Last updated: October 05, 2022 by Visibly One
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If you haven’t considered hiring a freelancer or hiring an outsourcing company to boost your company’s productivity and profit, then you might want to start doing so. With the skills gap continuing to receive attention and U.S. unemployment rates at some of the lowest levels since the turn of the millennium, businesses that want to tap into talent will need to learn to outsource.
Whether you’re an entrepreneur or a startup looking to get more work done at lower costs, you need to understand the difference between freelancing and outsourcing, as well as the benefits of each, to know which is a better fit for you and your goals.
The demand for app and software developers has increased steadily with the never-ending growth of the tech market. Because of this, it is not always feasible to find more high-quality local talent. Thus, businesses ranging from small start-ups to large corporations are looking for development solutions elsewhere by hiring freelancers and software outsourcing companies from all over the world to work on their projects.
Of course, like all things, there are pros and cons to hiring freelancers and hiring outsourcing companies. So, together with this article, we also made a handy comparison table at the end to help you figure out which one fits right up your alley.
Want flexibility and independence? Hire a freelancer.
According to industry studies, the worldwide freelance market is estimated to be worth $1.5 trillion and increasing at a CAGR of 15%, making freelancing one of the fastest growing trends globally. Startupbonsai provides key freelancing numbers on https://startupbonsai.com/freelance-statistics/, with a report on the Top 10 freelancing countries with amazing year on year revenue growth that includes the USA at the top with 78%, UK with 59%, Brazil with 48%, Pakistan with 47%, Ukraine with 36%, Philippines with 35%, India with 29%, Bangladesh with 27%, Russia with 20%, and Serbia with 19%. Their proliferation in various freelancing platforms allow clients to reach out to them easily, no matter what part of the world they’re in.
Freelancers are flexible, independent, and diverse. They can dedicate more time and resources to tasks as they can opt to work from home. And since they’re not hired as a full-time employee, the employer is not obliged to pay for their taxes, medical insurance, and work equipment, making them cost-effective for the business. Basically, for a highly-complex task that requires minimal supervision, hiring a freelancer is the best choice.
However, due to the independent nature of freelancing, freelancers are at liberty to take on tasks from more than one client at a time. They can be loaded with work from various clients and, in the process, misunderstand the initial goals, forget about deadlines and ask for additional working hours. Simple problems can eventually lead to mistakes in the end product or lower the product’s quality. This also poses security risks for companies that share their proprietary information or sensitive data. This could be misused, mishandled or unintentionally exposed if a freelancer is not careful.
Want expertise and access to more talent? Hire an outsourcing company.
IT outsourcing will hit about $395 billion in revenue in 2022. Statista reports that as many as 74% of IT businesses are currently outsourcing business processes and just under 60% of businesses do this to cut costs. The leader in IT outsourcing is Accenture with an outsourcing revenue of $20.1 billion. Next on the list are Cognizant Technology Solutions with revenue of $16.65 billion and Infosys whose annual revenue stands at $13.56 billion. You can read more about this via TrueList’s in-depth list of global outsourcing statistics: https://truelist.co/blog/outsourcing-statistics
Seeking services from an outsourcing company is the safest and most secure option since they are registered companies that cannot disappear, unlike freelancers. The best outsourcing companies not only have technical, creative, and administrative talent and employees that are more than well-equipped to handle all kinds of tasks at a faster rate, but they have an outstanding reputation that speaks for itself. Reliable software outsourcing companies like VisiblyOne eliminate risk and get you quality output, especially with their decade-long service in the industry.
Hiring an outsourcing company is not a one-size-fits-all solution. As you might expect, when you reach out to a third party’s services, you lose control of how tasks are being monitored and performed. When not managed properly, outsourcing can also negatively affect company culture, especially with in-house teams.
Now, if you’ve started contemplating the idea of either hiring a freelancer or hiring an outsourcing company, you should know that being well-informed about the possible gains and risks to either of these services will help companies to choose the right business strategy to build their team, improve their operations, and ultimately grow their business. At the end of the day, we all want the same thing in business: less risks and more benefits. But ultimately, the best benefit of hiring a freelancer and hiring an outsourcing company is that it gives your company a greater competitive advantage in today’s growing gig economy.
