When I first made the decision to walk away from my well-paid, secure job that came with lots of benefits, I had absolutely NO idea just how many apps and tools there are out there to help the budding Freelancer. I had visions of me having to create my own invoices, do my own taxes, make spreadsheets to manage my clients and set stop watches to time how long I spent on each task (or just make an educated guess).
How naive was I?
Now that I’ve started, and my business is up and running, I’ve found a treasure trove of helpful and time-saving tools available online, and if you’re an individual with a fairly simple business, most of these are completely free!
Here are the main ones I use
1. Toggl. This is a very simple tool which you can use to manage the time you spend on your clients’ tasks or projects. There is no monthly subscription to pay, just create an account and off you go. Once you’re logged in you create your clients and can then split out each of the tasks or projects you’re working on so you can keep track of what you’re doing for each one. Then when you’re ready to start work, create the task under the relevant client, start the timer and off you go. Of course, you need to remember to a) start the timer first and b) stop it when you take a break or finish what you’re doing. This gives you an accurate view of how long you spend on each task which is great if you invoice by the hour. You can then download a report of time spent broken down by each task which you send to your client along with their invoice. Some clients may not feel they need this but I know mine really appreciate seeing how long it takes me to do each task. As a Virtual Assistant, this is important, because my main focus is to save my clients time by doing the things that need to be done but don’t make them any money. If you’d like a more in-depth read on Toggl, Lewis from The Freelance Effect recently published a full review on it here.
2. Trello. This is an online organiser which allows you to create boards to which you add cards to manage project work for your clients. Trello has everything you need to organize projects of any size. Open a card and you can add comments, upload file attachments, create checklists, add labels and due dates. You can even manage your family holidays with Trello. If, like me, you enjoy using brightly coloured sticky notes you can do this electronically with Trello as reminders. This app is great if you have a project with a clearly defined list of tasks with deadlines like a product launch or an event. In addition, you can share the boards with everyone working on the project, so the whole team can see who’s done what and what remains to be done.
3. Invoicely. At the moment, I use this to invoice my clients. It’s a simple online invoicing system with which you create an account, set up your clients, then create invoices for them. Invoicely will send the invoice for you, or you can download it and send it yourself (along with your Toggl time report). It records the due dates of any invoices you create so if they’re overdue (you do have to manually mark them as paid) it will remind you to chase.
Invoicely is fine if you have a small business with just a few clients, but once your business starts to grow and you take on employees you will need to move to more sophisticated software. One such tool is QuickBooks Online. QuickBooks not only allows you to create and track invoices, but also allows the user to manage Corporation Tax, payroll, and VAT returns. It also allows you to send invoices from anywhere with their useful apps for tablet and mobile phone. You can also customise invoices, track real-time payments and schedule repeat payments. As a small business owner you will get paid faster and save time on your accounting.
4. I also like HelloSign. This is a great online signature tool which is invaluable to those of us who work from home and often never see our clients face to face. HelloSign means we can send a contract and have the client sign it online, saving a huge amount of time which would otherwise have been spent sending contracts in the mail, waiting ages for the client to sign and send it back, finding out they’ve lost it or the dog ate it, so having to send it again, waiting again (you get the picture).
5. My final recommendation is Hootsuite. Hootsuite is a social media management tool which enables you to monitor and schedule all your social media content from one platform. It allows you to see what people are saying about your brand, so you can reply immediately. If, like me, you’re an individual running your own business you can use Hootsuite with 1 user for free. If you wish to add users you do have to pay a monthly subscription but it is worth the money. Social media is such a massive influence nowadays you’d be crazy not to spend a bit of money perfecting your online skills.
So there you have it, my top tips for online time-saving or helpful tools. I hope you find them as useful as I do!
