Delegation Part 2, or Why You Should Hire Freelancers

If you work in a medium or large company, you probably have someone in-house whose job it is to write for you. Or part of their job. Maybe a whole department.

Chances are, that person or department is also overwhelmed. In my experience non-writers in large companies don’t understand writing and think it’s an easy, fast task anyone could do. So they load writers with high workloads and non-writing tasks to make sure they’re really working. Soon the team or writer is buried, just as a major product launch or trade show looms.

Sound familiar?

If you’re in-house, hire freelancers. Here are five reasons why:

1. Your staff is overwhelmed. Non-writers (aka management) rarely understand that writing requires research, reading and thinking (which looks suspiciously like sitting and doing nothing to non-writers). Give them a break and get a freelance budget to protect your in-house talent from burnout.

2. New ideas, new writing style, new phrasing. Yes, you have a style guide and voice you adhere to for your brand, but a new writer will bring his or her toolbox of phrases and vocabulary to your project. This in turn helps your in-house team, spurring creativity and new ideas. It’s easy to grow stagnant when you write the same type of copy in the same voice for the same products, over and over.

3. Future staff pools, or try before you buy. Some freelancers will take on long-term consulting contracts or even become employees if they like your company, your team, and you. If you’ve got a strong stable of go-to writers that you keep busy enough to know how well they’d fit in, you’ve done 80% of the work of finding a new hire when the time comes.

4. New perspectives expand beyond the project. A freelance writer brings more than just a new vocabulary or sentence rhythm to your team. If you’re part of the marketing or communications team, whether external or internal, you know that it’s easy to get stuck in a rut when approaching communications strategy. Your freelancer has worked with dozens of other companies in multiple industries, and can offer strategic planning or new approaches. All you have to do is ask.

5. Your time = money. Every minute you spend trying to squeeze more copy out of yourself or your team is a minute you’re not managing and thinking big-picture. It’s time you’re not spending furthering your career, your team’s careers, or your company’s products. The reality is that communication products are critical to marketing, yet they’re time-consuming to do well. A freelancer frees you to focus on the bigger communication plan, so your business — and your career — go farther, faster.

Start building a list of go-to freelancers today. Don’t want to wait until you’re backed in a corner to start looking — call one or two today. Freelancers are happy to talk about our work, even if you don’t have a project right away.