Let’s face it – time is money, especially when you’re running a business. The less time you can spend on hiring freelancers to grow your business, the better. Use these tips to take the hassle out of finding freelancers and selecting the best quotes.
1. Have a clear idea of the guru you want to hire
Step one is to know exactly the kind of person you are looking for. If you don’t know what you want then no one else will. You not only need to factor in skills and experience, but also your budget and preferences. For example, are you willing to work with anyone from anywhere in the world, or do you prefer someone local? Will your budget allow for the best of the best, or are you simply looking for someone who can get the job done? Be honest with yourself first, so you set reasonable expectations on both sides.
2. Be honest and specific in your job posting
Your job posting determines the quality and number of quotes you get. The more specific you make it, the less time you’ll waste wading through poor quotes. Make sure you include all of the requirements and your preferences so you receive more targeted quotes.
Maybe you’re not sure what the job you have in mind will require. That’s OK! Just be honest and explain why you are interested in hiring a freelancer, and what you need help doing. Look at other jobs already posted on the site to get an idea if you don’t know where to start.
3. Filter and sort to identify the best quotes
When the quotes start rolling in, it might seem like a daunting task to select the right freelancer. Your first step is to narrow your choices through careful screening.There are a few tricks you can use to make it simpler:
- First, filter the quotes. Decide what are must-haves, and eliminate any quotes that don’t measure up. Look for specific skills, feedback rating, reviews, location, or type of quote.
- Sort by Best Matches. This will sort your quotes in order by Recommendation Score, our ranking of the quotes based on the freelancer’s performance on Guru.com to date.
- Rate each quote. Once you have a manageable number of quotes to look at, carefully review each one, check out the attached portfolio and rate it. Then you can sort all of the quotes by your rating.
- Filter by premium quotes. Consider giving preference to freelancers who submitted a premium quote. It costs them more bids and indicates their determination.
4. Search smarter to find gurus faster
There are more than a million freelancers on Guru.com with a wide variety of skills, experiences and backgrounds. If you’re feeling overwhelmed or your search isn’t bringing up the freelancers you want, try the following:
- Use the filters on the left to narrow your search. You can filter your results by category, location, feedback, rate, budget, and tested skills. We recommend you look first at services with an attached portfolio so you can get a clear idea of each freelancer’s abilities.
- Choose different keywords that describe your search, and use fewer descriptive words.
- Check the spelling of your keyword, and leave a space between words.
- Add or remove “s” to search on the plural or singular form of your keyword.
- Do not use punctuation unless you expect it in the results.
- For exact phrase or specific screen name searches, put quotation marks around your phrase. Example: “php development” or “Audible Identity Inc.”
- To exclude a word from the results, add a hyphen “-” in front with no space.Example: development -design
5. Rehire freelancers you already know and trust
The simplest way to hire on Guru is to hire someone you’ve worked with in the past. If you already know who you want to work with, you can skip over posting a job and gathering quotes. Click Post a Job, enter a title and quick description and then click, “I want to rehire a freelancer”.
If you’ve already posted a job and want to rehire someone for it, you can do so from your dashboard by clicking “ReHire” in the Quotes section.
What other methods have you found to make the hiring process simpler?
