While it’s good fun being a lone gunman, there are some drawbacks to not having a team on your side. Schedules, pipelines and professional relationships can be challenging to manage, but these are just a few of the tasks that freelancers have to juggle every day, on our own. I invite prospective clients (of any freelancer!) to give some thought to the following guidelines:
- Respect one another. I will be respectful of your time and expertise, and I ask that you reciprocate. And an unexpected silence can be just as problematic as a midnight email. Projects often over-run; this can’t always be helped. But stress can be mitigated by expressing goodwill.
- Practice consistent communcation. Please keep me regularly informed about what’s going on. You might be surprised how many clients leave us out of important meetings, or don’t tell us about changes to the brief or deadlines until it’s too late. In return, I’ll let you know if anything changes on my side.
- The best work comes from strong, long-lasting bonds. Let’s make it a relationship. The freelancer doesn’t have to be an emergency stop-gap; many of us like to feel included in your team. Smart people can always learn new things – switching up staff regularly isn’t always the answer.