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Two To Tango: Freelance Strategic Partnerships

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Tango dancers in Buenos Aires, Argentina

Freelance professionals are survivors by nature—savvy, proactive and ambitious. You are forward-thinking and grasp the big-picture, characteristics that led you to be realistic about current business conditions and respond to the risk-averse spending habits of many B2B prospects. You recognize that a defensive strategy is needed to stabilize the ground beneath your feet and make it possible to at least maintain, and preferably increase, your client roster and bottom-line sales revenue. A perusal of articles in the business press and resourceful brainstorming have led you to consider pursuing a partnership with a Freelance colleague. Owners of business entities large and small have long recognized that a good partnership creates competitive advantages, whether the goal is to help the partners stimulate revenue during periods of marketplace fluctuation, or maximize revenue and profit during a booming economy. Bringing in partner is meant to bring additional value—clients, investment capital, business skills, brand recognition, for example— and strengthen the position of the partners.

Recent research suggests that successful business entities often rely on their relationships—de facto partnerships— with peers whose services or products are complementary to one’s own and whose target customers have data-supported potential to become a promising source of new leads for your entity. In fact, within the Software as a Service community, partnerships and event participation are described as among the highest impact growth channels for warm leads.

The Freelance economy holds numerous sources of potential partnership opportunities— vendors, co-working site colleagues, Freelancing colleagues you meet at conferences, business accountants and attorneys. Even your SCORE mentor could suggest that you meet with a fellow Freelancer who s/he also mentors and discuss the possibility of partnering on certain types of projects. If you find the possibility of introducing a partnership to your Freelance business entity intriguing, here are some things to consider.

1. View the partnership as a strategic asset, not as the cure for a problem.

First, why do you want to form a partnership? What do you hope to gain and what assets can you bring to the table that might persuade a Freelance colleague to engage in a partnership with you? In order for the partnership to be useful and produce the outcomes that you (and the partner) want, you must be honest about your motivations. So, what are you looking for in a partnership? Start the decision-making process by clarifying your partnership wish list. Next, make an inventory of the resources you can offer to a partner and use that list to articulate your Unique Selling Proposition to a Freelance colleague you hope will become your business partner. Keep in mind that a successful partnership is about sharing resources and is not a rescue mission to save a failing enterprise.

  • Do you want occasional collaborators—say, extra help on certain projects—or an ongoing partnership?
  • A partner whose clients are potential prospects for your services and your clients are potential prospects for the partner’s services? Ideally, you and the partner would see a growing client list.
  • A partner whose services are suitable for co-promotion opportunities, such as the McDonald’s and Coca-Cola #Better Together campaign and the Apple Watch Nike+? Co-promotion is meant to introduce your brand to a wider audience and result in enhanced brand awareness and recognition, with the expectation of increased lead generation, sales revenue growth and market share.
  • A partner whose services, when offered in tandem to your own, will result in the capacity to provide solutions that prospects will perceive as delivering more valuable than your current offering.
  • A partner who will share certain business expenses, such as co-promotion advertising costs and/or office space rental.

2. Goals that align and a cultural fit.

In a functioning and mutually beneficial partnership agreement, there are only winners and there are no losers. A partnership is never a zero sum game where only one person wins. Honest, respectfully expressed communication and transparency are demonstrations of respect and the foundation of authenticity. In a recent McKinsey report, alignment on objectives, effective communication and trust were most often present when partnerships and other joint ventures succeeded and most often absent when partnerships failed.

As well, a mutually accepted definition of good work ethic should be agreed-upon and include a shared understanding of how to handle relevant business practices, such as what constitutes timely and appropriate follow-up regarding client referrals, for example. In this way one develops a reputation as a good partner and the partnership can deliver on its intended purpose.

3. Clearly define roles, responsibilities and money.

Establish and clearly define the roles and responsibilities of each partner and that includes money. Discussing payment protocols upfront will prevent ugly misunderstandings. Will the partner who handles the design work on a website project be paid at the same rate as the tech person who perfects SEO and the speed of page loading—or will you each bill at your usual rate? Put everything in writing to avoid conflicts later. Depending on the state in which you operate, your partnership may require a written agreement.

Regarding roles and responsibilities, will there be a quarterly or semi-annual performance quota for client referrals generated, networking events attended, or other work-related activities? A discussion of what constitutes good work ethic and productivity metrics will be helpful.

4. Start small and work out the kinks. 

Where possible, start small and avoid diving into a big project until the partners become familiar with one another’s working style. Instead, rehearse your partnership by taking on a small project. Creating a story board to describe how the partners together will collaborate successfully on a project can be very useful. Remember what Avatar creator James Cameron and others remind us: “A vision without a plan for execution is just an hallucination.”

5. Frequent, honest, feedback.

Misunderstandings and disagreements are best acknowledged and managed in an environment of regular, honest, feedback and discussion. partnership problems are potentially costly. Scheduling regular check-ins for the partners, even if there is little to discuss and the meeting ends quickly, is cheap and easy insurance for dealing with problems the right way and at the right time.

6. Move quickly and collaboratively when partnership problems arise. 

The land of lost partnerships is littered with avoidance, denial, broken promises, unresolved conflict and denial. Especially if the expectations of an important client have not been delivered, immediate action to correct the lapse and protect the relationship must be taken. Remember what Warren Buffett continually tells himself: “It takes 20 years to build a reputation and five minutes to ruin it.”

Thanks for reading,

Kim

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Research Says Soft Skills Outshine AI Expertise

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New research published in February 2025 gives an unexpected vote of confidence to a group of skills that don’t always get headlines—so-called soft skills, behaviors and competencies associated with Emotional Intelligence (EQ) and often ranked by hiring managers and those who report on hiring trends in lucrative professions as second tier and less desirable than the hard skills that dominate the STEM professions, including the golden child knowledge base that comprises Artificial Intelligence. Study authors Moh Hosseinioun, Frank Neffke, Hyejin Youn and Letian Zhang say their data suggests that while proficiency in the use of AI-centric technologies and other hard skills usually has a positive impact on employment prospects, soft skills are more important to cultivate, for both workers and the companies that hire them.

Researcher Hosseinioun is an Alfred P. Sloan Foundation Postdoctoral Fellow in Management & Organizations at Kellogg School of Management; Neffke leads the Science of Cities and Transforming Economies research programs at the Complexity Science Hub in Vienna, Austria; Youn is an Associate Professor at Seoul National University and she’s a former associate professor at the Kellogg School of Management /Northwestern University; and Zhang is an Associate Professor at the Kellogg School of Management. The team analyzed millions of data points associated with U.S. job skills from 2005-2019—1000+ occupations, hundreds of skill sets and 70 million job transitions—and came to one elegant conclusion. When comparing how people’s skills changed over time during their careers, they found that having better “foundational” skills—soft skills, e.g., the ability and willingness to collaborate with team members, problem-solving ability and being highly adaptable — is considerably more impactful on one’s career than technical competence in AI models, coding, or other hard skills.

Contrary to the prevailing opinion that assumes developing technical skills is the gateway to steady, lucrative employment, the researchers instead concluded that employers would be wise to recognize the value of EQ-defined skills in addition to hard skills capabilities. The study data revealed that basic logic, big-picture thinking, analytical ability and follow-through are more important for individuals and employers/business owners and that soft skills are likely to become even more relevant as AI becomes more entrenched in the workplace, creating questions around not only the technology’s potential and limitations, but also the ethical and privacy questions it raises.

In the study, the researchers organized job-related competencies into soft skills (including reading comprehension, basic math skills and the ability to work well in teams) and specialized, advanced hard skills (e.g., competency in Blockchain). Then, they examined how people’s skills developed over the course of their careers; they found that those who scored highly on basic skills are more likely to earn higher wages throughout their careers, move into more advanced roles, learn complex, specialized skills more quickly and are more resilient to industry changes.

The development of soft skills enhances the ability to not only make job candidates more competitive for entry level employment, but also determines how far up the career ladder they’ll climb. When Hosseinioun et al. examined how soft skills can impact long-term job performance, adaptability and career advancement, they found that workers who acquire an array of soft skills, including reading comprehension, communication skills and also basic math, tend to learn faster and master more complex capabilities over time.

In other words, business owners and leaders whose growth and expansion strategies have a long-term trajectory and will rely on a solid team to help them build toward their preferred vision of the future, should take notice. When in hiring mode, keep at top of mind that soft skills matter as much as technical skills and sometimes more. Soft skills shape the worker’s skills development path, boost their long-term value to your organization and also enhance their own career advancement potential.

Flexible, adaptable, agile

The study found that workers with a broad range of soft skills are more adaptable to industry changes. This adaptability is especially useful in a volatile marketplace, when demand for highly specialized skills might quickly wax and wane. For example, Adobe Flash was once the gold standard for interactive web content and supported a whole generation of developers. But when Flash was discontinued and browsers phased it out, only those who could pivot to HTML5 and JavaScript remained in demand.  HackerRank’s 2025 Developer Skills Report lists the fastest-declining skills and LinkedIn data shows that once red-hot Blockchain-related job postings and developer activity have dropped by 40+% in just one year as investment and interest shifts toward AI technology.

The findings in this study, however, suggest that survivors of volatility possess soft skills competencies—strong abilities to problem-solve, clear communication styles and the ability to collaborate and work well with teams. These core strengths help workers relearn faster and allow companies to redeploy their current talent without significant rehiring to stabilize operations.

Play nice with others

Hosseinioun also found that one subset of soft skills in particular helped workers to achieve the highest levels of professional attainment—social skills. The rise of cross-functional projects, remote working and corporate mergers and acquisitions makes it imperative for organizations to quickly rally and persuade team members to communicate, share knowledge and collaborate, to keep productivity high and conflicts low.

Previous research reveals why social skills are particularly important today. David Deming’s landmark study of U.S. jobs shows that positions requiring a high level of social interaction grew by almost 12% between 1980 and 2012, while math-intensive, low-interaction roles shrank. Wages followed the same pattern—jobs that blend cognitive ability and social skill pay the highest premiums, according to his study.

The Amazon Upskilling 2025 initiative has invested over a billion dollars to help thousands of their employees attain new skills, from technical training to attaining clearer and stronger language and communication skills, and confirming that soft skills are as integral to professional advancement as technical expertise. Google reached the same conclusion in its Project Oxygen study After analyzing thousands of performance reviews, their study team found that its best managers excel at coaching, communication and collaboration across teams; company leaders now use soft skills competencies as must-haves for promotion eligibility.

Leaders in both of those famously tech-centered organizations eventually realized that as job complexity rises, it is social skills—communication, empathy, conflict resolution and the ability to coordinate diverse expertise—that enhances team work and builds a work force that is resilient and quick to adapt to a constantly evolving business environment. Soft skills are integral components of a dynamic and collaborative work environment that is the engine of business today.

Soft skills are foundational

Hosseinioun and his research team conclusively found that workers who “scored highly on basic skills were more likely to earn higher wages throughout their careers,” and to also “move into more advanced roles, learn specialized skills more quickly, and were more resilient to industry changes.” Those who have a broad base of soft skills, as opposed to a few highly specialized skills like coding, learn new things faster, earn more money, move into more advanced positions and are more resilient despite episodes of uncertainty throughout their careers. Amid massive technological changes, like the arrival of gen AI and its estimated impacts on jobs, the study makes a strong case for the continued development of soft skills—for self-employed professionals, traditional W-2 employees and the organizations with whom they work.

Thanks for reading,

Kim

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When Freelancers and Employees Collaborate

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External agile talent provided by Freelance consultants has a presence in a growing number of organizations in the country, from huge multinationals that hire dozens of external experts to solo consultancies, who may hire a Freelancer colleague to obtain  help with SEO, website design, or project subcontracting work.

Freelancers are brought in to ensure that a high-priority project will be successfully completed, on time and within budget. While it is the responsibility of the hiring manager to onboard the Freelancer and create the conditions for smart collaboration  and productivity, in fact, a good deal of that responsibility will be transferred to the Freelancer because s/he is temporary, an outsider, and is positioned to take the blame should things go wrong.

Therefore, it is highly recommended that Freelancers take the lead and do what is possible to establish a working relationship with in-house collaborators that is productive, pleasant and lays the groundwork for repeat business and referrals.

  1. Ask the hiring manager to onboard you, so that you will be able to “hit the ground running” and quickly get to work on producing the project deliverables.
  • Request an overview that explains why the project is important to the organization.
  • Have a contract for the project, signed by you and the hiring manager, that specifies your duties, in-house support that will be provided, the budget, project milestones, the deliverables and the deadline, your hourly rate or project fee and what you’ll charge for client requested change orders and additional services requested.
  • Request the names and titles of any in-house project collaborators.
  • Specify the details of the lines of reporting and authority, so that you and everyone else knows who you answer to, since the hiring manager may not be the internal project lead.
  • Determine where your work will be done—off-site, at the organization, or a combination. How many hours must you spend at the company office? Where will  your work space be located? Must you bring your own computer and phone?
  • Request an introduction and meeting with your in-house collaborator(s), so that you can understand the organization culture (“how things get done around here”) and understand what you can do, or request from the company, to make the experience pleasant and productive for all parties.

2. Anticipate employee anxiety around the presence of an external consultant and work to quell the discomfort. Show respect for your collaborator’s deep knowledge of the organization and the project. Solicit their opinions on how to efficiently get the work done and political situations that can help or hurt you. Copy your collaborator(s) on important emails. Uncomfortable subjects might include:

  • Why was a Freelance consultant hired to do the interesting, mission-critical project and not long-term, loyal employees?
  • How much money is s/he being paid—is it more than me?
  • Will the consultant’s expertise and opinion be more highly valued than mine?
  • Is a company lay-off on the horizon?

3. Communicate frequently with your in-house collaborator(s), to promote transparency, build trust and ensure maximum productivity.

  • Make use of email and write reports that keep collaborators and the hiring manager updated on your work.
  • If you hit a stumbling block, ask for help, in writing.
  • Suggest a weekly or bi-weekly conference call or meeting at the client’s office, to compare notes and confirm that milestones and expectations are being met.

Thanks for reading,

Kim

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How and When A Freelancer Should Collaborate

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Several years ago, I was one of four Freelancers who collaborated on the development and presentation of a half-day marketing and sales themed professional development conference whose target audience was in-house sales and marketing professionals who had the authority to hire Freelancers to manage special projects at their respective organizations.  Each of us would cover an aspect of sales or marketing (I agreed to present a networking workshop, another would present B2B sales training, etc.).

The conference was the brain child of an experienced and successful marketing services competitor. She invited us to participate, assured us that she had relationships with more than a few corporate clients and acquaintances, at least a few of whom we could count on to attend, and she ran the show.  Rather a lot of time was spent on planning meetings. A few hundred dollars was spent on production expenses: printing the promotional fliers, the room rental fee (we received a good discount at a fancy law firm’s conference room) and continental breakfast for the attendees.  We charged maybe $69 to attend.

We managed to draw an audience of about 30, a number that we considered respectable, but the corporate prospects failed to materialize, apparently because my marketing competitor hugely over-stated her client relationships.  The audience consisted entirely of people just like us—Freelancers who were trying to make themselves more attractive to those who control billable hours and who were hoping, no doubt, to meet a corporate marketer or two.

The whole thing was a complete waste of time and money because,  as we three along for the ride came to realize, corporate types do not feel the need to attend such programs. They are not looking to upgrade their skills at a conference hosted by a bunch of Freelancers.  They don’t even turn out for conferences hosted by their local chambers of commerce, despite the fact that most of their companies are members.  In fact, it has become increasingly difficult to meet them at all,  except perhaps in certain social situations or in board service.

Collaborating with carefully selected colleagues can open up doors to success that would ordinarily be closed and can result in good clients added to your roster and more billable hours added to your Income Statement.  However, there are questions that you would be wise to ask your prospective collaborators and also yourself, to increase the chances that the collaboration will be a win-win for all involved, including the client.

Can the collaboration achieve worthwhile goals?

Precisely, what valuable tangible and intangible assets will the collaboration produce for you? The project mentioned above was highly speculative and as a result, risky. Partnering with a colleague or two as a strategy to win the bid on a lucrative or prestigious assignment is less risky than creating yet another professional development conference.  Collaborating to chase rainbows is not what you want.  Collaborate to more effectively compete for a valuable resource, such as a project that exists and has funding.

What resources will the collaborator provide?

Collaborations are formed to bring together entities that have complementary skill sets.  A few months ago, I collaborated with an author to provide for her book content editing, serve as photo editor and perform self-publishing services that she preferred to outsource.  In exchange, I gained experience, added book editing to my CV and obtained (minimal) payment.  Collaborations should be win-win propositions and the project(s) on which you and your collaborator(s) partner should reflect Aristotle’s recommendation, that “the whole is greater than the sum of its parts.”

The trust factor

Collaborators must be able to trust one another for without trust, there can be no successful partnership. This is hugely important, because your reputation and client relationships, current and future, will be on the line.  If your collaborator(s) cannot or will not hold up their end, your brand can be damaged and unfortunately, you don’t really know anyone until you’ve either lived with or worked with them.  A discussion of the interpretation and practice of work ethic and customer service will give insight into the matter.

For example, if there is a big deadline looming, are collaborators willing to work and respond to emails on weekends, holidays and after 6:00 PM? How will collaborators respond to a high-maintenance client who emails at 9:00 PM on Sunday nights when there is no apparent emergency?

What will be the ROI?

The properly conceived and managed collaboration will allow the participants to offer additional services, exceed the client’s expectations, build good client and partnership relationships and enhance the possibility of referrals.  A good client will be added to the roster of each participant and billable hours that would not otherwise have been available will appear on Income Statements. The client will receive measurable ROI as a result of the venture.

Thanks for reading,

Kim