3 Skills to Master in The Gig Economy - CareerMetis.com

3 Skills to Master in The Gig Economy While the conversation is not a difficult feat, communication could be. As a professional when you are interacting with your clients or colleagues, being on the same page is very important. If there is a gap, it leads to misunderstandings and unpleasantness later.When you are clear in your communication, you understand the objective clearly which not only helps the end result, it also help you set reasonable deadlines to achieve these goals.evalWhile communicating with clients, it is always beneficial to capture and share minutes of meetings.Keep your clients updated on the progress with periodic calls or emails.It is equally important to raise red flags in times of distress.This practice not only helps to avert serious situations, but it also builds trust with a new client.Even if your client is in the same location, there are very fewer chances that you will meet them regularly.A lot of us today rely on tools like Zoomor Skypeto connect. Ensure you are in places with good connectiv ity while using them.Not only it ruins the client’s experience, but frequent disconnections also hamper the flow of the conversation.evalYour mic and speakers should be in good condition and there is no static interference.If your client’s native language is different from yours, scripting your talk or at least the main points will be helpful.Use Google Translateto check if you are using the correct language to convey what you want.Communication is anyway an important social skill for life. In a Gig Economy, it becomes a lot more important because of the technology, frequency, and variety you can have to cater to.evalMastering it means getting the second most aspect of your job right, first most is the actual job.2) Time ManagementevalGiven the number of balls that you have to juggle, it only becomes pertinent that the time is managed wisely.Multiple projects, multiple clients mean multiple things to do apart from the actual work. Add to it your personal checklist of learning so mething new or maintaining yoga practice.Time management seems simple, yet may be very difficult to master. Self-discipline is one key ingredient to be successful in this area.Even if you are fairly confident of your time management skills, try this experimentto see if it is actually the case.As mentioned in the article “Without data, it’s easy to paint an erroneous picture of how we spend our time, whether it’s inadvertently exaggerating the number of hours we work or assuming we’re wasting more time than we really do”.Once you have a clear understanding of how you spend your day. You can reorganize it for optimum productivity.You could use time tracking apps to assess where all you are spending your time and where can you make improvements. It will also help you spend the only a requisite amount of time on a particular task.If you are constantly spending more time on some tasks than you intend to, it may be time to ask for help or outsource them to someone else.3) Report ing ResultsevalThe term reporting usually intimidates everyone. Most people think of it as fancy graphs and charts which only an expert in analytics can produce.It is true for a scenario where financial results are to be presented or funding is to be seeking, it is not the case for individual projects.Reporting, in plain simple terms, means you should be able to communicate the impact of your work in an objective manner, which a client can quickly grasp.For e.g. if you are a graphic designer, you may want to talk about the number of downloads or shares for the last infographic you worked on.evalIdentify the key metric which a new client may get attracted to and report them. Even a simple table in any spreadsheet tool would work.This also means that you can extend your relationship with the clients even after the engagement has ended.An occasional email to check on results, help you be in the top of mind.Mind you, it doesn’t mean reporting the client’s confidential data, it only means quoting results of your endeavor.You can mention it as one of the requirements at the beginning of the project. If your contract clearly mentions how you will use these results, no client should object.If you present your next portfolio with statements like “ last engagement led to XX “, it is bound to make your proposal shine when compared to others.These results are not a replacement or modified version of client feedback. These are supposed to complement and solidify your position as a seasoned professional.You can use a free tool like Google Sheetsfor data capture and analysis. The functionalityprovided is more than enough to gather meaningful insights.Given the novelty of the Gig Economy, both service providers and clients may take some time before they find the right rhythm to work together.As a service provider, the onus lies on you to adjust your rhythm to suit clients.Even if you have great client testimonials, there is work to be done in the area of building trus t with new clients. Apart from the functional skills, that trust can be built with these skills which are common across industries, geographies, and professions.A little customer delight goes a long way in building a positive reputation, which is the currency of the Gig Economy.