An outsourced project manager or freelance project support can be the difference between hitting your deliverables on time and on budget and failing to meet your client obligations. When your company services are in demand and you get busy, it’s all too easy to overcommit your resources. This can lead to problems meeting your project deadlines resulting in stress for your client, your staff and you.

This blog post looks how and why to bring in additional resources to ensure you deliver the outcome your client needs without compromising your profitability. You’ll learn:

1. What is an outsourced project manager and when might you need one?

2. What activities can a freelancer support you with?

3. What are the costs involved?

4. How do you monitor the performance of freelance resource?

What is an outsourced project manager and when might you need one?

An outsourced project manager or freelance project support is resource that you can buy in to cover peaks in your business activity, such as when you have a large change project happening or when you might be busier than usual such as over the summer or Christmas period. Each industry has busy times and not so busy times and for small businesses, it can be hard to get resourcing right. Being over resourced leads to inefficiencies and excess costs that don’t produce revenue. Being under resourced leads to stress and burnout for employees and can result in missed deadlines and unhappy customers. It can also have a detrimental impact on profitability and productivity.

What activities can a freelancer support you with?

Project support can take a variety of forms. Projects usually need someone to manage the day-to-day admin such as arranging meetings, taking meeting minutes and updating project plans. The project manager is likely to be busy monitoring progress against the plan so may be unable to keep documentation up to date. A project administrator can therefore play a vital role in making sure everyone knows what’s happening each day or week, how the project is doing against its planned budget and any upcoming milestones. In addition, they can provide advice and guidance on project management processes and best practices. By outsourcing project support, businesses can free up their own staff to focus on more strategic tasks, and ensure that their project is delivered successfully.

Projects also usually require people to be trained in new methodologies, new processes and new systems. These activities can be time-consuming and often get overlooked during the project planning stage. Using an outsourced project support resource who can manage the change communications can be a cost-effective way of getting your staff and customers up to speed with the new way of doing things.

What are the costs involved?

Project support is a specialised form of admin which may require the freelancer to have experience of working with project management tools such as Asana, Trello or Monday.com. This means you could expect to pay a little more for your project admin than a regular virtual assistant or PA might cost. However, when you are only paying for what you use and there are no additional costs such as pension, holiday and sick pay or other staff related costs, using an outsourced project support resource is likely to be the most cost-effective option. Expect project admin costs to start from around £30 per hour or about £250 per day.

How do you monitor the performance of freelance resource?

If you research the credentials of your outsourced project manager and find someone who has demonstrable

experience in providing project support to other clients, then monitoring their performance should be easy. In fact, you are paying them to monitor your performance on the project you are running, so if they aren’t regularly asking you for updates on progress, then they aren’t doing the job you hired them for, so you will quickly know whether or not you are getting value for money.

How I can help you with your next project

If you know that you have a busy period coming up and you are worried about how your existing resource might cope with the workload, it’s a good idea to plan ahead and get your freelance project support onboard a couple of weeks ahead of time. Perhaps as the business owner you are in need of a holiday but you don’t have a manager or assistant who can keep things ticking over whilst you are out of the office. If you haven’t had a break in the last few years, perhaps now is the time to plan one into your calendar. As a highly experienced admin with project management skills, I can ensure your business-as-usual operations run smoothly in your absence or I can parachute into your business for a short -or long-term project to help you deliver on your commitments to customers.

Check out my Virtual Assistant testimonials from customers who were glad they hired me.

Have you considered hiring freelance project support or an outsourced project manager?

If you would like to chat about your current project or a future one where you could save yourself a lot of stress by having the right resource in place, please give me a call on 07932040454 or email me at

I’d love to connect with you on LinkedIn so please send me a request.

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