9 Tools for Freelancers Who Run Their Business
There is a huge difference between being an employee and being a freelancer.
When you are an employee, you do exactly what you are paid to do, be it writing, coding, or design, and you don’t have to worry about anything else.
However, when you are a freelancer, you do what you are paid to do, and then you also do everything else (marketing, bookkeeping, etc.) on top of it.
That means that as a freelancer, it’s not enough to be good at your craft, you also need to learn how to run a business.
Here are 9 tools that will help you run your business more efficiently.
Invoice Ninja
It’s extremely important to keep track of the hours worked and invoices issued – otherwise, your business might turn into a mess. But which tool should you use? There are so many! I recommend Invoice Ninja because it allows you to easily track time and issue invoices as well as to keep track of the payments received.
Lorem Ipsum
Does your business involve building websites for your clients? Then you probably already know how annoying it is to write placeholder text from scratch every time. Wouldn’t it be much easier if you could generate it with one click? Well, with lorem ipsum, you can. It works with WordPress, Sublime Text, Atom, and more.
Botsify
Most of your customers are using Messenger. So why not build a chatbot that would answer their questions there? That way you’d provide customer support without having to spend time on it yourself. And don’t worry about coding. Botsify can show you how to create a chatbot without writing a single line of code!
Captain Form
You know how when a new client emails you, it then takes several emails to learn more about their project, and, most importantly, their budget? You can significantly cut down that back-and-forth time by adding a contact form to your website and asking those questions in advance. It’s pretty easy to do – simply create a wordpress form with CaptainForm.
WordPress shopping cart
You should also give your customers the option to buy your services on your website without having to contact you first. You can do that by adding a simple shopping cart to it. It might feel a bit weird, since shopping carts are mostly associated with e-commerce, but believe me, it will help you reduce the back-and-forth emails.
Heroic FAQs
Another good way to reduce the amount of time you have to spend on replying to emails is putting an FAQ (frequently asked questions) section on your website. That way you won’t have to answer the same questions over and over again. The best way to do it is by using WordPress FAQ Plugin from Hero Themes.
Elementor
Have some great ideas for your website but don’t know how to put them into practice? Don’t worry, there’s no need to hire an expensive web designer yet. Elementor is a drag-and-drop theme builder that allows people with no web design experience create beautiful and functional WordPress websites. More than 700,000 people are using it already. Will you be next?
Novoresume
It’s true that your portfolio matters more than your resume. However, that doesn’t mean that you can neglect the latter, because some clients still require it. So dust off your resume, take a good look at it, and make some improvements. Also, keep in mind that a simple Word document won’t cut it anymore, you should have a beautifully designed PDF. Don’t know how to do it yourself? Check out these resume templates from Novoresume. You will surely find one that you like!
Fundle Bundle
Want to make your website really stand out from the crowd? Add some custom elements (fonts, graphics, etc.) to it. Of course, commissioning a designer to produce these would be very expensive, and therefore is probably out of the question. However, you can get design bundles at very affordable prices, and use them to become more unique.
Conclusion
It might be tempting to pinch pennies and try to do it all manually. However, that’s simply a bad use of your time, because as a business owner, you shouldn’t be spending so much time on non-essential tasks. So don’t be afraid of spending a little bit of money here and there on the tools that will save you a lot of time in the long run. Remember, time is money, and those tools will more than pay for themselves once they free up more time for client work!
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
