Small businesses to lean more heavily on IT freelancers

61 per cent of SMBs will invest more in IT this year, predominantly on ad-hoc basis

Small businesses tend to d draft in IT freelancers as and when necessary

Over 60 per cent of small businesses are planning to increase their investment in IT and their web sites this year, according to research from PeoplePerHour.com

The research also found that the majority of them were planning to increase their dependency on IT freelancers.

PeoplePerHour.com, a marketplace for freelance professionals, surveyed 360 professionals from its 73,000 user base, and found that 61 per cent said they would increase their investment in IT and web, 38 per cent plan to channel this investment into increasing their use of IT freelancers and just 18 per cent intend to hire in-house staff.

“The main reason employers rely on freelancers is their flexibility,” said PeoplePerHour.com chief executive Xenios Thrasyvoulou.

“You don’t have to commit as you would with a long-term contract. Cost is an important factor too, but small businesses actually rate flexibility higher.”

He argued that the best practice for small businesses would be to have a small in-house IT presence, and draft in additional IT expertise when necessary.

“It's important to have in-house technical people as well – a CTO, head of engineering or an IT director – and it works best if that person is in-house. But ideally they will scale out their duties by flexibly bringing in human resources as and when they need them,” added Thrasyvoulou.