Freelancing has become an increasingly popular option for small businesses. Whether it’s through personal connections or global platforms like Fiverr, hiring freelancers offers the allure of affordability and convenience. For businesses in small towns across Atlantic Canada, where budgets are often tight, this can seem like an attractive solution. However, the reality is that freelancers—especially those hired through digital platforms—often come with significant downsides.
At Kiers Marketing, we’ve seen firsthand the drawbacks of freelance hires, not just through our clients but from our own experiences working with freelancers internationally. Here’s why small businesses should think twice before going the freelance route, and why the “quick fix” can sometimes create bigger problems in the long run.
1. Inconsistent Quality and Expertise
The primary issue with hiring freelancers, whether it’s a friend’s cousin or a highly rated Fiverr expert, is inconsistency. And if you want to know why consistency is key (there’s no short-term solution anymore unless you pay for it through ads), check out our article here. A freelancer’s skillset may not align with the needs of your business, and there’s no guarantee that their work will reflect the level of expertise you expect.
Real-World Experience: Our Digital Marketing Manager has worked internationally on projects with much higher budgets, including startups in need of everything from branding to social media strategy. Despite having extensive creative briefs and clear instructions, each time they hired through Fiverr, the project dragged on for weeks longer than anticipated. Freelancers didn’t fully grasp the brand or the project’s nuances, and while the final product was “okay,” it wasn’t worth the time, hassle, and client dissatisfaction caused by the delays. What’s frustrating is that these weren’t low-rated freelancers either—they were four and five-star rated professionals. Yet the delays and miscommunication made the whole experience a waste of our valuable time.
In cities like Fredericton, Moncton, or Saint John, a bad freelance experience can have an even more damaging impact. Small businesses don’t have the luxury of time to redo projects that should have been done right the first time. What’s more, customers in small towns are loyal and pay attention—if your business appears disorganized due to inconsistent marketing materials, you risk losing trust.
2. Lack of Accountability
When hiring freelancers through platforms like Fiverr, accountability is a major issue. While these platforms offer dispute mechanisms, they are often cumbersome, and freelancers aren’t always invested in building long-term relationships. Similarly, if you’re hiring someone you know personally, it can be awkward to hold them accountable when things go wrong.
Real-World Experience: At Kiers Marketing, we’ve had clients come to us after being burned by freelancers or flashy agencies from bigger cities. These agencies, with impressive websites and big promises, often ghost their clients once the initial work is done. Eight times out of ten, smaller-town businesses don’t have the resources to pursue legal action or demand accountability from these larger agencies. By the time these clients come to us, they’re frustrated and in need of a full project redo. The lack of professionalism and accountability has cost them both time and money.
In small towns across Atlantic Canada, where businesses rely heavily on word-of-mouth and local reputation, these delays and missteps can be devastating. Clients notice when things go wrong, and your business could face serious consequences for the mistakes of an unaccountable freelancer.
3. Limited Availability and Long-Term Commitment
Freelancers often juggle multiple clients and projects simultaneously. While they may be able to deliver on a single project, freelancers often lack the capacity for long-term support. This can be particularly damaging when your business requires ongoing marketing efforts.
Why this matters in smaller markets: For businesses in markets like Fredericton, building a consistent and recognizable brand is essential. If your freelance designer isn’t available for future work, you’ll end up with a patchwork of marketing materials that don’t provide a unified brand identity. Worse, if a freelancer moves on to a new project, you may struggle to find someone else who understands your business as well.
By hiring a local agency, you ensure long-term support from a team that understands your business, your audience, and your brand. Agencies like Kiers Marketing offer consistent availability and the capacity to handle multiple aspects of your marketing, from design to strategy, ensuring you get the help you need when you need it.
4. Communication Challenges
Freelancers, particularly those hired through platforms like Fiverr, are often working across time zones and cultures, making communication a challenge. Miscommunications about deadlines, revisions, and expectations are common and can derail an otherwise smooth project.
Real-World Experience: Our own experience with Fiverr freelancers proved this point time and time again. Even with well-written creative briefs, the back-and-forth communication often led to unnecessary delays. Freelancers missed critical brand elements because they try to create as quickly as possible, or didn’t fully understand the project’s goals. This created frustration on both sides, and by the time the project was completed, the client was already dissatisfied due to the drawn-out process.
In small towns where business owners are often wearing multiple hats, having to spend time explaining and re-explaining project requirements to a freelancer can be an exhausting and unproductive use of resources. By contrast, working with a local marketing agency can eliminate these communication issues, as face-to-face meetings and real-time updates are far easier to manage. And guess what? Kiers Marketing offers a 100% guarantee on our projects, so you can be certain you’ll get exactly what you’re looking for.
5. Hidden Costs of Cheap Labor
Freelancers, especially those on platforms like Fiverr, often advertise incredibly low rates that seem too good to pass up. However, those initial savings can quickly evaporate when you factor in the time spent revising poor-quality work, missed deadlines, and the need to hire someone else to fix the issues.
Real-World Experience: While some of the Fiverr freelancers we’ve worked with delivered a good final product, the overall project timeline often ballooned primarily due to missed deadlines. This extended timeline not only aggravated clients but also increased our costs. Instead of completing a project efficiently, we found ourselves paying more in time and effort to manage the delays, and the final product wasn’t worth the headache.
For small businesses in our region, where margins are often slim, these hidden costs can add up quickly. What may seem like a cost-effective solution at first glance can end up being a budget drain.
6. Lack of Local Insight
Like all that general marketing advice online, freelancers are often unfamiliar with your local market and are often working off data from MUCH BIGGER markets than ours. For those in Atlantic Canada, this lack of local insight can be a huge disadvantage. Marketing strategies that work in larger cities or international markets don’t always resonate with smaller, tight-knit communities.
Why this matters in Atlantic Canada: Communities in places like Miramichi or Bathurst value businesses that understand their local culture and preferences. A freelancer from another part of the world won’t have the same understanding of your audience’s needs or the regional nuances that make your brand stand out. Local marketing agencies, on the other hand, are rooted in the community and can create campaigns that resonate with your target audience.
Think Twice Before Hiring Freelancers
While hiring a freelancer, whether through personal connections or platforms like Fiverr, might seem like a quick and cost-effective solution, it often comes with significant downsides. From inconsistent quality to communication issues and a lack of accountability, freelancers can cause more headaches than they’re worth.
For businesses in small Atlantic Canadian towns, where every marketing dollar counts, the risks of freelance hires can be amplified. At Kiers Marketing, we’ve seen time and time again how businesses that attempt to cut corners with freelancers or larger agencies end up returning to us to fix the damage. When it comes to building a strong, consistent brand, investing in a local marketing agency ensures long-term success and a professional, accountable partner in your business’s growth.
Sources:
- HubSpot: The Truth About Freelancers
- Forbes: The Hidden Costs of Freelancers
- Social Media Today: Why Businesses Are Turning Away From Fiverr
Photo credits: Mariia Shalabaieva on Unsplash | Etienne Girardet on Unsplash