Using a freelancer? Communication is the key

Communication is of the utmost importance when collaborating with freelancers to develop apps, according to Freelancer product director Ilter Dumduz.

Freelancer has recently launched its iOS app and Dumduz worked closely with freelancer developers on its development.

“The whole planning phase is important, developing a detailed brief for those freelancers,” Dumduz says.

“Once the planning is in place, then it’s a matter of collaborating and communicating. Being transparent and clear and setting the right milestones.

“Freelancers are obviously experts at what they do, so they can help employers break down the project into smaller pieces.”

This article originally appeared on Startup Smart.

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Why freelancers?

Dumduz says startups and small businesses are increasingly turning to freelance developers for two major reasons. With large corporates flooding into the mobile space they’re taking and paying all the best developers, making hiring a developer an expensive prospect. And secondly, it provides a scalable solution for businesses that aren’t quite sure if there’s a need for an app or not.

“The corporates, like the big banks, they suck up all the good app developers because they can pay top dollar,” he says.

“For Australia, that’s especially important because finding a good dev is quite rare.

“Some businesses are not quite sure whether or not they should be building an app or not. Using a freelancer helps minimise that initial investment. It’s a solution that’s scalable and flexible.”

When deciding to build an app, Freelancer looked at the needs of both its freelancers and customers who were looking to hire a freelancer. Recognising the need to build up their workforce of freelancers, many of whom are in emerging markets, or are freelancing as a lifestyle choice, preferring the flexibility freelancing affords.

Should my startup be building an app?

“The devil is in the detail, if you look at that data, most businesses would see that a big chunk of their traffic would be coming from mobile devices, and while that doesn’t necessarily mean you need an app, it does indicate there’s a demand in the market,” Dumduz says.

“Whether it’s an app or a mobile website, it depends on the business. If you’re a service business or ecommerce platform, where you sell products online, I would recommend having an app as it provides a more fluid user experience. If there’s a transaction, it’s easier to transact using an app.

“In our case we looked at our numbers and it was very clear that we needed to go mobile. We are a global business, and in some of the emerging markets we are growing in, mobile is growing so rapidly that a generation are connecting to the internet for the first time and skipping desktop entirely.

“That generation is coming and joining the workforce in those markets, looking for freelancing jobs, and we need to make sure we offer them a solution and bring their talent onto the platform.”