As a new freelancer, you could be forgiven for thinking most big business management strategies don’t apply to your line of work. After all, you work solo and usually from home, and you certainly don’t have a big organization to lead. So how on earth can the management strategies employed by big companies benefit your freelancing business?
While the dynamics of your reality and that of a big corporation are different, the bare essentials are pretty similar. You both employ a set of strategies to achieve certain goals, which are aligned to increasing profits, gaining more clients/customers, fulfilling the needs of your market, and ultimately, thriving in the long-term.
Business management strategies for freelance professionals
While sizes and scopes differ vastly, the basic strategies are closely aligned. And it’s for this reason freelancers can gain some fascinating and valuable insights from big business management strategies.
Let’s look at a few of these strategies in more detail as well as how you, a freelancer, can employ these strategies in your own career.
- Leadership development
Large companies invest in leadership development to improve the effectiveness of their managers. Great managers lead their teams to achieve better results. It is vital for companies to train their budding leaders to a high level of management competency covering things like leadership methods, strategies, styles, motivations, and increased emotional intelligence.
As a freelancer, you are in charge of leading yourself. Your success depends on your ability to lead yourself towards successful outcomes.
All successful freelancers have developed the most positive qualities seen in corporate leaders including an abundance mentality, a fiery motivation, an intense focus, a clear vision, and people skills (with clients and collaboration partners).
- Performance measurement
Whether you’re a solo freelancer or a big business, performance measurements are essential to evaluating progress. In a company, performance measurements include setting targets against which employees and leaders are assessed. Such measurements encourage improved performance and the expansion of goals for even better results.
As a freelancer, performance measurement is more of a private thing. Setting targets and measuring your performance over time allows you to see exactly where you need to improve and how. Your data can help you to create a more strategic plan.
Kanban boards and time tracking software can help you track and record tasks and hours, also allowing you to later analyze the data.
- Knowledge management
Knowledge management is how big companies capture, utilize, store, and share important information. With often many different departments and management heads, knowledge management is an essential strategy for big businesses to get right. Doing so avoids knowledge loss, disinformation, and brand discrepancies as well as ensuring all information assets are fully integrated.
If you’re a relatively new freelancer, knowledge management strategies can help you to bring together all the most pertinent information you need in order to carry out your work with fewer hiccups.
Successful freelancing requires a lot of learning and a great deal of subject-matter knowledge. Using the latest cloud technology and information storage apps can make knowledge management a seamless affair.
- Financial analysis
The financial performance of a big company is incredibly important to its overall long-term success. Financial analysis evaluates the stability and profitability of a business and is carried out either on an ongoing basis or periodically.
As a freelancer, your financial situation is a lot simpler than that of a big company. However, your financial performance is no less important to you. It’s vital to frequently analyze your finances and find ways to improve cash flow, increase your rates, save money, get paid on time, and invest wisely for the future.
Our free invoicing software helps you invoice quickly and confidently while also saving money.
- Automation
Automation is key to big business management. The most successful companies automate tasks that are repetitive in nature and which need high quality consistency. This usually improves accuracy, speed, and quality, as well as reducing costs.
Even as a solo freelancer, you can automate numerous tasks to speed up processes, free up more billable hours, and make your life easier. Common tasks that can be automated include invoice delivery, time tracking, social media, project management, email marketing, and appointment booking.
With Invoice Ninja’s SaaS platform, you can automate a number of the above tasks and more.
- Contingency planning
A core component of business management strategizing is contingency planning. This is where a company plans for unexpected events and the resulting course of actions which would take place. The contingencies would ensure the company’s financial health and ability to remain operating at peak efficiency would be maintained.
As a freelancer, you’re also a solopreneur in charge of your own destiny. Life unfortunately dictates that sometimes during your freelancing career you will fall sick, be injured, suffer bereavement, lose equipment, or meet with any number of chaotic events.
It’s wise to plan ahead and create contingencies, such as building an emergency savings account, for when life throws you a curve ball.
- Delegation
Successful business management requires delegation. Delegating tasks and responsibilities to appropriately skilled subordinates ensure better efficiency and an increased chance of a successful outcome. A manager remains responsible for the delegated processes but has more freed-up time to focus on more important tasks.
Delegation is also an intelligent strategy for freelancers, especially as you take on more clients and your workload increases. Routine admin tasks (such as bookkeeping and website upkeep) and marketing (like social media) can be delegated to professionals who can complete these jobs faster and perhaps more proficiently than you might be able to.
As a result, you’ll be able to reinvest more of your time into billable client work.
Big business management strategies and freelancing
We’ve shared just seven big business management strategies that can inspire and inform freelance professionals like you when it comes to improving your solo business. There are many more including capability management, facilitation (when it comes to client meetings), prioritization, relationship management, and strategic planning.
All these big company management strategies – and many more – are well worth studying and the core principles applied to your freelancing. Doing so will create a solid foundation for your business and ensure you are developing your career like a true businessperson.
