As far as I can tell, people hire freelancers for one (or more) of the following reasons:
- They need to do something that they don’t know how to do.
- They need to do something that they don’t have time to do.
- They need an extra set of eyes on a project – one additional perspective or external validation.
- They need something done faster than they can do it themselves.
- They need something done better than they can do it themselves.
I try to think of my clients’ projects as “problem situations.” The work that I do is not just about “writing,” per se – ultimately, I’m in the business of helping people solve problems.
I can think of a couple more situations when consultants/ freelancers are used:
6. When a project is so politically volatile that no internal resource wants to touch it, for fear of destroying their career. I’ve seen this happen quite a bit.
7a. A previous consultant/freelancer has already hosed the job once, and the client needs someone to do clean up.
7b. Now that the job is hosed, perhaps a consultant/freelancer is needed to recover the project entirely and get it back on track (see #6).
8. The project is widely considered to lack career-building potential, therefore no one wants to touch it. So outsourcing the project to a consultant/ freelancer makes sense.
9. The client has needs for your sort of work every once in a while, but doesn’t have enough work/enough money to hire a full-timer.