Reasons Why Freelancing Is Going to Die Soon
August 31, 2021Freelance work will soon "die." What do we mean by "death?" The complete termination of work with freelances on complex, large-scale projects.
Freelancing can be considered the most disgusting work relationship possible. If you work with freelancers, be prepared for poor communication, missed deadlines, and childish excuses. That said, the underlying cause is not the irresponsibility and attitude of the freelancer, but the system itself that, in essence, is flawed.
Why Does This Happen?
1. Clients are becoming more knowledgeable
Just a few years ago, clients had less industry expertise surrounding the requests they made to freelancers. Now, however, clients are becoming far more experienced in certain markets.
2. Customers require complex solutions
If we take copywriting as an example, these days, almost no one requests simple writing, design, or advertising jobs. Instead, clients are looking for a comprehensive solution in conjunction with deep analytics and custom reports.
3. Freelance work is not always cheaper or profitable
If you pay a freelancer legally, the cost will be almost equal to taxes for a full-time employee.
4. The client has less control over the process
How a freelancer completes the work is unknown to the client. Of course, this is not a crucial factor in small tasks. The issue becomes more apparent on long-term, large-scale projects that take several weeks to complete. With, in most cases, no way to track or monitor the freelancer's progress, the client ends up waiting for weeks on end (usually past the agreed-upon deadline) only to be disappointed by the outcome.
5. The freelancer does not value the relationship with the client
As a rule, freelancers will have several projects on the go with multiple clients. As such, it's not unheard of for freelancers to drop a project as soon as difficulties arise. Why waste time struggling to overcome obstacles with one client when you can start over with someone else?
6. The freelancer is less concerned about the company's well-being
A freelancer will always be an outsider – never fully committed to the project, the team, or the company. As such, company values and goals will be lost on freelance employees. They are temporary additions to the team and will not rush to take initiative or "put out fires."
7. The freelancer is not responsible for the end-result
The success or failure of any given project is not the freelancer's responsibility. They only care about the specific tasks assigned to them, whether that's design work, coding, or copywriting, etc., and nothing else.
8. Clients cannot completely trust freelancers
The client is unable to relax and have confidence that the project will run smoothly because, deep down, they cannot trust the freelancer. This prevents the company from growing and reaching its full potential.
According to the arguments above, we can make the following conclusion: If a client has, at the very least, a working understanding of the business they're in, they should hire an expert or agency for larger, success-critical projects – they should not entrust the work to freelancers. Our reasoning is clear as day. To find a professional, team-playing freelance worker that will excel expectations among the mass of random, unpredictably skilled freelancers is a daunting task.
Even when working with skilled freelancers, you will have little to no control over the process. Moreover, you cannot have complete confidence that the end result will be exactly as you expected. To ensure the success of any long-term project, clients should put together a strong, reliable team that consists of at least 80% full-time employees and only 20% freelance workers.
