If you’re looking for an easier way to find and manage freelancers who work on your team, a comprehensive project management system is your solution. As a brand or small business owner, you might not have it in your budget to hire someone fulltime, and your workload might not require them for 40 hours per week, either.
If you’re looking to outsource a specific project, set of tasks or a short-term assignment, hiring an independent contractor or a few members on a team is a great option.
But where do you start?
First, the goal is to find a group of qualified candidates to choose from. Then, you’ll have to put systems in place that allow you to manage your new remote team member(s) effectively (we’re talking about communication tools, time trackers and ways to manage a project’s progress). Lastly, it’s time to pay the people who have worked on your projects.
Sometimes that last step can be really painful; what website are you supposed to use for freelancer payments? What if you’re juggling multiple freelancers with different rates? How do you know how many hours to pay them for?
The good news is that a freelance management system solves all of these problems for you. Let’s explore how your company can use project management software to create a more seamless relationship with independent contractors.
Create a Pipeline of Qualified Freelancers at Your Fingertips
Being a freelance manager is not an easy task for business owners! One of the hardest parts about hiring independent contractors and freelancers is finding someone who is qualified for the job. There is nothing worse than needing a short-term project done as soon as possible and scrambling last minute for someone – anyone – to assist you.
Avoid the last-minute race for help by utilizing a great project management system. A comprehensive system lets you source freelancers in bulk, then save their profiles, payment information and contact details so they are ready to go as soon as your next proposal is signed. Now that sounds a lot easier, doesn’t it?
Tips for Finding a Great Freelancer: Choose quality over whoever can do the job cheapest. Remember, you often get what you pay for! If you want someone to take your project seriously and provide quality work, you need to be willing to pay for someone’s expertise.
Easily Stay on Top of Your Project’s Budget
With the right freelance management system, long gone are the days of putting together a budget and praying your costs stay on track when all the work is said and done.
A project management system lets you track every expense of your project – from the hours you clocked doing admin work to the individual invoices of all your independent contractors – throughout the entire journey. No more guessing games.
This also means you can reevaluate expenses at any point, if needed, and come up with cost-cutting measures before the budget has been totally blown.
Tips to Better Manage Your Project’s Budget: Don’t forget to calculate time being spent on each task as an expense. Regardless if you’re paying freelancers by the hour or via a retainer, their time is your money. Let’s dive into this a bit more, below.
Understand Exactly Where Everyone’s Time is Being Spent
As a business owner or freelance manager, it’s vital to properly track and manage people’s time.
This isn’t about micromanaging your new team members or being a time tyrant, it’s about knowing where to implement more or less resources and having a better understanding of the scope of your projects. For example, if you only allotted 10 hours towards a project but your freelancer has spent more than double that and they’re still not finished, you’re going to be glad they were tracking their time so you can evaluate what’s going on.
Tips for Better Time Management: Be sure to have your freelancers track time for things like company calls, lunches and any travel time associated with the project. Again, this will help you continue to find more efficient ways for communicating, collaborating and doing business with your team.
Deliver Freelancer Payments with the Click of a Button
Figuring out the most efficient way to pay your freelancers can feel like an art form. This is where a project management system can really shine. Through an easy-to-use dashboard, creating payments for your freelance team is no longer a major pain in the butt.
You can offer payment via ACH, Debit Card, Credit Card, and even person-to-person transfers. A great system, like Spera, will also let you migrate your time tracking reports into invoices, making the process even more seamless.
Tips for Deploying Easier Payments: Do away with lost Paypal invoices and emailing back and forth. Choose a system that lets you set up and manage preferred payment settings for your freelancers, like which day each month to process invoices. This will save both you and your independent contractors time each month and make the payment process much quicker.
Make the Onboarding Process as Easy as Pie
A freelance management system can help you become more organized from the get-go and allow kicking off new projects to be as easy as possible. The right project management software will offer a client portal where you can keep your team in the loop about a projects’ details and up to date on all the documents that are needed – no more emailing back and forth and unnecessary phone calls.
Tips for a Simpler Onboarding Process: Pick a project management system that lets you upload a variety of file types so you can avoid piecemealing your processes and house all the documents they’ll need in one area.
Begin Using a Project Management System Today to Make Working with Freelancers Easier Than Ever
The brand-freelancer relationship doesn’t have to be challenging.
Spera’s project management system allows freelance managers to get work done more effectively and freelancers to get paid seamlessly. Manage, collaborate with and pay freelancers through a comprehensive system that allows your brand to operate smoothly and professionally.
Explore our project management software offerings including file storing and sharing, customized invoicing and time tracking tools, today.
