This is a guest post by Nitin Aggarwal from OffshoreAlly telling us 6 tips for proper management of our freelancing business.
As a freelancer or owner of a freelancing business, you have the freedom and opportunity to set your own hours, rates, and schedule. Many people would say that you are truly living the dream!
However, there is a dark side to freelancing if you don’t handle your daily tasks and scheduling properly; leaving you with a crazy workload, angry clients, and unpaid invoices.
How do you prevent this nightmare from coming true?
As a freelancer online, you need to be just as organized and business savvy as you are creative and talented.
Whether you are working as a freelance writer, web designer, or even virtual assistant, you do need to have the strength and foresight to be your own boss. This makes it imperative for you to be proactive in managing your clients and scheduling to prevent any errors, missed deadlines, or mis-communications on a project.
Here are 6 Tips for Freelancing Business Management:
1. Start Out By Clearly Communicating The Parameters Of Every Project
Each client is entirely unique, so do not make the mistake of assuming that one client is just like a previous client. While a previous client may have given you a clear outline and expectations for a project, your new client may not have thought that far into the future.
This is why you must take the same methodical approach with every client by submitting them an outline of the project, asking their expectations, and setting clear deadlines and milestones in place. Any client will appreciate your attention to detail, and this communication will make sure that you do not hand in a project that they are not happy with.
2. Set Up A Brief Client Meeting
It is helpful set up a quick meeting over the phone or on Skype with every client so that you can discuss the expectations for the project. Your client will appreciate you taking the time to make yourself available to them, and you will be able to quickly get any questions out of the way right off the bat.
3. Use Project Management Programs Like ClockingIt
If you are working with several members of a team, or even if you are managing a freelance project, it is important to use programs specifically designed for this purpose.
A program like ClockingIt will allow you to create milestones and deadlines, share files, and even use a discussion forum to chat with other members of the project. This tool will consolidate all aspects of a freelance project so that each member of the team understands what he or she is responsible for and nothing slips through the cracks.
4. Always Be Available To Your Clients
One of the most important things that you can offer to your clients as a freelancer is to always be available to them. Now, this does not indicate that you should not have boundaries that separate your personal life from your work life, but since you work from home, it is impressive if you are able to answer a quick e-mail in the evening or even respond to an e-mail to tell them that you will take care of an issue first thing in the morning.
Clients will appreciate your availability and come back to you for further projects!
5. Have A Clear Schedule Set In Place
One of the worst mistakes that you can make as a freelancer is to overlap projects and shortchange yourself on time. Make sure that you have a schedule on hand at all times with all of your upcoming deadlines so that you can give an interested client an accurate quote of how long their project will take.
As a rule of thumb, it is always, always, always best to overestimate a time-frame instead of underestimate it. Being late on a deadline is entirely inexcusable, but being early on a deadline by even one day is impressive and memorable!
6. Don’t Be Afraid To Ask Questions
There may be times that a client’s expectations are unclear, and you will only be doing both of you a favor by asking questions about it. There is no reason to worry about feeling stupid with any question that you are asking, and even if it is an obvious question, your client will appreciate the fact that you consulted them about it.
Conclusion
Freelancing is a rewarding and lucrative job that can definitely turn into a full-time career if you practice the above techniques.
It is important to always communicate clearly and be honest with your client so that you can submit a successful project and have them coming back for more!
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Article Written By Nitin Aggarwal
Nitin is a full time blogger and founder of Offshore Ally – a virtual assistant company. You should read his blog for more outsourcing tips. You can also follow him on twitter @OffshoreAlly
Nitin Aggarwal has written 1 superb article(s) on this blog
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{ 21 comments… read them below or add one }
I ever made a forum posting freelance services so it’s not a freelance job which require me to have meeting via Skype or anything. But your tips is 100% right for serious freelancing jobs such designing or website programming. Nice share.
Our team is also using clockingit, and I do really vouch for that tool. But with regards to client work, the best way to keep it professional is to always give initial deadlines ahead of the real deadline, to give allowance to your working schedules. this way it can lessen the pressure of handling more clients at a time, since you have all set them to be finished earlier than expected.
Nice article for proper management of freelancing business. I think all the points are very important.
I find that communication is very important to ensure a good relationship between client and service provider which is why it is equally important to ask questions to make sure that both client and provider are on the same page.
Strongly agreed on all of those tips, but in my opinion the most important is definitely the one with the schedule. without having at least a basic plan for optimizing your time, you’ll have a hard time getting your business to work. This is true with pretty much every undertaking though.
Just checked out the tool Clocking IT and the concept certainly seems interesting. Can prove to be a great time saver. Thanks for sharing!
Some good point you have mentioned here, I am so busy in my office work, that I can not get time to do freelancing work. Scheduling your work is very important to manage your all freelancing projects.
I find having a detailed contract is extremely important. It is also helpful to sit down and go over any questions there may be about any of the terms. This will make sure that you are both on the same page with what is expected.
The only freelancing work I have really done is on Odesk. It’s actually a great place to try out some freelancing, communication is always key, find out what they want, when they want it and how they want it- this alone will save loads of time.
Your tips regarding scheduling financial business is very impressive. I find it very true and useful. Keep on posting more tips.
Hi ,
Good one from Nithin !
I think most of the people hesitated to ask questions with clients.If you want to manage your business you should keep in touch with your clients.
Regards |Madav
Nice post. One thing that used take up most time for me with clients is setting up invoices.
Being organised is really the key!
I don’t know much about managing a freelance business, but I strongly agree that the owner or anyone who is in charge must always prioritize what the clients wanted in any project. Also, the freelancers he’s in charge of should also be treated with due respect and given the right information as to what the client’s expectations and goals are. This way, both parties are happy and any project will be done before the deadline. Thanks for sharing these nice tips and about ClockingIt.
Organisation is crucial. It you work for yourself it can be too easy to let things slip and leave things – you have to remain professional at all times and have strict(ish) ways of operating.
I dont run a freelancing business but I do offline SEO for clients and keeping everything in order, running smoothly can be a daunting task and have a clear schedule in place like the article mention helps alot. I write everything, what I will do, when I will do it, how long I will do it, what follow up is necessary, etc. This helps me stay on top of what was done and what it needs to be done for each client.
Nitin,Very well thought out post, I think an addition would be to have clear objectives and goals that are manageable. Both you and the client need to be on the same page about the goals that need to be achieved and the process that must take place in order to meet these goals.
I am also running freelancing business. The might and main of business is quality work and meet dead line.The quality work can only be possible when you will discuss the project with the client in depth. You will not feel embarrassment during the project if you first show him sample work.
Money is the main factor that throw the project towards the dispute. Make a clear conversation with the client for payment and delivery procedure.
Hi there! I am a newbie to SEO and is wanting to become a SEO Specialists someday. Thanks to this posts, it gives me a clear view on how to become an effective freelancer. though Im just a newbie, I believe someday this will be very helpful to me. cheers to you!
This is a very informative and realistic post! Even though I am not a freelancer, these tips will surely help me in making my projects a success.Time management and planning is very important. You should have a to-do list and make the most prioritized on top of the list. Communication is also important. The client’s view and the provider’s view should be on the same page to avoid misunderstandings and failure projects. Great Post!
you could not be more correct. There are too many times where I have seen this very issue. You need to be very specific when working with people and I always give them what they need and a little more. If you are not specific with the guidelines of how things are going to be done up front there can be serious issues.
In freelancing business , the main factor is to win the confidence of your clients but your work quality and especially by your business strategies.
You should be always with good ideas and convincing attitude and should be always caring about time management.
As a worker, when you are serious in what you are doing,may it be in the form of freelancing, you’ll be able to manage it well. But, in cases where you abused your own self, manipulating work hours, work loads and even reports, it’s your own destruction as an effective worker. Time goes by, and noticeably, your productivity and even reputation is degrading.
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