Being a WordPress Agency.
Freelancers represent the cream of the WordPress industry. They are better skilled, more experienced, devoted to WordPress and are more creative. By a long way.
WordPress has grown-up using the incredible freelance community that surrounds it – mostly these talented individuals worked at agencies before out-growing the old-tech, old-world agency environment.
You see, a freelancer in any field – whether that’s journalism, code-writing, fighting wars or turning around companies – will only survive by being the very best. If they were only average, they would starve. It’s Darwinism at it’s most basic.
When a freelance coder or designer can earn £50 an hour, full-time staffers are (trapped into?) working for organisations who pay them less than £20 an hour – in return for a guaranteed paycheck at the end of the month. This suits companies that want to drive costs down, but at the price of lower quality, less engaged people.
Freelancers are our best asset; they work at a level of creativity and efficiency that’s nigh on impossible to replicate in the conventional workplace. Believe me, we’ve tried – and that’s why we now exclusively use freelancers to design, build and support digital services and websites.
As freelancers are core to how we work, we treat them well. We give them responsibility, flexibility and power to deliver what our company and clients need. And in return we get some of the very best work they produce and an unusual level of commitment that doesn’t seem to exist in conventional workplaces.
We know not all companies treat freelancers anywhere near as well, horror stories abound in the freelance space about very late payment of invoices, canceling work and even blunt refusal to pay. Despite the government laying down guidelines that say invoices must be settled in 30 days, presently three quarters of freelancers have trouble getting paid by their clients and, on average, each unpaid freelancers is owed over £3,000 in back income.
The problem seems to stem from an “I’m bigger than you” attitude employed by many companies. Often, agencies feel that they own the freelancer and, therefore, can do as they please – frequently holding the freelancer hostage via payment terms.
We think this is grossly wrong, and we aim to settle freelancer invoices in 7 working days. In fact, in 2015 the average wait from invoice approval to cleared funds is five working days. So, if you are a world-class freelancer then come and work with Connected – and if you’re a client who wants access to first-class talent with a strong moral compass and ethical approach then contact us.
