As I’ve worked for many companies before, it started to stand out to me that there is a massive difference in culture depending on the company you work for. While some don’t put any thoughts to their company culture, others create documentation for new colleagues to learn everything about it. But how about a culture as a freelancer?
What type of company culture suits you?
Everybody is different, and that’s a good thing! It also means that you often have to work with people that won’t necessarily be your cup of tea. This doesn’t mean you can’t work together, but that’s a whole other subject I might elaborate on in the future. Whether a company puts in effort to create a clear outlined company culture or not, every company has a company culture. Some examples of company culture I’ve seen in the past:
My name is on the door
“My name is on the door, so you do what I say”. Doesn’t sound appealing to me, yet perhaps an environment like that works well for you. It is a clear no-nonsense hierarchy, which some people need to be most productive. I personally feel like this type of company culture can not work in most branches, mainly because of the need for a specialist to make the right calls. You don’t want me to tell you how to build a house, as I would probably make terrible decisions.
Profit first
“Profit first”. Sounds good for business, perhaps it is, but it’s a company culture where making money is more important that delivering high quality or taking care of the people. It’s often a high-pace culture where you have to be able to switch priorities fast, as anything that brings in money will have to be done first. For me, this resulted in high levels of stress, because other important tasks that wouldn’t bring in money directly would be put on hold, getting us behind on the planning all the time.
Your customer is your buddy
“Turn your customer into your buddy”. This one I loved. The informal communication while staying professional, joking around while putting serious care into your customers product, the whole vibe works. For me personally, it mostly worked because because when being too formal, you create this distance and you sometimes forget you’re still two humans communicating. When you keep it genuinely informal, you tend to have better understanding of each others role in the project and often results into a much better co-operation.
There are many more types of company culture. If you’ve experienced one that stood out to you, let me know, I’m curious about all types of company culture! Applying any company culture as a freelancer can help you in a good way.
Why would you bother about company culture as a freelancer?
I’m working by myself, right? Wrong! I’m working with suppliers, customers and competitors, that I’m all communicating with. As I want to make sure to always be myself, I choose to create a company culture that suits me as a person. This way, every person or company working with me will get the same RvdB Solutions experience. If I ever decide to expand, I will search for colleagues that carry the same values. This is why I apply culture as a freelancer.
The internal culture is something you can also still think about as a freelancer. An example: this could help you to keep your focus, stay healthy, hold yourself responsible for reaction times etc. Any “rule” you set for just yourself as a freelancer, should help you avoid your weaknesses and play into your strengths. Look around at websites of other companies and look for a description of their company culture. Some great inspiration that changed me in a great way: Maatwerk Online.
What is my company culture as a freelancer?
My company culture is greatly based on what my previous employer had as their company culture. Informal communication, treating your product like my own, being open and transparent and putting quality first are my core company culture aspects. Our co-operation should be all about creating the best product together.
Treating your product like my own
Treating your product like my own is key here. I don’t want your product to cost you too much, so I will never overcharge you. I look at the value a product or feature can add to your company, the time I require to build it, and based on that I will always come with a fair price. We both need your product to be of top quality, so you won’t lose money on future repairs. Perhaps only developers will understand this fully, but any product I build, including yours, is like my baby 😉
Being open and transparent
Being open and transparent is important to me. Together, we can be most efficient if we can fully trust one another, which can only be done by being fully open and transparent. If you ask me to do something I’ve never done, I’ll let you know I’ve never done it and whether or not I think I can get it done. Bluffing my way into an assignment will only cause issues and stress, so no worries about false promises.
Quality
Quality goes first! I usually refuse to let quality go to save time. Something shouldn’t just work, it should work well, great even! This means that whenever we are working on a project together, I will be fully transparent about opportunities I spot and challenges I run into while building the product. I will steer towards investing in the extra quality, not for the money, but because great quality will always come back to you on the long run. In the end, the customer still decides though.
Do you want to apply culture as a freelancer?
Let’s talk about it! I would love to share ideas and inspire each other with company culture aspects that could help us serve our customers even better. Get in touch!
