Those
99.9% are the businesses that hire freelancers. The big guys in the
top 18K don't need always need independent writers--they have
thousands of employees from every educational persuasion. That
doesn't mean giant businesses don't ever hire freelance writers, of
course, but they don't always need the extra help. It's not just the
States--in the UK, 79% of small businesses queried by the
Guardian hire freelancers.
So
what? To quote Dr.
Larue from Hoo U, "this
would have several ramifications."
First, the
checks and balances between writer and client decrease when the
client heads a small business. That's great, because it means the
freelancer and the client have more open communication about a
project. Unfortunately, without the giant corporate editing-system,
many small business owners just have to trust a writer's ability
based on how good the client 'feels' the writing 'looks.' There's a
paradox here, because usually the small business owner knows she
can't produce professional-quality writing--that's why she hired the
freelancer in the first place. Yet the small business owner expects
herself to professionally evaluate that writer and get good content
for her money, all based on a feeling about a skill she doesn't have.
Don't see a problem here? Let me give an example.
I once
contracted to ghost-write a large project for a client who spoke
English as second language. Before hiring me, the client had hired
another writer, a native English speaker, who could not finish the
project due to a family emergency. The client paid him anyway, and
then sent me what his former free-lancer had written. It saddened me.
The previous freelancer sold my client a product peppered with
grammatically-incorrect syntax and awkward structure, and the
client--again, not a native speaker--had no idea he'd been cheated.
He could recognize that the words made sense, he saw the writing
surpassed his own, and he could see that the client successfully
followed basic capitalization rules--but my client didn't know how to
recognize a dangling participle or an ugly gerund or verb tenses that
didn't match their subjects. As a result, my client paid hundreds of
dollars for something a high-schooler could have written. That's
really, really sad.
Small
business owners with non-native English or disadvantaged educational
backgrounds stand to risk more when hiring a freelancer--but you
don't need a corporate editing team to mitigate that risk. Many
business owners consider contracting a freelancer through sites that
provide editing automatically--that means looking for writing
websites like Scripted rather than freelance job boards like ODesk.
Freelance job boards generally provide more flexibility and direct
client/writer interaction, but they don't provide much quality
control; that commission ODesk skims off pays to help find the
freelancer and provide mitigation services, not to correct her work.
Small
business owners who prefer the liberty and flexibility of working
directly with a freelancer may at least want to have a trusted friend
evaluate the freelancer's work--before
starting a contract. Don't operate
in a vacuum. Yes, as a freelancer, I prefer working directly with a
client, without any job boards or writing websites--no middleman
means all the money goes straight to me--but I want fairness. If you
choose to work without a middle party, get a professional friend with
good writing skills to give you a second 'feel' on the freelancer's
application. Don't just rely on your instincts.
"Don't
trust your instincts" goes two ways: after hiring a qualified
freelancer, business owners should consider trusting the
professional writer over their own 'feelings' about writing. I've
seen clients buy ghost-work and then add
in grammar
errors before posting it online. While I'm glad my name didn't go on
the end result, I'm frustrated that I took the effort to do something
right if my client just ended up looking bad anyway. Clients should
seriously consider reviewing GrammarGirl or Strunk and White or
something
before changing what a freelancer submits. Several software companies
also provide automatic 'grammar-checkers' that may help, although
nothing's as good as a real, live human. (Links to a few grammar guides included below.) No time for grammar? Either
trust the freelancer, or ask a friend to look it over.
Have a favorite freelancer experience? Free-lancers, do you have a
favorite small business client? Leave a comment!
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