Finding High Quality Freelancers for Your Business or Project

So, you need assistance with a project and don’t know where to find experts online to help you out? Where, there are several options online like Fiverr and Upwork with varying results. However, if you are really serious about high quality support for your project, there is a freelancing network that helps companies like Microsoft, Harvard, Motorola, Cleveland, Cavaliers and the likes with their elite talent pool. Their talent is sourced from companies like Google, Facebook, SpaceX, Apple, Lego, Goldman Sachs, Vodafone, etc. Of course, we are talking about Toptal and in the next few sections we’ll explain what it is and how it works.

What is Toptal?

Toptal is an elite freelancing network that prides itself for hiring only the top 3% of professionals in their domain. They were founded in 2010 and source talent from all over the world.

They can provide experts from several fields: developers, designers, project managers, product managers and finance experts.

You can request partial project assistance or if you have a project you want handled from start to finish and don’t know how to assemble a team, you can start a so called Toptal Project where Toptal takes care of everything while you provide the business idea and strategic guidance.

Is it worth it to hire freelancers from Toptal?

Hiring Toptal’s experts doesn’t come cheap, but you get the best of the best. The fee you pay depends on the type of the expert you hire, but it generally ranges between $60-$200+ per hour. The good thing is that it costs you $0 dollars for recruiting an expert and you get 2 weeks zero risk free trial – you only pay if you are satisfied.

Fees for clients

If you are not happy with their performance within the first two weeks, Toptal will refund you both the deposit ($500) and any charges for the freelancer’s work.

How does the process to hire experts work?

Type of experts you need

When you start the sign-up process as a client, you go through a survey form, so that Toptal better understands your needs.

The first question you need to answer is what type of an expert you are looking for. In this example, we are going for Designers. After you select the type of talent you wish to hire, click the Get Started button.

Type of project you have

Next, you must select what type of project you need assistance with.

In majority of cases, you will be working on a new project, so we picked ‘New Project’ as the type of project. Click the big blue Next button on the bottom right of the form to continue.

How far have you detailed your project idea?

Next, you must pick whether or not you have clear specifications for the project. This basically tells Toptal how far you have come in the ideation process.

Most of your projects can benefit from input from an expert designer or developer. Unless you already have clear specifications ready for your projects, select the “I have a rough idea of what I want to build” option and click the Next button.

Engagement length

Now, you must decide how long you will need the designer.

For most projects, it will be only a few weeks, so let’s pick “1 to 4 weeks”. If you aren’t sure yet or want to leave it open for discussion, choose “I’ll decide later”.

How many experts do you need?

Now, you must choose how many designers you need.

For most projects, you will need more than just a designer or a developer. You will need someone on your team to handle other parts of the project. So, we chose “A cross-functional team”. If you aren’t sure yet or want to leave it open for discussion, choose “I’ll decide later”. Click Next to continue.

Expected level of time commitment from the experts

Next, you must choose the level of time commitment your project requires.

For serious business projects, this will be full-time or at least part-time, so we selected Part-Time. If you aren’t sure yet or want to leave it open for discussion, choose “I’ll decide later”. Click Next to continue.

Required skills from experts

Now, select the skills your ideal candidate for this project will have.

For a web design project, you will need Web Design, Responsive Web Design, and User Interface design. Select the appropriate skills and click the Next button.

Size of your company

Next, select the number of employees who work at your company.

We selected “Less than 10” for this example. Click Next to continue.

When do you want to start working?

Next, select when you need to designer to start working with you.

For most projects, it will be at least 1 week and up to 3 weeks. If you aren’t sure yet or want to leave it open for discussion, choose “I’ll decide later”. Click the Next button to continue.

Is remote working with talent acceptable?

Next, you must decide whether or not you are open to working with Remote talent.

For most types of projects, even complex ones, this will not matter but if you aren’t sure, choose “I’m not sure”. Click the Next button to continue.

Decide on the budget

Next, select your budget for this role.

We recommend picking “$51 – $75/hr” as most freelancers on the platform charge at least $60/hour. Click Next to continue.

Contact details

Now, fill in your contact details to finish signing up.

Now, fill in your contact details, so that the Toptal team can call you to kickstart the process. That’s all. You have completed the signup process. Now, you will receive a kickstart call from Toptal where an expert will answer all your questions and request more details for your project so they can set you up with the most suitable freelancer for your project.