The 15 Best Resources for Career for Freelancers
If you are a full-time freelancer or side-hustling for extra income you would be enjoying a world of benefits it offers – be it the freedom of time, money, location, or the power of being your own boss. Welcome to the Gig economy!
But Freelancing is a lonely journey. You are not surrounded by teammates, and there is no control. So, freelancers must keep their productivity in check to be on the right track. To do this, tonnes of resources are available in the market, making freelancing lives easier.
For example, many freelancers are resorting to coworking spaces to have a dedicated office space away from the comfort of their homes and the distractions it brings along.
The workstations provided by these coworking spaces provide all the necessary amenities to boost the members’ productivity.
In fact, according to the latest coworking statistics research conducted by The Address, the strength of freelancers working from coworking spaces is found to be 42%.
Similarly, freelancers are investing in various productivity tools, such as project management software, meeting scheduling tool, social media scheduler, and more to have control over their time and plan their schedule efficiently.
Along with that, they are investing in other skills which could give them better offers. If you are freelancing too, you can read more to find out more about these career altering skills, and courses.
This article discusses the top tools to improve productivity and grow the business. These tools take care of routine tasks and save time. This allows the independent worker to focus on more important tasks and helps them flourish.
1. Microsoft To-do List
It is easy for freelancers to get overwhelmed by the amount of work they have to get done. One of the crucial steps to building a successful freelancing career is prioritising work.
Microsoft To-do List is a simple yet overlooked tool that helps in prioritising work. Freelancers can use them to achieve the following.
- Set up daily, weakly, and monthly to-do lists.
- Manage your to-do lists online.
- Share the list with your team.
- Manage tasks easily with reminders, due dates, and checklists.
2. Evernote
Juggling between clients and projects is an everyday norm for a Freelancer. Organising the workload between different projects for different clients is the first step towards success.
Organise and store all your information in various notebooks, and access them from anywhere on any device. Freelancers can use Evernote to do the following.
- Create a notebook for every project/client with files, audio and video clips, emails, and documents about that project.
- Add deadlines, flags, and reminders inside each note, so you never fall behind your schedule.
- Document every piece of information digitally and go paperless.
- Synchronise your notebooks with your Google Calendar.
- Track your time on each project for billing.
3. Google Workspace
Working and collaborating with a remote team is essential for successful Freelancing. Freelancers can brainstorm online with clients and their teams to formulate the best ideas using the tools incorporated in Google workspace. It includes the following collaboration and productivity tools.
- Gmail
- Google Meet
- Google Chat
- Calendar
- Drive
- Docs
- Sheets
- Slides
- Forms
- Sites
- Keep
- Apps Script
- Cloud Search
All these apps are synchronised with your Google account. With these collaborative tools, Freelancers can collaborate with their global team and improve their overall productivity.
It enables sharing documents and presentations with anyone in the team. The universal Google account can be accessed from anywhere in the globe, from any device.
4. Canva
Freelancers perform multiple roles, and Graphic Designer is one of them. Not every Freelancer is a Designer by profession.
Especially for solopreneurs who do it all themselves, Canva can be an excellent tool for creating incredible designs for multiple purposes. Canva has numerous templates for almost everything.
- Thousands of design templates to choose from.
- Involve your team and create collaboratively.
- Schedule and share on multiple platforms and print the designs.
- Design logos, cards, invitations, landing pages, small business packaging ideas and almost everything needed to run a business.
5. Later
Social media plays a vital role in the success of any business. Social media is a powerful platform for brands to promote, engage, sell, resell, and successfully run their marketing campaigns.
These platforms have reduced cost and time and diminished boundaries. Later allows freelancers to schedule posts on their numerous social media platforms. Later has the following features.
- Visual content Calendar lets freelancers plan and schedule their content for a week.
- Reuse content on numerous platforms by customising the post and captions for each platform.
- Plan posts, photos with filter, and videos for Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn, Pinterest, and TikTok.
- Assists in content creation, hashtag suggestions, and analytics to grow the brand.
6. Slack
Slack is a channel-based communication platform to communicate effectively across teams. Freelancers can create multiple channels based on their requirements.
They can communicate, share files, schedule calendars, and collaborate with appropriate members. Individual messaging is also possible with Slack.
- Share the right information with the right people and take collective decisions.
- Collaborating with stakeholders outside the organisation, like clients, vendors, and partners.
- Efficient and organised team chats for better productivity.
- Connect with teams on video and audio in a single click.
- Multi-person screen-sharing with drawings and emojis.
7. DocuSign
Freelancing involves a lot of digital contracts, sharing and agreeing to them from anywhere on the globe in a few minutes. DocuSign lets freelancers use e-signatures to grow their businesses regardless of boundaries.
- Agree to contracts using digital signatures.
- Store and manage all your contractual documents in one place.
- Use DocuSign across business functions: HR, sales, legal, financial, healthcare, and real estate.
8. Trello
Trello is used to visually manage projects with remote teams by organising their workflow and tracking tasks.
The platform is designed based on the Kanban method. This platform enables effective project management by creating boards, lists and cards. They are then broken down into manageable smaller tasks.
- Tasks are organised into columns with labels indicating to-do, done, and doing.
- It helps in visualising and tracking tasks in a better way.
- The drag-and-drop facility enables the user to move the cards around between columns.
- Each card carries a description of the tasks, deadlines and custom-made labels to indicate the status.
- Users can customise the labels to mark issues as major and minor.
- Trello integrates seamlessly with other apps like Google Drive to share files.
9. Loom
Explaining procedures online is a critical factor in successful remote working. To achieve this, freelancers can record their screens to explain the process to the stakeholders clearly.
Freelancers can use Loom to record their screen, webcam, or both simultaneously. They can edit the video and share them instantly.
- Record content on any application from any device.
- Edit the videos to make them engaging.
- Create video tutorials and tours and cut down on unnecessary meetings.
- Record 4K quality videos with system/internal audio.
10. Zoho Books
Managing Finance is a significant aspect of any business. Freelancers can use the platform for all their comprehensive accounting needs.
Zoho Books is a cloud-based accounting software to manage core accounting, stock tracking, bank reconciliation, and maintaining GST compliances. Zoho Books can handle the following functions for freelancers.
- Handles all the everyday accounting tasks like raising sales invoices.
- Raises GST invoices and keeps the company GST compliant.
- It is integrated with more than 50 apps offered by Zoho.
- Enables users to manage all the receivables, payables, inventory, banking, timesheets, reports, and contacts on one dashboard.
11. Mailchimp
Mailchimp is an email marketing tool that helps freelancers get the most out of their marketing efforts. Communication is crucial to connecting and engaging with customers to improve their loyalty. The note-worthy features that benefit freelancers are mentioned below.
- Automate email communications to reach, engage, and convert more prospects.
- Communicate the right message to the right set of target audiences at the right time.
- Use the AI-powered content optimiser to make your emails more engaging.
- Segment the subscribers based on demographics to reach the right audience.
12. Genius Scan
Freelancers can digitalise every necessary document on the go with the help of their mobile phones. The Genius Scan application converts mobile phones with high-quality cameras into scanners.
Scan from any angle without worrying about glares and shadows. The application is available on iOS and Android, and lets freelancers do the following.
- Scan the paper documents and convert them to PDF files.
- Features document detection, background removal, shadow removal, filters, and so on.
- Enables scanning documents in both colour and black-and-white.
- Encrypted and password protection for security and privacy.
- Share the digital document by exporting it to various other document-sharing applications.
13. Dropbox
Dropbox offers cloud storage services for all your files outside Google Drive. Freelancers can store files like documents, images, videos, presentations, CAD design files, and whatnot on Dropbox. Freelancers can access all the files from anywhere, on any device, while on the move.
- Store and organise all their content in one place and access them from any device
- Synchronise Dropbox with applications like Zoom and slack for easy data sharing.
- Ensure the security and privacy of data with password protection and download permissions.
- Collaborate effectively with teams and improve productivity.
14. Calendly
Scheduling appointments and sending reminders are essential aspects of Freelancing. Be it for a client meeting, or employee recruitment, fix slots and follow-up with Calendly.
It helps find the perfect meeting schedule without repeated emails and calls—Calendly functions like a virtual assistant.
- Set availability on Calendly, share a scheduling link and let the invitees choose a time within the preferred slot.
- Calendly automates reminders and follow-ups. It allows optimal usage of time and avoids cancellations or no-shows.
- Embed Calendly links in emails, websites, or portfolios to streamline scheduling.
- It is integrated with other calendar applications to manage personal and professional calendars.
- Synchronise with other productivity applications from any device.
15. Mind Meister
Mind Meister is a mind-mapping tool that allows remote team to visualise their ideas and collaborate effectively. The online brainstorming tool enables freelancers to visually map collective ideas quickly and beautifully.
- Use built-in themes to create stylish mind maps.
- Display the maps in multiple layouts.
- Add notes and descriptions to each map topic.Include file attachments from local storage or links to documents.
- Allows comments and reactions for real-time brainstorming.
16. Bidsketch
Creating professional proposals is a time and effort-consuming task for Freelancers who do it all themselves. Bidsketch aids freelancers in developing project proposals in a matter of minutes. Just click to add elements to the proposal.
- Use built-in templates to save time and include all necessary elements.
- Reuse the fees, content, and design, and reduce the time spent designing proposals.
- Incorporates e-signatures and other digital documentation features to fasten the process.
- It sends automatic notifications about the status of the proposal.
- Manage all the client information in one place with private notes for each client.
The Bottomline
With technological advancements, new tools and platforms are designed to make Freelancing more successful.
These resources improve productivity for freelancers, especially solopreneurs and people with small teams.
These tools and resources enable remote working, financial management, messaging and document sharing.
The market is filled with many such applications and resources that make Freelancing easier. Based on each business’s budget and unique requirements, the freelancers can select appropriate resources. Use the trial versions to ensure their suitability and pick the right ones.
By Vivek Kargathiya: Vivek is Digital Marketer as well as an SEO Strategist by choice. His aim is to help people to expand and grow their businesses through digital media and marketing.
He helps midsize to enterprise-level companies & marketing agencies generate more traffic, leads, and sales with compelling, SEO – friendly content.
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