Working as a freelancer gives you the opportunity to make your own schedule and control your level of income. When working in this capacity, it is sometimes difficult to stay organised and on top of the projects you have going on. Because of this, there are a number of essential tools that most freelancers could benefit from using. These five tools are generally considered to be some of the most important for freelancers.
5 Tools That Will Revolutionise Your Productivity
1. Freshbooks
One of the most important needs for freelancers is keeping track of work and invoicing customers. If you don’t successfully invoice your customers, you will not be able to get paid and make enough money to stay in business. Freshbooks helps you deal with this issue head-on. Freshbooks is a software that allows you to track working time and bill your customers. It gives you a professional look even if you are a one-man business.
Freshbooks offers a number of different packages, depending on how big your operation is. If you only service three customers or less, you can use Freshbooks for free. If you have somewhere between three and 25 customers, Freshbooks will cost you $19.95 per month. This software is convenient because it allows you to bill your customers via email and it allows customers to pay you as soon as they are invoiced. By including a “Pay Now” button on your invoices, customers can pay you via PayPal and you’ll be more likely to get the money you need.
2. Basecamp
Basecamp is a web app that is perfect for many freelancers because it allows them to collaborate with others on projects and ensure that they get done. With Basecamp, you get an easy way to communicate with multiple team members. Instead of sending emails back and forth, you create a message board for each project.
When you’re working on a project, you can easily collaborate on word processing files, spreadsheets and presentations. It’s easy to send files back and forth to other members of your team. You can setup templates and assign due dates for certain aspects of a project. Basecamp is available at several price points, depending on your needs. They have a free package that allows you to work on one project per month. Getting 15 projects will cost you $24 per month and a package with 100 projects will cost $99 per month.
3. Gmail
Gmail is an email client that is available from Google. Gmail is widely considered to be a favourite among email users and the best part is, it’s available for free. All you need to do to use Gmail is to sign up for a free Google account. If you use other Google services, you already have one. You can choose your own email address and start sending and receiving emails within a few minutes of getting started.
4. Twitter
Twitter is an invaluable tool when it comes to working as a freelancer. Twitter allows you to see what’s going on in the world and contact other individuals who might be in need of your services. By following people on Twitter and getting followers, you can develop relationships with other individuals. Once you develop relationships with the right people, it could potentially provide you with a way to get more work in the future. Twitter is a powerful networking tool that can also be pretty entertaining.
5. WordPress
WordPress is one of the most popular content management platforms in the world. If you’re working as a freelancer, you definitely need your own website or blog to help promote your business. With WordPress, anyone can build a website or a blog even if you don’t have any experience with HTML or other languages. You can use the software for free and even download thousands of different plugins for your site for free.
Using WordPress to create your own website makes it possible for you to show off your work to others. You can create a portfolio on your site that lets others see exactly what you are capable of. Without this, it may be difficult for you to get customers, regardless of what type of freelance work you do.
When working as a freelancer, it is important to always stay on the lookout for the latest tools and resources that you can use to improve your business. Many of the best products are available for free if you know where to look.
My friend used to use Basecamp as his freelance toolkit with his client. He made some good management there in terms of creating monthly projects for his client, and no doubt that its a nice toolkit for freelancers like him. As for the other toolkit like you mentioned here, they’re also pretty worth to use.
Dan Lew
I’m still using Basecamp (and all the other tools listed). I couldn’t do without it. 🙂
Thanks for introducing me to Freshbooks and Basecamp. These are tools I didn’t know about but captures my interest. Freshbooks sounds like something I’m looking for. As for the other tips, they do work great. WordPress is a MUST!
THANKS for the info.
Donna
@Donna – Glad to be of some help to you. There are loads more tools out there apart from these like Xero and BitBucket.