Drawing on these resources, Business link have provided updated guidance for businesses about ‘hiring a freelancer or outside contractor’ at http://tinyurl.com/3ykszoa

Business Link suggest that it is appropriate to hire a freelancer when:

• You need to employ someone straight away
• You need the worker to use their professional judgment about the work
• You know the type of expertise you need but you don’t have time to research and specify the job role
• The length of time needed for the particular expertise is limited or may be subject to change

This is all undoubtedly true but their reasons seem very safe and risk averse. In my experience, a freelancer can be both a breath of fresh air and a powerful boost to a business owner looking to make a step change to their business. If selected wisely, your chosen freelancer will come into the business with a new pair of eyes and a raft of relevant experience. Outsourcing is a key way for SME owners to stick to what they are good at and contract in specialists in the disciplines where they are not.

But how does it work from the freelancer’s perspective?

Yes, some professionals are forced into freelancing through redundancy or employment change but freelancing is actually a positive career and lifestyle choice, giving business specialists a variety of benefits including:

• Flexibility – the opportunity to take control, the freedom to choose when, where and how you work
• Variety – the chance to work for a wide range of clients, building on and developing existing knowledge
• Higher return – the opportunity to achieve an improved remuneration per hour, based on the perception of your added value
• Work-Life Balance – the freedom to plan your on time, improving your quality of life

As technology speeds up sourcing, and frees up new ways of working using online platforms, it is now possible to find someone to take on almost any business challenge; in fact, some companies operate as entirely virtual organisations. And the same technology empowers professional freelancers to achieve their business and personal aspirations in this brave new world. So, what are you waiting for?

In fact, it is more cost effective to your business to ‘farm’ existing customers, by providing additional product and services to someone who has already bought from you, and therefore knows the quality of your offering, than to ‘hunt’ for new customers who have no experience of what you offer. Indeed, the cost of keeping an existing customer can be as low as one fifth of the cost of finding a new one.

You can farm existing customers, by identifying more of their needs and providing a relevant solution, rather than hunting for new customers, whose needs you don’t know. So, on the understanding that it’s better to farm an existing customer, it makes sense that new products or services should be based on offering either a better solution to current customers’ problems or solutions to other problems that they have.

Business success is all about retaining and developing the right customers for your business. If you treat them right, you can make live customers into loyal customers and satisfied customers are good word of mouth advocates for your business. If you don’t, the chances are that they will lapse and you will eventually lose them. To stop live customers lapsing, do you know when they should next be likely to buy?

A piece of research in the US asked why customers stopped buying from companies? Was it price or quality? Had they changed location? 68% respondents ticked no specific reason. So they conducted further research amongst this group to try and find a reason and the main response was ‘because they didn’t keep in touch’! So regular contact with your customer base is critical

Please call (07545 620011) or email me (help@barbarastopher.co.uk) for a FREE initial 15 minute consultation to see how I could work with you to help your business grow.