Pros and Cons of Getting Fiverr Freelancers for Your Business

Fiverr is a marketplace where you can hire freelancers to do anything. From creating graphics, and writing content, to coding a website, you have freelancers available to work on your projects. Is it worth hiring freelancers from this platform for your business?

Among the several platforms to hire a freelancer, Fiverr is one of the go-to sites for businesses wanting to finish their projects. Freelancers as well flock to the platform to offer their services. But why do business owners choose this freelancing marketplace? The freelancers you can hire on this platform don't charge a hefty fee for their service - it even starts at a minimum of five dollars to start the bidding. Let's discover how the platform works and get to know if it can work for your business or is not beneficial to use.

How Does Fiverr Work?

The simplest way to explain what Fiverr is like is that it's like Craigslist or Etsy, but for freelancers. The company provides tools for sellers to create projects, but it's up to the seller how they price them and how much they want to charge for their services.

Freelancers set the price and provide details about their services. The platform allows sellers (the freelancers) to post projects. You, as the buyer, can then bid on which services you want. Once you purchase a gig from a freelancer, they can start working on it immediately.

You can track their progress through the system and make changes if necessary. Once finished, it's the only time for you to make the payment. It provides peace of mind for you to ensure that the freelancer will be working on your project.

Advantages of Outsourcing to Fiverr

Cheaper Prices

Bids from freelancers could go as low as five dollars. Hence, the name "Fiverr" of the company. However, this is for minor tasks as some projects could reach up to a hundred or thousand dollars or more. Still, it's typically cheaper than you would from hiring a full-time employee with overhead costs (typical in a physical office setting).

The bidding mechanism makes it easy for business owners to decide which freelancer they'll choose for the project. Pricing for a project varies, depending on the complexity and skill required for the job. Differences in currency conversion make it possible for freelancers to put in a relatively inexpensive rate for their professional services.

Wide Selection of Talent

There are a lot of freelancers providing their services - in 2020 alone, over 2 million people joined the platform. This means you have more choices of professionals to hire for your projects.

Freelancers on the platform come from different countries and nationalities. You have access to talent on a global scale that won't be possible via traditional means. The platform has a diverse selection of freelancers offering different services that your business needs. Whether you need a website designed, a logo, copywriting, SEO, software development, and many more - there is always a freelancer available to take on your project.

No Long-Term Commitment

You will only be paying per project, so there's no need to pay the freelancer a monthly salary like you would in a traditional working arrangement. Needing only one task to be completed is easier when you simply book a freelancer's service - no need for contracts and other complicated bureaucracy.

Hiring a freelancer is one of the easiest and probably the fastest way to build a business from the ground up. If it's a task that can be outsourced remotely, then you can always choose to hire from among the millions of freelancers offering their services on the platform. You only pay them after the project is completed. This way, you have an output-based working relationship without the need to pay a recurring fee.

Drawbacks of Using Fiverr

No Standard Quality Checking

Unless you hire an entire team, you will only be assigning the project to an individual. This means there will be no checking for quality. Although you can still monitor the progress or ask for changes, this crucial process is typically left out when working with a gig platform.

Freelancers work on the task by themselves. No managers or quality assurance staff are reviewing their work. Once they submit an output, it will be up to you to decide if their work is good enough. Now, this becomes an issue, particularly if the task is something that you don't have a background in.

For instance, if you don't know how to code, you may not be able to check any lapses in the code that the freelancer provides you. Checking for bugs and other flaws in their output can be tough to do. The same goes for other heavily technical jobs - you may not easily find the flaws in their output immediately after submitting the finished work.

Exhausting in the Long-Term

Relying on the platform to finish your projects can be time-consuming as you need to select a freelancer and then hire another one for another project. The use of the platform can be good if you only need one project to be completed. Like in the case of a logo, you will only need one logo to be used for a long time.

The problem comes in if you need ongoing work. This would typically be in marketing campaigns. Think about getting social media graphics for every promotion. Another would be website issues -  most of them may require immediate attention. You would be wasting time and effort going through the process again for every task or project that needs to be completed.

This is one side of freelancing that most businesses may disregard. After all, you might think that paying one time for a freelancer on a project is a cost-effective manner. As your business expands, however, the demand for the tasks will also increase. Hiring freelancers now and then may not be the most ideal scenario that you want to continue doing in the long term.

The Future of the Gig Economy

Freelancers are still going to be an essential part of the working community. With the business environment changing, more business owners will need freelancers to work on their projects. The need to hire freelancers will largely depend on the demands of your business.

A freelancer can work on tasks without the need to be present physically. This makes it advantageous for businesses that want to get their projects finished without the need to spend on overhead costs. However, we will always find better ways to do our tasks. One of which is through the use of artificial intelligence software.

As technology progresses, the gig economy is faced with the reality of addressing concerns about using artificial intelligence. If you're a business owner, you will always seek fast and cost-effective methods to get your projects done. And what better way for any task - graphics, social media copy, even coding - than having AI technology create them for you in an instant?

However, AI tools aren't nearly as perfect as the human counterpart of a freelancer doing the job - so you will still need to hire professionals. We will likely see more improvement as AI technology progresses in the future. This is just one of the many facets of hiring freelancers. Maybe the freelancers you hire from a platform like Fiverr will be using AI tools to ease up the workload. They can then focus on the more human side of things - like creativity or intuition.

But what if you're looking for other options? Services that are nearly as cost-effective as freelancing platforms but with great quality are available from companies like Delesign. You see, the problem with freelancing platforms like Fiverr is you have variable expenses when hiring different freelancers. Delesign, however, will only charge you a standard monthly rate, and you'll have access to a multitude of talent with a proper work process in place.