How much you feel you should pay remote workers is one thing; what your payment is worth to them — and how its value changes over time — is another.

Recent global financial strife continues to cause some economies to suffer, including that of the U.S. Many digital freelancers earning U.S. dollars are now receiving substantially less for the same work, as their own nations’ currencies gain strength against the U.S. dollar.

The rates that U.S. companies offer to remote workers may no longer compete with firms that are more local to the freelance web worker. For U.S.-based organizations, this may make sourcing good remote workers much more challenging. It may also be a challenge they haven’t had to face before.

Of course, currency fluctuations don’t just affect pay rates. In theory, web workers buying goods from the U.S. should enjoy exchange rate benefits as the U.S. dollar weakens, but this is rarely the case.

Late last year,  for example, I bought a $35 piece of software from the States on a day when the U.S. dollar was worth 1.015 Australian dollars. The software should have cost $35.53 AUD, but my receipt shows that I was actually charged $1.40 AUD more. The effects of a stronger currency aren’t usually reflected across the board.

And of course, your remote freelancer’s local costs don’t fluctuate with your currency’s value. So what could be a great rate for them this month might be a very lackluster rate in a month or two. You may need to consider offering other perks or advantages to procure the remote talent you really want, rather than accepting that which you can get cheaply.

Freedom and fun stuff

If your remote freelancer has some ideas they’d like to trial on your project, or extra suggestions that they feel are worthwhile, can you give them the freedom to implement those ideas?

The extra work may take extra time, but if you can see real value for your project, the extension of scope could be beneficial to the remote worker as well as to your business. It could also ensure you get a top-notch job on the key parts of the project, rather than settling for second-best.

Software and systems

Can you reduce the cost to the freelancer of taking on your project by giving them a license to use necessary software, or providing access to specific systems?

Finding ways to make their lives easier — and more cost-effective — could help you to win the remote worker.

Team involvement

Some remote workers really value the opportunity to work with a team — particularly if they’re solo operators, or work from home. Showing them how you’ll involve them in the project team, making them feel welcome, and communicating their value to their new colleagues are a few ways to help cement good relationships with valuable remote workers.

The promise of close working relationships with like-minded pros is likely to appeal to more than a few web workers — especially those who are interested in collaborative, on-the-job learning, and in building networks.

Credits or kudos

Kudos matters. Can you give credit to the freelancer you’re pursuing, perhaps through social media, LinkedIn references, linking to their site through your organization’s blog, or some other method?

Most freelancers will appreciate being publicly named for their contributions — especially if that recognition can help them win further work, or gain them exposure among peers who matter to them.

These ideas may not win you the remote web worker you want, but they might help sweeten a deal embattled by global financial tumult. Are you finding it harder to land good remote talent in places where your currency has weakened?

Image courtesy stock.xchng user OmirOnia.

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Think about the following questions in relation to past jobs that you loved or hated. They will help you figure out what kind of projects you really want to work on now.

1. Teamwork. Do you prefer to work as part of a team where you can collaborate closely with other people on regular basis? Or are you happiest when people leave you alone and you can just get things done with minimal interaction? If you prefer to work alone and you end up in a job where you have to work very closely with other people, the chances of being happy are slim. Likewise, if you want to work as part of a team, you will likely feel alone, isolated and unhappy on solo projects. Finding a project or job that matches your team style can make a big difference in your job satisfaction.
2. Leadership. Are you happiest when leading a team of people on a project, where you can be in the driver’s seat? Or would you rather stay out of the limelight and work in the background? Just because you want to be in a leadership position doesn’t mean you can jump right into one right away, but you can look for opportunities to lead smaller portions of a project, to prove your leadership capabilities and set yourself up to move into leadership. On the other hand, if you aren’t happy leading, don’t get suckered into taking a lead job, even if it comes with a little more money. If you hate your job, a few extra dollars a month probably won’t make up for it.
3. Innovation. Do you like to come up with ideas that are revolutionary and new? Or do you prefer to take an evolutionary approach to make existing ideas and projects better? If you enjoy the latter, then you should be careful not to get into positions where you are responsible for coming up with groundbreaking ideas. It can also be a good idea to pair up with team members of the other type so that people are coming up with new ideas and others are working to make them better over time.
4. Employment. Do you crave stability and the benefits that come with being a full-time employee? Or are you happiest when you are working as an independent consultant with flexibility and the ability to control your work? There are many advantages and disadvantages of both, so it helps to know what you prefer.
5. Technology. Do you have specific technologies that you can’t live without? Or do you use whatever your employer or client prefers? If you are a diehard Apple  fan, the chances of being happy in a job where you have to use a Windows  laptop and BlackBerry  phone are slim. Some companies run on email while others use more collaborative technologies, so make sure you ask about technology usage if you have any strong preferences.

A few other things that are important to keep in mind:

• Is the project interesting to you?
• Do you get to work with people whom you want to spend time with?
• Do you like working for your manager or client?

Finding a project or job that plays into your preferences can mean the difference between a miserable experience and a happy one. Think about how you really want to work, then work toward a position that matches your preferences and makes you enjoy your work.

How do you stay happy on the job?

Photo courtesy of Flickr user Lars Plougmann.

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Here are the eight apps contained in the bundle, which is available for just $50 for another 9 days:

• 1Password. One possible cure for all the rampant hacking of major sites and services going around is keeping incredibly complex, different passwords for each of your online accounts. But that’s almost impossible to remember. So use 1Password, which lets you store hundreds of distinct logins in one place. Just make sure the master password and PIN you choose to keep all that info safe is solid. 1Password is also great because it plugs into iOS apps to sync your login data across devices.
• Billings. Time-based billing is a chore that no freelancer enjoys, but apps like Billings at least make it easier than if you’re doing it using templates in Word, for instance. Billings has awesome time tracking tools that integrate into your Mac menu bar or can be operated with hot keys, and an iPhone app that syncs info with the Mac version.
• TextExpander. Thanks to keystroke shortcuts, customizable abbreviations and one-click coding shortcuts, this is the text editing tool that becomes the default mail composer, form-filler and report preparation tool for many a Mac freelancer.
• LittleSnapper. Take screenshots, send clients design samples, and save website effects that you want to recreate yourself. If you’re building a design inspiration scrapbook, you no longer have to depend on scissors and magazines. Annotations and tags make keeping your screenshot connection organized and highly searchable.
• WriteRoom. Distraction-free writing is a bit of a trend, and freelancers who do a lot of writing appreciate the benefit of being able to shut out the many demands for attention that a computer brings with it. WriteRoom is a solid distraction-free writing client that’s been around for a while, and you can sync with an iPhone client, too.
• Radium. Some people can work without a background soundtrack, but I am not one of those people. You might have jumped to something like Pandora, or the hot new kid on the block, turntable.fm, but if you prefer the set-it-and-forget-it ease of Internet radio, Radium is a good OS X front-end with a huge database of available stations.
• Arq. Backing up your data is key when you’re a freelancer, because no one but you will be responsible for preserving your documents in most cases. Arq is an OS X client that plugs into Amazon S3 cloud storage (which you have to sign up for separately) to keep your offsite backup needs taken care of.
• Alarms. This is a small utility that mostly resides in the OS X menu bar, syncs with iCal and can remind you about just about anything you need to do during the day. It offers drag-and-drop simplicity, so drag URLs from your browser or a file you need to work on from the finder, or just about anything else to bring up the reminder creation screen.

The total cost of all these apps taken alone is somewhere around $300, so if you’re a new (or experienced) freelancer looking to pick up a complete toolbox without straining your gray matter or your wallet, this is definitely a no-brainer.

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The quarterly survey of job postings and online contractors revealed that more than a dozen cities that are still struggling with an unemployment rate higher than ten percent rank among the highest-earning locales on Elance. So while job seekers in Los Angeles may still be fighting 12 percent unemployment, web workers based there are among the highest paid on the platform.

What else did the Elance data reveal? Unsurprisingly, it’s still good to have tech skills, with the increased use of smartphones upping the demand for developers. Also less than shocking was an increased demand for tax preparers as April 15^th looms.

Less expected was the city given the crown of America’s geekiest metropolis. Move over Mountain View and San Jose, geek is now being spoken with a southern drawl as Austin, Texas took the title of top city for tech nerds. The home of SXSW now boasts the highest contractor earnings for IT skills on Elance’s platform. Amarillo continued its (also unlikely) reign as the top spot for creative talent, with the most contractor earnings in the “Creative” category.

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The availability of a growing independent workforce lets companies easily reach large talent pools of specialists and contractors. And while this strategy is hyped as a cost-saving measure, numerous other benefits ripple through small and large businesses alike. By hiring outside talent, companies are able to quickly staff up or down as needed to meet the dynamics of the marketplace. Companies are able to easily access particular talents or areas of expertise to fill niche requirements. And by shifting more and more work to offsite contractors, companies can lower the costs spent on facilities and office space.

However, this hiring trend brings its own set of challenges, as companies need to contend with effectively managing a geographically dispersed workforce that’s now tied to multiple employers. Conference room meetings and office visits are
replaced with emails, remote collaboration sites, networking, and electronic billing and funds transfers. Without the right tools and mindset in place, the benefits of contractors can quickly erode from the inefficiencies of clashing software systems, complex reporting and payments, and poor oversight of projects.

If you’re currently hiring independent specialists, or are anticipating moving toward this direction, here are seven tips to make sure you get solid ROI on your new workforce, ensure that the savings generated from hiring independent specialists are maintained, and can scale no matter what project size and scope you have:

1. Set rules for projects, timelines and budget. Whether you’re dealing with in-house or freelance employees, clear communication of project deadlines, expectations, budgets and responsibilities is crucial. Define the rules and roles upfront. When every milestone, task, and deliverable is clear from the onset, you’ll always know where you stand and so will your team.
2. Create a collaborative online work environment. When you’ve got multiple people across the country or globe involved on a given project, you’ve got to make it easy for everyone to work together, share documents, make comments, and view project status. A cloud-based workspace is the new and improved conference room. You want to create a one-stop-shop for all project-related documents, conversations, tasks, milestones, and financial information.
3. Manage documents and conversations in a single place. A simple project can generate an astonishing volume of email. Eliminate the back and forth by communicating in a secure, shared workspace. This centralized area creates an instant audit trail for any project that’s readily accessible to all involved. It also helps to minimize those pesky emails that eat away at everyone’s productivity: What’s the latest version of the document? When do you expect to have the first draft? Where are we in the review cycle?
4. Stay on top of hours throughout the project lifecycle. On a weekly, if not daily, basis, you should be tracking the actual hours spent by each contractor on a given project, and then compare those numbers to the project’s status and budget. There’s simply no excuse for budget surprises. By continually monitoring a project’s status, you’ll identify potential risks early and be better equipped to make necessary changes to ensure the desired outcome. Of course, this is all easier said than done. It’s critical to first instill a culture where project reporting and hours are given a high priority (and not just deemed busy paperwork). Then give your contractors the right technology tools to make daily or real-time reporting as pain-free as possible.
5. Accept changes. Even the best-managed projects can run into unforeseen roadblocks, or changes in strategy. Make sure you have a workflow in place that can easily handle change, making it as simple as possible for all parties to quickly analyze and approve any changes in price or schedule.
6. Link invoicing to actual project management. Invoicing and payment may be the final step in a project, but they shouldn’t be an afterthought. Each invoice item should be directly linked to actual tasks and deliverables, so that anyone (and not just the specific contractor and project manager) can instantly understand the output purchased. Contractors should be able to instantly create invoices right from inside their project workspace as a logical extension of the project activity. This not only saves everyone time, but ensures seamless continuity from initial contract to project deliverables to final payment.
7. Offer career development and other services. Just because workers are not your full-time employees doesn’t mean human resources and career development services aren’t important. Consider providing access to preferred health insurance rates, offering help on setting up retirement accounts, and other resources. By providing a good set of personal and professional development tools, you’ll benefit from having a pool of happy, effective and loyal contractors.

Fortunately the convergence of new cloud technology with mobile and social computing is enhancing collaboration and the virtual workflow. As the world continues to move faster, it’s critical that your selected online environment improves everyone’s effectiveness, rather than constrains it. These cloud-based solutions must include simple transactional and collaboration tools, along with a heavy dose of business acumen sensibilities and a clear management platform.

Of course, technology alone can’t address management issues. Effective management requires a two-pronged solution of new technology tools and well-defined processes. You need to set the priorities and work culture from the top-down, and then deploy the right tools and processes to make those goals happen.

Ray Grainger is founder and CEO of Mavenlink, a comprehensive web-based project management platform that manages the
entire scope of business for consultants, freelancers, and other independent service professionals from a single application.

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I wouldn’t want to learn from a teacher who never experiences and only theorizes, nor would I want to learn from one who never reflects on his experiences and, therefore, never gains wisdom.

When you’re trying to run your own business, I think you need time to experiment and try new methods and approaches to your systems and your work. But you also need time to reflect on what’s working and what’s not so that you can modify your direction as you go.

I’ve talked with several business owners in the past few months who have recently become known as experts in their respective niches, and they all have said that even though they know that they’ve been at it for, in some cases, 10 years or more, it’s still hard to feel like an “expert” at what they do (or maybe it’s just strange hearing themselves called that). The truth is, though, they have been doing their work, learning their trade, figuring out how to be successful for years and have earned that title, even if it is strange to hear it themselves.

No, they still don’t get it right all of the time. They still flounder and figure things out as they go, just like the rest of us, but I still personally value their insight very much. By learning from their wisdom, even as they continue to practice, I save myself some steps here and there, and sometimes I even save myself a lot of headache and heartache from side-stepping mistakes they’ve made and that they’ve been so kind as to help me avoid.

Certainly, you want to figure out how to get it right so that (sooner rather than later) you can do the things that will help you succeed in your business, but you also have to save room for experimentation and for failure. It’s how we learn, it’s how we grow, and ultimately, it’s how we succeed.

What have been the greatest experiments of your business, whether they ultimately failed or succeeded?

Photo by Flickr user mikebaird, licensed under CC BY 2.0.

The trick with time tracking is arriving upon a degree of detail that’s both useful and efficient. It doesn’t help you if keeping track of things is all you end up doing because it’s such a time and attention-intensive process. Conversely, a general account of “Peformed project-related work” for a time block of eight hours isn’t particularly illuminating, either for the client or yourself. So how granular should your time tracking and reporting be?

I worked with one company that insisted on providing time reporting for all project staff in 15-minute increments to all of its clients. It might seem impossible, and in practice, it was, though that didn’t change the wording of the guidelines. What ended up happening was that either the client would demand simpler reporting, or company assets on assignment would “go native” and refuse to submit such ridiculously extensive accounting of their time.

Over time, the most sensible way of going about time tracking for the company became apparent. Generally speaking, project staff would report changes in activity throughout the day in blocks of time of no less than half an hour, and no more than three. Then before passing on said info to the client, administrative staff would edit it, depending on the needs and wants of the particular client stakeholder receiving the report.

As a web worker working on a contract basis from home, your process should be similar. The easy part is knowing to what degree of detail you need for your own purposes of professional development: experience will tell you that. Determining what a client wants is trickier, but should follow a similar logic. Arrive at a standard first through trial and error with some early projects, and then use that as the template for all future engagements. Solicit and pay attention to client feedback after that to determine what’s right for the person you’re currently working with.

As with most things, the best way to go about it is to avoid extremes. Report too much or too little, and you’re likely to either over- or underwhelm a client. The perfect balance is hard to achieve, but a good balance shouldn’t be too hard to arrive at.

How do you determine how granular to make your time tracking?

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1. Lance Armstrong: Be disciplined. No business will succeed without a lot of hard work and discipline. Commit to it. Stick with it. Eventually, you’ll reach your destination.
2. Paula Deen: Be yourself (and be bold about it). You will naturally succeed if you build a base of followers who are naturally attracted to your personality. Don’t worry about being liked by everybody. Just let your own unique personality shine through.
3. Mr. Rogers: Be positive. I can’t imagine making it in business without a whole lot of optimism.
4. Ellen Degeneres: Have fun. The daily grind, even when you work for yourself, can be dull at times. Doing something you love, surrounding yourself with clients and connections that energize you, and taking time to appreciate the good things in life make it all worthwhile, and who doesn’t enjoy a good laugh every once in a while?
5. Bill Cosby: Keep learning. I used to be so intimidated by what I didn’t know. But I’ve come to realize that such a list is endless, so I just continue to work at it, and I learn more and more each day about how to build a successful business.
6. Carol Burnett: Be creative. Sometimes you have to improvise. You figure it out, and you come to enjoy the journey.
7. Oprah: Build a platform. To succeed in business, you have to have a group of people who believe in you, who want to hear what you have to say, and who want to support you in everything you do.
8. Jim Carrey & Steve Carell: Don’t take it all so seriously. You’re going to mess up, and you will look silly on occasion. Learn to be OK with that.
9. Maya Angelou: Be resilient. Things will not always be easy, but if you refuse to give up and keep bouncing back, they manage to work themselves out.

Just like certain words bring to mind certain products or companies, certain celebrities make me think of lessons or traits I hope to apply within my business.

Do any lessons or traits come to mind when you think of certain celebrities?

Image from Flickr by j a r r o d

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For a blue-eyed girl in my homeroom class

Trying to find the courage to ask her out

Was like trying to get oil from a waterspout

What she would’ve said I can’t say

I never did ask and she moved away

But I learned something from my blue-eyed girl

Sink or swim you gotta give it a whirl.

- John Michael Montgomery, “Life’s a Dance”

I’m surprised sometimes by business owners who turn down opportunities for promotion. We can all feel intimidated by the thought of putting ourselves or our ideas out there, but whenever that happens to me, I stop and ask myself, “Are you serious about this?”

If there’s one thing I’m figuring out, especially lately, it’s that you have to be willing to make the approach. You have to be willing to ask for what you want. Ask the person to be a guest for your blog or podcast. Ask to be covered on another person’s site or radio show. Ask someone to join you for lunch or coffee. Just ask.

Maybe they’ll say yes. Maybe they’ll say no, but who cares? There are a million other people to ask.

It’s nerve-racking, spine-numbing and absolutely intimidating to get out there and tell the world about yourself and your business, but at some point, you have to ask yourself just how serious you are and how willing you are to let go of your fears and inhibitions and just do it.

The point is, you’re not going to get anywhere by staying holed up behind your computer screen tweaking, thinking, lurking or waiting. You have to take the initiative. Marketing, promotion and publicity – it’s all intimidating, and very few people are comfortable with it. That’s OK, though. If you admit that you’re nervous, people will be quick to support you and will actually see you as a real person who messes up and has feelings and is just like them, and that’s what you want — to make a connection with others.

What’s the best thing you ever accomplished by putting yourself out there?

Image from Flickr by geeknerd99

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Instead, take this opportunity to review your pitching strategy and shape your portfolio accordingly.

How’s Your Portfolio Performing?

Has your portfolio landed you any jobs recently? If not, why not? If so, which seem to be the most compelling pieces or areas of work?

Discussing your portfolio with the clients or prospects who have reviewed it recently is a good starting point for working out which bits work best. But the success of different parts of your portfolio might already be obvious if you continue to secure projects in a particular area (e.g. web design) even though you regularly pitch for projects in print design as well.

Once you’ve identified which parts of your portfolio are the most compelling and successful, you’ll have some decisions to make.

Does Your Portfolio Fit Your Strategy?

Your portfolio is a tool to help you secure work, but will it help you secure the kind of work you want?

As you think about the kinds of projects or clients you’d like to do more work with in the coming year, you’ll formulate an idea of the work examples you’ll need to have in your folio.

If you can’t demonstrate your capabilities in the area you want to work in, you’ll find it hard to land jobs. If you can, then why include extraneous work examples from areas you’re not so interested in?

Consider who you want to work with (big clients? clients who pay over a certain hourly rate? clients with longer-term contracts?) and the kinds of work you want to do with them first. Then, it’s time to turn to your portfolio and make some changes.

Should You Remove Pieces That Aren’t Doing You Any Favors?

Of course, you should only include the pieces that you believe are truly outstanding, and display your abilities at their fullest. But reducing the size of a really great portfolio of work can help to more clearly communicate the types of jobs or clients you want to work with.

It might also make your body of work easier for prospects to digest. Larger online portfolios are often difficult to navigate, can overwhelm potential clients, and may dilute the strength of your offering. If your portfolio’s offline, you’ll have to consider the order and flow of pieces, and you’ll probably want to keep the number of pieces to around 10.

Should You Boost the Representation of Work In a Given Area?

If you want to shift your professional focus, or simply do more work in an area you particularly enjoy, you might want to put more examples of this type of work in your folio. Perhaps you’ll remove some older pieces to accommodate the new ones. Perhaps you’ll experiment by including your workings on a key project to illustrate your creative process. Maybe you’ll prepare some executions specifically for your portfolio, to show off your creativity and flare on a client-free exercise.

As you think about these issues, keep the strategy you want to pursue in the coming year top of mind. It will likely dictate the kinds of people who will be reviewing your portfolio, and what they’ll be looking for.

Should You Reorder or Re-categorize Your Work?

In a hardcopy, offline portfolio, the order of pieces is crucial, so each time you change the composition of your portfolio, you should reassess the order of pieces for flow.

Of course, a prospect’s movement through your online folio is usually determined by them, so you may not get to ensure they see pieces in a certain order. However, it may be handy as you review your portfolio’s contents to reassess your categorization.

What categories will make the greatest sense to your key prospect groups? Should you categorize your pieces by work type, industry, medium, audience or objective? There are plenty of options, so it’s worth giving some thought to categorization of your pieces, to ensure the folio you create really suits the target prospects you want to work with.

These are the main issues I’ll consider as I revise my portfolio to suit my strategy for the year ahead. What secrets do you use to prepare a truly stunning folio?

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