The Responsibilities of a Freelancer
Freelancing provides a lot of freedom which can feel very…well…freeing! But there are some responsibilities freelancers have to uphold in order to build their business, serve their clients well, and be good members of the freelancing community. Make sure you take care of these five responsibilities in your freelance business and you’ll be setting a good foundation for business growth and low-stress client relationships that last.
Be a Good Host
This concept was taught to me when I first learned how to facilitate workshops for students in leadership organizations and it carried over beautifully into my time as a high school teacher as well. But what does it mean to be a good host and how in the world does that relate to freelancing?
Think about it as if you are hosting a dinner party (something I have never actually done in real life!) When you tell your guests about your dinner party, you as a host have responsibilities to them to help the evening be enjoyable. Those entail communicating clearly with your guests, providing structure and boundaries for the time they are in your home, reading the room, and having good integrity toward your guests.
Communicate Clearly
For a dinner party you tell guests when to come to your party, where it is, how they should dress, what to bring with them, and what will occur during the time they are in your home. When working with a freelance client, you have the same responsibilities to clearly communicate what working with you will be like. How will they be billed? What is included in the price? When will the project be complete? What can they expect to receive upon completion of the project? How often will you check in with them? Answering these questions before they are asked helps you present yourself very professionally and keeps you both on the same page so miscommunications are less likely to come up.
Provide Structure and Boundaries
When you invite guests into your home, there are social norms that most people know to uphold, such as not going into rooms with closed doors, not opening your fridge and helping themselves, or excusing themselves to answer phone calls. Many people who hire freelancers have never done so before, so they don’t know have an understanding of the social norms for working with a freelancer. It’s your job to let them know what the boundaries and structure of your working relationship is. Let them know when and how it is acceptable for them to communicate with you, when you will bill them and how, and what the steps or phases of the project you are working on together will be. This will help them not to worry about how things will work or if they will get what they are paying for. Showing them from the very beginning how you will work together and what to expect gives them peace knowing you will take good care of them.
Read the Room
At a dinner party, if the conversation starts to stall, you might suggest a game. When you communicate with your clients, are you really listening to what they say? Are you allowing them time to talk and voice their concerns or feedback? If not, you could damage the client relationship. Always remember that the work you are doing is on someone else’s business, so it is natural that they are passionate about it. If they constantly have unanswered questions, chances are they won’t enjoy working with you much and will find someone they can connect to more. It can be a challenge, but communicating clearly in a way that your client understands affords you the opportunity to continue to work with them.
Demonstrate Integrity
If a guest at your dinner party wants to know how you made the potato salad and you actually bought it at the store, it can be very tempting to conceal that information. We all want to look good in front of others and showcase our most competent skills. When working with freelance clients, showing integrity, even if it creates difficult conversations is of utmost importance. We won’t even address the values and morals of the situation. If we look at this purely from a business perspective, you need to build trust with your client. Telling half truths or taking the easy way out of “they didn’t ask, so I won’t tell” is a good way to destroy your relationship with a client, and the businesses of freelancers everywhere.
As a freelancer, the work you do reflects all freelancers. It is very common for clients to hire a freelancer and have a bad experience and assume all freelancers operate this way. Because of this, we have to work to hold each other accountable and create a better reputation for the freelance industry as a whole so we can continue to access opportunities with clients. So if something changes in how you need to bill a client or how you will provide services with them, have the conversation with them up front. Don’t wait until the end and give them a surprise bill or inaccurately bill them. Don’t give them half of what you promised. Communicate clearly, openly, and honestly throughout the project. After all, business of all kinds - not just freelancing - is built on relationships. Whether you work with this business for one month or for 6 years, the relationship you build with them can impact you and them for a lifetime.
2. Continuous Learning
As a freelancer, it is always beneficial to you to continue to expand your skills and learn new things. The more you learn, the better you can serve your clients and the more efficiently you can work. This benefits you by allowing you to provide more value with less time at the same price, and also serves your client as they have access to better value. Freelancing is a quickly evolving industry. If you aren’t able to provide the services to your client that they need or want, then they will find someone else who can. So always be seeking new ways to learn and telling your client about them so they turn to you first, before seeking other help for what they need.
3. Sell Your Services
To put it simply, if you can’t sell your services, you don’t have a business. Selling is one of the most challenging parts of freelancing for most people. We didn’t become freelancers to be salesmen. We became freelancers to do what we love! But selling is a necessary part of building your business. The sooner you accept that and work on your sales skills, the better off you will be. The good news is that as you get your first few contracts signed, you can breathe a sigh of relief and know that you don’t have to sell ALL the time.
I personally don’t like selling and have built my business in a model that allows me to have to focus on this less. I do this by prioritizing reoccurring, long-term clients. This has allowed me to only sell when I want to grow and focus more of my effort on actually serving my clients. If this is something you are interested in doing in your own business, please make sure you sign up for our email list as we’ll be releasing training on how to do this in your own business soon!
4. Analyze Results
If you are a marketing freelancer like me, analyzing results is incredibly important. You can set up a lot of systems when you start working with clients to accurately measure and track the results of your projects with them. Communicating progress on these results and how to adjust their strategies based on the numbers you see is incredibly valuable to your clients. But reflecting on your work is important no matter what type of freelancer you are. A good way to do this is to identify goals or benchmarks at the beginning of the project and then at the end, circle back to those goals and see if you met them. If you didn’t, why not? What can you do differently next time? Evaluating your project may not always mean changing something you are doing, by the way. Sometimes, it means you need to change how you are describing your service in order to more clearly represent it to your client.
5. Plan for Profit
Lastly, you must plan for profit from the very beginning. When you are starting freelancing, this is not the time to be giving your time away for free. You must know your numbers and how much money you need to bring in to be profitable and to reach your income goals. Design your business around these numbers from Day 1. If you don’t set yourself up for profit from the start, you won’t have the opportunity to continue to serve clients because you will constantly be worried about making ends meet. So, take care of your finances and know that down the road you will have plenty of opportunities to donate your time and services to causes you care about after your business is established.
You can learn more about pricing your services and planning for profit in this blog: 3 Pricing Mistakes Freelancers Make
More Content for Freelancers:
Planning Your Freelancer Daily Routine for Work-Life Balance
The Only 3 Things You Need to Start Freelancing
Freelancers Guide to Busting Burnout
