Being a leader is not an easy task. It involves integrity, passion, commitment and trust. Many call themselves a leader but are actually bosses. Leaders try their best to motivate, inspire and bring out the potential in their subordinates while bosses, well, rely on production rather than motivation. Their measurement of success relies only on what the worker can give, not what the worker can achieve, and this often leads to a low morale and less productive working environment. So if you are a young entrepreneur and dream of making your Startup a successful one, you should take care and manage your freelancers the right way. Be a leader, not a boss.
Freelancers are actually beneficial to Startup businesses. They have much experience on almost anything, have a lot of ideas and can troubleshoot problems in certain areas and fields without you knowing about it. The problem is how do you develop and manage them into individuals that will bring success to your company? Well here are some surefire tips that will make your managing woes easier and more productive.
- Recruitment
Everything starts at recruitment. It will be your supermarket for success and believe me there are tons of freelancers out there offering all sorts of services and skills that will they claim will help you in your business. When recruiting a freelancer, you have to consider the following:
- Skills
You can check skills by asking for a sample of their work or a recommendation from a previous employer or customer that they have worked for.
- Availability
Checking for availability can reveal if they can work on time and finish deadlines on the dot. Some freelancers may have a time difference since they are from different countries. Always check if they are comfortable working with your given hours and deadlines.
- Attitude
You can test someone’s attitude by asking how they feel about a certain situation or what choices seem to best for a problem or obstacle. This is very important because one may seem to be good at first but in the end show signs of distress and low productivity if they are not comfortable with a given task.
- Time Management
Time is really an essential factor for managing freelancers. The best option would to make them use a time tracking application to so that you can monitor their working hours. By doing so, you can see if they are efficient enough and are working on time. In the event that you see some discrepancies in their work timings, you can arrange a better work time for them that will meet your and their needs as well.
- Payment
Keeping your payment and on time is very essential in managing freelancers since they are expecting on time paychecks for meeting deadlines. Also it is important to consider the method in which they want to be paid, either by wire transfer or remittance.
- Task Management
Task management is the key to keeping track and making sure that deadlines are met on time. Do not overload one freelancer with tasks that are impossible to finish within a deadline. Divide tasks among your freelance workers so that they can focus more on the quality rather than the quantity of tasks.
- One on One Talks
Lastly, it is important to have weekly talks with your freelancers and acknowledging their achievements. This can also be room for answering inquiries and clearing up confusions with tasks at hand.
