How to Manage a Team of Freelancers

StartupNation

How to Manage a Team of Freelancers

While many entrepreneurs start out as the only employees of their company, the smart ones hire a handful of freelancers to help them do more faster.

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JDG

I've worked as a freelancer for a couple of years and now I am starting with my own agency, I can say that the paragraph titled "Manage expectations with clear communication" it has, in a single line, two elements that are the most important about working with freelancers: Clear expectations and clear communication. Those elements may save you a lot of issues, a lot of time, and a lot of money!

AlexK

There are no problems to manage the team of freelancers while working remotely. One of the most important things, however, is to build your dream team. How to achieve success? Stay always smart?

Mary_Key

I've worked for a number of Marketing/Strategy/PR and even Design firms that work as virtual agencies. They usually have a few people on staff and everyone else is freelance. They don't feed me work for a cut, they usually hire me to work on a project that they are pitching, or have.

Here's some things you might consider

• Account/Project Manager, someone needs to be at the center of the project, to do budgets, calendars, coordinate meetings etc

• Meeting space (preferably with doughnuts)

• Consistent conference call number, fussing with conference calls on a regular phone is annoying as heck

• Online calendar (google calendar is great)

• Collaborative file storage so that everyone has access to work files (dropbox seems to be the standard)

• Pantone books (it's surprising how often you need them)

• Standard set of paperwork that everyone fills out before they work for you

• Timekeeping protocol

Blazho Gjorgiev

VA infrastructure is the best way to achieve this.You need just discipline and good plan ,thats all about it.

LouBerry

Really good insights! Having an online platform where you can see  One of my colleagues wrote a similar article about the Top 10 Remote Team Management Mistakes to Avoid. Would love to hear what you guys think about.

Mike95

Effective communication and collaboration are much needed for the success of a remote freelance team. Since the advantage of smart technologies and applications makes easier for it. Tools like Skype, Slack, Trello, etc are a few tools which help these people to work smarter and easier. 

engagement123

Thanks Susan for a terrific article. I'm currently working on putting together a team of freelancers so this article was right on time.