Alternatives to Employees: A Guide to Hiring in Your Small Business
If your small business is continuing to experience growth, there will come a time when you’re unable to complete all of the daily runnings by yourself. For some, this is a cue that it’s time to take on employees- but there are a number of reasons you might choose not to do this. If this is the case, here are a number of alternatives you could consider when your workload begins to build.
Third party companies
When it comes to business, not every company is a competitor. In many cases, you can work alongside other businesses in a mutually beneficial agreement, by outsourcing your work. You can outsource just about any department from accounting to legal to HR, or you could assign work on more of a project by project basis. This is useful if the workload of your own company varies, instead of hiring an employee (who you’re then responsible for), you can simply send over the work when it begins to build. The company you will be working with will be professionals in their field, meaning they already have the skills, experience, manpower and tools needed to complete your work to the highest standard.
Freelancers
If your workload is building up, instead of hiring your own employees it can be useful to utilise freelancers. Sites like Upwork have thousands of talented individuals online and ready to go, specialising in different areas from content writing to editing, website design, app design, social media management and much more. You can assign single projects or longer term workloads. This enables to you continue running a small business, since these people are responsible for paying their own tax and will be working remotely, you don’t have to make any changes to your own company. This way all of your tax and legal obligations remain the same, unlike if you decide to change to a limited company.
Contractors
Contractors and freelancers are terms that are often used interchangeably, however, there are differences. Freelancers will be self employed, whereas contractors may be employed defined by the terms of the contract. Contractors often work for a single client for a set period of time, and are usually used in areas such as construction. If you use a commercial contracting company, it takes on the responsibility of the construction industry scheme (CIS) for contractors. Depending on the task and type of business you’re running, you could be working with a freelancer or a contractor.
Maybe you’re running a business from home (and plan on keeping it that way) or perhaps you want to limit the amount of employees you’re hiring. It makes sense, advertising new roles, recruiting, interviewing and training new candidates can all run into many thousands. By utilising one of the above methods, you can avoid all of these overhead costs, and keep on top of your workload.
Small business owners, have you considered any of the above options?