There’s no getting around it… you operate a little differently than the last person who hired your freelancer to do a job.
Your freelancer has no doubt dealt with all sorts of managerial styles, personality quirks and expectations.
Because of this and because everyone needs something a little different from the same freelancer – it’s your job to make your expectations clear so that there’s no guesswork required on the freelancer’s behalf.
This starts with you signing agreements with your freelancers.
In some cases, your freelancer may have an agreement that he or she asks you to sign. If not, then you may want to draw up a formal agreement (with the help of your attorney), which will define your business relationship.
This agreement may include:
- The scope of the project for which you’re hiring the freelancer to complete.
Example: If you’re hiring a writer to create a pack of 10 articles, you should list the title, topic and word count for each article.
Payment terms. Not only should you list how much you’re paying for this project, but also how and when you’ll be paying.
Example: Perhaps you’re paying half upfront with the remainder due within 48 hours of delivery of the completed project.
- Deadlines. Naturally, you’ll have an overall delivery deadline for the project. However, if it’s a large project than you’re also likely to have “milestone” deadlines.
Example: You may have deadlines for the outline, the first chapter, the first one third of the project, the second one third, the final one third and then the final (proofed and polished) project.
Note: Keep in mind that you CAN’T just arbitrarily set payment terms, deadlines and other details in a unilateral way. These are issues that you must discuss with your freelancer first.
Once you come to an agreement on these issues, then you can put the agreement in writing and sign it (both of you). As such, not only does the agreement make your expectations clear with regards to the scope of the project, but it protects both you and your freelancer in case of a dispute.
Example: When you invite a new freelancer (or outsourced worker) into OutVeo and give them a staff member account you include their hourly rate, the payment terms and what the deadlines are. The freelancer can refer to this whenever they login to work on your projects.
Naturally, there are expectations you have that won’t be covered in a formal agreement.
And sometimes you’ll need a formal document that must be signed by both you and your freelancer.
Perhaps you prefer to get a daily update on projects rather than a weekly update. Likewise, your freelancer may even have expectations with regards to his business relationship with you.
As such, you need to talk about these expectations upfront so you know what to expect of one another.
Note: One note, however: Even if you talk about these expectations on the phone or via Skype, be sure to put them in writing (in an email). Not as a formal agreement; rather, you should put them in writing just so that your freelancer can easily review them from time to time.
These notes can easily be added to OutVeo once your freelancer has been invited as an outsourced worker. This keeps everything centralised and in one place.
One final note…
While you should make your expectations clear, don’t attempt to micro-manage your freelancers.
That is, don’t try to dictate exactly how he does his job. If you’re happy with the end result, then how he got to that result doesn’t really matter.
Example: Maybe you’ve hired a ghostwriter to create an ebook. And maybe you think the ghostwriter will complete the book in a conventional order: Research first, then do the outline, then chapter 1, then chapter 2… and so on.
However, maybe the ghostwriter completes his work in a different order. Perhaps he prefers to write the final chapter first, and then he writes chapters in random order.
It’s not the way you’d do it – but so what? If you like what he’s written – and if he’s meeting deadlines (e.g., getting one third of the book complete by a certain date) – then it’s not your job to micromanage the project or the freelancer. Remember, he’s an expert – so let him do what he does best.
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