10 Principles for managing a creative team online
“I could never work full-time from home, how do you do it?”
Before the pandemic, I was asked this question at least once a week. I had been a freelance graphic designer for years before people were “quietly quitting”. Independent, remote work was a conscious choice for me. After running myself ragged on the ad agency ladder and wearing all the hats at in-house creative teams – I love having control over my own schedule and the liberty to be selective in day-to-day tasks, taking on the projects that fill my belly with nervous butterflies in the best way.
But when I had emergency open-heart surgery in 2017, I needed to bring on team members to help me carry the load. And this shift in my health and business model brought a whole host of other complications and considerations to my happy, little, self-sufficient freelance business.
It’s one thing to run it all yourself, and another thing altogether to have a team of creatives looking to you for direction.
And the only context I had at the time was managing a team in-person with proximity to each other and big budgets to make the work worth coming in person.
I had no idea how to manage a team from home, let alone a creative team. Plus, copywriters and designers are notoriously known for their flakiness, and good ones are expensive. How the heck could I encourage them to work with me and not break the bank?
Have you ever heard the adage, “treat others like you want to be treated”? That’s really how I learned to manage a remote creative team. I’ve learned a lot about freelancing over my 10+ years in the industry, and I simply applied those lessons to how I treat my team, clients, and partners.
We’re still a 100% freelance and remote creative team, with strategists, designers, copywriters, and developers all across the United States.
Lauren Atherton of HeartSpark Design
Here are my 10 principles for managing a remote creative team
Make your mission clear. A clear positioning statement is not just important for your business or attracting clients, but is also important to attract and retain top talent. At HeartSpark, we build brands for nonprofit organizations and it’s precisely this mission-driven work that has attracted similarly inclined creatives to our team. This doesn’t mean they have to discount their rates (although many have offered), but does make it clear up front that we’re only serving a specific niche or industry.
Stock your creative roster before you need it. Half of the battle in running a remote creative agency is hiring the right people to depend on. Give yourself enough time to post about the roles you’re looking for, interview candidates, and build a thriving roster of creative talent from interns and junior-levels up to your senior creatives. In your interview, take the opportunity to get to know your freelancers and the types of projects that light them up, skills they want to learn, and their hourly rate. If it’s been a while since I’ve worked with a freelancer, I’ll ask them if their hourly rate has increased and make that update in our spreadsheet. Just because someone signs on with you at one rate doesn’t mean it stays the same for the lifetime of your relationship!
Forecast projects. Creative work can ebb and flow, but forecasting your projects is good for cashflow and managing your team. In 2021, I surveyed my freelancers to understand what they love about working with HeartSpark and what their biggest pain points are. Unanimously, they asked for more lead time to analyze, estimate, and agree to new work. This was a huge revelation and happily stopped my frantic, last-minute search for freelancers or succumbing to doing the work myself. Now I use a combination of Google Sheets and Smartsheet to plan out HeartSpark’s projects and freelancer availability.
Be transparent with your budget. Budgeting projects as a freelancer is pretty easy since there’s one person (me) doing all the work, but larger team projects require larger budgets. I’ve learned this lesson the expensive way a few times, but as you’re gathering estimates be sure that you have a multiplier on you and your freelancers’ time. Freelance creatives know what they’re charging you isn’t what you’re charging the client, so be transparent with the client’s overall budget and what range you’re looking for for specific projects. Heck, I’ll even share a link to the project’s Google Sheet with my freelancers so they can see the deliverables and how the entire budget will come together. Many times, my freelancers have said they’ve learned something for their own business by reviewing our project budget.
Teach your process. Every freelancer has their creative process, so the key to building consistency with a remote team is to train your team on your unique approach. Sure, freelancers could take the knowledge and go to another agency, but I believe this is an investment in their professional development. Not all of your creative work is going to be right for each team member, so they need to understand how their role fits with the larger project and deliverables. Plus, most senior designers don’t want to do ad resizes or blow out the whole brand identity. Assigning specific roles and responsibilities will help your freelancers stay in their zone of genius, as well as save on budget for you!
Create a dedicated space for clear communication and progress updates. As you’re rolling through projects, it’s important to have a central place for communication and assigning tasks and deadlines. At HeartSpark we use the project management tool, Basecamp 3, as a centralized communication hub because it has individual project permissions, client visibility, and internal team chat built into the platform. This helps me keep all our projects organized with an overview of deadlines, plus our team can see meeting notes and feedback directly from the client. As the creative lead, this saves me many hours of back and forth and emails getting lost! Plus, there’s a handy dandy app that freelancers or clients can download to their phone.
Express your gratitude. When I freelanced full-time, I had very few clients that consistently thanked me for my work. I know this sounds like a kindergarten lesson, but one of the best ways to keep great freelancers on your team is to thank them for their work and be generous with your encouragement. And nothing kills a creative’s spirit more quickly than feeling taken for granted. Share compliments from clients, give credit to freelancers on your website (with links to their portfolios), and offer to write a testimonial for their website or LinkedIn. All of these gestures go a long way to help your freelancers feel seen and appreciated.
Pay on time. One of the best ways to keep your remote team motivated is to pay on time. Don’t squabble over payment terms (stick to net 15 or net 30 please!), don’t haggle on their hourly cost, and when you receive an invoice from your freelancer – pay it promptly! Imagine the chaos that would ensue in an office if everyone’s checks bounced or were 60 days late. That’s the level of frustration your freelancer is feeling when they have to nag you for a late payment. Also, if one of your team members goes above and beyond (and the budget allows), send them a little financial bonus as a thank you!
Celebrate personal wins! As a remote manager, it’s our job to take the first step to check in on how our team members are doing. If there’s a big life event coming up for them (like launching a new service, getting married, having a baby, or moving to a new home) then take an opportunity to acknowledge and celebrate that achievement with them. You should have their updated address from their tax forms, so order something and have it delivered to them!
Consistently ask for feedback. Your team members are your greatest assets and source of truth for how healthy your internal culture is. At the beginning of the year, I’ll email an anonymous feedback survey to our team members. At the end of every design project, I’ll individually ask each team member about their experience on the project and process.
This quick “debrief” includes these four questions:
What went well?
What surprised you?
What went poorly, awkward, or confusing?
How can we improve for the next project?
Investing in your remote team requires more intentionality from you as a manager, especially in how you attract and retain top talent.
But when done well, remote management results in a happier team culture than having to trudge into the office every day.
More creatives than ever are looking for the freedom that comes with remote work – and a manager who understands how to lead with trust, clarity, and appreciation.
These 10 principles are the cornerstone of how I’ve built thriving relationships with our freelancers at HeartSpark Design. I hope you can use these pillars as a starting place, but remember your remote team may have different needs than mine. So stay flexible in your approach, communicative with your process, and supportive of your people.
Your remote team is your greatest asset. By implementing these strategies and continuously asking for feedback from your team – you’ll have a thriving creative team that loves working with you time and time again.
