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Differences in outsourcing, offshoring, and freelancing

While looking to grow your operation while simultaneously trimming costs, you may have come across finding remote staff as a solution. There are a variety of ways of doing this, one of the primary ones being to hire a freelancer to help you get your work done. Someone may have mentioned to you the options of outsourcing and possibly even offshoring. Both are great solutions if you want stabilized processes and room for growth within your organization.

Here, we’ll explain the difference between freelancing, outsourcing, and offshoring.

1. Freelancing

Freelancing refers to hiring an independent contractor to complete obligations for you based on the contractual commitment you’ve worked out. Freelancers typically have varying hours and will work based on your agreement. This could be for a long-term position or a day-long project, it’s entirely up to you. While freelancing gives you flexibility in the type of wok you’re getting, it may not be as scalable as outsourcing or offshoring. Consider this option for short-term projects or if you’re looking at limited growth.

2. Outsourcing

Outsourcing is when you hire another company to complete tasks and handle processes that you have typically done in-house. With outsourcing, you can typically find a single company to do various tasks. The company’s agents will finalize the work that you’ve requested based on contractual agreements made. While many outsourcing companies will have agents that are skilled in different niches, quite a few will have a specialty that they handle such as graphic design, accounting, legal, etc.). Consider this option if you’re looking for consistent growth and will likely need more work done in the future.

3. Offshoring

Offshoring is the move of a business process - or processes - to a new location, specifically another country. While this requires many pieces, the long-term benefits such as savings make it a very appealing idea to many business owners. Along with this, there is another kind of offshoring which is offshore-outsourcing. Offshore-outsourcing refers to the hiring of a third-party to manage the offshore office that is put together. This is a great option for small businesses as it allows them to focus on formal business matters that impact their bottom-line, while the provider focuses on aspects such as human resources, hiring, and payroll. Consider offshoring or offshore-outsourcing if you’re planning considerable growth and want oversight in aspects such as culture, learning, and employee relations.

Picking from these options can be difficult, we understand that. It’s hard to know unless you go on and actually do it. We can help make it easy for you by helping you make the right choice and from there finding the correct provider. While many providers want to push you to use their agency, we are independent of that.

We simply want you to work with the right people, and ultimately grow your business.