Who’s Running This Project, Anyway?
Posted on December 24, 2007
Filed Under Uncategorized
Businesses hire freelancers mainly to save money. But the savings only happen when the project is being properly managed, a task that often falls on the guy not present when the topic is being discussed. The trick to making money as a freelancer - and saving money, as a client - is in knowing how to keep a marketing project on track, without devoting every waking minute to the cause.
Whether you’re on the client or provider side, it’s always in everyone’s best interest to keep the project on time and on target. Not sure where to begin? Start with these basic ground rules.
Ruthlessly leverage technology. Cheap, powerful consumer electronics have never been more prevalent in modern society than today. Exploit it to your best organizational advantage. Stay organized; maintain a solid documentation trail with email, Internet fax, USB sticks, and any other affordable gadget that keeps the forces of chaos at bay. Tech is your best friend.
Keep contact channels simple and ironclad. The fastest way to drive a project into cost and time overruns is to add more decision makers to the team. Instead, designate responsibilities and keep it that way. All my own contracts insist on my reporting to a single point of contact who manages final editorial decisions - having simple, direct and persistent communication channels keeps everything smooth and simple.
Establish realistic milestones and stick to them. The time to change your mind on construction is during the blueprint phase, not once half the house is built. Don’t reinvent the spec mid-project. Make all the real decisions early on - endlessly chasing a moving target is no way to manage a marketing project.
Factor in delays and real life issues. Life happens. People have emergency surgery. People get married. People move offices. Be prepared for the delays that real life can create, and adapt to circumstance.
And finally, but most importantly:
Know where you’re going from the start.
Before any hours get incurred or any work gets done, sit with your team and plan out exactly - in concrete, non-abstract details - what the end goal will be. What are you trying to achieve? Make it specific and achievable: don’t plan to make money, or to jump to number one in Google. Instead plan the project itself and know exactly how you will know whether or not the project has succeeded. As the saying goes: if you don’t know where you’re going, any road will take you there.
So how about you? What tips do you have for keeping a marketing project firmly on the rails?
Comments
Leave a Reply