How to Hire a Freelancer Without Getting Burned

Hiring a freelancer goes wrong in a small number of well-worn ways, and almost all of them are visible before the work starts.

Write a brief that can be argued with

A brief nobody can disagree with is a brief that has not said anything. Build me a modern website is agreeable and useless. A five-page site, WordPress, launched in three weeks, using the existing brand fonts can be argued with, which means it can also be quoted accurately.

Include:

• What exists now
• What done looks like
• The deadline, and whether it is real
• The budget range

Read proposals for comprehension, not polish

A well-written proposal that ignores your brief is worth less than an awkward one that engages with it. Look for evidence the person read what you wrote.

Check the work, not the adjectives

Portfolios are curated. Ask about a project that went badly and what they changed afterwards. Anyone with real experience has one and will tell you plainly. Anyone who claims never to have had a difficult project has either not had many, or is not being straight.

Structure the money

Do not pay everything up front, and do not expect anyone to work for free.

1. Split the work into milestones with visible outputs
2. Fund the first milestone into escrow so the freelancer knows the budget is real
3. Approve and release as each piece lands

Milestones are not a trust device. They are a communication device: each one is a scheduled conversation about whether the project is still on track.

Reply quickly at the start

The first forty-eight hours set the pace for the whole engagement. A client who takes four days to answer a scoping question has taught the freelancer that the project is not urgent, and they will staff it accordingly.