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Unless you’ve been living under a rock (or maybe living in the Big Brother Germany house), you’ve no doubt heard about the current global coronavirus pandemic. This sudden explosion of cases has led to governments around the world to shutting down large public gatherings, closing borders, and other dramatic acts to limit the growth of infections. Many businesses are, for the first time, turning to telecommuting or freelancers to keep the wheel of commerce churning.

Unfortunately for some businesses, telecommuting might not be an option. They might not have the infrastructure, the staff training, or other resources to make it work. What’s more, many businesses are likely feeling the financial squeeze caused by the significant concerns over the pandemic’s impact on the economy.

Whatever the situation may be, there’s one resource available to businesses that they can tap into: Freelancers. About 35 percent of the U.S. workforce are freelancers, working in a variety of fields including marketing, website development, customer service, and more. If your business is feeling pinched, here’s how freelancers can help your business not only survive, but thrive, in these unusual and challenging times.

Freelancers Have the Tools and Infrastructure

Freelancers typically have all their own tools for getting work done, including laptops, printers, phones, and software. That means that you don’t have to worry about whether or not they have the right tools and if those tools are working.

What’s more, freelancers often already have all the infrastructure in place to get to work right away—high-speed internet, time tracking systems, etc. Basically, freelancers will have most everything your regular workers might need to get the job done—so you likely won’t need to spend anything extra (other than their fees, of course).

Freelancers Can Often Jump Right In

One reason why many people turn to freelance work is because they’re very good at their profession, but prefer the freedom and flexibility that freelancing offers over a regular desk job. Seasoned freelancers know their trade well, and often don’t need a lot of time to be brought up to speed in order to get started. And with that experience also comes wisdom: Freelancers typically know the right questions to ask to make sure they get all the information they need to get a job done properly.

Freelancers Don’t Need a lot of Oversight

Unlike employees who have never worked from home, most freelancers work from home quite frequently (or at least coworking spaces). As such, they’re often independent and good at self-directing their work. It’s likely you won’t need to supervise a freelancer nearly as much as you would an employee who’s more used to working in a busy office. And the less time spent supervising, the more time your management team can spend on activities that contribute to your business growth.

Now, this is a bit of a blanket statement, and there are certainly some freelancers who might need a little more hand-holding or supervision. But that’s why choosing the right freelancers for your job is an essential part of hiring (and a topic for another blog post). The good news is that if you hire a freelancer for a project and you’re not satisfied with the working relationship, you don’t have to go through the process of letting them go that you would for a regular employee (as long as you’re not breaking a contract with them).

Ultimately, freelancers offers businesses more flexibility with fewer strings attached, which is great in any situation much less a global health crisis. If you’d like to explore more how freelancers can help you grow your business, sign up for priority access to Thankz.