Sunday, January 10, 2010

Freelance Management Workflow Advice

By Gavin Campbell

Management is a very important skill and as freelancers this is imperative. What we need is a good management system so we can very easily find time to do the things that are most important to us, like finding design jobs for example. It really does not matter what profession your are in, time management is very important for all of us.

It is a very challenging thing for many of us to be able to manage time successfully. This is especially true if you are a freelancer or self employed person in any industry. In a traditional working environment it seems easier to manage your time because you have a boss giving you orders.

When your completely independent, with no boss, it then becomes a challenge to prioritize, especially with all of the day to day activities which need to be maintained. Client deadlines and an absence of social support can make things a little tricky.

It is often good to take time away from your desk, whether you have a desktop or a laptop, and create a plan of goals to help you develop some sort of focus for the day. Once you have established what your daily goals are, put them somewhere visible and time your self to see how much time you spend on each activity. This will give you an idea of how productive you are.

I think we have all be guilty of spending time daydreaming or browsing the internet looking for unimportant things during our working day. Many successful people teach that we do not always need more time, but we do need to make better use of the time we already have. Sometimes we need to share our responsibilities will others who can do better design jobs than us for example.

A good way to keep track of your information is to install some type of CRM system. This will help you to store your contacts, emails, tasks, projects and sales information if you have a busy workflow. If you are put off by commercial software, you could find some free downloads like Sugar or Vtiger.

If your a freelancer and you are on a tight budget, then it helps to store as much information as possible online, or on your system. Try and avoid printing lots of information, as paper & ink cost money, but saving information on a hard-drive dose not. It is also quicker to retrieve information if it is saved in digital format, as long as you have a secure system.

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