How Freelancers Can Help Your Agency Scale Up While Staying Agile

This is a guest post from Patti Podnar, a writer, content strategist and member of the nDash Content Community.

If Aesop were writing his fables today, the one about the tortoise and the hare would have been laughed out of the town square. In today’s business climate, “slow and steady” is a poor business model. Today, it’s all about how quickly you can adapt, because change is coming so rapidly it’s hard to keep up. After all, five years ago, would you have predicted that…

• The world’s largest cab company wouldn’t own any cars?
• The world’s largest retailer would have zero inventory?
• The largest purveyor of worldwide lodging would own no property?

For most businesses, though – agencies, in particular – it’s not so much about massive, disruptive change as it is the ability to quickly adapt to the smaller, incremental changes that pop up every day. It’s about having the infrastructure and processes to immediately do more of what works and stop doing what doesn’t work, based on real-time circumstances, not 10-year plans. And a whole new type of on-demand service industry is popping up to make that possible: Freelancers.

It’s predicted that, by 2020, 40% of the workforce – that’s approximately 60 million people – will be working as freelancers. And that’s not all:

• 45% of business owners say they’ve used freelancers to expand into new markets.
• 50% say they’ve used freelancers to work on specific projects.
• 90% say they think that supplementing their workforce with freelancers gives them a competitive advantage.
• 87% say the talent level among freelancers is comparable to that of permanent employees.

The rise of the freelance economy makes it possible for businesses to succeed by being agile, by being able to turn on a dime instead of slowly changing course. Agencies, in particular, can benefit from this agile model by building a community of freelance writers:

Scaling up or down in response to clients’ needs

A lot of businesses try to wing it when it comes to growth. They’re reluctant to hire more people because they don’t know if recent surges in business will last. On the other hand, being understaffed makes it hard to meet clients’ needs and, therefore, limits growth opportunities. Having a community of freelance writers on hand and ready to go lets you scale up when you need to without having to worry about having too many employees later. It gives you a risk-free way to woo new clients and take on big projects.

Accessing special skill sets

The type of writer you need often depends on your clients. Working with freelance writers allows you to access specialized skill sets when you need them without making a long-term commitment.

Keeping up with your clients’ changing needs

Agencies aren’t the only businesses that need to stay agile – your clients do, too. Working with freelancers lets you change and adapt as your clients do.

Having a safety net

Almost every business has experienced a critical employee leaving right in the middle of a huge project. Once you’ve built a community of freelance writers you trust, you can seamlessly transfer work from one writer to another much more quickly than you can recruit, interview, and hire a permanent employee.

Do you have the writing talent you need to meet tomorrow’s challenges? What about next week, or next month? The key to content agility is to establish a community of freelance writers before you need them. Visit nDash today so you’ll be ready to grasp every opportunity that comes your way.