Offering helpful, aligned products and services wins over clients. And, when you stack the offerings, you’re even more marketable.
This magic happens through freelancer collaborations.
For example, if a content marketing writer teams up with a content marketing strategist, they can offer end-to-end content creation packages. This might include audience and SEO keyword research, a content workflow calendar, and ROI feedback as well as polished, targeted content that matches client goals, such as white papers, product descriptions, landing pages, or blog posts.
On a recent #FreelanceFriends chat on Bluesky we talked about this very topic. The conversation theme was “small business team approach”. We discussed the benefits of this type of work, how to find potential collaborators, and tips for having a smooth partnership.
I thought the conversation was insightful and detailed, so I’ll share some of the highlights here. If you’re thinking about pairing up with another freelancer to expand your small business offerings, I hope you find a few useful ideas.
- The Benefits of Teaming Up With Another Freelancer
- Where to Find Potential Collaborators to Expand Your Business
- Making the Freelance Collaboration Work
- Try a Small Team Approach
Disclosure: This blog is reader-supported, which means this post contains affiliate links and advertisements. I earn a small commission if you shop through them, which helps fund this website so I can continue to bring you amazing content. Thank you! ~Angela
The Benefits of Teaming Up With Another Freelancer
In addition to expanding your offerings, and becoming more desirable to your clients, teaming up with another freelancer offers you support on many levels. You can brainstorm ways to best serve the client together, learn from each others’ talents and have someone to bounce ideas off of who truly understands the project— because they are working on it too.
And from the clients’ perspective, they likely get a streamlined process with one of you as the contact, a more comprehensive service, and maybe even one invoice to process—that you later divide with your partner.
Note: There was a good discussion during the Bluesky chat about invoicing as a small team. Some say one invoice is easier for the client, but harder for the freelancers. So, do what ever feels best for you!
Where to Find Potential Collaborators to Expand Your Business
Look to your online network, trade magazines, industry conferences, business networking groups, LinkedIn or social media chats to find freelancers you might enjoy partnering with on work projects.
Simply reach out and ask about their services/products, browse their business website and decide if you think they might complement your offerings. If so, see how they feel about approaching clients with a combo of services and products.
Making the Freelance Collaboration Work
Just like any working relationship, a freelancer collaboration requires establishing foundational processes and expectations. Everyone works a little differently, so overcommunicating at the start, or having a kickoff meeting, can iron out details.
Have a conversation about:
- How you plan to work together. Remote? In a public space in-person?
- What software will you use to communicate about projects? Email? Slack? Comments on Google Docs? Basecamp? Asana?
- Will you have routine check-ins with one another to ask questions and discuss client needs, etc? For example, it might be a weekly Friday morning Zoom meeting, or a daily afternoon call via Slack huddles.
- Your expectations around everything, including meeting client deadlines and communicating with one another. For example, are phone calls ok, or do you want to use a messaging thread online as an archive of communication?
Try a Small Team Approach
If you’re brainstorming ways to offer more services and increase your value to potential clients, collaborating with another freelancer is one way to do it.
Your roster of billable products and/or services increases, you have another person to help work through project challenges, and you can potentially take on more clients since you’re sharing the workload.
Love this topic? Join the #FreelanceFriends small business chat on Thursdays at 11am CST on Bluesky. I post regularly about upcoming topics and scheduling changes. Have questions? Reach out to me directly.
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