Make sure that there is a clear transition period for documenting the process

As a small business owner, you may not have the available funds to hire a digital marketer on a full-time position. Instead, you have developed several relationships with freelancers throughout the years, asking for help on specific projects to help sustain and grow your business.

However, the reality of hiring a freelancer is that you usually end up having to choose between officially hiring them as a member of your team or phasing them out, whether because they found a new job opportunity or you no longer require their services. Once you give them the notice that their services will no longer be required, there is one a crucial step that needs to occur during the transition period before they leave.

You need to give time for the freelancer to leave as much documentation as possible so that you can hand off any pending or future assignments to your next marketer with ease.

Why is this important?

Whenever you have a new hire there is an inherent cost in the time it takes for that new team member to get caught up to speed on your current business processes. If the goal is for them to provide a stellar service, there has to be documentation that they can refer to when beginning their relationship with you.

Do you have past work that you can show them? Do you have strategy decks and campaign planning documents that they can look at to get a better understanding of where your business was and where you are heading? Can you show them process maps, customer studies, or the performance of previous campaigns?

The more documentation you have on hand, the faster your new hire can work. So this goes without saying that when your current freelance marketer is leaving your team, you have to make sure they set the next marketer up for success. Even if its just a one-page document that summarizes the marketer’s daily routine, tools regularly used, and account credentials to make the learning curve faster—this is better than having your new hire dive in without anything to learn from.

If these types of documents aren’t made, you will take on a cost on time spent having to train your new hire—even if the training is in the form of several strategy calls that could have been condensed into just one initial session if documents were readily available.

Image Credit: Unsplash