Learn a better setup for a freelancer / client relationship
At a previous full-time job, they made everyone take an emotional intelligence course. It was actually one of the best mandated courses I’ve ever taken.
It taught me how to recognize my own reactions to work situations and how to manage and/or diffuse them successfully. It was the only course I ever recommended to my staff when I became a senior manager.
Now that I’ve been a freelancer for a decade plus, I feel like we need a “freelancer intelligence” course too. Instead of EQ (emotional quotient or intelligence), there should be FQ, freelancer intelligence.
Defining FQ
EQ is the “ability to identify and manage one’s own emotions, as well as the emotions of others.”
FQ should be similarly defined, as the “ability to identify and manage one’s own work and that of freelancers they hire.”
That means knowing your workflow, how your company hires and pays external contractors/resources, understanding the tools that best accomplish this.
It also means understanding that your freelancer is not at your beck and call. They’re not sitting at their desk, twiddling their thumbs, waiting for you to assign them a project.
You are one of many clients to a freelancer and they will treat you accordingly. Your freelancer is one of many to you, if you’re a manager, director, etc. at your company. You don’t sit behind everyone on your team and micromanage everything they do, do you? (Please tell me you don’t? If you do, stop immediately and seek remedial management courses.)
If you’ve got a good FQ radar, you’ll know how to manage your own things to a degree you can delegate to a freelancer and trust them to get the job done.
How I manage my own FQ
From my perspective as a freelancer, I have an ideal setup that I use in all relationships if I can.
- Minimal to no calls (work happens via email or Slack)
- I know your style, you know mine
- We work regularly together (retainer or just regular ad hoc projects)
- I have multiple clients I work with regularly every month
- We trust each other to do their work
- I understand my client’s business & tech context and use it as needed
- I have a tech stack that includes LLMs as creative aids
I use all of this FQ to run an efficient one-person freelancing copywriting business that keeps me busy and fulfilled.
My clients use many of these FQ tactics to run an efficient freelance hiring workflow that helps them reach all their business goals with minimal fuss. Complicating the relationship leads to bad processes, missed or delayed deadlines, and one-off projects that never lead to retainer work or relationships.
Manage your FQ for better relationships
Being aware of how you work and how your freelancers work leads to the best kinds of relationships: long-term ones. Both hiring managers and freelancers like it because they know what’s expected of them and what they need to succeed. They feel comfortable pushing back and requesting precisely what they need to get the job done.
Without that knowledge, without the FQ, you’re both in a transactional relationship that benefits neither of you.