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Sandra Arevalo
Founder & CEO
It is a common misconception to associate customer satisfaction with delivering the agreed work at the agreed time.
Besides those two critical aspects, there are many more considered by clients (and specifically asked for by freelancing marketplaces) when they rate the experience of working with you.
Among them, the most common are:
If you analyse the above list, not even half of the aspects have something to do with your hard skills (yes! despite those skills that made you decide to offer freelance services!).
Developing soft skills (like availability, communication, cooperation and professionalism) requires a broad social interaction in professional setups. You started learning them by interacting with your family members at home, with your colleagues at school and during the exercise of your professional career.
Although those skills will continue to develop throughout your lifetime, you’ll have to make some adjustments to apply them in virtual interactions with new clients. Thanks, COVID-19, for forcing us to accelerate the use of virtual meeting platforms and asynchronous communication tools, being more conscious of the required setup to have good visuals and sound.
The second set of evaluation aspects (delivering the work at the right quality, at the right time and within the assigned budget) are mid-way between soft and hard skills. They closely correlate with the variables that constitute the pillars of project management.
Life-changing training programs designed for freelancers who want to work from anywhere in the world
How to do it?
The basis lies in the complete understanding of the project objectives associated with defined tasks to complete at specific times.
Tracing a project plan with the customer before signing the contract will ensure that you are aligned at the critical points to define realistic timelines and budgets.
With the program agreed and the contract signed, the time to execute as promised has arrived. A tool to manage the project will give you good visibility of the progress, allowing you to identify the roadblocks and potential deviations with enough time in advance to react and look for alternatives.
There are many project management tools on the market. But, which one is the best? The simple answer is the one that best responds to the needs of each remote team. If you choose to combine several tools, it is essential to check that they can work together efficiently.
Beware customers may be using a tool already. Your adaptability will make a difference to merge with the team seamlessly. The more tools you know, the easier the kick-off will be.
Here our selection of the most popular tools. Take your time to explore them further are needed:
The idea behind Trello is deceptively simple. It replicates a Kanban board, but you can see the information also as cards or lists. With Trello, a team can quickly visualise the status of a project and any outstanding tasks. In addition, it allows integration and automation focused on relieving the burden of administrative duties in project management, such as updating delivery dates or sending emails. Trello has been the tool of choice by independent workers and 100% remote teams like Wisar.
is one of the veterans of the online project management tools. Since its launch in 1999, they have accumulated 3 million users, among which are the teams at Quartz and Shopify. That experience has allowed them to create a complete, useful, and user-centred tool. There are lists of tasks, messages, calendars, document and file management, chat, notifications and reports. It is even possible to give the client limited access to share lists of tasks and messages.
the teams can start with a project template or create their custom workflow. Jira issues, also known as tasks, track each work that passes through the workflow steps to completion. Jira’s automation engine enables teams to automate tasks and processes easily. With all project information in one place, reports can also be generated to track progress, productivity and ensure nothing slips.
It is a flexible and adaptable workspace to create virtually anything. Its objective is to centralise all work in one application, being a widely-used tool by both freelancers and companies with teams working remotely. You can create lists of tasks and visualise them in one click as a calendar or as a Kanban board. It also allows you to create spreadsheets and databases, notes, documents, and wikis to document projects and processes.
an open platform that brings teams together with custom-built solutions to break communication barriers, move projects forward, and align everyone involved. Easily access all progress updates, budget approvals, and more on one platform and see where all of your team’s work stands at a glance.
With specific project management functions, it allows you to create a list of tasks and add reminders, view a project calendar and a Kanban board with all pending and completed tasks. It also has its version of Gantt charts. Asana has been the tool of choice by companies like Airbnb and Typeform.
includes all the features needed to plan, collaborate, organise, and deliver projects on time. It helps teams work together with all the tools put under one roof; no wonder companies like Netflix, Google, Tripadvisor, Nike (and even NASA) have decided to use it.
Many other project management tools on the market cover the specific needs of teams with remote workers. Check this list of the more than 1,000 options available in 2021.
With this post, and before the well-deserved summer break, we close the series of focused actions to support your success as a freelancer. Stay tuned for the next series dedicated to wellbeing and the work-life balance of freelancers.
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