Working On Relationships For Start-Ups
In order for a start-up to be successful, business relationships have to be built up over time. Relationships within start-ups will drive your progress forward. For example…a quality relationship with a designer, a marketer or a freelance graphic designer could give you a dependable resource for continuity, a much needed service that helps improve the value of your business. It’s important to remember that the process of building up a relationship with one of these third-party services does take time. Building working relationships is a valuable investment. Over time you begin to rely on a variety of service professionals and have confidence in their work.
Here are some tips that you can use for building relationships with freelancers, a valuable addition to a start-up:
Reach out: Don’t be afraid to reach out for help and rely on some freelancers at the start of your business. Using some help in establishing some relationships early on enhances freelancer’s skills and ensures a comfort level providing you with what you need as a company in order to continue to grow. With freelancers, you get to use targeted work performance and assess cost differences. Reaching out across several different freelancer networks can help you to find a professional that you could mesh well with and work within your budget. Casting a wide net and finding many different freelancers by reaching out will help you find out where some of the best ones are available. Working with multiple professionals will also ensure that you find a freelancer that is willing to go the extra mile and offer a better quality of work for your company.
Provide clear instructions: A format, template or clear instructions are very important for any freelancing relationship. If you are looking for blogging services for example you may want to write a few blog posts or spend extra time on a few blog posts until you find a voice that you would like to carry on with for future work. Establishing a format for your blogging or a voice that another writer could emulate will ensure that you can be confident in the content that is produced by the freelancer. Providing clear instructions for design and giving a designer an idea of how you would like your branding to evolve will also add value to your business. As you establish a relationship with a freelancer you will develop a rapport that leads to cost efficiency as less revisions will be required.
Connect regularly: Even if you don’t have new work for freelancers it’s very important to stay connected to them. Having a real working and emotional connection to someone that is going to be working with your company provides you with the option to call upon them and keep them actively interested in your company. Regular connecting and checking in will ensure that when you really need work done fast, the freelancers will be available or make themselves available to you.
Provide positive feedback: In order for a freelancer to continue their work they often need to have some type of positive feedback or response on the site that they happen to be working on. Even if you are working with a private contractor through e-mail it is important to provide feedback and appreciation for the job that they have done so that in the future a freelancer can become better and a more understanding provider for your company. Feedback and positive mentions can show a freelancer just how much you appreciate their work and that helps everyone… you, your company and the freelance provider. It’s nice to know that they’ve done a good job and it helps them to keep getting better in the future.
Keep a few start-up elements top of mind… good communications, set goals, show appreciation, enhance service building skills and provide feedback are the “paving tools” necessary for creating a road to success in both building a start-up company and a personal relationship.
In addition to his work as a designer, Anthony Phills is the author of Designing for the Home Run King, a retrospective on the creative process involved in Phills’ marketing and branding campaign for “Home Run King” Barry Bonds. Packed with images, commentary and videos about Bonds’ 2003–2007 home run journey, the book gives designers and marketers an inside look at the creative designs behind one of baseball’s greatest hitters in history. #HomeRunKing
