How to Build and Manage a Freelance Team to Scale Your Business

A widely-publicized survey by Elance-oDesk and Freelancers Union found that about one-third of the U.S. workforce identifies as freelancers. Small businesses turn to independent contractors to lighten their workload and grow their business. Here’s how to put together a freelance team that has your back.

As a solopreneur or small business owner, there’s only so much you can do on your own. At a certain point, you need to bring on additional help to grow and meet demand. But hiring full-time employees comes with overhead obligations and other downsides.

The solution? Build a scalable team of freelancers

Leveraging freelance talent is the ultimate way to expand capabilities and bandwidth without the burdens of traditional hiring. In this comprehensive guide, we’ll cover everything you need to know about building a stellar remote freelance team.

Benefits of Building a Freelance Team

First, let’s look at some of the major advantages of using freelancers rather than employees:

Lower Costs – No need to pay salaries and benefits or provide office space. Only pay for work delivered.
Flexibility – Scale up or down as your needs change. Adjust the team dynamically based on workload.
Specialized Skills – Access talent with skills not worth hiring full-time. Get expertise on demand.
Global Talent Pool – Choose from freelancers worldwide rather than just locally. Widen your options.
Efficiency – Freelancers are highly motivated to deliver results efficiently. Make the most of your budget.
Overhead Reduction – Avoid HR, management, and other costs associated with employees.

The bottom line? A freelance team allows agile, affordable scaling without the traditional burdens of employment.

Building an Effective Freelance Team

Follow these tips to build a freelance team that delivers exceptional work:

Define Needs

Outline all projects and tasks needed. This helps determine team roles and size.
Set budgets for each role to allocate costs.
Prioritize must-have skills versus nice-to-have. Focus first on core needs.
Plan team structure based on workload. Avoid over or under hiring.

Taking time to fully define needs sets your freelance team up for success.

Find Candidates

Search dedicated freelance platforms like Upwork, Fiverr, and Freelancer. Review portfolios and ratings.
Leverage LinkedIn to find freelancers with the background you seek.
Check communities like Reddit for recommendations on great freelancers.
Reach out to qualified candidates you’ve identified to gauge interest.

Cast a wide net to find the best people for each role.

Screen Carefully

Review portfolios and past work in detail to verify skills.
Conduct interviews to assess abilities and personality fit.
Give small test assignments to audition top candidates.
Run background checks on finalists and call references.

Taking time to carefully vet ensures you build a strong team.

Define Work Details

Create contracts defining scope, rates, timelines, quality expectations, and policies.
Set up task management platforms like Asana to organize work and track progress.
Implement communication channels like Slack for collaboration and team cohesion.

Clear expectations and processes are crucial to success. Don’t leave anything undefined or up in the air.

Onboard Smoothly

Provide training to get new team members up to speed efficiently.
Introduce your company culture, values, voice, guidelines, and best practices.
Assign a mentor or point person to help with onboarding questions.

Proper onboarding ensures new freelancers integrate smoothly.

Communicate Frequently

Touch base regularly on progress and blockers via standups.
Give context on how each role and task ladders up to company goals.
Solicit input and feedback to improve collaboration.

Frequent, open communication prevents problems down the road.

Provide Feedback

Give regular feedback on work quality to maintain standards. Praise successes too!
If issues arise, correct them quickly by re-training or reassigning work.
Implement performance metrics tied to pay to incentivize results.

Actionable feedback guarantees continued top performance.

Managing Your Freelance Team for Growth

Once you’ve built your team, proper ongoing management ensures smooth scaling. Here are management best practices:

Promote Alignment

Reinforce core values, culture, and company vision frequently.
Frame how each freelancer contributes to the “big picture” achievements.
Encourage team bonding through virtual coffee chats or offsite meetups.

Shared purpose and camaraderie builds an aligned, invested team.

Develop Professionally

Create opportunities for freelancers to learn and grow their skills.
Cross-train roles to increase coverage and redundancy.
Reward top performers with expanded responsibilities or compensation.

Investing in development engages and retains talent.

Monitor Performance

Use project management tools to track on-time delivery, quality, and budget metrics.
Regularly gather client and user feedback on deliverables.
Address underperformance promptly through support or reassignment.

Ongoing performance tracking ensures consistently great results.

Scale Strategically

Plan hiring ahead of demand spikes to avoid shortages.
Analyze current workload compared to team capacity to identify gaps proactively.
Add roles incrementally to align team size with pipeline and growth projections.

Smart scaling prevents burnout and keeps pace with company growth.

Common Freelance Team Challenges

Building a stellar freelance team takes work. Here are some common challenges to watch out for:

Coordination Failures – Poor communication causes misalignments between freelancers.
Quality Inconsistency – Some members deliver inferior work compared to others.
Scope Creep – Lack of contracts allows work time/budget to balloon.
High Turnover – Freelancers leave for better gigs causing rehiring churn.
Micromanagement – Excessive oversight disempowers freelancers.

With open communication, clear expectations, and robust management, these challenges can be minimized or avoided entirely.

Building a freelance team enables powerful scaling without the burdens of traditional employment. Follow best practices around planning, hiring, onboarding, communicating, managing, and growing your team. Invest time to find and develop excellent freelancers aligned with your company’s needs and culture.

With the right strategy, your freelance team can become an invaluable asset that takes your business to new heights! The time to start expanding your freelance team is now.

how to grow freelance team

Step 2: Define the project

via Stacy Spensler

Before you post a freelance job listing, write out a clear idea of what you expect. If you’re contracting a social media manager, which platforms do you want him to keep up for your business? How many Tweets or posts do you expect per day? A writer will want to know whether to send you ideas or write based on topics you assign. A website developer needs to know about the special functions you want on your site and how much tech support you expect once the site is live. A clearly defined work description will make it easier for a freelancer to get started working for you. It will also help you attract applicants with the qualifications you need.

Step 1: Decide on an independent contractor vs an employee

The first step is deciding whether a freelancer or an employee is the right fit for the job. Freelance workers can help with many aspects of your business. Some common areas to outsource include:

Designing a website
Writing blog articles and other marketing materials
Managing a business’ social media accounts
Designing posters, logos, business cards, and other visual representations of the business
Filming and editing videos

So what can’t a freelancer do for you? Anything your business depends on day to day to stay afloat. A restaurant can’t hire “freelance” cooks and wait staff. A veterinary clinic can contract a freelancer to design and write a promotional brochure, but the custodian, receptionist, and anesthesiologist must be employees. Here are some other factors the government uses to classify a worker as an independent contractor versus an employee.

When and where the work is done: An employee comes into the office every day at a particular time. A freelancer works when and where she pleases.
Use of business equipment: A freelancer provides his own computer, software, etc. An employee uses your equipment to get work done.
Training: You hire freelancers for services they already know how to perform. You train your employees to do specific tasks for your company.
Pay: An employee earns a salary. A freelancer is paid by the project.

There’s some wiggle room on a few of these points. Some businesses contract a freelance editor on retainer for up to 20 hours of work per month. Others can have employees who never or rarely need to physically be in the office to get work done. Generally, though, the more a worker behaves like a traditional employee, the more likely it is that the government will see him or her that way, and expect payroll taxes from you.

How To Build Your Business with Freelancers Instead of Employees

How do I build a team of freelancers?

To get started building your team of freelancers, visit Fiverr Business and start learning how to take your business to new heights with the help and support of talented freelancers. Whether you’re scaling up your small business or building a brand from scratch, we’ve got the resources you need to keep you informed and at the top of your game.

How do you get a freelancer to join your team?

Ask about their day and their hobbies. Have them work with your team on team building exercises or create virtual celebrations that build trust. If you use a communication tool like Slack, invite freelancers to the “#random” channel so they can share pet photos, talk about WandaVision, or get cooking tips.

What makes a good freelance team?

Making the best of freelancers also means jettisoning the instinct to micro-manage staff, because freelance teams work best when you embrace the flexibility that this business model provides. In this article, we’ll take a look at requirements, both technical and managerial, for hiring and working with a great freelance team. This will include:

Should you hire a freelancer or a team manager?

Our perspective includes team managers as well as freelancers to try and help you create the right relationship. While hiring a freelancer is strictly a business decision, it’s important for you and the freelancer to remember that there’s a person on the other end of the equation.