3 Must-Have Attributes of a Winning Freelance Team

With an unprecedented surge in freelance workers over the last year or so, more companies than ever before are hiring and working with freelancers.

If your team or your company hasn’t experimented with hiring freelancers yet, you’re behind on this fast-growing trend.

Of course, there are lots of good reasons to hire a freelancer here or there, but many companies are also discovering the value of hiring an entire team of freelance workers to help move their business forward.

Building a full freelance team can be somewhat overwhelming, but a lot of the stress dissipates once you understand what makes a freelance team successful.

So today, we’ll share a few must-have attributes of a winning freelance team. As you begin to build your team of freelancers (we recommend you use Fiverr Business), but regardless of where or how you build a team, these core principles can guide your decisions.

1. Your Team Must Understand Your Mission & Goals

If you’re not used to working with a distributed remote workforce, it can be difficult to get everyone on the same page when it comes to your mission and goals.

Since a team of remote freelancers can lend itself to fewer team meetings and absolutely zero chance encounters in the hallways to remind someone about something that was on your mind (as all bosses do from time to time), it’s important you communicate your goals and mission clearly.

Here are a few questions to ask yourself when wondering if you’re on the right track:

• Do each of my freelancers have a well-defined role on my team?
• Do each of my freelancers know what they are responsible for and how to accomplish each of their tasks?
• Do each of my freelancers understand the critical company metrics that are impacted by their work?
• Can my team of freelancers work on a daily basis without receiving tasks from me?

If you can answer “yes” to most of these questions, you’re on the right track.

2. Your Team Must Communicate Well

While your mission and company goals are paramount when it comes to managing your freelance team, it’s important to focus on general communication within your team of freelancers as well.

Your freelancers should be skilled communicators—in addition to being talented at whatever you’ve hired them for. They should fluently speak the language you do business in. Ideally, they’ll willingly get on a Zoom call, phone call, or Slack thread anytime to discuss their work.

Here are a few questions you can ask to ensure your freelance team is communicating well:

• Are all my freelancers given access to company email, Slack channels, project management apps, or other critical communications channels?
• Do my freelancers understand our team structure and who to communicate with when there are issues or roadblocks?
• Are my freelancers willing to attend remote team meetings on a regular basis?
• Do I facilitate open and honest communication both with myself AND among my entire team laterally?

If you’re able to answer “yes” to these questions, you’re on your way to a freelance team that communicates well.

3. Your Team Must Be Self-Driven

I’ve built a few freelance teams in my many years of growing a business and there's one final thing that always sets the great freelancers apart from all the rest:

Drive.

If you’re going to manage a team of freelancers, you need them to be driven to accomplish tasks on their own, without constant pushing from you or their teammates.

Here are a few questions to ask about your freelance team in this area:

• Are my freelancers driven by more than just the payment I send them at the end of each task or project?
• If I took a few days off, would my freelance team continue to make progress on our projects without major distractions?
• Do my freelancers feel “part of the team”? Does the success of the company also feel like the freelancers’ success?

If you answered “yes” to these questions, you’re headed in the right direction.

Finding the Best Freelancers

Finding the right freelancers for your team can be time-consuming, exhausting, and frustrating. This is why we launched Fiverr Business where we connect managers like you with a directory of pre-vetted freelancers who check the three boxes above.

These freelancers are not only talented in their own skill sets and industries, but can latch on to team goals, are great communicators, and are driven to succeed as a member of your team.

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