Managing Freelancers and Contractors

I wasn’t lazy. I was just distracted. (And I didn’t even realize it.) Tasks that should’ve taken 30 minutes dragged on for hours. Blank screens. Zero motivation. Endless scrolling. The problem wasn’t Time management. It was 𝗙𝗼𝗰𝘂𝘀 𝗺𝗮𝗻𝗮𝗴𝗲𝗺𝗲𝗻𝘁. Then one day, I stumbled upon a 𝘔𝘦𝘥𝘪𝘶𝘮 article that listed a few unusual focus hacks. I tried them. Tweaked them to fit my life. Soon, I started showing up better. With clarity, not chaos. Here’s what worked for me - (If focus has been a struggle lately, this might just help.) 1. 𝗚𝗶𝘃𝗲 𝘆𝗼𝘂𝗿 𝘄𝗼𝗿𝗸 𝗮 𝗳𝗮𝗰𝗲 We often chase vague goals — deadlines, KPIs, praise. But real energy comes when your work feels personal. One day, I was stuck on a complex analysis. No motivation. Then I pictured telling my mom what I did at work today. Her smile. Her pride. That image changed everything. Suddenly, it wasn’t just a task. It was something to be proud of. ➡ Ask yourself: “Who would I be excited to share this with?” Picture their face. Then start the work. 2. 𝗢𝗻𝗲 𝘀𝗼𝗻𝗴. 𝗢𝗻 𝗹𝗼𝗼𝗽. 𝗧𝗵𝗮𝘁’𝘀 𝗶𝘁. It sounds odd, but looping one instrumental track helps me zone in. I use Shri Hanuman Chalisa – Instrumental. No lyrics. Just rhythm. In no time, my brain quiets down. The repetition becomes an anchor: “You’re working now. Stay here.” ➡ Pick a calm, lyric-free track. Hit repeat. Let it ground your attention. 3. 𝗧𝗵𝗲 2-𝗠𝗶𝗻𝘂𝘁𝗲 𝗣𝗿𝗲𝘃𝗶𝗲𝘄 𝗧𝗿𝗶𝗰𝗸 Before starting a task, I set a 2-minute timer. No typing. No scribbling. Just look at the task. It’s like a warm-up for the brain. You’re letting your mind settle into the work, not crash-land into it. ➡ Try this tomorrow. Just 2 min of stillness before starting. You’ll be surprised how much smoother the task feels. 4. 𝗜 𝗯𝘂𝗶𝗹𝘁 𝗮 𝗙𝗼𝗰𝘂𝘀 𝗚𝗿𝗮𝘃𝗲𝘆𝗮𝗿𝗱 (𝘆𝗲𝘀, 𝗿𝗲𝗮𝗹𝗹𝘆) Every time I get distracted during work hours, I don’t fight it. I note it down in my phone’s Notes app. • An unfinished Udemy course • A half-watched YouTube video on AI agents • The novel I abandoned after Chapter 7 • A call I owe to a childhood friend It’s not about guilt — it’s about awareness. A quiet system that tells me: “This is not urgent. It can wait.” ➡ Create a “Graveyard” note. Every time your mind wanders, log it. Then return to your core task. The Result? I’m still a work in progress. But I’m sharper. Quieter. Less reactive. The Biggest Shift? Not in my schedule, but in how I protect my attention. REMEMBER - You don’t need more hours. You need fewer attention leaks. P.S. Which of these 4 hacks would you try first? 𝘐𝘧 𝘺𝘰𝘶 𝘧𝘰𝘶𝘯𝘥 𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘴 𝘩𝘦𝘭𝘱𝘧𝘶𝘭 → 𝘳𝘦𝘱𝘰𝘴𝘵 𝘧𝘰𝘳 𝘺𝘰𝘶𝘳 𝘯𝘦𝘵𝘸𝘰𝘳𝘬. LinkedIn Guide to Creating #big4 #lifestyle #productivity #timemanagement

I’ve had 4 legal battles since starting my business. Could I have avoided them? Probably. But to be honest, I didn't have the funds to pay a proper lawyer, or the network of founders to ask the right questions to. I don't want that to happen to you. Here are 5 clauses I put in my contracts that might help you protect your work, your business and most importantly.. your sanity ↓ #1 Non-cancellable, non-refundable contracts. This shouldn’t even be an issue if you qualify your clients properly. BUT if someone signs, onboards, and then ghosts? We still get paid. And so should you 🤗 #2 Immediate or short payment terms Most businesses accept 30-to 90-day payment terms. I don’t. You wouldn’t work for 3 months without pay—so why should your business? Cash flow is your business’s lifeline. Protect it. #3 While we’re on payment terms… Your contract should include: → Interest on late invoices. → A clause that stops work if invoices aren’t cleared. → A guarantee that if a client delays the project, you still get paid. Your time isn’t free! #4 Your IP stays YOURS. Anything we bring into the agreement at Klowt stays ours. Anything we create for you is yours. Simple. I once ran a training session, and the client recorded it—then tried to sell it behind a paywall. Now, our contract states a £10,000 fine per breach. (And for that particular case, per breach = per view. 😅) #5 Don't work with d*ckheads. This isn't a legal clause, more legal... advice? 🤣 If someone is giving you red flags in any way at the beginning of your relationship, do not work with them. This could include but not limited to: - Focusing on immediate ROI. - Cost or discounts being a primary concern. - Pushing for work to kick off before contracts or payments. - Reaching out at inappropriate times - or in inappropriate ways. - Delaying initial payments. Legally binding contracts are a good insurance policy, but they're lengthy and expensive to implement if you actually have to go to court. So the best LEGAL advice I can give you as a 2x founder is, don't work with d*ckheads. And learn from my mistakes. It's a lot cheaper than learning from your own... trust me 😂. Was this helpful? 💜 I write a 2x weekly newsletter for founders and freelancers on topics like this. Join us here: https://lnkd.in/ejDbD94R

If every risk ends up as “mitigate,” you don’t have a strategy; you have a habit. 5 Risk Response Strategies — what good looks like in TPRM 1) AVOID - Use when: Risk > appetite, remediation is impractical, or exposure is structural (e.g., vendor’s data residency can’t meet policy). - Playbook: Stop onboarding / exit the relationship, pivot to an approved provider, document rationale to the Risk Committee. - Contract levers: Termination for regulatory non-compliance, unacceptable subcontractors, data location violations. - Signals you’re right: Critical requirement cannot be satisfied within policy; switching cost < risk cost. 2) REDUCE - Use when: Risk > appetite but can be lowered to acceptable levels with controls. - Playbook: Define a remediation plan with dates/owners; add Compensating Controls (e.g., data minimization, tokenization). - Contract levers: Security addendum, specific control obligations (SOC 2 Type II, encryption key ownership), right to retest. - Measure: Residual risk score drops below threshold; mean time to remediate (MTTR) < agreed SLA. 3) TRANSFER - Use when: Risk is insurable or contractually allocable (but not eliminable). - Playbook: Shift financial impact via cyber insurance, liability caps carved out for confidentiality, strong indemnities; require vendor’s insurance limits to match your exposure. - Contract levers: Indemnity for data breach/IP infringement, carve-outs to caps for willful misconduct/PII, subprocessor “flow-down” obligations. - Measure: Coverage adequacy vs. modeled loss; vendor provides current COI; claim scenarios tested in a tabletop. 4) ACCEPT - Use when: Residual risk ≤ appetite, cost to treat > benefit, and there’s a clear owner. - Playbook: Record decision, name the accountable exec, set review cadence, add telemetry to catch drift. - Guardrails: Time-boxed acceptance, no-go zones (e.g., customer PII, critical ops), exit triggers. - Measure: Risk register entry with next review date; monitoring shows no adverse trend. 5) PURSUE - Use when: There’s upside to taking managed risk (speed, cost, innovation) and controls are in place. - Playbook: Pilot with scoped data, staged gates, and success metrics; expand only if KPIs and control tests pass. - Contract levers: Safe-harbor pilots, performance credits, step-up controls at each phase. - Measure: Benefit realized vs. risk taken (e.g., cycle-time reduction, detection coverage). If your team picks “mitigate” by default, try this framework for one vendor this week and compare outcomes. The quality of your decision, not the length of your questionnaire, drives resilience. #ThirdPartyRisk #VendorRisk #OperationalResilience #RiskManagement #CyberSecurity #AI #ModelRisk #Governance #Contracts #TPRM #3prm

What do I include in my Freelance Agreement for new clients? 1) Design Process & Timelines. → Stage by stage, transparent Design Process. → Highlight the amount of time involved and any milestone meetings. → Call out key personnel who need to be involved and take action. 2) Deliverables. → A list of services, documents, files or samples the client can expect to receive as part of the project. 3) Quotation. → A guide price based on the Design Deliverables, Timeline and the Design Brief. → Outline the payment terms and payment dates. → Note: I include 1 round of revisions within my price. Additional revisions are an additional charge. 4) Fulfilment Fees. → Additional chargeable tasks that can occur within a project Example: ↳ Travel. ↳ Meetings. ↳ Admin. ↳ Consultation Calls. 5) Payment T&C’s. → Quotation must be signed before the start of the project. → 50% deposit must be paid before the start of the project. → All project files will be handed over once final payment has been received. → If there is no meaningful communication or action from the client after 2 months of receiving the deposit, the designer has rights to keep the deposit and terminate the contract. → Statutory demands for late payments and any additional fees. → The quotation is solely for the final selected design concepts. If the client wishes to have any “unused” concepts this can be arranged at an additional cost. 6) Design Ownership. → All design rights belong to the designer prior to final payment. → Any attempts to reproduce, use, disclose the designs prior to final payment is prohibited by law. 7) Social Media. → Any work from the project and carried out from the designer can be exhibited on the designers social media platforms and online portfolio. → With written consent, any of the clients social media post or marketing material can be exhibited on the designers social media platforms and online portfolio. Any questions then leave a comment below. ✌️ ---- 𝐒𝐚𝐦 𝐏𝐚𝐫𝐤𝐢𝐧𝐬𝐨𝐧 Freelance Senior Sportswear Designer | I help brands to build and create their sportswear range. #DesignLeadership #FreelanceCommunity #DesignProcess

Excellent tips here illustrating how a subtle change in tone can have a massive influence upon how your message is received. 1) Acknowledge Delays with Gratitude "Sorry for the late reply…" "Thank you for your patience." 2) Respond Thoughtfully, Not Reactively "This is wrong." "I see your point. Have you considered [trying alternative]?" "Thank you for sharing this—I appreciate your insights." 3) Use Subject Lines That Get to the Point "Update" "Project X: Status Update & Next Steps" 4) Set the Tone with Your First Line "Hey, quick question…" "Hi [Name], I appreciate you. I wanted to ask about…" 5) Show Appreciation, Not Acknowledgment "Noted." "Thank you for sharing this—I appreciate your insights." 6) Frame Feedback Positively "This isn’t good enough." "This is a great start. Let’s refine [specific area] further." 7) Lead with Confidence "Maybe you could take a look…" "We need [specific task] completed by [specific date]." 8) Clarify Priorities Instead of Overloading "We need to do this ASAP!" "Let’s prioritize [specific task] first to meet our deadline." 9) Make Requests Easy to Process "Can you take a look at this?" "Can you review this and share your feedback by [date]?" 10) Be Clear About Next Steps "Let’s figure it out later." "Next steps: I’ll handle X, and you confirm Y by [deadline]." 11) Follow Up with Purpose, Not Pressure "Just checking in again!" "I wanted to follow up on this. Do you need any additional details from me?" 12) Avoid Passive-Aggressive Language "As I mentioned before…" "Just bringing this back in case it got missed."

Let’s say you’re a newly hired Third-Party Risk Analyst at a mid-sized healthcare company. During your onboarding, you realize that while they have dozens of vendors handling sensitive patient data (think billing companies, cloud services, and telehealth providers), they have no formal third-party risk assessments documented. First, you would start by building a basic Third-Party Inventory. You’d gather a list of all vendors, what services they provide, and what kind of data they have access to. You would focus on vendors that touch patient records (Protected Health Information, or PHI) because HIPAA requires stricter handling for that kind of data. Next, you would create a simple vendor risk rating system. For example, any vendor handling PHI = High Risk, vendors with financial data = Medium Risk, vendors with only public data = Low Risk. You’d organize vendors into those categories so leadership can prioritize attention. Then, you would prepare a basic Due Diligence Questionnaire to send out. It would ask things like: • Do you encrypt PHI data in transit and at rest? • Do you have a current SOC 2 report? • Have you had any breaches in the last 12 months? After collecting responses, you would review them and flag any vendors who seem high-risk (like no encryption, no audit reports, or recent breaches). You’d recommend follow-ups, like contract updates, requiring security improvements, or even switching providers if needed. Finally, you would propose setting up a recurring third-party review schedule — maybe every 6 or 12 months — so that vendor risk stays managed continuously, not just one time.

7 Essentials Every Compere and Creative Should Always Have Handy If you are a compere or creative, remember this: you are the brand. How you show up, present your work, and communicate with potential clients often determines whether you get the job or not. Here are 7 essentials to have ready for opportunities: 1. A Solid Portfolio: Your portfolio is your professional story. It should highlight your work, showcase key moments, and include testimonials or notable clients. Keep it clean, focused, and easy to explore. It should answer the question, “Why should I trust you with my project?” 2. A Showreel: If a picture says a thousand words, imagine what a video can do. Your showreel should feature you in action, whether on stage, behind the scenes, or engaging with an audience. Let your energy, style, and personality shine through. Keep it short and impactful. 3. A Clear Rate Card: Imagine walking into a store where nothing has a price tag. Frustrating, right? A rate card makes it easy for clients to understand your value at a glance. It sets expectations and avoids unnecessary back and forth. Even if your rates are flexible, having a base rate shows you are organized and professional. 4. Active Social Media Handles: Clients often say, “Share their handle with me,” as a quick way to assess your work. Make sure you have at least one relevant platform that shows what you do. Let your digital footprint speak for you even when you are not in the room. 5. Business Cards: Even in a digital world, a simple business card still works wonders. Whether you are at a wedding, conference, or just grabbing coffee, opportunities can arise anywhere. Include your name, contact information, and a way to find your work online. 6. A Professional Headshot: A clean, high quality headshot can elevate how people perceive you. It comes in handy for event flyers, speaking engagements, press features, and proposals. Having one ready shows you are prepared and polished. 7. A Compelling Bio: Your bio is often the first introduction to who you are. Have both a short version for quick references and a longer version for websites and proposals. Make it warm, confident, and clear. Let it tell your story in a way that feels authentic and memorable. Which of these do you already have in place? Are there other essentials you would like to add? Feel free to share this with Comperes and Creatives in your network. #temibadru #voicesandfaces #eventhost #moderator #compere #creative

Early Stage founder: “We need help NOW but can't afford full-time hires." Finding and managing the right freelancers is a common challenge at that stage. But after helping 50+ startups, I've identified a systematic way to de-risk it: 🎯 Start with strategy, not hiring: → Map your desired outcomes clearly → Document the specific steps needed to get there → Identify which skills are truly core vs. supportable → Leverage your network for referrals (still the best source) → If no referrals, go to platforms like Upwork and Fiverr ✅ Vet and validate: → Review portfolios and past startup work → Ask exactly how they might use LLMs in their workflow → Set crystal-clear deliverables and success metrics → Cap initial test assignments at £500 → Track which freelancers consistently deliver quality work → Document detailed feedback to improve collaboration 📈 Scale thoughtfully: → Begin with high-impact, low-product-knowledge tasks → Create repeatable processes for successful projects → Develop freelancers' understanding of your business → Focus your core team on strategic innovation → Build your trusted talent network gradually If you can't identify the right freelancers because your path to success isn't clear, a senior advisor or fractional C-level pro can help map your execution plan first. Savvy founders don't gamble on freelancers. They build clarity first, then choose the right experts. ♻️ Found this helpful? Repost to share with your network. ⚡️ Want more content like this? Hit follow Maya Moufarek.

Dear freelancers, This year, I need you to run your strictest programme yet. No more “let’s just see how it goes” energy. We’re moving like strict businesses. okurrr. Start here: 1/ Have contracts in place. Every time. 2/ Set communication hours. You’re not a 24/7 helpline. 3/ Stick to your T&Cs. Boundaries are part of the service. 4/ Take deposits. Your calendar is not a free holding space. 5/ If a potential client is giving you the runaround, run away. 6/ Get clear on the scope before you start. “Can you just…” will finish you. 7/ Don’t undercharge yourself just to “secure the bag.” Cheap clients are rarely low stress. BUT. By doing all this, you also need to make sure your service is matching the standards you’re setting. Professionalism isn’t one-sided. So also: ✨ Deliver on time. Or communicate early. ✨ Make the process smooth, not stressful. ✨ Overcommunicate progress so clients feel secure. ✨ Take pride in the details; quality is your reputation. ✨ Leave clients feeling like they made the right investment. This isn’t just about helping yourself. It helps the whole freelance community. When you undercharge, overdeliver for free, ignore contracts, or move messy, it lowers the standard for everyone else trying to run a serious business. We can be kind. We can be flexible. But we cannot be unserious. Yours sincerely, A seasoned freelancer

Let's talk about the contract clauses that will either save your ass or completely screw you. I've signed contracts I shouldn't have and learned the hard way which terms are worth fighting for. Here's what you need to know: Work-for-hire vs. licensing: this is everything... Work-for-hire means you're signing away all rights. The client owns it forever, can use it however they want, can even feed it to AI. You have zero control. Licensing means you retain copyright and grant specific usage rights for a specific time and territory. This is what you want. If a contract says "work-for-hire," do everything you can to negotiate it out. Kill fees: protect yourself when projects die... If a project gets canceled after you've started work, you need to get paid. A kill fee should be 50-100% of your fee depending on how far in you are. If it's not in the contract, you're working for free the second they cancel. Payment terms: when you get paid matters... Net 30 is standard but not great. Negotiate for a 50% deposit upfront, payment on delivery, or Net 15. The faster you get paid, the less you're financing their project. Revision limits: because "one more tweak" never stops... If your contract doesn't specify revision rounds, clients will ask for changes forever. Include a limit (2-3 rounds) and specify that additional revisions are billed separately. Usage rights: be specific... Where can they use the work? For how long? In what territory? If it's not spelled out, they'll assume they can use it everywhere forever. Define it clearly. I'm not a lawyer, so make sure you're doing your own research, but understanding these clauses has saved me from getting screwed. An educated freelance workforce is a powerful freelance workforce. 🤍