Outsource

Using Tools To Manage Freelancers

In today’s article, I’ll share a few resources and tools that will make it easy to manage a team of freelancers.

By the way, this is a continuation of another article about the Power Of Outsourcing which can be found here.

OK, let’s look at some useful tools that you can use to get the best out of your outsourced teams.

Cloud-Based Systems

You may decide that it makes sense to use a cloud-based content management system to manage your freelancers.

Asana is an awesome tool for project management as well as managing your team based on tasks and deadlines.

You can find that here: https://www.Asana.com

The benefit of cloud-based systems is that you and your freelancing team can access them from anywhere.

One of the reasons I like Asana is that they offer a free app for users, too.

You can use cloud-based systems to:

Grant access to your regular team and freelancers
Set up projects
Assign work
Track progress

In other words, they provide you with an easy way to track and manage multiple projects. They also give your freelancers a place to check in and deliver work.

In addition to Asana, I like Joomla and Monday.

Of course, you can also use something like Google Docs or OneDrive to share files, but they’re not complete content management systems.

Accountability

OK, now let’s talk about accountability and why it’s so important when managing a team of freelancers. In a healthy working relationship, everyone must be accountable for their work.

With freelancers, one of the best ways to create accountability is to include delivery milestones and deadlines within your contract.

Let’s talk about how that can work.

If you’ve got a short-term project, you may simply decide to give the freelancer a delivery date.

In writing, that might mean that you’d say:

I’ve added two new blog posts to the CMS. Those are due on April 21st by 5:00 Eastern Time.

Of course, you can include the due dates in your CMS as well.

For long-term projects, you should break down deliverables into milestones.

For example, if you hire a freelancer to redesign your website, you might have the following deliverables:

Design concepts, including themes, colors, and fonts
Home page mockup
Full site mockup
Beta site
Final site

Each milestone should include a due date and a payment.

This method allows you maximum control over deliverables while making it clear what the freelancer’s duties are.

The final element of accountability has to do with the consequences of not being accountable. It’s important to spell out what will happen if a freelancer misses a deadline or milestone.

Your expectations should be spelled out in the contract and reinforced in every interaction you have with your team.

That doesn’t mean you’ll need to mention accountability and consequences every time you speak. It simply means that your actions should always be clear and consistent.

If you communicate well, provide freelancers with the tools they need to excel, and hold yourself and your team accountable, you’ll be able to get the best possible work from the freelancers you hire.

OK, now let’s recap what you need to pay close attention to in order to build a successful team that will take your business to the next level.

Outsourcing Check List

OK, to recap, the things you need to do to build a successful team of freelancers include all of the following:

First, identify the work and projects that are suitable for outsourcing and determine where you need the most help. Take your time with this! Don’t even think about hiring freelancers until you know exactly how you’ll utilize their talent and skills to further your business goals.
Write a job description that’s clear and compelling, making sure to spell out the qualifications necessary for the job. The more information you provide, the better. Be as direct as possible, including your expectations. This will minimize the number of unqualified candidates that apply for your job, leaving you free to focus on the people who will help you grow your business.
Accept quotes and qualify the freelancers who respond, making sure to ask for samples, check references, conduct a Skype interview, and conduct due diligence before choosing your team.
Create contracts for every freelancer that outline important terms including privacy, milestones, payments, and termination methods.
Ask the freelancer to sign a non-disclosure agreement. Remember, you can do this before you even begin discussing the terms or details of your project. While you’ll need to provide them with a basic outline of the tasks you’re looking to outsource, you don’t have to give specific details until after the NDA is signed.
Provide your team of freelancers with the communication, tools, and accountability measures to deliver excellent work. Consider creating a SLACK channel so you can better manage and communicate with your team.

Regardless of how hard we may try to convince ourselves not to outsource, the bottom line is that delegating important tasks to qualified professionals is simply the fastest way to grow your business and skyrocket your income.

There’s another reason why outsourcing is important: when you try to do it all, you’re taking 2 big risks.

The first is that some tasks and projects won’t be done as well as they well as they could be if you had more time, or the necessary training. This could lead to distributing inferior products or low-quality content that won’t help move the needle.

The second risk, and it’s a big one, is that you’ll simply burn out and not be able to stay on top of your market.

No matter how many skills are in your arsenal, or how many years of experience you have, there are always tasks that can (and should) be done by seasoned professionals. As the old saying goes, just because you can do it yourself doesn’t mean you should.

Well, there is a lot more to be learnt about outsourcing for efficiency; far more than can be covered in this short post, but if you’d like to know more about this, then click on the featured resource below where you can pick up a free report that covers this topic in more detail. Download it, read it and take action 😊

The Power Of Outsourcing

There’s no doubt about it: outsourcing important tasks to qualified freelancers is the easiest way to free up your time and resources while being able to focus on the things that matter most.

And it helps you to work on your business rather than in your business, which means you have a good overall view of what your business is doing and the direction you want to take it, rather than getting bogged down in everyday tasks that you really shouldn’t be doing.

But outsourcing is more than just time management and being able to spend more time doing what you enjoy.

By hiring qualified professionals, you’re able to tap into new markets, expand your outreach and test new products and ideas that you may otherwise not be able to develop on your own.

Think about the countless businesses that have benefited by hiring app developers, or companies that outsource all of their brand-building and marketing campaigns so they can focus on brainstorming new avenues and products.

We’re all good at some things and not-so-great at other tasks associated with our business so it only makes sense to hand over the reins to someone who can do a better job then we can.

That doesn’t mean that you’re giving up control of your business. Your freelancers will work behind the scenes for you, at your discretion. They will follow your lead and work hard to get the job done – with no credit.

Yet you reap all the rewards.

Now, let’s look at the importance of utilizing contracts in order to protect yourself and your business. You need to read this before you even consider hiring a freelancer.

Contracts That Protect You

Before you seek out potential candidates to fulfil the gaps in your business, you need to make sure you have all your ducks in a row – starting with contracts.

Contracts, such as NDA (non-disclosure agreements) ensure that your information, ideas or discussions are kept private and that freelancers aren’t able to discuss or share any part of your project with other potential partners or employers.

This is not only important when it comes to hiring authors and writers to develop content where you wouldn’t want them to share that work as samples for future positions, but it’s also important regardless of the type of freelancer you hire.

You want to make sure that all your ideas and creative output is protected and that whatever you discuss with freelancers remains confidential.

Many people make the mistake of thinking that NDA’s are only assigned once you have hired a freelancer when in reality, you can easily require a potential freelancer to sign an NDA before you even begin discussing the project or the possibility of them joining your team.

Here are a few resources I recommend if you’re looking for pre-made contracts and NDA’s that you can customize to suit your needs:

https://www.jotform.com/pdf-templates/contract

https://www.legalcontracts.com/

Keep in mind that these are templates designed to give you an outline but aren’t necessarily entirely applicable to your business. You should eliminate clauses that don’t apply to you or add new clauses as necessary before you ask anyone to sign them.

Next let’s look at the importance of properly managing a team.

Managing Your Outsourcing Team

You’ve assembled a team of skilled freelancers and you’re ready to put them to work.

What’s next?

Teamwork! Your freelancers will only do a great job for you if you manage them properly and build a cohesive team that includes you, your full-time employees, and your freelancers.

In this section, I’ll explain some of the key strategies you can use to manage your freelance team members and maximize productivity.

Communication

The key to managing any team is communication. It’s one of the most important leadership skills to have. Without it, your other skills and strategies won’t amount to much.

With it, you can do anything.

It’s important to set up lines of communication for you and your team members. Here are a few suggestions that you may find useful:

Create expectations for communication by email.

For example, you might let your team members know that you expect them to respond within one business day when you send them an email.

Set up an online messaging board or use a content management system like Asana to assign work, exchange notes, and track the progress of each freelancer and their assignments.
Schedule a weekly conference call or Skype to check in and make sure that your team members have what they need.

That takes care of the organizational part of communication, but I also want to talk about the kind of casual communication that rarely gets discussed, so let’s look at that now.

The Importance Of Open Communication

In the previous section we were talking about how to effectively manage a team of freelancers, but can you guess what one of the most common reasons that projects get delayed or deadlines aren’t met?

Lack of acknowledgement!

When a freelancer delivers work to you, always acknowledge it.

Make sure you let them know that you got it, and if you won’t be reading or reviewing it immediately, make sure they know that, too.

It’s also a good idea to give feedback on the work you receive even if you don’t have any changes.

Every freelancer appreciates that kind of communication and believe it or not, it’s rare.

Finally, you should also let your freelancers know that you (or someone you designate) can be available to answer questions at their request.

What you don’t want is freelancers who are second-guessing themselves or you, feeling adrift because you haven’t responded, or wondering what you think of their work.

While you don’t want to spend too much time micro-managing your freelancers, it’s important that you open up a channel of communication and that you stay available during projects.

If you want a structured system for this to make it easier to manage, consider adding your team to a SLACK channel so that you can communicate both individually and as a team.

You can also set up a schedule so that your freelancers know when you’re available and when you’re not.

Outsource To Better Efficiency

Humans are lousy multitaskers. Too many people claim to be great at it, but the truth is they are not. They are fooling themselves. If they take on too many tasks, the result is they either don’t get anything done, or they have to cut corners in an attempt to get everything done.

Buddhists believe you should concentrate all your efforts on one task and become great at it. You will do it better than everyone else. It doesn’t matter what the task is or how small. Just do your best to get it done using all of your efforts.

There is a way, however, to multitask that will lead to efficiency gains. You can outsource some of your tasks. Outsourcing has exploded onto the scene in the past decade and is a great way to leverage your time.

You can get multiple tasks completed in a fraction of the time and depending on the quality of the outsourcers, it will be done correctly.

The good news is you can be selective on who you choose for your outsourcing. If one doesn’t work out, you simply ask them to correct their mistakes, or you don’t use them again. When you find a great team of outsourcers, you become an unstoppable force.

More companies are adopting the approach of outsourcing. Many companies are outsourcing entire departments where this makes sense. Why fund a credit department when there is a company that can do it for you?

The same is true for payroll, IT, and a host of other company functions. You don’t worry about salaries or benefits when you do this. You simply pay a fee for services based on your agreement with them.

Depending on the size of your company and the services that you are outsourcing, you can save a significant amount of money when you do this.

Some companies are even allowing their employees to outsource portions of their duties, where it makes sense to do this. For instance, web programmers are not typically known to be good designers. The company either doesn’t have a graphic design department or the group is booked solid with work for other groups. Outsourcing the design can solve this dilemma and give the project the right look and feel.

Of course, you will need to manage the outsourcers, and that often includes getting the specifications right for what you want to be accomplished. But, this is a skill like any other and is something you will get better with over time.

Can Efficiency Experts Help Your Business?

You read that being more efficient will make your company more competitive. That seems to make sense, at least from a theoretical perspective.

You accept the premise and decide to hire an efficiency expert to evaluate and recommend improvements to your business.

It seems like the right thing to do, but how do you go about finding experts who are qualified? This activity seems as though it can contain subjective judgments.

If you are not familiar with what efficient measures are, you are at the mercy of the expert. This is true with most experts in any field. However, efficiency experts are likely to be expensive.

The first step when considering any candidate is to get some information about them. This could take a bit of detective work. It may require you to reach out to other companies who have used the candidates and are satisfied with their results.

This may be easier said than done as many businesses remain tight-lipped about services or companies they use to improve their operations. They either want you to believe they didn’t hire anyone, or they don’t want you to have access to the same people who helped them. Thus, they simply won’t respond to your inquiries.

At the very least, find out how long the company you are considering has been in business. Is the company new? If so, this won’t give you confidence in the company’s experience. When you find companies who have been around for a while, ask them about any special licensing they can show you or high-level certifications they have obtained. Try to find out if these credentials are common for this type of service.

Try to gather up as much information as you can online. If there are complaints, you can be certain you’ll find them via search. If there are only a few complaints, it could be competitors who are bashing the company for the sake of keeping them from getting sales.

However, if there are many complaints, this could be a good indication to stay clear away from the company.

You want to be able to measure significant efficiency improvements with any expert you decide to use. Make sure you are comfortable with what constitutes improvement and insist on guarantees.

As mentioned, this service is going to be expensive, so you need to be able to recapture the costs through successful implementation of his or her advice.

Does Your Company Need A Silo Coordinator?

Do you know what a silo coordinator is? You probably don’t because it’s a made-up title. However, this doesn’t mean that it shouldn’t be considered as a job for many companies.

It’s likely the company you work for, is divided into departments or what is sometimes referred to as silos. Departments become autonomous over time.

This can be a problem when departments need to depend on each other to get their jobs done.

A silo coordinator, for lack of a better term, could help bridge the gap between the autonomy that exists within groups. Without one, groups are left to their own vices when trying to use the services of other departments.

While groups manage to get by coordinating activities with other groups, problems can slow the process down, which makes an organization less efficient. For example, what happens when a department with critical resources is booked up and unavailable?

Other groups may complain to their respective managers, but those managers don’t have much pull in helping resolve the situation.

Enter silo coordinators. They can step in and bring up these types of issues to upper management. They will already have relationships with these higher managers, and they will be expected to reach out whenever needed. They won’t be accused of going over the heads of departments because that is their job.

When there are conflicts and problems between groups, the coordinators will step in and try to mediate the situation. After hearing all sides of the arguments, they can come up with a solution that can help move the groups forward.

Companies will need to give authority to these coordinators. Otherwise, they become figureheads who will only serve to placate the groups. This makes the entire concept of coordination fail.

If they don’t have the power, they simply are another layer of management that gets in the way of the process.

It’s probably a good idea to have multiple silo coordinators so that favoritism of groups doesn’t become a problem or at least it doesn’t become prevalent. Of course, you don’t want too many coordinators as this can slow down the process as well.

Companies should probably work on coming up with better structures than silos and departments. However, because that’s the way it’s been done for a long time, this is not something that is likely to happen soon.

Until it does, silo coordinators can be a great way to manage these silos so that companies can progress.

How To Outsource Any Project In 4 Easy Steps

You’ve heard that outsourcing is a great way to grow your business (that’s true).

Because, let’s face it; you can’t do everything yourself.

While it may seem like common sense, it’s not always so easy for new entrepreneurs to acknowledge. They tell themselves that they’ll save money if they just do it all themselves.

Perhaps it’s the control freak in us who wants to stay in charge of every aspect of our business, or the frugal shopper who wants to save money by just working on projects ourselves.

There’s another reason why outsourcing is important: when you try to do it all, you’re taking 2 big risks.

The second risk, and it’s a big one, is that you’ll simply burn out and not be able to stay on top of your market.

With an outsourced team, you can get the help you need to grow your business faster than ever before, and without worrying about human resources and employment taxes.

Better yet, if you stick with hiring professionals who are experts in their field, you won’t even have to train anyone to complete the tasks you assign to them because they’ll already be experienced and ready to take on all that you have to offer.

Outsourcing is the smart way of doing business, building an established presence in your industry quickly and developing a life-long brand that stands out and apart in your niche.

Connecting to seasoned professionals gives you the leg up, allowing you to compete, head on, with some of the biggest names in your niche.

In other words, it levels out the playing field.

And while you’d like to get started right away, maybe it all seems a little overwhelming.

You’re not sure where to start or what steps to take to get the process rolling.

Good news: You can get started with outsourcing in just four easy steps. Read on…

Step 1: Determine Your Needs

Your first step is to figure out what to outsource. Ask yourself these questions:

What jobs do you need done? Here you need to evaluate all areas of your business, including: Writing, copywriting, graphics, design, programming and other technical jobs, marketing and customer service. Then draw up a list of jobs you have in each of these areas.

Is it cost-effective to outsource? First attach a dollar figure to your time (such as $50, $75, $100 or whatever your time is worth).

Then figure out how long it would take you to do a particular task. Next, multiply the hours it takes you to a complete a task by your per-hour worth.

Example: Let’s say your time is worth $75 an hour and it would take you two hours to create a graphic – that’s $150 of your time. If you can find someone to do it for less, then it is indeed cost effective to outsource the task.

Step 2: Advertise Your Job

Once you’ve figured out what tasks you need to outsource, your next step is to advertise the job in order to attract as many qualified prospective freelancers as possible.

While there are a variety of ways to do this – and you should utilize as many of these methods as possible.

One great way to do it is to post your project on a freelancing board like Fiverr, Upwork, Freelancer or Craigslist. You’re bound to attract plenty of qualified candidates!

Step 3: Choose A Vendor

At this point you’ll get to choose from among a lot of vendors. But don’t make your choice based on price alone.

Instead, you need to do your due diligence to find the most reliable freelancer who’ll get the best results for you. That means checking the freelancer’s feedback rating, testimonials, business history and portfolio.

This step takes a bit of time upfront, but it will save you a lot of time, frustration and money in the long run.

Once you’ve researched all the candidates, select the best one and hire him or her. Then move on to the next step…

Step 4: Manage The Project

Whether you get mediocre or great results is largely going to depend on what you do at this step. That’s because you need to do the following.

Provide a clear brief and instructions. Your freelancer may have some amazing talents, but mind reading probably isn’t one of them. And that’s why you need to provide a clear and accurate “no guesswork required” brief for your freelancer.

Offer protocol checklists to help your freelancer produce the best results. Secondly, you need to continue to communicate your wishes and help your freelancer do great work for you. And one way to do this is by offering a protocol checklist for each project.

At this point you’re probably thinking at the whole four-step process sounds simple enough. And you’d be right. But you may also be looking to fill in the gaps.

Example: Where can you get sample briefs and protocol checklists? How, exactly, do you do your due diligence? And what are some of the other reliable ways to find freelancers?

Well, there is a lot more to be learnt about outsourcing; far more than can be covered in this short post, but if you’d like to know more about this, then click on the featured resource below where you can pick up a free report that covers this topic in more detail. Download it, read it and take action 🙂

Outsource

Using Tools To Manage Freelancers

Using Tools To Manage Freelancers

Accountability

Outsourcing Check List

The Power Of Outsourcing

The Power Of Outsourcing

Contracts That Protect You

Managing Your Outsourcing Team

The Importance Of Open Communication

Outsource To Better Efficiency

Outsource To Better Efficiency

Can Efficiency Experts Help Your Business?

Does Your Company Need A Silo Coordinator?

How To Outsource Any Project In 4 Easy Steps

Step 1: Determine Your Needs

Step 2: Advertise Your Job

Step 3: Choose A Vendor

Step 4: Manage The Project

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