Freelancing as a creative professional has its pros and cons; on the upside, you work for yourself, set your own hours, and don’t answer to a manager or boss; but on the downside, your personal workload is more significant. But new technologies can help to make life easier.
Calendar Tools
A freelance business is always moving and changing; this is in contrast to a conventional office job that has a fixed schedule and is relatively predictable. But if you want to bring the same levels of predictability and productivity to your freelance business, you can by using app tools.
Calendar tools such as Calendly not only allow you to organize your workflow and keep everything under control, but they also have international alignment meaning you can send links to clients in different timezones without having to worry about calculating time or missing a call.
Cloud Storage
Once upon a time, there were physical hard drives for storage; these were useful in a time before cloud technologies because they could securely store large quantities of data. However, there were many drawbacks; hard drives need to be carried around and don’t have integration.
Nowadays, the traditional hard drive is obsolete; instead, businesses and freelancers use cloud storage that gives you access to data wherever you are. The business data you have in the cloud can be stored, accessed, edited, and shared conveniently from any computer or device.
Digital Documents
Running a freelance business is the same as running a non-freelance business; you have to interact with clients in different ways, exchange documents, and get your contracts signed. In order to do this safely and effectively nowadays, you need a reliable digital document tool.
Digital documents are faster to send and sign than paper ones – they can be exchanged in emails, for instance – and while there are some concerns over their cyber security of them, they are no more risky than paper alternatives. Visit ediscovery sydney for more information.
Communication Apps
With most businesses working through digital platforms nowadays, communication apps have become central to the ways we interact with clients, employees, and managers. But it’s not only agencies and corporations that can benefit from these apps – creative professionals can as well.
Communication apps such as Slack are often used for teams within an agency or business, but if you’re a freelancer, there’s nothing to stop you from setting up a channel for clients. Contacting regular clients through a Slack channel is better than sending impersonal emails.
Accounting Tools
Finally, you need to take full control of your finances if you want to be successful in the industry. Not only do you need to find your clients routinely and deliver the workload, but you also need to make sure your invoices are in order, and your taxes are up to date – it’s a lot of work.
Thankfully, accounting tools such as Paypal, Square, Mint, and Freshbooks are available to help. Think of these apps as a finance department for your freelance business; they help you to track and organize the money side of things giving you more time to concentrate on the work.