Even freelancers need a team – part 5

Would you really want to start a book in the middle or end?  I thought not.  Check it all out: part 1, part 2, part 3 and part 4.

Mason and James, authors of The Unlimited Freelancer, refer to cross-sourcing and hiring freelancers as “hiring an otherwise equal freelancer to complete a task for your business.”

This was a new twist for me because in the past I’d just thought about all of it as outsourcing!

Here are some examples they provide for cross-sourcing:

• skilled graphic design.
• copywriting, ebook authoring, and blogging.
• project management and oversight.

Their point which really hit home for me is cross-sourcing is a way to put your business on an even plain – filling in the cracks when you’ve neglected your sales funnel and reining in the wild times when your stars really align.

OK, who doesn’t love that!  I can’t think of a single freelancer I know who doesn’t go through growth spurts and down times which they had no conscious intention of creating.

Now I’m trying to decide if I should throw this in for good measure or not.  Who out there doesn’t know what it means to partner?  You know, when you meet a cool person, come up with a cool project together, hammer it out, then launch it in all its co-built coolness!  Yeah, you get half the money.

Guess how you find these people you’d like to outsource, cross-source and partner with?

Chances are good you already know them!  It goes back to the whole six degrees of separate concept.  You might need to a small shift in how you think and talk.

Go through your CRM and think about people differently than when you first entered the contact information.  Who do you remember sharing conversations with around similar business ethics and beliefs?  Think of at least one person who you thought was just cool.  If the two of you were in a room together what stellar ideas could you create?

Now think about something you’ve always wanted to do.  Something that is a bit dreamy and pushes your skills way over the top!  Call the person you know who seems to know everybody and tell them what you want to do.  Ask if they know someone who could get it done with you.

Start talking about collaborating when you are at networking events or interacting with potential clients.  You just never know what team member might come out of the wood work!

Nibbling away -

Sundi