Open Thread: Do You Work With Other Freelancers?
Posted May 12, 2009 in Business, Open Thread 22 Comments »
Ever since we released The Unlimited Freelancer, collaboration with other people has been a pretty hot topic here on FreelanceFolder. After all, working with others is one of the best ways to further your freelancing business – but it’s also one of the scariest things to get started with.
So, in this open thread I’d like to propose three questions:
- Do you frequently work with other freelancers? For example, do you regularly hire out for coding, administrative, or other work?
- How did you start working with other freelancers? Were you too busy to do everything yourself, and hire out of necessity – or did hire for other reasons?
- What tips do you have for working with other freelancers? If you’ve already been doing this for a while, share your experiences and advice with our newer freelancers.
Also, if you’re new to hiring and working with other freelancers, feel free to ask your own specific questions in the comments – you’ll likely get a detailed and personal answer from someone who’s been in your shoes.
See you all in the comments!
About the author: Mason Hipp is an entrepreneur, marketing guru, and writer. He blogs about life and business at FreelanceFolder.com and is co-author of the Book The Unlimited Freelancer. Follow him on twitter @MasonHipp
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22 Comments
Jessie F.
May 12th, 2009 at 12:35 pmHi Mason,
I don’t work as a freelancer, not yet at least, but I do work with other freelancers. I just wanted to mention to other freelancers that it’s okay to collaborate with other freelancers on a project. Anything is possible. That’s what we try to tell our members on Vois.com when they don’t want to bid on a project. The reason for not bidding from some of the sellers. is that they don’t know Ajax or another thing. Some of them just get swamped. = (
Walter Wimberly
May 12th, 2009 at 12:37 pmI’ve been working with other freelancers for several years now. I first got into it, and still do it, to complement what we each know. Generally I work with designers who are not big on programming, so they do the front end work, and I do the back end database, PHP, etc. I’d say about 35-40% of my work now comes from freelancers seeking me out to help out in those little areas.
There are 3 things to work well with other freelancers: 1) As with any other client relationship, communication is key. Make sure everyone knows what their part of the job is, and how to work with each other. The second thing Respect what you/they can do. Know boundaries, and stick to them. And 3) don’t try to take work from the other person. Create a symbiotic relationship and can last years and be worth tens of thousands of dollars, don’t and word will get out, and no one will want to work with you.
John
May 12th, 2009 at 12:38 pmI have a question about this topic. For those of you that collaborate, better yet – you share an office space, how do you manage the relationship when you’re competing with each other on one job and collaborating on another? To me, the competition would clash with the collaboration – especially when the pipeline gets low and you’re working hard to just get by.
Thanks for the insight
JR Moreau
May 12th, 2009 at 12:41 pmI work with a network of freelancers who have different specialties than I do. This way I always have a point of reference if something comes up that I’m not able to work with immediately. As far as working with people who do exactly what I do, I’d need to be confident that they had the same standard of work and ethics that I possess in order to offer a great, consistent product and service.
Colin Wright
May 12th, 2009 at 1:15 pmI work with other freelancers more and more as I take on different kinds of work. I’m currently working on a project where I’m the project lead, another freelancer is the head editor, another is the illustrator and another is doing voice-over.
I also keep a small, trusted network of people who do the same things that I do so if I can’t take a project for some reason (too busy, pay too low, etc), I can send the project info to them, which is good for them (it’s work!), good for me (I’m still helping!), and good for that client (they can still get someone good to do the work!).
Max
May 12th, 2009 at 1:41 pmI often work with other freelancers who can’t accomplish parts of the technical side of a project for some reason, no matter if they just don’t have the time to do it or feel their skills in a particular area are not sufficient. In this case I made the experience that it’s important to respect the other freelancer and rather see him / her as a partner instead of a competitor which usually works very well because both and even the client got an advantage from a friendly, professional and reliable collaboration in my opinion. Besides that, nothing beats a long term partnership with a client or partner anyway so it’s definitely a key to a successful business in my opinion.
In general I usually enjoy those projects and have to admit that it’s also an opportunity to learn something, because it’s usually interesting to see how other freelancers work and approach things.
In the end it’s definitely a great experience and so I’m usually looking out for professional and pleasant designers and developers I could add to my network.
However, what I’d like to do most would be to realize some ideas and concepts I bet many of us had in mind already, but I usually feel that it’s a bit difficult to find people who are willing to join a small start-up project. Maybe this might be a good suggestion for another blog entry.. ;-)
Julian
May 12th, 2009 at 1:58 pmI work with other freelancers when they’re too busy or not interested in the task at hand.
In my experience working with a freelancer who has the same skill-set as you but little time can be a hassle.
Why? Because they want the work done exactly how they would do it and nothing else will do.
It’s best if your skills compliment each other. For example, a web designer/illustrator and a technical back-end developer.
crazywabbit
May 12th, 2009 at 3:01 pmI love to work with freelancers but not any freelancer. There is a certain trust and networking that needs to proceed before I pass over a project to them. Networking is a 2 way street and I having a million twitter followers mean nothing to me unless we communicate from time to time and share ideas and information. This is the foundation for any kind of relationship in our industry.
For someone to simply think that they will be called upon for any kind of work just because they have thousands of followers is absurd.
Thiago Cavalcanti
May 12th, 2009 at 3:05 pmI’ve been thinking about it for some time now and I think I’m ready to deal with it.
Anyway, I’d still like to hear more from others who already do that!
Samar
May 12th, 2009 at 3:48 pmI’ve worked for freelancers but have yet to work with them. I do referals but that’s passing on work rather than working with them.
Nemanja Jovanovic
May 12th, 2009 at 5:43 pmNIce posts here,I’m currently looking for freelance Website coder to collaborate with and make new opportunities,so if anyone is interested let me know my mail is:nemanja@theimpulsedesign.com
Joe
May 13th, 2009 at 1:50 amI haven’t experienced working with other freelancers yet. Like everyone mentioned, it is a great way to build relations and network and most of the time can only be beneficial.
I am open to working with other freelancers who is seeking help.
check me out http://www.beyondempty.net
Sean Turtle
May 13th, 2009 at 3:51 amI have a friend who I work with fairly regularly – he’s a web developer and so, as a designer, we complement each other and it allows us both to pitch for jobs where we can help each other out, and ultimately, deliver what the client requires, whilst ensuring that every aspect of the job is as polished as it can be.
Even if that wasn’t the case, I often use him as a sounding board, and he I. For that reason alone it’s good to have qualified (not just in the literal sense) people you trust to critique your work.
Axelle
May 13th, 2009 at 5:21 amA free lancer myself I work with other free lancers. It took time to identify and build my network of complementary skills.
Clarity in the job/mission description is a must. Payments, pricing have to be discussed and agreed very clearly before the beginning of the work. I really trust my network now and I am not afraid when introducing myself to potential clients that I am not “alone” but part of a very skilled network of professional to fit their needs.
Melek
May 13th, 2009 at 9:24 amI rarely work with other freelancers on gigs…I think I have a problem with relinquishing control :)
Austen
May 13th, 2009 at 10:14 amI’m like Melek – I don’t lke working with other freelancers that do what I do, but I have no problem working with freelancers whose skills complement mine.
I have a contact in my local BNI chapter (6.30am? freelancer? ouch!) who is a graphic designer, and we work together really well. A new business that he’s doing logos etc for might be a good lead for a website from me; a new startup talking to me about websites is often a good lead for him to do stationery, leaflets, brochures etc. When it comes to the job, he knocks out an interface in photoshop, and I chop it up it into a website. Easy!
The key, as others have said, is about knowing who can do what, and sticking to those rules. Likewise: payment, deadlines, contracts, copyright etc should all be clearly straightened out before the clock starts ticking…
Cheers,
Austen.
Tim Smith
May 13th, 2009 at 12:51 pmUnfortunately, I’ve never had the chance to work with another freelancer. I’ve always wanted to though but, I guess the opportunity hasn’t come about.
Christopher Ross
May 13th, 2009 at 11:08 pmPersonally I love working with other freelancers (hint hint). I’ve a compartment artist meaning that I can only do one thing at a time effectively so I prefer to work with others to do tasks beyond my specific area.
Simply put, if I’m working on fixing WordPress glitches in the core code, I love to work with others who are more focussed on pretty pictures and pixel pushing.
Gunay Donmez
May 15th, 2009 at 4:20 amDo you frequently work with other freelancers?
Yes, i do work frequentrly with other freelancers from all arround the globe. The reasons are simple…i am an visual guy and my technical skills just sucks, thats why i must coloborate with freelance programmers almost on all of my projets that requires codding. I can read and edit code myself, but thats really limited.
How did you start working with other freelancers?
At first, i become thier “ongoing customer” :-) …but then with some of the guys i am working, the relationship turned into partnership and thats cool. Just picture it for a moment…working with someone for 4-5 years that you never meet face to face is weird feeling.
What tips do you have for working with other freelancers?
Working with other freelancers is cool, but never rely to one only…always make sure you have another freelancer that can do a job at same caliber on “standby” mode. Clear communication terms with the freelancer before you dive into something and never work based on hourly rates as you will never know if the freelancer is performing work at the time he/she charges you. I always make deals on “project basis” and i feel this is the way it schould go :-)
Yasir
May 21st, 2009 at 4:19 pmi had experience working with other freelancer (Designer only, photoshop guy only), i must say it’s not a good experience ( regarding technical requirements only ) specially working with designer who get design and development work he design website and handover the development work to developer, now your bad and full of irritated time started :) if designer not allow you to discuss directly with client.
client ask for changes designer get the requirements and deliver to developer with try to translate client requirements to his own language that he understand well, now developer unable to understand the designer requirements what he is saying how it is possible designer say yes this is what we will do, developer oh man how it is not possible at the end developer said ok it is possible and develop some things now looooooooop start :)
bytheway working with some other freelancer designer or developer both was good expereince ;)
Tim Ramler
July 5th, 2009 at 2:19 amHello all,
My and some other freelancers and enthusiasts are coming together to create an environment where like minded people can work together in harmony ~vs~ competing.
I have scratched up a google groups page that might be of interest to some of you. Please pardon my lack of inactivity though. I have partnered with a member to make this a legal establishment.
This concept spawned from a forum topic I posted sometime ago and has received quite some attention. Unfortunately I am unable to furnish you with any details due to the fact that we are still writing the business plan and I don’t want to state anything (it’s likely that it will change as the concept is in the development process.)
Our Mission:
to establish a social significance both immediate by working together on a project as a team, but also for future benefit by linking a community of like minded individuals together with common purpose.
http://groups.google.com/group/the-freelancers-union
Tim
sunglasshutguy@hotmail.com
Online Outsourcing
March 10th, 2010 at 4:57 amI don’t have this experience..I think it will be good within the limit of their interference in our work…we have to going as our attitude in our job…keep them as per the limitations.keep sharing.