This is a guest post contributed by Mike Potter, a skilled writer who brings expertise in career development and professional growth to his craft. With a strong grasp of workplace trends and hiring practices, he produces impactful content that guides readers in building standout CVs and exploring rewarding careers.

If you’ve taken the plunge on a freelance career, chances are you’ve accepted the idea of working solo indefinitely. Maybe that was even part of the draw. Working independently can be fulfilling, giving you space to call the shots and set your schedule. But if you think solo working skills are all you need to thrive as a freelancer, think again! While initiative, resilience, and drive are all essential for freelance success, teamwork is arguably just as important.

Why do freelancers need strong teamwork skills?

Even if you spend most of your workday alone, everything you do is ultimately in service of your clients. Building strong relationships with them is essential to your success. A foundation of strong teamwork helps you build trusting relationships with your clients, understand their expectations, and deliver exactly what’s required.

When you understand your clients’ needs, you can collaborate and communicate more effectively at all stages of a project. If you work with associates, suppliers, or other freelancers, this spirit of teamwork will also help you maintain healthy working relationships and deliver top-tier service.

Top teamwork skills for freelancers

There are multiple ingredients to effective teamwork. Here are some of the core skills all freelancers need to develop in order to exceed their clients’ expectations:

• Communication: Successful freelance work depends heavily on effective communication. Whether you’re working remotely or on-site, you’ll need to be consistent and clear in your client messaging, setting their expectations and delivering on them. That’s how you build trust.
• Adaptability: Having the flexibility to shift in order to meet your clients’ needs is essential to building productive business relationships. This could mean changing deadlines, responding to requests for work on shorter-than-ideal notice, or working to accommodate your clients’ communication preferences.
• Problem-solving: Your clients chose to work with you because you provide a service they can’t or don’t want to fulfill themselves. You bring expertise and experience to the table, and you can solve problems for them. The more you lean into your role as problem-solver and work to make their lives easier, the more successful you’ll be in time.
• Interpersonal skills: Soft skills are just as important as hard skills. Your ability to build relationships with your clients can’t be undervalued. While the quality of your work needs to speak for itself, at the end of the day, people want to work with people they like. Get to know your clients. Treat them with respect. And watch your relationships flourish.
• Willingness to receive feedback: Feedback helps you grow as a service provider, and receiving it with openness is a green flag. It signals to your clients that you can adapt to incorporate their feedback, and that builds trust in time.

How to develop your teamwork skills as a freelancer

It’s easy to lose perspective when you’re working independently most of the time. And if it’s been years since you’ve worked on a team, let’s be real — your teamwork skills might be a bit rusty! That’s natural. Here are some simple ways to flex those muscles:

• Ask for feedback: Direct feedback from clients can help you identify your strengths and weaknesses. Maybe you deliver high-quality work, but your communication could use some improvement. Open up to honest feedback and you’ll get the pointers you need to grow.
• Define your responsibilities: Clarifying and defining your responsibilities can help you deliver exactly what your client needs and expects. Make sure you’re aligned on the key deliverables at the start of every project, then make plans to check in and discuss progress at a regular cadence.
• Participate in a group activity: You can develop your teamwork skills outside your freelance work by participating in a group activity or volunteering on a regular basis. Collaborative activities give you regular social contact too, so you can exercise your teamwork skills in a low-pressure setting.

Showcase your teamwork skills to land prospective clients

Here are some simple steps you can take to make sure your teamwork skills shine through when pitching new clients:

• Ask for client testimonials: Feedback and testimonials are the best way to demonstrate credibility. If you have a positive working relationship with your client, politely ask them to provide a brief testimonial that you can use in your applications and proposals.
• List teamwork skills on your resume: If you have a resume that you share with prospective clients, you can showcase your teamwork skills there. Use resume templates from sites like CVwizard.com to make a good impression.
• Showcase finished work in a portfolio: Most freelance work requires collaboration with an internal team or other freelancers. Adding examples of finished projects and highlighting the folks you collaborated with can help demonstrate your teamwork skills too.
• Leverage your LinkedIn: LinkedIn is an invaluable resource for freelancers. It acts as a networking tool and a site to showcase your industry knowledge, and it can double as a career portfolio, featuring client feedback and examples of successful working relationships. Use the skills section to gain endorsements from previous colleagues and clients, and your recommendations section to list testimonials.

Flex those skills

Consider your freelance career an ongoing opportunity for skill development and personal growth. None of us are stagnant — we’re constantly evolving in our personal and professional lives. You can lean into that growth by intentionally working on your communication and collaboration skills. With time, you’ll notice your relationships improving and your business blossoming. Good luck!