Check it out what you will find on this article about permalancer:
- What is a Permalancer?
- What Does Permalancing Entail?
- How to Work With Permalancers
- Permalancing is the Future
The gig economy has given rise to many a working trend that are revolutionary to say the least. While more and more people are turning to freelancing as a way of earning on their own terms, a new trend is taking off that just might become the next big thing. Permalancers are somewhat of a go-between full time employees and freelancers. They don’t get the benefits that full time employees enjoy, but their financial underpinning is somewhat stronger than freelancers who usually work on a piecemeal basis.
What is a Permalancer?
While freelancers freely work with multiple clients on a project to project basis and often have to hunt for new work regularly, permalancers prefer to choose one or two clients that offer them regular work. They may bill their clients on the number of deliverables or hours worked. Freelancers refer to such permanent clients as “anchor clients” that add a measure of stability to their income. Like the freelancers however, permalancers have to pay for their own benefits as they are simply compensated for their work.
Permalancers may own an LLC or be a one-man army and usually offer services like web or graphic design, writing or coding. Like all other instances of the gig-economy millennials are most likely to consider permalancing as a career option as they usually go for autonomy over traditional job security. Senior Forbes contributor Brianna Wiest says to be a permalancer, a person must exhibit the following traits…
- You are self-employed and are responsible for your own work schedule.
- The bulk of your income comes from ongoing contracts rather than fragmented projects.
- You may or may not have a registered company.
- You job profile mostly involves providing consultation in your area of expertise.
- Despite your regular commitments, you may also take on freelancing gigs from time to time i.e. you are in no way tied exclusively to your permalancing clients.
What Does Permalancing Entail?
Like any other sort of work, permalancing has its advantages and disadvantages. For starters, like freelancers, you get to be your own boss. You don’t have an established schedule that you must follow and can work as much or as little as you like. Unlike most freelancers, you have a (relatively) dependable source of income you can count on every month.
Permalancing also works to the benefit of your client(s) as they only pay for output. In a way permalancing provides a countermeasure to the damage that unproductive work costs the global economy yearly as your clients no longer have to deal with wasted hours at the office that go undetected. By billing for real work and value, you can forge better relationships with your clients who will respect and value your business all the more for it.
Permalancing has its fair share of drawbacks as well, though. Clients might see the permalancer as an opportunity to create a full-time employee without needing to sign any real, enforceable contracts, provide benefits or paid time-off. The Fiscal Times went so far as to call permalancers the new disposable workforce.
Then again, there is hardly such a thing as a perfect job and the downside of being a permalancer is the same that independent contractors that provide full-scale services have been dealing with for years. These disadvantages can be countered with a little bit of forethought and planning. For instance, the permalancer can always split his/her income between 2-3 clients rather than sticking to just one. They can also lay down their own terms of service that clearly spell out a desired compensation plan and time-off.
The real advantage for permalancers working from home however is that there is no longer any upper limit to income or work. Since there are no exclusivity clauses that permalancers need to abide by, they can work with as many clients for as many hours at whatever rates that may like. Most freelancers look upon permalancing as the end-game to their efforts where they have a select, trusted clients they can depend upon.
How to Work With Permalancers
Opting for permalancers can solve many of the issues that companies often face. They needn’t worry about losing high quality talent and since they are usually saving up on benefits, they can hire more permalancers to speed up work.
But finding good permalancers is easier said than done. You can always start with regular freelancers to test the waters and find ones you think offer a decent enough service to put them on your regular pay roster. Most freelancers will post their experience, accolades, reviews and testimonials either on their own site or LinkedIn profile. While these should give a good idea, consider giving them a trial project to see what the output looks like.
The adage you get what you pay for will apply here as well. If you are thinking of saving up on compensation through some smart negotiation, then do remember that the permalancer will need to find additional work to make ends meet. Working on multiple projects can spread their focus and energies too thin which will adversely affect their output. Better way is to offer your permalancers above average pay and secure their loyalty.
When starting out, it’s best to have an external and internal deadline. One of the biggest problems that companies run into with remote work is managing different time zones. The external deadline is given to your permalancers and should be a few days to a week or more behind the internal deadline. An external external deadline can ensure that your projects always remain on schedule and you have some buffer time.
Finally, consider using a cloud based productivity tool like Runrun.it to manage your operations. Communicating by email, Facebook and LinkedIn, using spreadsheets to track work and making notes in your pocket book can quickly become daunting to the point of paralysis.
A better option is to have all the information and data in one place where it can be searched as and when needed. Online collaboration software such as Runrun.it for example allows users to issue and track tasks, send out reminders, make changes on the fly and work with a global team just as easily you would with an inhouse one.
Remember, the stronger a bond you will forge with your permalancers, the longer they will stay with you. So, treat them as though they are an extension of your office and they will reciprocate with high quality work.
Permalancing is the Future
Given the relative advantages that remote work has to offer, it is bound to become the norm within a few years. The traditional office is well on its way to extinction as more and more people will try and strike a better work-life balance by opting for free and/or permalancing. Companies that play with and establish remote working best practices today can overshoot their competition by working faster, round the clock at a lower cost than them.
Runrun.it has helped many companies work with the brightest talent from around the world. We know first hand what it takes to create a truly global workforce that delivers results and have created the best suite of tools to help you do the same. Try out Runrun.it for free and see what we mean!
