How to Hire Fractional Help as a Solopreneur
You don't have to work alone.
Not all solopreneurs are working completely solo. To me, being a solopreneur means that you are the sole decision-maker within the business, delivering all outcomes, and you don't have employees or full-time help.
However, at some point, every solopreneur needs fractional support. Maybe you can bring on a few people to help in different roles for a few hours per week, or maybe you can find a unicorn assistant who can help with everything.
But bringing on help can be scary. You want to find someone good who can actually contribute to your business — and you have to assign work and review the person's work.
Here are some things to think about if you've maxed out on your bandwidth or know you need help with certain tasks.
How to Know When It's Time to Hire
For solopreneurs looking to hire, there are two main considerations:
- You don't have the right expertise: Sometimes, you simply do not have the expertise for a task, and you don't have any desire to learn the necessary skills on your own. This might be something related to your website, video production, or other areas crucial to your business but not a core part of what you do daily.
- The work is not a good use of your time. Some tasks are within your wheelhouse, but your time could be better spent doing other work. For example, I hired a bookkeeper despite having a background in finance. Categorizing transactions and reviewing financials in Quickbooks took up valuable hours that could be spent elsewhere.
Then there's the money factor since hiring comes at a cost. When evaluating whether you can afford help, calculate your hourly rate — even if you don't work hourly. Take your total annual earnings and divide them by the approximate number of hours you work. This should include hours spent on all work — client work, content creation, administrative work, and more. This is your effective hourly rate.
If you can hire someone for less than this rate, it's worth it because it frees up your time to focus on higher-value tasks. Sometimes, it might even be worth hiring someone slightly above your hourly rate if their contributions can significantly impact your bottom line.
How to Find the Right Person
Posting a role on a job board or social media can lead to an overwhelming number of applicants — potentially hundreds. Unless you want to spend dozens of hours reviewing applications and interviewing people, this isn't a good way to hire fractional help.
When I look to hire, I always start with recommendations from other solopreneurs. Sometimes, I'll even ask for recommendations before I'm ready to hire for a role. If I see a fellow solopreneur rave about someone they work with, I'll ask for that person's contact info and save it for later.
Another way I've found help is by finding people on social media and approaching them directly. I assume that people promoting themselves are invested in their businesses. I'll review their social media posts and website to see if it might be a good fit and then meet with the person.
You can also work through an agency, especially for something like a virtual assistant (VA). The benefit of working with an agency is if the person doesn't pan out, you can ask to be reassigned. The downside is that agencies are typically more expensive than hiring a person directly, since the agency has overhead.
Once you find someone, do a test project to see if it's a good fit. For instance, I hired a VA through an agency, and it was obvious very quickly that the person couldn't handle the work. I asked the agency to give me another VA. Another time, I talked to a video editor based on a recommendation from a friend. However, during the test project, the video editor didn't follow the instructions I'd provided, so that was a dealbreaker for me.
Another option is to look for help a little closer to home, if you're comfortable with hiring someone like a friend or family. My website needs some simple updates, so I hired my teenager. It's a great way for them to earn some extra money.
Tax Considerations of Hiring Fractional Help
When you hire, you may be responsible for issuing tax documents or withholding payroll taxes.
In the U.S., there are a few employment types for fractional help.
Independent Contractor
An independent contractor runs their own company and pays their own taxes. This person probably has multiple clients. The IRS has strict rules about what is considered an independent contractor to prevent people from skirting tax laws by claiming someone is an independent contractor when they're actually an employee.
You run into different tax scenarios depending on how and how much you pay the person.
- If the person operates as an individual or LLC, and you pay them under $600, you don't need to file any tax documents.
- If the person operates as an individual or LLC, and you pay them more than $600, and you pay via credit card or payment processor (like PayPal), you do not need to file any tax documents. The person's credit card company will issue a 1099-K for tax purposes.
- If the person operates as an individual or LLC, and you pay them more than $600 and you pay them directly (like via ACH), you will need to issue a 1099-NEC (non-employee compensation).
- If the person operates as a Sub S Corporation, you do not need to issue any tax documents.
Part-Time Employee
A part-time employee does not run their own company, even if they work more than one part-time job. You direct the work and payment.
With a part-time employee, you need to have the employee fill out a W-4. You need to withhold state and federal employment taxes, including Social Security and Medicare, and pay unemployment taxes in your state. You also need to issue a W-2 at the end of the year. The employee will file their own tax return.
Agency
Another benefit of working with an agency is that you'll have no tax implications. The agency is a vendor, and your fractional help (like a VA) is an employee or independent contractor of the agency, not you.
Outside the U.S.
Most of the time, you can hire fractional help from anywhere as long as you can collaborate using online tools and apps.
Non-U.S. citizens are subject to the tax laws of their own countries. All you need to do is have the person complete Form W-8 BEN, certifying that they are not a U.S. citizen. Keep the form for your records.
This doesn't apply if you're working with a platform like Upwork. Upwork is more like an agency: you're paying Upwork, and Upwork is paying the person.
Fractional Roles to Support Solopreneurs
Every solo business runs a bit differently, so the fractional help you need depends on the type of strain you feel or the skills you don't have.
Virtual assistant
A VA is a really common role to hire for because a VA can take a lot off your plate. A VA can handle tasks like email management, document organization, social media, and more.
If you hire a VA, you'll want to start with tasks that are straightforward, don't change, and don't require a lot of decision-making. I use Loom videos and written standard operating procedures to outline the work I want my VA to complete and the expectations.
If tasks are really repetitive, you can also use automation. I have Zapier running in the background for hundreds of tasks. This saves my VA hours for higher-value work or work that can't be automated.
Anna Burgess Yang
Bookkeeper
Unless your business itself is finance-related, managing your books is better handled by someone with specific expertise. My bookkeeper has view-only access to my bank accounts, but manages everything in Quickbooks.
Social media manager
While a VA can handle certain social media tasks, in other cases you may want someone with specific platform expertise, like an Instagram expert. Another option is to hire a role specifically to repurpose your content, such as turning podcast episodes into social media posts, or creating social posts from your newsletter.
If you know you need to be active on social media but don't have the time, you could alternately hire a ghostwriter. I was a LinkedIn ghostwriter for a while. I'd meet with my clients monthly and let them talk about different topics they wanted to cover. I'd then take the transcript and turn the ideas into well-written LinkedIn posts. The ideas were still theirs, but I helped with turning those ideas into a format suitable for LinkedIn.
Website or SEO expert
Like bookkeeping, unless you're a web developer or an SEO expert, you might be better off outsourcing these roles. An SEO expert, in particular, can help you optimize and analyze the performance of your blog.
Video editor
Video content is on the rise, and video editing can be very time-consuming. A video editor can take your raw footage and edit it, add captions, and add other elements like music or a CTA. Basically, fully prep the video for you to load onto a social platform.
I'm not ready to hire a video editor (yet), but I'm using a tool called Capsule, which allows me to edit videos easily. I tried several other tools and they were all far too complicated.
Editor or copywriter
An editor or copyeditor might feel more like a "nice-to-have" rather than a "must-have" and it depends on your business. Here's the difference if you're not familiar with these roles:
- An editor will make your writing sound better. They'll also check for things like spelling, grammar, and consistency within your writing.
- A copywriter creates new work from scratch. Copywriters typically specialize in content that's intended to entice your audience to take action, such as a landing page. Copywriters might also help with email sequences or newsletters.
Editors and copyeditors can really propel your business forward, if you feel like your writing is holding you back.
Project manager
Once you hire several fractional roles, you may want a project manager to keep everything running smoothly. Your project manager may also help you with larger projects, such as a product launch or event.
You may also hire a project manager to help with client work, if the project management isn't the deliverable itself. For example, a project manager can help keep you on tasks, so you can focus on client communications and the actual deliverables.
Ongoing vs. Project-Based Support
The last thing to think about is whether you need ongoing help, or if you need help with a specific project.
Updating your website might be a project that lasts a few months. I worked with a designer to update my brand, and that was also a specific project. At the end of the project, the designer gave me hundreds of templates in Canva, which my VA now uses on an ongoing basis. I've also paid professionals for specific coaching in a skill that I'm not ready to hire for yet.
If you simply need a jump-start a particular area of your business, consider hiring fractional help for a limited time. You might also hire someone to help you with a project that is hanging over your head but doesn't need ongoing work.
Running a solo business doesn't mean you have to operate completely solo. At some point, you'll need to get comfortable working with and managing people who can help you. The alternative is limiting yourself to your own bandwidth and skillset, which won't allow your business to grow.
This article in no way constitutes legal or financial advice. Please consult with a professional to discuss your unique tax situation for any roles you hire.
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