Jolly for Business > Freelancer Management System > Resources
Today, most businesses work with independent contractors.
The number of freelancers and independent contractors around the world has continued to skyrocket (now nearly 60 million in the USA alone!). More and more businesses are benefiting from hiring these workers.
From physical labor and real-world services, to graphic design and other online work, independent contractors are an amazing compliment to any team of employees.
Businesses that win are the ones that build highly flexible workforces.
Imagine a business that has a small pool—maybe 2 or 3—trusted independent contractors they can turn to for help. What happens when they get an unexpected surge of new projects or orders? With only a tiny group of flexible workers to tap into, this business may not be able to handle the surge in demand.
Compare that to a business with a larger pool—maybe 15 or 20—trusted freelance workers. When that surge of projects or orders comes in, they can tap into the pool of workers and easily get the help they need to take the additional work!
In today's economy, where independent contractors play an important role, the businesses that win are the ones that get started early building a group of trusted workers they can rely on when they need extra help.
On the flip side, businesses that don't build up a flexible workforce will have to turn down new projects – or, worse, they will accept the extra work but will fail to satisfy the customer because they won't have enough labor to complete the project on time and in a high quality manner.
The sooner your start building yours, the better off you'll be.
Businesses that get started building a flexible workforce of independent contractors have a major advantage over businesses that delay or put it off.
• The sooner you start, the bigger your independent contractor workforce will become
• Even if you start from scratch—or with only 1 or 2 independent contractors—simply having a place to keep workers organized will help you grow your workforce over time
• When you pay independent contractors directly, you have to track the payments for all that pesky 1099 reporting. Building up your workforce on a platform that handles payments and 1099 reporting for you means you can entirely avoid 1099 reporting for the upcoming year.
• The sooner you have a group of workers set up and ready to work, the sooner you will be able to quickly find a backup (who you already know and trust) if one worker falls ill or goes on a hiatus
• Having a simple link you can share with people (who want to apply to join your group of independent contractors) makes it amazingly easy to add freelancers to your workforce
There are hidden costs of waiting until later to start building your workforce of independent contractors.
Like everyone else, you're probably busy. You might be tempted to delay building up a workforce of independent contractors. If you wait, here are some of the unexpected downsides:
• When an unexpected new business opportunity arrives, you may not be able to find the labor to take the work (agh!)
• You might take on a new business opportunity but be unable to do a good job without enough (or the right) workers
• The longer you wait, the longer it will take you to build up a sizeable group of workers you can trust
• Without a well-organized workforce, you'll be stuck doing tons of busywork to figure out who's available for every job
What's the next step?
Before you start posting job descriptions and firing off emails, it's really important to understand the tools that are available to you to help build up your independent contractor workforce.
Jolly FMS (Freelancer Management System), is simple and powerful Contractor Management software to help you streamline the entire process of working with 1099 independent contractors. Organize your crew, coordinate their work, and pay them securely online in a single tap.
Managing workers takes a fraction of the time it took before. This enables us to grow our business faster. Not only faster, but also in exciting new ways.
Lisa
Founder of Panacea Collective
Austin, Texas
We can now easily pay and schedule team members in one place. As we drive growth we expect this to continuously deliver significant operational efficiencies.
Alex
Founder of Early Bird Tacos
San Francisco, California
We were very fortunate to discover and onboard with this labor management platform. In it we've found a piece of technology that allows us to continue to scale.
Tim
Founder of Sourced Craft Cocktails
Denver, Colorado