Tag: hiring

  • 5 Reasons You Should Hire Freelancers For Long Term

    If you are a client, the only way you can make a difference in a Freelancers life is hiring with a view of working with them for long term. It’s obvious, by the time you decide to hire, you have already done your due diligence and made sure that they have all that it takes to complete the job at hand.

    Watch video- 5 Reasons You Should Hire Freelancers For Long Term

    Unlike traditional way of hiring people where someone signs a contract for a given period of time- Freelance hiring terms are different. For you to succeed in hiring a freelancers to work for you, look at hiring for long term.

    But not every newbie client looks at it this way. Why? because, they have the liberty to hire and fire anytime. Also, you can opt to hire one on one-time fixed contract.

    I mean, even if you are working on a same project over and over again-you still have the freedom to end the contract after completion of a milestone and hire someone else to do the same job without any problem. In some occasions, the reason behind the decision may be valid.

    So how is this problem anyway? Well, initially it isn’t. Its fun doing so. It feels good to work with people from different countries and see what they offer. But as you go on, that excitement to ‘hire‘ someone new starts to fade. This is contributed by a number of reasons.

    In this blog-post I will be exploring long term unforeseen issues that will arise as a result of inconsistency in working with an individual freelancer.

    Broken Communication

    Sometimes, when you post a job, you get only one qualified freelancer. You may not have a problem during the interview process and you end up a hiring him/her.

    Mark you, when doing this, you already have 2 or 3 qualified freelancers in your contacts whom you had hired to work for you in the past and they did a perfect job.

    Now, when the deadline is due, the freelancer stops communicating and ghosts you for weeks. This is quite disappointing. While you may have the liberty to re-post the job and get new applicants, the project at hand may not be any useful depending on its intended purpose.

    Assuming you had consistently worked with one freelancer from day one, you could have been in a position to predict his behavior and find a resolve before the deadline reaches.

    Repeatedly Explaining What Your Expectations Are

    Unless you were disappointed by the first freelancer you hired, there is no point in hiring a new freelancer to do a similar job for you. Its wise to consult the first freelancer on if they can do the job at hand as well as their availability.

    Its more easier to work with a freelancer you had worked with before. You will take very little time explaining to them what to do as well as what you expect from them.

    Room to Negotiate on Charges

    While there is a probability of finding a new freelancer with a lower bid anytime you post a job on a freelancing platform, the quality and guarantees you get will vary.

    In this day and age, prices go along with quality. If your requirements are high and the amount you are willing to pay is low, only entry level freelancers will apply.

    This may lead to wasting a lot of time hiring and re-hiring with the hope of saving money only to end up loosing more.

    But when you repeatedly hire the same freelancer for the same skills- at some point – after several contracts, you will be able to negotiate for a discount.

    Sense of Security

    When a freelancer is assured of consistent work , they will give your project their all. Your project will be on top of their priority list. They will worry less.

    They will stop taking in new work because what you are offering to them takes care of their bills.

    Their life will eventually change because they will have time to think of investing their earnings. At the end, it’s not about the pay, its about what it does to their lifes.

    It feels good when you know that the job you are offering is helping someone live a life of their dreams.

    Consistency Means Trust

    When you are consistent in what you do, everyone around will trust you. It’s effect is symbiotic.

    The freelancer will trust you and you will trust them. If you are connecting with the freelancer through a gig platform, the platform will love you more.

    These are 5 reason you should hire a freelancer for a long term. I hope you learned something from this post.

    If you need help to edit videos or produce professional screen-cast’s tutorials, let me know here. Alternatively, you can send me an e-mail to connect@cheptiony.com

    Until next time, take care. Follow me on twitter @cheptiony

  • 4 Temptations You Should Avoid At All Cost When You Hire a Freelancer

    Like the Lord’s prayer ‘...lead us not into temptations, but deliver us from evil..\’ the following temptations that comes along with sub-contracting or hiring a freelancer to work on your projects (or some of your projects) should be avoided at all costs if you find yourself falling into them.

    If you are someone enterprising, and you deliver great work, then satisfied clients will refer you to their fellow businessmen. At the end of the day, you will have a lot of fulfilling projects to work on.

    Obviously, as a client or an enterprising freelancer with deep knowledge in video production, you will be determined to find a fellow freelancer with the right skills to help you out.

    Here are 3 common temptations that may cost you time and reputation. Each time you notice them, remember the Lord’s prayer and take action.

    Everyone loves to pay less for more. Now, bargains comes with a price in the freelancing world. On the other hand, experience will teach you a lot. For example, you will know the best bargain for a certain service. New freelancers may quote lower prices promising to deliver the best.

    Others will use other peoples video examples to convince you. You will know this during the interview. Don\’t ever be tempted to hire someone cheaper hoping to make 10X profit out of the project. 90% of them will surprise you with lower quality work. That\’s the last thing you will want to hear.

    Freelance entrepreneurship can be very demanding. You are after making more sales and profits. Focusing on making more profits within a set period of time can cause you to push whoever you hire to speed up the production. This is dangerous. Creativity and inspiration to create compelling videos requires time. Give them time to utilize their creativity in order to produce quality work.

    First, this is unprofessional. In the project you hired for, you are the team leader. For this case, you should take your time to thoroughly review the video and request for changes where necessary. Usually, the first draft require many revisions. Ask the contractor to make these changes. When you are happy and confident enough to share your work with the client, do so. This will save you a lot of heartache. Besides, the clients will view you as someone professional.

    A bad review by a freelancer can hurt you chances of attracting high quality freelancers in future. Set your standards through your communications with them when you hire. Don\’t let them drag you to their problems. E.g some freelancers have a tendency of complaining about one thing or another after you have hired them. Don\’t let this get into you. Remind them of what your initial contract with them says. Be very stern. This will make them respect you as a client and deliver extraordinary service.

    And that is it from me today.

    There are many other temptations you should avoid at all cost when sub-contracting work to a freelancer. Do you know of any? Share it with me in the comments section below.

    If you need help to create and produce professional screen-cast video tutorials, let me know here.

    Till next time, bye bye and take care.

    You can follow me on twitter @cheptionymutai

  • Top Client Tips to Hiring a Professional Video Editing Freelancer

    Before hiring a freelancer to help you edit your video, have this in mind – Effective and impactful videos are simple and clean. A bunch of animations and VFX will not help anything if the video content is not clearly structured. This requires that the producer or writer spends a lot of time working on the video idea before proceeding to produce the video.

    If you are a newbie client with no idea on the video production process- and intend to hire a professional video editor-hang on. With 7 years of experience in the video production industry, here are my top tips to help you identify the right video editor for your project.

    Have in Handy Video Assets

    Video assets is everything when it comes to  video editing. It will vary depending on the kind of video you want the freelancer to work on. It ranges from logo, videos, images, music and audio recordings. This will help the editor understand the kind of message you want to pass on. If it’s screen-cast videos, they will ask for access to the app or software.

    Prepare Video Script or Hire A scriptwriter to help

    Script is very important as it gives a clear direction on how the video will come out. Script can be in text or storyboard format with images/video screenshots added on it. This can be created on PowerPoint with text inserted on the notes section of the presentation. If it’s footage being edited, you will need to supply the instructions in writing of time-codes you want cut out as well as sections you want retained. This will not only save the editor time, but it will save you time that you could have spent in back a forth revision requests with the editor.

    Set Delivery Timelines

    When planning to hire a video editor, you obviously have a timeline in mind. Professional freelance editors will advise you otherwise if your timeline request is not reasonable or is not fitting to their schedule. Anyone who is committed to delivering quality will rather forfeit the job than take it and deliver trash. It’s therefore important to check if the editor is requesting to know delivery expectation before accepting to proceed and edit.

    Pay in Milestones

    Don’t be scared if the freelancer asks that you make a milestone deposit before he/she starts working. Milestones motivates them to focus on your project besides strengthening the trust that they have for you as a client. Once you are happy to go with a particular freelancer, hire them and deposit funds on escrow. You can  release them when you are happy with the final video delivery.

    A professional video editor is someone who has produced videos similar to what you are looking for in the past. If you are looking for a particular style of videos, he will be in a position to provide links to related videos he/she has done in the past. This will not only speed up your hiring process as a client, but you will know how much you can ask for from the editor.

    Leave a Positive Review For The Good Job

    And finally, he will ask for a review when job is completed and your are happy:-).

    Don\’t hesitate to give him/her 5 stars for the good job. This way, you will help him attract more awesome clients just like you! Let’s continue making internet safe haven to do business.

    If you need professional help on video, you can chat and request a free quote here.

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    Also, follow me on twitter @cheptionymutai

    Till next time, bye bye and take care.