Businesses of all sizes and types hire freelancers. So it is likely that if you are a startup, once in a while, you’ll have to hire a freelancer.

In the last few years, services like fiverr.com, upwork.com and peopleperhour.com have popped up to make it easier for business owners to find a wide range of freelance services. You can find voice actors, translators, web designers, telemarketers and almost anything your business could need that can be done digitally.

In the beginning, when your business is brand new, you may be tempted to always choose the provider with the lowest price.

Deciding soleoly on price has a way of biting you in the butt later. You’ll notice a steady stream of problems that pop up after the work has begun. You want to avoid this sort of situation developing because:

• It’s not worth the stress.
• Stress may seem like just a part of doing business, but stress affects both your physical and mental health.
• It is a massive waste of time.

Now that you know the problem we’re trying to avoid, let me tell you how to avoid it.

After over ten years of hiring freelancers online, let me tell you how to steer clear of trouble. These are the freelancers you want to avoid.

Bad freelancers to avoid

1-Three times a harm

This is a freelancer who lacks

1) discipline

2) Character

3) Work ethic

But how will you know? After you’ve hired them for the first job and noticed that they lack these three things, do not rehire. No matter how great the price is, resist the temptation to do a second round.

2- The Escape Artist

They are a freelancer because they want to escape the nine-to-five grind, not because of talent. They have joined the freelancing realm primarily to waste your time.

3-The Collection Agency

This is a freelancer who is running a collection agency under the guise of a gig. No talent or skill exists. Yet the freelancer continues to collect money for sub-par work. This person will regularly leave you scratching your head as to how they got into this line of work.

4-The Sweet Talker

This is a freelancer who will say whatever is necessary to get the contract, regardless of if it is true or if they can deliver that work. Once the contract has begun, they will take off the mask. Then they will explain little by little that they can’t actually deliver all the requirements of the project.

5-The Duplicator

Due to the low quality of this freelancer's work, you had to redo everything they were hired to do. This is the worst kind of freelancer to hire. When it comes to adding stress to your life, this type of freelancer is at the top of the list.

6-The Gossip

This freelancer delivers fantastic, amazing work. However, they poison the work environment with their gossip and verbal diarrhea.

7-The Zombie

This is a Freelancer with zero social skills and zero manners. This freelancer simply can not communicate. They do not reply to messages. They occasionally disappear. They can’t seem to understand that the lines of communication need to be kept open during a project.

8-The Pretend Communicator

You sort of have to experience the pretend communicator for yourself. Then you’ll say. "Oh, that’s what she meant.” The pretend communicator has actual conversations with you, but there is a sense that something is being held back and the pretend communicator is only impersonating a human. Something is off. Something is just not there. You find yourself googling words like Sociopath, Dateline NBC, Fraud, and other strange things after talking to the pretend communicator.

9) The Olympic Champion

The Olympic champion turns the project into a competition between teammates instead of working together in a collaborative way to get the work done. The Olympic champion dreams of standing on the podium alone with lights flashing all-around at the end of the project. The Olympic champion is not interested in what anyone else is doing or what anyone else has to say.

10) The Racehorse

The racehorse races through the project completing everything long before it is due. The racehorse realizes that the faster they complete the work, the sooner the paycheck will arrive. This results in inferior quality work. Then you are left to clean up the mess left behind by the racehorse.

These are the 10 freelancers you need to avoid like the plague!

By sharing a little of my experience hiring freelancers online, I hope I’ll save you a little stress.

This article was originally published on October 14th, 2021.