Ok, you’ve looked for a freelancer, you’ve narrowed it down and had a chat, now you’ve found one you think would be a good fit. It’s time to sign the contract and get started. And now you’re thinking HOW do I actually pass work over to someone? HOW do you know what’s being done and HOW do you keep track of it all? Even more so if you’ve worked with someone in the past and that hasn’t worked out, for whatever reason.
Here are my top tips to be a brilliant client and make the most of outsourcing right from the start:
1. Start with trust. Your freelancer does this all the time, they will look after your business and you. Don’t be afraid to say ‘I have no idea how I’m going to pass work over and I’m a bit nervous about letting you see behind the scenes’. That’s totally ok.
2. Every team needs to go through the old ‘Forming, Storming, Norming, Performing’ process and this is no different. Be patient and know it will take you both a bit of time to get into a flow with each other – and this is the same no matter how organised, step by step, vague or ‘just do what you think’ you are in your instructions. It is SO important to remember you are building a team of two (or more) here. It’s not going to be an ‘I’ll expect that back on my desk for 9 am’ way of working. It’s not a case of ‘just add freelancer’ and everything begins to work perfectly. Now, this might sound like I’m putting you off, far from it, you and your freelancer will go on to do great things in your business if you both commit to knowing the start will need some work to build up a great team.
3. Invest in this. Yes, you’re going to need to invest a little time in training, if you like. If you were taking on an employee you would not expect them to know everything about your business and how you like to work at the beginning and it’s the same here – do your prep (more on that here) and know you are going to need to invest some time in an onboarding process. My preferred way to do this? Run through on a video call, or record your screen and send that across.
4. Don’t worry that how you do things might not be the ‘best’ way, or it might be out of date etc – you’ve hired us to make things better for you, so we are already keeping our eyes peeled for ways to do just that. We’re most definitely not here to think how you do things is silly, we’re here to show you what we can do to make it better. So actually, in all honesty, the worse it is, the better! I really mean that – when I see a way of doing things that I know I can streamline, I’m doing a little happy dance inside! Because I know you are going to LOVE improvements I can make! So if things need fixing right away, we can do that, but…
5. here’s the other side of that, usually we won’t be coming in with a new broom that sweeps clean. Like No.2 above, we don’t know everything about your business yet. As McFly said, it’s all about you. Initially, we’re learning how YOU do business so we can go from A to Z in your process, see how things work in practice, get up to speed with all the complexities of your business and THEN plan to make things work better, faster, easier. It’s only better, faster easier if YOU like how it is going to work and YOU know we’ve had time to learn and plan what is going to be best for YOU. It’s not about turning your world upside down so it works easier for us!
6. Just ask. There is no such thing as a silly question, so if you’re wondering about something, anything – just ask. Simple.
7. Avoid the last minute! You know we’ve other clients we’re working with, and I think every freelancer out there I know dreads the last minute requests! Those ‘any chance you can do this today?’ questions. I’m going to be honest, we always love to help, but sod’s law means these usually arrive after a day/week of late nights or early morning work to meet all the other last-minute requests, never mind the work commitments we already have planned in our diaries. At some point, we’re going to say no, and we will feel awful. So we like to start at the beginning making you aware that there is a minimum turnaround time, and that applies if we agree to take on the work – if we have the space and capacity. We’re not being awkward, we know we have enough time on paper to fit in all of our client work, but when several clients have last-minute requests that in total equal most of a day to work on, we’re also not going to work through the night because you didn’t plan ahead. SORRY!!!! But also, not sorry, because the clients we have booked in our diary for tomorrow need our brains to be working.
8. Don’t say ‘no rush’. Deadlines are as important as planning ahead – no rush to me means ‘it can be added to the bottom of my todo list, which might be full for the next week or even two weeks’. No rush to you might mean ‘probably tomorrow but happy with the next day’. Those unclear expectations and grey areas never serve either of us well, so let’s just commit to putting a timescale on most things, and the things that have no timescale can simply be ‘when you have time in the diary for me and no other work to fill it’.
9. Don’t micromanage! Being blunt, but you’re a business owner, I’m a business owner. I am self-employed and make my own decisions and I”m in control of those, as do you. You are your own boss, as am I. I’ve confidence in my ability to do a great job for you, and you don’t need to manage me. I can give you recommendations and you decide whether you do or don’t want to action them. The relationship is not one of employer and employee, we’re separate businesses working together to improve yours. I need context and being kept in the loop, and if we have anything we need to sort out, then we do that, but dictatorships ain’t boats I want to sail in!
10. Avoid brief creep. Over time, we’ll get into a flow and ways of working will develop and replace the terms of our original contract. But know that there will be a point where we will need to reassess.
11. Pay on time! It might seem a small point but it says so much about how you value our working relationship as we go forward.
