5 Reasons Travel Companies Should Work with Freelancers (and How to Begin)

As a travel company, you likely have your hands full with many things in order to keep your business running smoothly. Partnering with WeTravel for your booking and payments is one step in the right direction, but what if we told you that was just the beginning? 

We know that not all companies are in the place to hire a full-time team to take care of business, but there are many areas that could use more attention, right? Let’s take marketing for example - website, social media, copywriting, sales, etc. You could hire a full-time sales and marketing person to handle these things for you, but you could also hire your first (or few) freelancers! 

The Pros and Cons

We’re not going to get into a full-blown HR conversation about the difference between hiring full-time employees vs. freelancers (contractors), but we will give you the highlights: 

• Hiring an employee is great, but there are taxes and benefits that accompany hiring them
• Freelancers are in charge of paying their own taxes and operate as a “vendor” meaning that they work with you not for you 
• Finding a full-time employee that can accomplish sales/marketing tasks for you may prove to be difficult and when you do find them, it might cost you a pretty penny
• Working with freelancers, you can find specialists within their fields and also within the travel industry (believe us, they’re out there!) 
• Having one person be the face of your company on a sales/marketing front can seem great, but what if you could have a dozen? Freelancers often brag about their best clients to other freelancers, their friends, and family members
• Employees are grateful to work for you, but freelancers often look at your relationship as something more meaningful - you’re supporting their livelihood, and they’ll support yours

Where to Find Freelancers

Once you decide you’re willing to find your first freelancer, we urge you to go one step further and engage a freelancing female! Chances are that you already know the perfect freelancing female for the job/s - all you have to do is ask! A few places to find the best freelancers: 

1. Post on social media - Freelancers love to use LinkedIn and are often tagged by connections in posts that pertain to them
2. Mention it at your next networking event - Odds are high that there is a freelancer in attendance and they will either be able to help you or find someone who can
3. Check out these sites: 
   • www.freelancingfemales.com/directory 
   • www.jobs.aaf.org
   • www.themomproject.org
   • www.behance.net/joblist 

Sites like Upwork and Fiverr can also be used as resources, but we’d love to see you support local freelancers in your region or support communities WeTravel knows and loves. 

How it Works: Hiring Your First Freelancer & Best Practices

It’s definitely a good idea to chat with your attorney and accountant when hiring your first freelancer when it comes to tax forms and agreements. But the best freelancers will already have these documents ready for you - just be prepared to review them. 

Best Practices

Step 1: Create a clear and reasonable job description. Remember when we said above that you may find more than a few freelancers to help you? It can be to your benefit to search for a few freelancers to fill the needs of your travel business. The benefit is finding those who specialize in their craft and your industry. 

Step 2: Interview, interview, interview! You won’t be able to hire every freelancer you meet, but it can be beneficial to create a positive relationship between these freelancers because it will put you on their radar forever. And no, we don’t hold grudges if we don’t get the gig but will hope for a referral or future work if the fit is right. 

Step 3: Expect and set expectations. It’s important to remember that you’re not chatting with the common job-seeker, you’re speaking to a fellow business owner and they’re your partner. 

Step 4: Have an agreement. No work should be completed until an agreement is signed. Provided by you or the freelancer, it protects both parties in matters within and outside of your control. 

Hopefully, this article has helped you better understand how and why travel companies should be working with freelancers. With over half of freelancers being women, if you can additionally support their endeavors, I know they appreciate it! The way of work has changed dramatically over the past few years, but it’s more of an opportunity to do better work with those truly fit and passionate about the travel industry.