Freelancing is hard work at the best of times, especially in the early years of growing and developing your business. There’s marketing to do, client work to complete, and a whole host admin duties to carry out. Which is why it’s always sensible for busy freelancers to find delegation partners and delegate work to these fellow professionals.
Delegation is simply the assignment of a particular work task to someone else. This person might be more qualified or experienced than you in that task, and so is able to complete the work to a higher standard than you ever could. Alternatively, you’re perfectly able to complete the task yourself but you just don’t have time without it impacting negatively on your billable hours.
Either way, trusting other pros with tasks and processes you need completing is a sensible way to boost your time and project management, as well as improve your cash flow.
So who are these delegation partners?
Here are 10 professionals you might consider delegating some of your non-client work to:
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Virtual assistants
A virtual assistant is someone who provides businesses with professional administrative and support services from a remote location. Also known as VAs, these independent contractors help small business owners with admin, technical, and even creative tasks.
A virtual assistant is kind of like a secretary except you don’t need to employ them full time or have them with you in your home office. VAs can help you: bookkeep; conduct research; manage email; write invoices; arrange appointments; publish blog posts; update WordPress; transcribe recorded calls; organize spreadsheets; and so much more.
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Bookkeepers
For many freelancers, the thought of working with spreadsheets, charts, and income/expenses tables is enough to bring on an anxiety attack. While it’s wonderful to see income coming in, it’s another matter entirely to record everything accurately and frequently. This is where professional bookkeepers can really help freelancers and solopreneurs.
Bookkeepers maintain accurate financial records so small business owners can efficiently keep track of their finances. This is especially important for those year-end tax and VAT returns, which the bookkeeper can also complete.
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Content writers
All freelancing businesses needed to be marketed in some form or another. This usually requires content to be written for a website and marketing materials like brochures, press releases, and newsletters. If you’re not a marketing writer or you don’t have the time, then hiring an experienced and professional content writer can be a sensible option.
Content writers come in many forms. There are website copywriters, blog content writers, PR writers, and also writers do can write anything. Others are specialists who focus on one particular industry or type of content such as brochures or whitepapers.
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Legal writers and editors
Another type of writer is the specialist legal writer. When working online, especially when you run a website, its sensible to have some terms & conditions and related legal pages. Freelancers also need to write contracts and if you’re not sure how to phrase such a contract, then a legal writer can help.
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Social media marketer
A particular form of marketing effective for freelancers and solopreneurs is social media marketing. Yet it’s only effective when enough effort and focus is put into maintaining a regular posting and networking schedule. For busy freelancers, social media, as well as blogging, has a habit of falling by the wayside, especially when results are not immediate.
A social media marketer can take care of all your social media accounts and create special long-term campaigns to reach your desired target audience. You can then get on with your billable work. This is especially beneficial for more introverted business owners and those who really don’t care for the likes of Twitter and Facebook.
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Website developers/designers
Setting up a website is pretty easy these days, especially when using the popular platforms such as WordPress. Nearly everything is designed to be done automatically, with just a few clicks of a button. That said, when you want your business website to look better than ordinary and support your unique brand, then hiring a professional web developer or designer is a must.
Web design pros can take all the hard work of building, designing, and even maintaining a website out of your hands. This is perfect if you’d prefer just to focus on your business and not worry about modifying templates, fixing web host issues, and searching through lines of illegible code.
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Graphic designers
Graphic designers are often also web designers but not always. When you want special graphics designed for a logo, printed brochures, marketing materials, or leaflets, then graphic designers are a great professional to partner with for all your graphic design needs.
Many graphic designers have a particular style or focus, which can suit your particular freelance or solopreneur business. It’s worth looking around until you find a professional with a style that connects with what you have in mind.
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Translators
Depending on the type of freelancing business you run and your target audience, you might potentially need translated content. Hiring a professional translator to convert your content from one language to another can enable you to reach a wider audience. This is especially handy if you live in a foreign country and you’re not completely fluent in the local language.
You may know enough to do business when face-to-face with a client but written content can be another matter entirely. It’s important for your sales and marketing content, in your market’s language, to be flawless.
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Photographers
Anyone can take a photo, especially in this age of iPhone cameras. However, not everyone can take a good photo or one that has professional-level quality. If you need exceptionally good photographs taken for your work, then consider hiring a professional photographer to cover all your photographic needs.
Whether it’s for a one-off project or a regular stream of photography work, a pro can save you time and also ensure you get topnotch photography for your business.
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Cleaners
Wait, what?! A cleaner?
Whether you work from home, a coffee shop, or from a co-working space, it’s never nice to come back to a dusty and disheveled home environment. Cleaning and general upkeep is time consuming and when you’re running your own business then sometimes the last thing you want to do is housework. It’s also the last thing your partner may want to do as well, when they get back from work or are exhausted after looking after children.
Delegating the housekeeping duties to a professional cleaner allows you to focus on what really matters in life while your home remains clean and tidy. You’re then able to focus on earning more money and enjoying the downtime at weekends with your loved ones.
Time saving software
As well as delegating tasks and procedures to delegation partners, you can also save time by using appropriate software and apps. At Invoice Ninja, for example, you can automate many of the processes associated with invoicing and project proposal development.
There are also time tracking and project management tools, which all seamlessly combine together and provide you with a fast, effective, and streamlined way to run your freelancing business.
