Scaling and Staying Nimble With Upwork Business Plus

A technology company provides tools that connect organizations with external expertise and support collaboration. The company is part of a larger group focused on developing and growing digital products.

As the organization expanded, the team needed an agile solution for efficiently finding, hiring, onboarding, and integrating qualified professionals.  

The challenge: Quickly and cost-effectively scaling the team

The company initially relied on in-house workers based in their local area. However, the cost of hiring local talent, the limited size of the talent pool, and the time-consuming process required for full-time, internal hiring held the company back from maintaining business agility. 

“We build companies pretty fast and we change course sometimes and readjust things quickly,” said the Chief Financial Officer. “In prior companies where I worked, we usually had more time for planning and hiring.”

A few years ago, the company scaled back the team. When the time came to rebuild resources, spending hours reviewing resumes, interviewing candidates, and managing a complex process with the HR team slowed the company down. 

The solution: Engaging freelancers for short- and long-term projects 

The company had previously turned to Upwork for small projects and decided to expand the scope of freelancer engagements on the platform to help the team stay nimble. 

“Upwork is very helpful because sometimes, we engage freelancers for a short period of time for a project, or we use the platform to enhance our team to reach milestones faster,” shared the CFO. “We also have some semi-permanent, long-term partnerships with freelancers. For many reasons, Upwork is a great tool for us, especially when we're so nimble, dynamic, and changing so quickly as we develop our portfolio companies. We use Upwork in many different ways.” 

The CFO also pointed out how much faster, more efficient, and cost-effective the process of engaging freelancers on Upwork is compared to traditional hiring. 

“It's easier for us because we can engage someone quickly on Upwork. I don't have to go through resumes and go through that two-week, three-week period of interviews and everything else that comes along with HR. Upwork streamlines all that. It's very convenient and very helpful. The Upwork price structure is also better because I don't have to hire people in our area where it's very expensive. And a lot of the roles we need to fill aren’t easy to find in the local market.” 

The results: Scaling up and down as needed while streamlining financial reporting

The company has engaged freelancers on Upwork for several years to help the business scale. A standout success story involves a team of freelancers the company has partnered with over the long term to support customer service operations. While the organization occasionally brings in new customer service freelancers, many of the individuals have been an extension of the team for several years. 

Similarly, the company also engages long-term freelancers to seamlessly scale the sales and onboarding teams up and down as needed. By hiring freelancers on Upwork, the company can quickly onboard individuals who integrate seamlessly into the team and begin delivering outcomes.

“From a financial standpoint, it’s easy to depend on Upwork to quickly onboard freelancers,” shared the CFO. “So it’s kind of a no-brainer.”

For other functions, such as marketing and creative, the team engages freelancers when certain skills are only needed on a short-term or part-time basis. This approach helps quickly address skills gaps while maintaining flexibility and minimizing fixed operational costs. 

“Let's say for example, we’re building a new website and we have internal team members who work in marketing and creative,” said the CFO. “We may have a two-week sprint and engage three freelancers for the two weeks to accelerate the process. At a high level, this is one of the ways we use Upwork to our advantage.” 

In addition to scaling the business cost-effectively, the Chief Financial Officer looks for ways to simplify and streamline financial operations while maintaining accuracy. To support this, the company upgraded to an Upwork Business Plus account, which enables the team to use monthly invoicing, rather than the standard weekly invoicing cadence for most Upwork accounts. 

Previously, the CFO’s team had to compare weekly invoices — some spanning two consecutive months, which took a significant amount of time and manual effort. With Business Plus, the organization saves hours each month on administrative financial tasks. 

“The main purpose for upgrading to Business Plus to me is because we do our financials monthly,” explained the CFO. “With monthly invoicing, my profit and loss statement accurately reflects expenses for the entire month. 

Continuing to drive business agility across the organization

With the support of freelancers on Upwork, the company built a flexible, scalable workforce strategy that empowers growth while maintaining agility. By engaging qualified freelancers across customer service, sales, onboarding, marketing, and creative functions, the company can adapt to shifting business needs while reducing operational costs.

What began as a solution for short-term, project-based work has evolved into a self-sustaining, cross-departmental system in which teams across the business can independently find and engage the right professionals through Upwork. This autonomy enables faster execution, streamlined collaboration, and a consistent ability to deliver results across the company and the broader group.

The CFO reflected, “I'm happy with how we use Upwork. My team goes into the platform and each department has the flexibility to find their own freelancers and get approval from me to move forward. The program is pretty self-sufficient. I love the setup and the search. Upwork has been great for us in so many ways.”