Whether your growing business needs to scale quickly, empower internal teams, or create agile work teams, staying competitive in today's marketplace means staying agile. For many small, growing businesses, getting the right talent trumps other success factors. * The Upwork SMB survey was conducted online Jan. 16-19, 2018 by Bredin, a research firm focused on small and medium-sized businesses, and surveyed 503 heads of U.S. businesses with 500 or fewer employees. But how do you find the talent you need? For more and more businesses, the best option is to enter the free market. Upwork's Future Workforce report found that nearly half of businesses (48%) are using flexible workers such as freelancers to expand and acquire skills they don't have in-house. However, depending on your project, sometimes one contractor is not enough. Instead, you may need a team of freelancers to keep going. Here are the steps you need to start building your team. 1. Break down the scope of work Not surprisingly, the first step in finding the right freelancer for your project is identifying the type of skills you need to bring your idea to life. By defining the scope of work in a document, such as a creative brief, you can create detailed references that may include: Context for your business, industry and target market The context of the project , such as the problem it solves, the opportunity it exploits, or the competitive landscape project goals . How will you measure success?

Expected deliverables and the type of skills required to produce them The logistics of the project , including timelines, milestones, budgets and key stakeholders ...and any other factors that may affect production For help getting started, check out Upwork's recruiting guide or search the recruiting headquarters, where you'll find more information on a variety of skills, including data science, web development, social media, and app development. 2. Design an effective position for each skill Based on the job scope, write a job industry mailing list each of the engaging, detailed, and specialized skills you're looking for. The following checklist highlights best practices for creating good project descriptions: Checklist of What Employers Should Include in Job Postings A common mistake is to be too brief, especially when posting via Android or iOS: 30% of job postings posted to Upwork's website via mobile devices are 100 characters or less in length.

To avoid this, prepare for each position in advance: Determine the appropriate payment structure: fixed price or hourly Consider drafting a detailed project description in another app, then copying it when you publish your work Highlight two or three must-have skills for each skill set you're looking for Include a screening question to help simplify the review process Find top talent yourself to share your job openings; an analysis of job postings on Upwork shows that those that go directly to 20 or more freelancers are more likely to be filled.