Freelancing means you will have a lot more responsibilities than the average salaried worker. Of course, there are advantages of freelancing – you are your own boss, you get a better return on your work, and you have the flexibility to work as much or as little as you want. To make sure that you’re managing your business as efficiently as possible, you should use the right tools to manage your time and responsibilities. Many London IT support companies recommend the use of applications to manage the various aspects of your freelance practice, in just the same way that limited liability or corporate companies would also use a range of IT systems to manage things like accounts, payroll, marketing etc.
So, what apps should freelancers use?
1. Clockify
When you are a freelancer, you don’t have a fixed salary, and what you earn is dependent on the amount of time you are working. Therefore, it is very important to have a detailed report of all the billable hours you worked per day, week, or month.
Clockify is an app for time tracking and the creation of timesheets. The app has many features, including a productivity dashboard, and automatic calculation of the amount you are owed based on the hours you tracked, and your hourly rate.
2. TeuxDeux
It’s important to be able to get things done in an efficient and timely manner when you are working freelance. TeuxDeux is an app for managing your to-do list. It is specifically designed for people working remotely – and seeing as many freelancers do work remotely, this is a good fit. It offers a simple system where you add all your tasks and create a schedule for the day. You simply mark tasks as they are completed, and any work that isn’t finished will be moved over to the next day’s schedule.
3. To Do
When you are a freelancer, it is worth having two to-do lists. One for work tasks, and another for personal errands. With Microsoft To-Do, this is made easy due to the tag feature. Like the previous app mentioned, To-Do allows you to add tasks and create a schedule, but you can tag each task with custom tags. You could opt for a simple #work and #personal system, are you can create as many custom tags as you feel is helpful to you. This way you can easily segregate tasks and search for tasks.
4. Cushion
If you’re in need of an all-in-one planning app, Cushion is an excellent option. When you are freelancing, you need to manage your schedule, projects, clients, daily and weekly tasks, and juggle all of that with your personal life and responsibilities. Cushion has a built-in Calendar, a Gantt-like task chat, a function for sending and tracking invoices, a price estimation tool for your clients, and it even has a section for planning and tracking your vacation schedule.
5. Bidsketch
As a freelancer, business development is critical for the growth of your business. You might have some loyal clients, but it is always worth looking for new clients and new work. For this to be successful, you need to be able to deliver winning proposals. With Bidsketch, you can streamline the process of creating pitches and proposals, thanks to features like the ability to reuse content, and automatically insert new client information. Bidsketch also includes an e-signature feature that could even streamline approval rates.
6. Brand24
As a freelancer, your brand is very important to your success. Brand24 monitors all the popular social media platforms, forums, and search engines for mentions of your brand – both positive and negative. This way, you can track what people are saying about you and your brand. This app enables you to respond to brand mentions in real time, thus making customer and audience engagement easier and more prompt.