Dear Businesses, Stop Treating Freelancers Like Crap
By: Jim Woods
Tags: Freelance, Entrepreneurship, Business, Entrepreneur, Freelancing

Dear Businesses, Stop Treating Freelancers Like Crap

A word about freelancing today

Photo by Headway on Unsplash

About a year ago, I got a phone call. A phone call that surprised me. One of my clients was calling me right after another team member said the business would be shutting down shop for a month or so for vacation.

But as we chatted, I was told there would be some changes. In the next week a new project administrator would be taking over, and I should be expecting some work over the next week. “Great,” I said.

Another Surprise

Then a few days passed. I shrugged it off for the first two days, but by Wednesday, I was a little nervous. Thursday, I was even more nervous. Friday, I thought I better take action.

I logged into my Slack account and no dice. I figured I forgot the password. I tried again and did the “forget password” option and opened up this email.

Whaaat? I didn’t delete my account. What? That makes no sense! And then it hit me.

This client just flat out deleted my account and didn’t tell me.

No email, no telling me they changed their mind, nothing. I suppose you could call this “ghosting.”

This kind of thing has actually happened to me three times now during my 6-year writing career. So please allow me to step up on my soapbox for just a moment.

I totally understand both sides. As a business, you have work that needs to be done. As a freelancer, you need clients. However, all too often businesses treat freelancers like someone who comes by to pick up after the dog or mow the yard. It’s not a real relationship; rather, it’s completely based on convenience or simply not having enough time.

Many businesses might even say, “I could get this done cheaper elsewhere.” Maybe so. But as a business, you decide if you want to work with the cheapest option or the best option.

The truth is this: you can have good, fast, or cheap. Pick one.

Businesses, it’s time to treat human beings like human beings. It is never okay to fire a client by ghosting. Ever. Empathy goes a long way. Pay your invoices in a timely manner.

Be professional. Don’t whine or complain to the freelancer who is providing you with a valuable service. It’s a two-way street, and the truth is businesses are saving a lot of money by hiring freelancers. While a professional freelancer could appear to be expensive at first glance, most freelancers are actually a great deal.

A Quick Example

Let’s say a freelancer charges $200 for a blog post or an article. That might sound like a lot at first. But you’re not considering what goes into a great blog post. Research. SEO. Writing. Images. Editing. Uploading into WordPress. A great blog post can easily take an entire day’s work.

Sure, a company might be able to hire someone at a full-time job for $15–30 an hour. What about benefits? Training? Taxes? The employer pays for those. Take that $15–30 an hour and you can likely double that amount for the bottom line for the company.

Make no mistake, in most cases, a professional freelancer often has more training and better skills than someone at a full-time job. A freelancer has to be hungry and motivated. Many full-time employees, well, not so much. By the nature of the gig, you’re going to settle into a grove of sorts and then you’ll soon find the status quo. And, sadly, status quo work brings status quo results.

The Takeaway

Treat freelancers right because they are likely saving your business a lot of time and frustration. Don’t let a few flaky freelancers make you think that all freelancers are that way. Remote working is now more common than ever. Whatever you’re doing, you’re likely going to be working with more freelancers. Make the most of it. Embrace it. Then you’ll be able to do better work and serve your customers better.