The art of juggling – how to manage multiple freelance clients
It’s every freelancer’s dream to have a full book of clients. But how do you juggle them if that happens? Learn the art of managing multiple clients.
As a freelancer or business owner, it’s completely up to you as to the number of clients you take on. It’s the beauty of working for yourself.
That said, managing multiple projects and different – even difficult – clients isn’t always that straightforward. After all, each and every client will usually have different expectations, requirements, deadlines and budgets.
Which is why keeping clients happy as you juggle them and your family life is tricky. So, to help you out, here are some handy tips to managing your time and getting the balancing act spot on from freelancer invoicing app, Albert.
Know your strengths, make time for your weaknesses
Be honest with yourself, and get a better understanding of the things you’re able to tick off the list quickly, and the ones that will take up a little more of your time. Being able to tot up how, where and what you’ll need to spend your time and resources on makes managing more than one project much easier.
Agree on realistic expectations
From the very beginning, ask clients absolutely everything you might need to know to get the job done. In order to manage your growing workload and deliver a top-notch service, it’s vital that you and your client are on the same page.
Try and agree on:
- Expected outcomes
- Your personal responsibilities
- How, and how often you need to visit or chat with the client
- A realistic time-line
- Payment terms
With all of this agreed on, you’ll find yourself more or less free to crack on with the project, while making sure you still have plenty of time for your other clients too.
Create a timeline
Clients usually want a quick turn-around on projects. It’s only natural. But when building your project timeline, or setting out your workload for the month ahead, make sure you give yourself a reasonable amount of time to allow for anything unexpected – whether that’s another client asking for something last-minute, or something more important and family related.
It always helps to schedule regular set times to catch up with your clients to discuss the progress of your projects. Making sure you have everything you need to complete the job in the time you’ve said is important too.
Embrace technology
These days there’s an app or a tool for everything – and more often than not they make life a lot simpler. So play around with time-management technology, that will keep your work organised and make juggling multiple projects much less hassle.
We’ve put together a little list of top online resources that should be useful.
Sure, there isn’t a magic solution to managing more than one project or client at the same time. It boils down to time-management, multi-tasking and agreeing on a clear, realistic project brief.
Oh, and technology too. That usually helps…
Albert is a free, on-the-go invoicing app which lets you send beautiful invoices straight from your mobile.
