Admit it, being a freelancer is a lot of hard work. You have to be determined and put in much time in order to be a success. Whether you are an individual logo designer or a small business, freelance work can be very demanding and time-consuming. For me, the hardest part about being a freelancer is that I often find myself wasting a lot of time on necessary yet bothersome tasks. Isn’t there something out there that can make my online invoicing, accounting, proposals and overall project management better?
Here are 7 tools to help you be a better freelancer. These free tools will help to streamline your small business so that you can stop wasting your time and keep focused on your passion. Use these tools for anything from your logo projects to web design and art direction contracts.
Wave is a Cloud-based tool for small businesses with 9 employees or less. They have created a software for freelancers, contractors and entrepreneurs so that they can do all of their invoicing, accounting, payroll, payments and personal finances in one place. The invoicing, accounting and personal finance features are 100% free. Payroll and payments are tools that you have to pay for.
“Wave exists to liberate you and your small business with smart, integrated small business software that saves you time and money, helping you run your business better and freeing you to do... whatever it is you'd rather be doing.”
Are you a project manager with long email threads? Are you still using a spreadsheet to track the progress of your project? If you need help organizing your projects, Trello is great and easy way to organize your workload in a visual space. Track your ideas, tasks and project progress with cards that make it easy for you and your team to see where you are at. Trello is free so try it today and you’ll quickly fall in love with this project management software.
Mail Chimp is an excellent mailing software that has been on the market for quite some time. If you are looking for a quick and easy way to execute an email marketing campaign, this is your tool. If you are still small and have less than 2,000 subscribers, this invaluable tool is absolutely free.
Are you wasting all of your time on client proposals? Use this tool to create professional proposals in just minutes. Bid Sketch comes equipped with some great features including embedded analytics, electronic signatures and flexible branding.
Toggl is simple to use and it is a great time-tracking tool. It isn’t free however it is cheap at only $5/month.
If you need to clean out your inbox quickly, this is a great tool. Mailstrom lets you “power through thousands of messages in just a few clicks”.
This wonderful tool helps you to create list and share lists with your team while also allowing you to add due dates, notifications and reminders to tasks. If you love lists then this software is definitely for you. You can use it for your business as well as your every day life.
Jotform Sign
Jotform Sign is an all-around e-signature automation platform that allows freelancers to streamline their signing and document management workflows. It offers a user-friendly, intuitive interface to design beautiful documents as well as hundreds of templates. Documents can be shared with a link, QR code or embedded into a website. You can then set up autoresponders and reminder emails to eliminate manual data entry and client tracking. Users are also able to build auto-generated reports, calendars and dashboards to manage and analyze their data efficiently.