However, freelances do have some drawbacks. One major drawback is motivation. Due to their status as a freelancer, there’s usually not much long-term motivation for freelancers to continue to go above and beyond the call of duty. Comparatively speaking, it’s much easier to keep full-time employees motivated.

How do you keep freelancers motivated? Here are a few motivational tips:

Teleconferences
If there are a lot of freelancers at work, teleconferences is a startup company’s best friend. With a simple teleconference, you can make sure everyone is on the same page and striving toward the same goals.

Involvement
Keep freelancers in the loop. If you are considering big changes, getting input from the freelancers doesn’t hurt anything — and will improve motivation.

Incentives
Be inventive and offer incentives. You can base incentives on everything from timeliness and performance to web traffic and customer ratings.

Full-time Status
Many freelancers would love the chance to become full-time employees. If your startup eventually will hire more full-time employees, have a plan in place to give freelancer a shot at those jobs.

Keep Freelancers Motivated (Image: Flickr)

Post from: EveryJoe

Startups: Keeping Freelancers Motivated

Here are some tips on how you can save money on an online startup:

1. Don’t Reinvent the Wheel
If there are software packages out there that can do the job you need, don’t try to reinvent the wheel right out of the gates. For example, don’t try build your own blogging software when there are a number of free blogging software packages on the market.

2. Be Smart with your Host
When buying web hosting, don’t overshoot your estimates of how much traffic you will get. The smart move is to start small and improve your web hosting capabilities as the traffic dictates.

3. Utilize Freelancers
Instead of hiring full time employees right away, go with freelancers. The great thing with freelancers is that you don’t run as much of a risk as paying someone when there is no work to be done.

4. Work from Home
Office space is rarely needed right away for an online startup. Wait until you are seeing definite signs of success before you guy purchase office space.

Work from Home (Image: Flickr)

Post from: EveryJoe

How to Save Money on an Online Startup