3 Ways Freelancers Can Improve Collaboration With Clients (Guest Post)

Freelancing for a living comes with its challenges. One that many freelancers struggle with is effective freelance collaboration with clients. It's not always easy to keep the lines of communication open when you aren't in the same workplace.

The chances are that if you freelance, you work from home — 86% of freelancers use their home as their workspace.

Try these tips if you'd like to improve collaboration between you and your clients.

1. Use Freelance Collaboration Tools

It's good to step back and view the big picture to understand how your communication efforts are performing. This helps you identify areas of improvement.

A process map template can help. It lets you and your team evaluate your actions and outcomes. It also makes it possible for everyone to stay productive and organized.

Fortunately, with remote work on the rise, there's a lot of freelance collaboration software available to help teams work together from a distance. Collaboration tools can keep all of your documents, schedules, deadlines, and processes in a central location. Even if you and your client are on separate continents, you can work productively.

Collaboration tools don't work just with your clients, though. They can make it easier to take care of business with your partners. It's vital to maintain clear communication with your accounting team, especially for invoicing.

Precise and accurate invoicing is essential, but your statement can also impress customers. For example, you can use an invoice generator and choose a premade template to customize. You can include your logo, photos, text, and more. 

2. Construct a Teamwork Culture

An effective way to increase your freelance collaboration ability is to make it part of your culture. Here are some starting points to consider:

• Invite feedback from clients and colleagues.

• If you have employees or team members, plan for a motivational speaker like Fleurish Freelance to discuss collaboration.

• Schedule regular meetings with your accounting team to go over bookkeeping and invoicing.

• Be transparent with clients about your workflows and processes.

When good collaboration is part of your culture, everyone you work with will know how important collaboration is to your business.

3. Keep Your Deadlines

Most projects are like a chain; each component is a link, and they must stay connected to keep the chain strong and working. 

Your project is one link in a client's project chain. The customer depends on you to do your part. A missed deadline or communication breakdown can weaken your link and jeopardize your project.

Luckily, good communication isn't a problem if you have built a collaboration culture. Your clients already know they can depend on you to see your project through and keep them in the loop if you have problems or setbacks.

If you know you're going to miss a deadline, give notice as soon as possible. Apologize for the inconvenience, and don't hesitate to own up if it's your fault. Honesty is a vital part of transparency and effective collaboration. Explain yourself briefly and offer the client a discount or bonus for the inconvenience.

Freelancing can be a rewarding career. Your ability to effectively collaborate with clients increases your marketability and trust with those who hire you. It helps you build a sound reputation in your niche and can lead to recommendations from your customers. Freelance collaboration can also increase your work satisfaction and set you up for success in the future.

Got a freelance collaboration tip to share? Drop it in the comments below!