How African Freelancers Can Prove Value to Clients

Have you ever worked on an African freelance project with a client and it all seems to be going really great. Once in a while, you are discussing progress with the client. 

As African freelancers, your project management is tool buzzing with activities and invoices are getting paid as at when due.

And just when close to the finish line, you get a call every freelancer in Africa dreads getting from their clients: “We need to talk”.

You panic instantly, thinking “What could possibly be the problem? But I have been doing great?”

The client comes up with complaints on how a part of the project was not exactly what they wanted, it is not bad but they just cannot pinpoint the main issue but there is one.

The client is unhappy!

African freelancers need to realize is that there’s a big difference between communicating and communicating with your clients. 

A long to-do list on Trello or Asana doesn’t mean the client is able to the project process. If the return-on-investment (ROI) is not clear, then they end up concluding that embarking on the project with you is a waste of time and money.

Rather than sending your entire to-do list, supplement all that technical stuff that was already happening (project management, client meetings, emails, etc.) with a brief/report that you send to project stakeholders at the end of each week/month depending on the nature of the project.

What this does is you are actively demonstrating the value you are delivering to your clients

Tips for creating reports as African Freelancers

Ask yourself “What value did I create this week?”

The first step is to try to document what you’re doing each week/month and, most importantly, what value these tasks have. For example, as a freelance web designer, that new “about page” you just designed for your client — how does that get them the leads they need?

Spend some time compiling a list of what core things were accomplished this week, and what value was created gets you closer to coming up with a comprehensive report. It’s important to always be thinking, “How is this creating the value this business/project needs?”

Provide a high-level summary with your compiled list. To be honest, not every client will care about everything that actually happened each week/month. Their major concern they have will be getting their money’s worth and doing the right thing for their business/project. Dear freelancer, don’t ever allow your clients to question otherwise.

When sending out your concise weekly/monthly reports, use a single Google Doc sheet (alternatively, document send via email) for these reports, and keep adding weekly updates to this shared document. By the end of the project, your client will have a thorough report that walks them through the entire project, start-to-finish with the values clearly stated.

Make reporting part of our product offering as a freelancer in Africa. It gives you a competitive edge in the market and makes your processes more formal and seamless, as these reports could also serve a great use for documenting your work process.

This freelancing model of forced communication and transparency requires your clients to stay engaged with the project whilst leaving no room for doubt. If a conflict comes up, quickly refer to project reports to figure it out and resolve the conflict if anyone was at fault. But if you are at fault, ensure you fix it!

Additional tips

So if you are reading this, you are probably planning for changes you’re going to make to the way you do freelancing business. Try incorporating weekly reporting into your process and always have a freelancer’s contract at the beginning of each project with your clients.

Here’s a free Freelancer’s Contract Template to guide you in creating one for your business.

Remember to share this post with other freelancers in Africa looking to add value to their business.