you know the subcontractor – if you can, use someone you trust and whose work you can rely on. If this isn’t possible for you, start small using an unknown, and monitor their work very closely. It’s fine to ask your potential subcontractors to provide you with a sample, or to contact their previous customers (with their permission). Only use a subcontractor again if they have delivered to or over and above your expectations.

8. Monitor what is being done, in your name, very closely. YOU are the person or business your client has a contract or agreement with, not your subcontractor.

9. Get feedback afterwards, to ensure that if there are mistakes, you don’t make them more than once.

10. Try and build a good ‘supplier base’. Have someone you can go to for subcontracting of one area, and someone for another.

Subcontracting is one way to build some additional resource into your business. It can be a smart way to add value for your customers, and can also be a less risky way of increasing your output than taking on a member of staff. It can be a lot cheaper than employing someone, and is a good way to test the water, to see if your business is able to sustain you as well as other services (or an employee). So all in all, a good short term or temporary solution, especially if you are offering a diverse range of services. By using subcontract services, you can almost be in more than one place at a time and moving projects forward while you check progress and tout for more business.

However, if you have longer term, more ‘business integral’ and ongoing tasks to carry out, it may be that what you need is an employee. If so, keep an eye out for our Employing Staff articles for some help on recruiting and then training your new staff!