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Hiring a freelance team can be a huge asset to growing your business. But it also brings many challenges for entrepreneurs.
With most of the world moving to partially freelance and remote work, shifting to this model requires entrepreneurs to carefully deduce how they will manage a freelance (often remote) team.
The tools required to overcome the challenges of working with a freelance team can be broken into two types.
The first would be the extra technical tools required to manage a freelance team. This will include productivity software, project management systems, and communication channels.
Unlike traditional staff, freelancers flourish when they are tied to a specific goal and well-defined tasks. Once the goals are set, give them the flexibility to work by defining timelines and delivery dates.
To help you out, we’ve compiled 3 strategies that you can include in your project management toolkit when you’re working with a freelance team.
Setting Goals And Timelines
When working with a freelance team, managers need to take the time to define achievable goals for each team member and link these to a timeline for completion. Doing so will help to manage your team more efficiently and streamline your business development plan. Setting goals and timelines will also help your asses the work of the team and when they can progress to the next task in the pipeline.
However, before defining timelines and goals it is also important to schedule an all-team meeting with your team members and ask them for their honest assessments of how achievable the outlined goals are. Having everyone on the same page will help you avoid future problems such as missing work deadlines and poor productivity.
Using The Right Software
When it comes to efficiently managing a freelance team, finding the right software can be the solution to most of your problems. Software solutions that are specifically designed for remote and freelance teams can be broadly classified into two types: those that facilitate communication and those that aim to organize tasks and projects.
The first category includes communication platforms such as Slack. Such software provides an advantage over email and messaging as it allows you to quickly and easily set up groups and channels and assign them to particular projects.
The second category provides project management tools and solutions. These will help you assign tasks to team members and check the status of the same. There are many options available for freelancers today, the most popular are:
- Trello
- Freshworks
- Wrike
- OpenProject
Less Talk More Work
Most of the software mentioned above is designed to facilitate easier communication within your freelance team. While communication is important when it comes to managing freelance employees, it need not be the solution to enhancing productivity.
That’s the thing you need to be mindful of when scheduling meetings with your freelance team. Always consider whether a meeting is truly the best way to get something done. Especially when you are just starting your business, having back-to-back meetings without an end goal can take valuable time from getting things done.
Give your team the tools for easy communication and encourage them to talk to each other, without burdening them with unnecessary, prolonged meetings.
Conclusion
All of the above strategies are important when managing a freelance team or any team for that matter. If you’re a budding entrepreneur seeking to grow your business, hiring your first freelancer brings both opportunity and risk. Getting it right the first time is critical, and with the tips above you should be able to do that.
