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Great communication is at the heart of every successful freelancer-client relationship.  An underrated but powerful skill you can develop as a freelancer is an active listening skill. Whether you are taking notes during a meeting, responding to a client’s concerns, or brainstorming solutions, mastering the art of active listening can set you apart from the competition. What Is Active Listening? It is great when you hear the words someone says to you in a meeting or a conversation, but active listening goes beyond just hearing. You must also learn to: Pay full attention to the speaker. Understand their message and intent. Respond thoughtfully and  Avoid distractions or interruptions. Think of active listening as building a bridge of trust and understanding between you and your client. Why Does Active Listening Matter for Freelancers? Yes, freelancing requires you to deliver quality work to your clients, but that's not all; you also need to, create a strong relation...

When communicating with others, make sure you speak in a way that they can understand, so that when they leave, they leave with the key message or takeaway you intended. As freelance executive assistants , apart from your routine job, you may also manage projects for your clients or represent them in meetings where their ideas must be conveyed to a team. Therefore, mastering the art of effective communication is invaluable. The Pyramid Principle: A Powerful Tool for Clear Communication The pyramid principle is a powerful tool for achieving clarity and structure in communication. It helps you organize your messages clearly and logically, ensuring your audience understands and retains the key points you aim to deliver. The Pyramid Principle , popularized by Barbara Minto (a renowned consultant and author), is based on presenting information in a top-down structure : Start with the main idea or conclusion. Follow it with supporting arguments . Provide specific details or evidence to a...

As a freelancer in administrative roles, you have the flexibility and freedom many people dream of. But with that freedom comes the responsibility to manage your own growth. Setting the right performance goals and learning intentions can be the key to staying competitive in a competitive market.  What are performance goals?  Performance goals are set when you want to hit certain numbers or achieve a particular target. They are helpful when there's something specific you want to achieve and you already have the skills or knowledge needed to achieve it. What are learning intentions? Learning Intentions, on the other hand, are mostly useful when building new skills and knowledge, especially when adapting to changes that challenge you to do things differently. Let's break down the steps for setting performance goals and learning intentions. Step 1: Create a clear vision:  You must have heard this a lot and it's beginning to sound like a cliche! I know! But it's a point th...

The benefits of freelancing include flexibility, freedom, and the ability to work when and how you choose. But let's face it: balancing multiple clients, meeting deadlines, and dealing with uncertain income can be stressful. Your long-term success in freelancing requires being able to manage stress effectively.  TIPS ON MANAGING STRESS AS A FREELANCER 1. ORGANIZE! I cannot emphasize this point enough. When your schedule is all over the place and a cluttered mess in your head, it becomes challenging to take charge of all your tasks and responsibilities effectively. And this can result in a lot of stress. Also, don’t try to handle too many clients at a time so that you can give yourself time to breathe and deliver your best to your clients. Being well-organized makes your job easier too. Remember that you are an independent contractor, you determine how you want your workflow to be, so it’s up to you to organize everything.  2. An important part of self-care is a regular workout...

  For freelancers in administrative roles such as executive assistants, or project managers, your job may include data entry into spreadsheets, and creating reports using tools like Excel and Google Sheets. It's important to understand and be able to use some Excel functions that manipulate data to improve your efficiency and speed. Apart from the mathematical functions, some Excel functions I've found really handy are the Text functions. These functions are powerful tools designed to manipulate and format text strings within your spreadsheets. They save you time and effort by automating tasks that would otherwise require manual editing. In this article, I'll discuss some of the most commonly used Excel text functions that make data manipulation a breeze! CONCATENATE The first function we'll look at, and one of my favorites is the  CONCATENATE function. Concatenate joins two or more text strings into one string. The Syntax for Concatenate: =CONCATENATE(A2, " "...