Freedom and flexibility in work: 5 tips for freelancers to succeed

A freelancer is a person who chooses his or her own work and can work on several projects at the same time. As a rule, a freelancer is a freelance employee who looks for another employer after completing tasks.

Since freelancers mostly work online, it’s safe to say that such work is extremely relevant nowadays, as it allows you to work from anywhere in the world.

And if you prefer freedom and flexibility in your work, freelancing is definitely for you. As a freelancer, you are your own boss: you decide when and where to work. But at the same time, freelancing has its own challenges: managing, communicating, and integrating into a team.

So, here are 5 management tips to help you succeed in freelancing:

Tip 1: Monitor your working hours

Freelancers have the ability to manage their time as they wish. However, when you’re focused on your work, it’s easy to lose track of the time you’ve spent on it. It also happens that sometimes a business owner can face difficulties in managing freelancers because:

• each freelancer manages their time differently;
• employees may work from different parts of the world, which means different time zones;
• everyone can use different tips for managing tasks.

In this case, manual time tracking is not the best choice. That’s why you should rely on automated time tracking. It will help you to understand how much time do you spend on a particular task.

Yaware.TimeTracker can help you with that. It is an automatic time tracking and performance evaluation system that allows you to keep track of time with minimal interference in the employee’s personal space. The software is unique among its competitors, having the following advantages:

• Automatic counting of statistics that are automatically entered into the timesheet.
• Performance analysis is the ability to see the actual workload of teams.
• Project and task management — all tasks in one place.
• Personal statistics — the ability to analyze your own performance.
• A lot of visual charts — an analysis of employee performance in just a few minutes.

With Yaware you will know:

• the duration of your employees’ meetings, conferences, and breaks;
• the level and uniformity of the workload of employees in the team;
• resources used by employees to complete tasks;
• reasons for delayed deadlines and overtimes;
• distractions that prevent employees from moving forward;
• when performing a task, what difficulties have arisen and what help is needed.

Tip 2: Ensure your presence

Freelancing requires employees to be extremely flexible. With this in mind, you should always be present during work. This doesn’t mean physical presence, but rather digital presence, which means being available and easy to reach. This is the key to working as a freelancer. Being online during business hours guarantees uninterrupted communication within the team and with clients. If you don’t manage your online presence properly, your team may face obstacles to complete the project.

There is an easy way to ensure your digital presence:

• use one messenger to communicate with the team (it can be Slack, WhatsApp, Viber, or Telegram);
• turn on notifications during business hours;
• active participation in the team’s communication channels.

Tip 3: Set clear goals

It’s so important to understand your own goals and expectations, but it’s also so difficult to do so. Realistic goals are key because it’s easy to confuse your expectations when you’re thinking about short-term gains. So, you should only move forward with clear and realistic goals — this will help you achieve the desired result.

Remember that the goal setting stage has a significant impact on the development of a project or your career. Ideally, they should be based on long-term expectations. When setting goals, you should consider your financial and career opportunities. Discuss the details and tactics you can use to achieve the desired result with your employer.

Tip 4: Don’t forget about signing a contract

Is it worth signing a contract for a freelance position? Definitely, yes!

Written confirmation of your responsibilities is a guarantee of your safety. It’s better to have a contract with a client or company, because there are times when you deliver a job well done or a project that the client criticizes and refuses to pay for. The contract must specify what standards the project must meet, which will help avoid any disputes. And yes, electronic signatures exist, so signing a contract remotely is not a problem.

Of course, the scope of projects varies and some of them require more work than planned. But in such cases, time tracking software can be useful. This way, you’ll be fairly compensated for the work you’ve done.

Tip 5: Provide access to reviews of previous clients to new ones

Testimonials are crucial for clients’ decisions to choose you as a specialist, their satisfaction, your reputation, and the reputation of your company. This is important for any field of activity, but it’s especially important for freelancers. After all, when face-to-face human contact is not possible, it is the reviews that can help make a good impression of you as a specialist and allow you to get the desired work.

Providing feedback from previous clients shows transparency, and transparency in your work is an indicator of healthy client relationships. Make sure you are open and willing to provide feedback from your previous clients to new ones. In short, feedback is one of the main ways to connect with customers.