Vicious Traps of Offshore Freelancing

Isn’t it tempting to outsource projects to an offshore freelancer? Of course, who wouldn’t like giving away their tedious and monotonous work to a freelancer from another country, at much lesser rates. In addition, there are numerous websites which help you find freelancers that fit for your desired job.

From outside, the idea seems to be quite good and simple. However, everything comes with some flaws or limitations, so is the case with offshore freelancing. Let’s have a look at some of the major drawbacks of offshore freelancing.

1. The process of recruiting through freelancing websites is difficult

Recruiting through freelancing websites is not an easy task. Sites like Upwork have millions of users. When you post a job on such websites, you get thousands of responses. Many of them are irrelevant. Candidates who do not fit into the role also apply, just to secure a job. You have to browse through each profile and select the right candidate.

2. Freelancers are famous for uploading fake profiles on websites

Very often, freelancers lie about their education, experience, and skills in their profile on freelancing job portals. For example, most of the candidates write “fluent in spoken English” in their profile, which may not be true for many of them. It will affect the quality of work since they do not possess the required skill set.

3. They take a percentage of payment in advance

Don’t forget that some freelancers charge advance payment, which can be around 20% of the total fee. That should be perfectly fine until the freelancer works properly and completes the project on time. However, there are many of them who leave projects mid-way, even after taking the advance payment.

4. Not good for long-term

Freelancing, by nature, is for short-term and specific tasks. If you’re thinking about building long-term relationships with your freelancers, then it’s simply not possible. You might have hired 10 different freelancers for various jobs. Continuous coordination with all of them will incur a significant amount of time and efforts, which can be used somewhere else more productively.

5. Less Co-ordination due to time zone difference

Continuous coordination with a freelancer is not possible. The main reason is the time zone difference. Mostly, freelancers are located in completely different time zones and it’s not always possible to schedule a late night or early morning calls for both the parties.

6. Poor infrastructure

Most of the freelancers are based in developing countries. They may not have the proper infrastructure required for smooth functioning of projects. The productivity of freelancers working remotely from home is often affected by power outages, unstable internet connectivity, slow and outdated PCs, etc.

7. Unprofessional attitude

Clients working with offshore freelancers often complain about missed deadlines, unavailability, poor quality or incomplete work being returned to the client. These issues leave the client frustrated.

8. Priority

Freelancers work with multiple clients at a time. Their priorities may change with time which may result in a delay of your project.

9. No contract

There’s no legal contract signed when hiring a freelancer. Hence, there is no security ensure that a freelancer won’t leave a project midway if a better opportunity arises.

10. Data theft

What if the freelancer copies your data? There is no legal contract that can protect intellectual property and data theft when working with a freelancer.

11. Freelancers also give projects to others

Sometimes, freelancers operate as sole proprietorship firms. They take the projects and then give them away to someone else. So, you’re not sure if the person working on your project is even qualified enough or possess the necessary skill set.

12. Works alone

A freelancer works from home, alone with no team members around. In case if that person has any doubts or gets stuck in the middle of a project, then he/she has nobody to clear doubts.

13. No supervision

A freelancer works remotely without any supervision. There’s no way to track whether the person is working on a project or not. As a result, the working relationship often breaks down in the middle of a project.

Summing up, don’t just look at the cost benefit of hiring a freelancer. Consider all the above-mentioned factors and then take your decision. You could consider hiring an offshore team of outsourcing service provider, who will take care of everything from recruitment to project completion and support.

Author Bio:

Siddharth Kamble is digital marketing expert in UK based company called ESG. He is actively worked in marketing niche for last 6 years. He likes to read and write about business-related topics like Business start-ups, outsourcing, Business growth, etc. Get in touch with him on LinkedIn