Freelancing gives one the benefits of freelance or self-employment. Actually, it lets you select your projects and work at the time you prefer to work. Nevertheless, it has its problems. Freelancers’ largest challenge, or at least one of the main ones, is the organization of tools.
There is usually a problem when it comes to handling the various activities and due dates that exist in day-to-day life. It can lead to lost opportunities, confusion and stress levels. To prevent such problems in the first place, there must be a good toolbox on hand.
The tools highlighted within this article would include the ones that any freelancer ought to possess. These tools include communication boxes, tracking forms and reporting and financial management which will ease the course of performing business. Whether you are a total beginner or an experienced freelancer wishing to improve your existing business, this guide will help you get the most out of your line of work.
Which means that with proper tools you can always be on top of things. It will help you to produce quality work and also ensure that you do not work all time thus have a better lifestyle.
1. Communication Tools
As a freelancer, good communication with clients is essential in your business and freelancing portfolio if it is to be a success. This can lead to frustration, confusion, misunderstandings resulting in delays and most of all unfulfilled expectations. Being able to identify the right tools will greatly contribute to proper interaction throughout the day to day workflow. Here are some excellent options to consider:
• Slack
While reading messages on Slack, everyone will notice it is great for casual conversation or timely information sharing. You may extend different channels for every project. This maintains an organised flow of communication, which is helpful. Slack also allows sharing of files and can easily connect with other applications in order to manage work in one platform.
• Zoom or Google Meet tools
These tools are appropriate for virtual meetings. BT and Skype provide high video and audio qualities so there is no problem in communication between individuals. It is therefore very easy to initiate a meeting, present, share the screen or even record a meeting for later use. Both of these services come in handy whenever independent workers are dealing with teams based in different areas or have clients spread all over the place.
• Microsoft Teams
Microsoft Teams is best suited for huge projects or for use in organizations at the enterprise level. It contains the elements of messaging, file sharing, as well as video calls all offered in one service. I believe that the teams are very useful when the client is already using Microsoft’s portfolio of software, including Word, Excel, and OneDrive.
2. Project Management Tools
Just like other workers, freelancers may have many projects at once to work on, at one time. This easily becomes a nightmare because it involves clients, deadlines, and products. This is an area where project management tools help to keep everything at a check with it. Here’s making planning, organization, and prioritization easier, so here’s a list of the best out there:
• Trello
Trello is easy and intuitive. It employs boards, lists and cards to create a virtual environment in relation to task management. Every board is a project and it can be divided into the lists, Each board is a group by project. Tasks are created as cards which can be further assigned due dates, labels, and files can be attached. You shouldn’t go for Trello if you are not a fan of easy, straightforward, and visual tools for freelancers.
• Asana
That is why Asana works well when you have larger tasks. Organization of work can be easily done, including assigning tasks, their priority, and also controlling work results. You can get a glimpse of tasks in either lists, in calendar fashion, or otherwise in timelines. In terms of striving cooperation with clients or other teams, Asana also allows users to centralize all the information for their immediate parties. I found it helpful for the freelancers who work on bigger projects or if there are many people engaged in the project.
• Notion
Notion is the product that combines all the note-taking, all the task management, and all the making of a database. For one, Notion provides great flexibility because freelancers can make their dashboards, documents, and to-do list in one place. Overall it is best suitable for freelancers who have their daily work schedule with routine assignments that demand creativity and good organizational structure.
3. Financial Management Tools
Finding ways to manage your finances as a freelancer is not an easy task. Minimizing and managing paperwork as well as keeping a record of income expenditure and invoices call for mannered. Thankfully though there are tools that can help one with these tasks. Here are some great options to help you manage your finances:
• QuickBooks or FreshBooks tools
QuickBooks and FreshBooks are great for keeping accounts and making invoices. Both will also enable you to create and send impressive invoices in just a few clicks. It tracks the total and all the expenses with the help of making reports for the finances and the income. Each saves time on making it correct because such software solutions minimize the chances of making errors and help to organize the financial situation.
• PayPal or Wise tools
By now, both PayPal and Wise allow you to receive payments safely. The procedure of receiving payments from any client anywhere in the world is therefore quite flexible. PayPal protects you as well as your clients. The other great one is the Wise which was formerly called TransferWise. It would be perfect when used with the clients of the different countries. It guarantees competitive exchange rates and charges which come with the benefits of undertaking risk-sharing exercises that are associated with other higher exchange risks.
Extensify
Extensify is a simple solution when it comes to tracking the expenses. It lets you snap photos of receipts and it will sort them out for you. It can also record the mileage and create the expense statements so it can also be used as a tool to monitor all your business expenses. Budget control is the process of monitoring the expenses with a view to managing the amount being spent and expanding it efficiently.
4. Organizational and Productivity Tools
This is perhaps one of the most uphill tasks freelancers encounter more often than not. There are times when your work schedule may seem very relaxed and you do not have someone breathing down your neck to ensure that you complete your work within a given time frame. Isn’t it fortunate though that there are programs that assist a person organize his work and consequently increase efficiency. Here are some great options:
• Toggl Track
Toggl Track makes it easy to track how many hours one spends in work. Whenever you are handling various pieces of work, you are able to start a timer with a click and if you wish to stop the timer, you simply have to click again. It also supports the selective manual entry of time entries. They make it perfect for freelancers that want to keep track of billable hours or keep a track of their day.
• RescueTime tool
It is rather RescueTime that provides you with productivity habits analysis. It monitors those websites and apps that you interact with during the day. After that it provides you with a report on the percent of time you use for the productive work and time you waste. This can help you do a better job to find the weak spots in which you lack the appropriate concentration on your job..
• Forest tool
One of the interesting applications I discovered is Forest which indicates, this app can assist someone focus utilizing time division. You selected performing a specific task and as you work, the tree grows. Should you exit the app or turn your focus to something else, the tree ceases to exist. In the long run, you get to construct a virtual forest, and this really gets you going. That is why time management becomes so fascinating and useful for people to become more productive.
5. Design and Creative Tools
Freelance business creatives are independent professionals who need higher quality equipment to offer good work. There are various tools that help bring ideas out as well as ensures that you do not compromise on the market. Some of the best design and creative tools are:
• Adobe Creative Cloud tool
Adobe Creative Cloud is a package which has been considered standard and common among designers. It has tools such as Photoshop, illustrator, and In design that are almost indispensable in the practice of graphic design, photo edition and layout design respectively. Adobe solutions are strong and flexible that is why the use of these tools can be effective among professionals who are freelancers.
• Canva tool
Canva is recommended to be used for easy and convenient designs. No considerable experience in designs is required; even a professional can use it since it is that easy. Some of the things which you can create with the help of Canva include social media graphics, slide presentations, posters, and much more. Applying the creatives throughout the platform and readymade templates, freelancers will be able to create appealing designs in a short time.
• Figma tool
Work collaboration suits Figma well. Unlike designs in other App design tools, in Figma, it is possible to have many people work on one design at the same time. Figma is more useful in web designing and UI/UX designing. It supports vector graphics, prototyping and they can design and share their designs easily. In that capacity, it is most suitable for creative freelancing who may need to have interaction with the client or a team of workers, over a long distance.
6. Development for Writing and Content Generation Tools
Expert evidence suggests that language services that rely on content from freelancers require instruments by which their work is presented in the best possible light. There are writing software that can assist you in writing better, content management and help you keep your workflow in order. Here are some essential tools for content creators:
• Grammarly tool
Grammarly is a necessary tool to take care of grammar and striking mistakes. They correct mistakes such as spelling mistakes, punctuations and grammatical mistakes. Grammarly also provides recommendations on how to make your writing more clear and how your writing looks with different tones. Especially for freelancers who aim to deliver great content and free from grammar and punctuation errors.
It will emphasize such aspects of style as compounds, and compound compounds in evaluation of complex sentences and other features of bad style. By using this app, you can make your writing to be easy as well as brief. The app also includes readability scores to inform you on how easy a piece of writing will be to read. This is particularly good for freelance writers who wish to make their content more easily understood by the general public.
• WordPress tool
WordPress is at the centre of the blogging and administration of sites. It is also very easy to use and user friendly to make, edit and publish the contents on the website. This popular blogging tool comes with some cool plugins which assist in making your content have increased SEO and social sharing. Freelancers would find it useful if used to sort their website or blog so that all the items are arranged in one order.
7. The marketing and networking tools
That is why it is crucial to establish your personal brand for a freelance business to be successful. These tools can help you reach a wider audience and stay organized:
With it you are able to contact a potential client, partner, and market maker. Your profile will be an on-line resume containing information about your skills, experience, and portfolio. Recommended frequent re-posting with new activities and linking with workers in one’s field.
•Hootsuite or Buffer tool
It is very daunting to be in charge of all the social media accounts that you have, not to mention doing it with a lot of things that you need to do at the same time. Hootsuite and Buffer enable you to plan your posts for specific time in advance for whatever forum; Twitter, facebook, instagram, linked in among others. These tools help you to schedule your content, to post articles, and other content without having to login daily to your account.
•Mailchimp tool
Email must be used in marketing as it is a great way to maintain the interaction with the audience and clients. It deserves to be called a versatile tool to create and send out email campaigns, for it really is easy to use. This is particularly because Mailchimp makes it easy, whether you want to notify your clients about the services you offer, pass on a newsletter or announce a promotion.
8. File Storage and Overlays Tools
Thus, when employees are self-employed, it is very crucial to share and save files and documents. These tools ensure that your work is safe, accessible, and easy to collaborate on:
•Google Drive
Google Drive is the most common cloud storage available. It provides free 15 GB space and it supports Google Drive, Docs, Sheets, and Slides synchronization effortlessly. Documents: You can upload any kind of document, ranging from word docs, Excel spreadsheets, powerpoint presentations and so much more and then view them from anywhere. Google Drive also allows you to share files with your client or/and your colleague for project work.
•Dropbox tool
Files can also be kept and shared using this other handy tool. It provides organized distribution of files through the cloud with easy-to-use application interfaces. Files can be easily shared by creating a link and the link can be sent to anyone. Files are synchronized across devices so you get the latest copies all the time once synced with Dropbox.
• OneDrive
This is especially valuable if you are working in the Microsoft environment. It works well when installed in windows and interacts with other programs such as Word, Excel and PowerPoint among others. OneDrive is cloud storage, and file sharing software that also copies files to your devices, syncing them all. If you are working offline, changes you make to documents will be synchronized with OneDrive when you connect to the Internet.
9. Security and Privacy Tools
Freelancers work closely with clients and till date can access some personal details about them. These tools help ensure that your work and personal data stay safe:
• LastPass
This LastPass Password Manager is supposed to help save your username and password in a safe manner. All in all, you do have many more online accounts and they still provide a way for you to forget most of them and use very terrible ones. A password saver like last pass creates meaningful passwords for any accounts you want and stores the same. In all accounts one has to just remember one Master Password only.
•NordVPN or ExpressVPN
Subscribing to a VPN is very important nowadays, especially if one works remotely and needs to browse the Internet. These are some of the most reliable VPN services you can find namely NordVPN and ExpressVPN. Some of these tools help to secure your internet connection, meaning it is hard for hoodlums to infiltrate your line of communication. From browsing at a coffee shop using public Wi-Fi to working remotely from home, a VPN makes sure that you are safeguarded.
•Antivirus Software tools
It is special software that shall ensure the non-harmful exploitation of the hard-wears. Software such as Norton or Bitdefender provide the user broad protection against viruses, malware, ransomware and other dangers of the internet. These tools continually monitor your devices, and once they identify any threats, they eliminate them before inflicting damage.
Conclusion
That is why having the necessary tools is incredibly helpful when freelancing. It assists you in keeping you on schedule, focused as well as diligent. The most efficient tool, you’re not going to be spending all of your time scheduling things, you’ll be able to work faster and become more creative.All the tools mentioned above are universal and embrace all facets concerning freelancing including the project management tools, the marketing tools, storage, and security of the files.
It is, therefore, important to identify those tools that may favor your operations most and those which might not.Do not rush to browse the tools that are listed here. The ones with the asterisks beside them are good but these here are some of the best as you can try anybody and see which is best for you.
Everything stated above is understandable for every freelancer – and of course, every freelancer is special and what will be profitable for you is to play with tools until you find the one which is best for you.We’d love to hear from you! As usual, do post the tools you like or any other additions which you may see fit in the comments section below. It is therefore about time that we all came together and shared information that would help the freelancers grow.
