Freelancing has emerged as a ray of hope for millions of people around the globe in the current financial storm marked by government bailouts, bankruptcies, social unrest, recession, depression etc.

Online services marketplaces have provided individual freelancers, SMBs & SMEs with concrete platforms to leverage outsourcing and incur huge dividends even in the current economic disquiet.

We are glad to share with you that hundreds of projects have been successfully done on LimeExchange in a period of less than a year since its global launch. This has encouraged us to bring to you the project management tips that will help you successfully execute the projects on an online services marketplace.

The project management tips can be placed under 3 distinct phases of project execution:

Getting started

1. Bid on the project

Before you bid on any project, make sure that your profile is complete and convincing enough for the buyer to consider your bid for his project. However, the bid that you place must be competitive and reasonable based on proper estimation of manpower/skill requirements and hours required to complete the job.

It is recommended that you include covering notes with the bid stating your past work experience and other details that would justify why buyer should shortlist your bid.

2. Create a Project Contract

To increase transparency, mutual trust, and sustained monitoring of the project at every stage, it is recommended that you set the scope of the project, milestones and corresponding payments and discuss them with the buyers through a Project Contract draft.

Clearly specified deliverables and terms & conditions of the project will give right direction to your project management approach and help you to complete the project on time, without compromising on the indispensable element of quality. Once agreed mutually on these, you are all set to move forward.

3. Initiate a Kickoff Checklist

Kickoff Checklist contains questions on project related pre-requisites. This is most often requested by a buyer, after awarding you with the project. It is particularly important in case of large projects where stakes are high. Prepare a Kickoff Checklist and send it to the buyer stating that you have enough information about the project to get started. Such pre-planning of the project will enable you to deliver top-grade results.

4. Split the project into smaller parts

You can make the task of project execution easier by breaking the project into small manageable parts to ensure that you have not missed out on anything important. The milestones set for each stage of project would serve as signals to you indicating the ‘distance traveled’ and the ‘remaining distance to be covered’. This will pave way for better project management and execution.

During the course of the project

1. Prepare a list of to-do items for timely results

Brainstorm considerably and come up with a well-formulated strategy of handling the project execution in the best possible manner. If you are dealing with a bulk project, you must prepare a list of important tasks to be attended. Prioritize the deliverables as this will help you to beat the time lines set for the project. Timely project delivery will win you great respect as a trusted freelancer.

2. Communicate and Collaborate effectively

In freelance business, communication is the key to success. Professional communication will enable you to build a trustworthy and warm relationship with your buyer, which will make project execution easier.

On LimeExchange, you can easily stay in touch with your buyers through project collaboration tools such as Project Message Board (PMB) and Instant Messaging (IM). With these collaboration tools, you can discuss requirements, send status report, share files and seek feedback by asking the buyer to review.

The more you communicate with buyer, the better your project execution will be. As a result, excellent deliverables will ensure you repeat business and long-term business relationships with the buyer.

3. Attend to buyer’s queries and keep him updated with project status

The immediate and fast response to buyer’s queries and requests will help you to successfully execute the project. Answer all his private messages and work out the time zone difference so that you can be online simultaneously and resolve project queries, in case if there are any.

Also, an effective project management tool on LimeExchange such as Issue Tracker helps in monitoring tasks, logging issues and defects which can be tracked to closure. A buyer as well as a service provider can create an issue/task.

Keep your buyer updated about the project progress so that your buyer is convinced about the right choice he made by hiring you for his project.

After the successful completion of the project

1. Keep in touch with the buyer

In order to succeed in freelance business, you need to stay in touch with the buyer to develop long-term business relationship with him as this follow-up may materialize into some monetary gains in the form of projects in the future. You can keep connected to him through various social networking tools available in the market such as LinkedIn, Twitter etc.

This step is often overlooked by freelancers. However, it’s essential as the feedback given by the buyer for the services rendered by you can earn you lots of new business and profits thereby.

We hope that the above mentioned project management tips will certainly help you successfully execute the project and beat the time frames set for the same.

With this project management strategy, get started now!