Three Resources That Make Freelancing Easier
As a new freelancer, you can get overwhelmed by all the resources out there that claim to be the best, easiest and cheapest on the market. I thought I would make it a little easier for you today and break down just a few of the tools I love as a freelancer. I’m not affiliated with any of them so I don’t get compensated for telling you about them. I just wanted to share three resources that make freelancing easier.
There are a ton of task management tools and honestly, a lot of it may just come down to user preference. My favorite task management tool is the OG – Asana. I’ve been using it for YEARS and have no complaints. I think it’s the easiest one to figure out and I have three profiles on it for each of the companies I work for – including my own.
It’s great because you can categorize everything! For example, you can have Client A as the project, but then there are tasks specifically assigned to that project and if you need to, you can break down those tasks into smaller ones. You can give yourself deadlines down to the hour and have the satisfaction of marking things complete when they’re done. Also, it’s free which is always a nice touch.
Not to be confused with Waze – the app that will alert you that there are police up the road and that you should slow down. Wave is where you can create and send professional invoices to your clients. It’s free to use and super easy. The clients pay through the email that they get from Wave and the money is automatically deposited into your account within a few days.
It’s not totally free actually. They take 3% of the total of each transaction which is standard. You could always send the invoice to the customer and include an address they can mail a check to. That way, you don’t lose out on the 3% you earned.
Not free, but very necessary in my opinion. DocuSign makes it easy to upload contracts that you and the client can both sign. Keep a contract template in your Google Drive (or wherever you do your work) and customize it on a client-by-client basis. Then you can just upload it to DocuSign, mark where everyone has to sign, and send it to the client directly from DocuSign’s website. Once it’s been signed by all parties, you can download it and keep it with your records.
You’ll have to do your own research on pricing but essentially you get so many “sends” per month based on the plan you have.
I have a lot more resources I could recommend – like which Facebook groups are best for freelancers – that I may write future blog posts on but these three are what I would recommend for freelancers that are just starting out.
The Daily Question for Entrepreneurs: The Three-Year Transformation is a journal designed to keep you motivated and help you hold yourself accountable when you start a new business. By answering one question every day you can determine what you need help with, reflect on your progress, and ultimately grow as a person and entrepreneur.