3 Steps To Build Business Transparency For A Good Long-Term Relationship

by Magdalena Rogoz, a Marketing Specialist at Time Solutions Ltd

If you ask your contractors what is the most vital when it comes to dealing with businesses and organizations, most of them would probably mention trust. Having so many opportunities impose on having an appropriate amount of information. People are evaluating and making decisions based on what they know. That is why transparency turned to be a new operating standard.

Transparency means better relations.

Clarity is significant in a kind of partnership where you are being outsourced for creative or consulting work. It is a kind of assurance. It shows your honesty and responsibility. The more open you are, the more reliable you become for your customers. As a result you can count for a good long-term relations.

How does it work? It is quite simple. Consider being hired by an international company to run an online campaign. In most creative agencies your salary is based on how many hours you spend on a specific assignment. Nobody is eager to pay for uncertain.  Your customer will require a number of reports from every single hour of your work within the particular project just to be sure that his money is well spent. Sounds pretty fair, doesn’t it?

What about providing the solution that brings more transparency to your business relation? Wouldn’t you become highly valued as a partner?

Transparency needs tools.

There are three ways to achieve a valuable relationship with your customers. Your choice  depends on what you actually need and what is your partnership build on.

Step 1: Basecamp for better communication.

Basing on communication you can use Basecamp. This online tool offers a wide range of possibilities that help you organize the whole work within your team. It keeps everything in one place enabling you to list tasks, invite people to join the project and do your job together at the same time. However, communication not necessarily will be enough.

Step 2: Manage your tasks with Trello.

All projects are about tasks. It is not easy to manage them as we are constantly changing their structure. Trello is a solution which collects required supplies and keeps an eye on the big picture. It organizes your projects and ideas into online boards so you are able to see what you are working on or what you are planning to do and so do your clients.

Step 3: Bill every minute worked with TimeCamp.

Another way is giving your partners what they really expect  – integrity. With TimeCamp you can not only make your business relations more transparent but also automate your co-operation and eliminate missed billable hours.

Transparency is automation.

Apart from tracking every minute spent on each assignment it is not a problem to generate accurate reports. All your data is collected in one place so with just a few mouse clicks you are able to present to the contractor how your time was divided within a particular project. For you it means time saved on calculations, for your customers – that their budget is allocated wisely. But not only.

Automatic reports save your time and give an image of time allocation. What is more, they are the basis of your income.

As every entrepreneur you expect to be paid as soon as you finish your job. Nobody wants to wait for the salary. With time tracking tool’s automatic invoicing you can charge your contractors right after you finish your work and bill them for hours worked by your team members. Moreover, thanks to PayPal you receive your payment faster.

We say “Time is money”. Time is a core of your business but so are your business relations. When you are treating your partners well, they will repay in kind. Transparency and automation process will lead you to this point and give you a competitive advantage on the path to success.