So You Want to Be a Freelance Project Manager

Maybe you've always wanted to work for yourself or you are just looking for a change of occupation. Perhaps you were recently laid off and see freelance work as an opportunity to continue your career. Regardless of your reasons, there are 3 points every project manager should consider before engaging as a freelancer.

I recently heard someone on the radio talk about the 3 points. I'm sorry that I can't recall his name, but he stated that, "Every business needs 3 things, someone to find the work, someone to mind the work, and someone to grind the work."

These points were so important that I had to write them. Let's take a moment and discuss each of the points to see how they apply to a freelance project manager.

Find the Work

Every business needs someone to find the work. Actually this role of finding the work is essentially a dual role with responsibilities in marketing and sales. As the marketing manager, this person is responsible to identify and describe the services to be provided by the freelancer, that is, to create any marketing collateral including brochures, advertizing, whitepapers, and fliers that will be used by the sales role to identify and secure new business.

In the sales role, this person will beat the streets looking for the next job. Typically this includes prospecting, qualifying, and selling the services to new or existing clients. Selling services can be time consuming; consider the time spent on phone calls, in-person meetings, writing proposals, responding to RFPs, and negotiating contracts. All of these activities are resource intensive, non-productive, and expensive when you consider your time, the cost to travel to client sites, and luncheon meetings.

Mind the Work

Every business needs someone to mind the work. This sounds like the business manager to me. In this role, the business manager is responsible to run the office, answer the phone, manage the contracts, invoice for work completed, manage accounts receivable, pay the office expenses, and make sure the payroll is ready on-time. In a small office, the business manager also creates and manages the business budgets, forecasts sales, manages contract milestones and deliveries.

Grind the Work

Every business needs someone to grind the work. This is the role that actually does work that will be invoiced to provide the funds required to run the business and make the payroll. It's a full time job to perform the contracted services within schedule, under budget, while achieving the quality of service expected by the client.

A freelance project manager is a one-person show. The freelancer must fulfill all 3 roles to run a successful one-person business. The freelance project manager must somehow balance the needs to find and mind the work while still having time to grind out the work. The freelancer who focus on project delivery, but doesn't make the time to look for the next contract will soon be out of business. Likewise, the freelancer who finds a job and focuses on delivery without remembering to invoice will also soon be out of business.

In summary, you may be a great project manager, but freelancing requires sales and business skills to run the business. Make sure you cover your bases before embarking on your new career.