Thursday, September 15, 2011

Freelance- lesson learned 'Communication is key'

I'm back from a few days off from posting and I can now make my first post about freelancing. While I wish I could say I was off having fun, the last few days have been... well less than good. Everything that happened could have been avoided if I had just followed one simple principle, communication.

 It started with a client whom I had worked with previously, we had started a project but had discussed no real timeline (see there, right there I should have gotten more information). Having no real due date I decided to take a day off, sleep in, catch a movie, then more sleep. The next day I awoke to a text that made my stomach just drop, "if you haven't started , disregard this project I'm on a timeline". I immediately called back and by the tone of my client you would think I had been missing for months. It was at that point I realized, wow I really messed up. I managed to save the project but at a cost and was stressed beyond belief as I tried to finish by deadline. 

Excuse me if I skip over most of the details of the day, but I want to get to my key point. Communication is key if you're going to make it. When I talked to the client he had to mention it to me, what's more embarrassing than that. What I learned is that you have to imagine that the client is sitting around, doing nothing but waiting on your next word. You leave them without an update and they're lost. You must let them know what is going on at any point worth mentioning, you can only gain from communicating.

My question to you is this, personally if you hired a freelance is there a point where you would not want to here from them?

4 comments:

  1. In the real world, I assume that when I don't hear anything that things are fine. Set touch base points are acceptable for both sides, but to just jam you like that for one day is not cool.

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  2. Wow, it sucks, but you're right, communication is key for success, also as SelfImprovent2 said, jamming you that way wasn't cool. I really think blame is on both sides, yours for not asking, his from not telling

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  3. yes, communication skills are a MUST!

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