Freelancing seems easier, but it’s not. If you know the right tools, your freelancing journey becomes easier yet more professional; it will attract more clients.
61% of Americans freelanced last year, the number is continuously rising; nearly everyone prioritizing convenient lifestyle and freedom over earnings.
Imagine,
- You’re doing something you are good at.
- You’re working with those you think are good and trustworthy.
- You’re being paid for something you enjoy doing.
- You’re working whenever you want to; no more sticking your buts from 9 to 5
Many of us think that freelancing is an easy thing, everybody can do it, but it is not that easy. Why I am saying this?
Freelancers have to,
- Look after their finances (including taxes),
- Find new projects as soon as they complete the previous one(their income depends on having enough work), and
- Have to manage their time wisely.
Successful freelancing is like wearing many hats at a single time – a freelancer never knows when a flood of projects will come? Sometimes they have to hire or better to say collaborate with other freelancers too.
If you’re a student and looking for part-time work – just to make some bucks for a weekend party- freelancing would be a blessing. A report from Freetrain says;
Americans spend more time freelancing: Average weekly hours increased 72 million hours per week – from 998 million in 2015 to more than one billion hours a week this year.
Thanks to technology for making freelancing easier and convenient – 64% of freelancers find work online, a 22 point increase since 2014.
56.7 million Americans work as freelancers. That is more than one-third of the entire workforce.
If you’re also planning to freelance or already started, this write-up would be very helpful for you.
There are many high powered tools that freelancers can use to be more effective and more welcoming to their potential leads.
Let’s begin then!
1. Google Calendar
One of the best and worst things for freelancer is that each project is different – I mean they are of same type but with different format and style; this is what the very nature of freelancing.
Discipline what makes the freelancing a bit irritating, mostly freelancers do their projects without using a system in keeping a track of the deadlines, clients and appointments.
Many freelancers buy Apple products because of how easily they sync with each other. Every one of us has a Google account, so how about using the Google calendar – the best time management tool for freelancers.
You just have to set a date for a deadline or some important meeting to alert you the day before and on the respective date; you don’t need to remember the dates at least. With the help of it, you can also share events detail with your co-freelancers; even managing and viewing multiple calendars at once, is also possible.
2. Google Drive
Google Drive is becoming a good alternative to Dropbox since almost everyone has a Google account. Basically, Google drive includes access to their suite of software tools, including Docs, sheets, and slides, allowing you to write your content in it and also provide large storage to store your data.
Like Dropbox, it also provides free limited storage of 15 GB. it also gives the option to expand your storage if you pay them.
You can also install Drive on your computer and smart devices; you can share your data with others too.
3. Slack
For approaching clients and talking to them and share information about projects, a communication tool is very important. There is no better option than slack. You would hardly find a startup and even the big companies who are not using slack for communication purposes.
If you are not using it yet so download it now, so you can easily use it to communicate with your team members. Slack is one of the best tools used by freelancers; you can easily do group chat with your members, discuss projects, and it is totally safe.
4. Grammarly
One of the most in demand freelance skills today is content writing. Many websites selling products, all want good content writers to write well about their product portfolio to reach their potential leads.
Grammarly offers the best yet paid grammar-checking tool. It’s hard to think of a freelancer who wouldn’t benefit from using Grammarly. Even if you are not a writer, you still don’t want your clients to criticize you for your language and writing skills.
Grammarly fixes grammatical errors, including subject-verb agreement, punctuation, and modifier placement. It also checks that your content is plagiarized or not. The best thing of Grammarly is that it corrects your mistake which makes your writing more sophisticated and professional.
5. VPN
You can use any VPN, but the best ones can enhance your freelancing skills and the best thing – your entire content (data) would remain private; not any of your co-freelancers can see what you’re up to.
Nowadays everyone is on the internet and online security has become one of the biggest challenges; viruses and hackers are becoming the nightmare of many internet users. Especially when you are dealing with sensitive data, this increases the rate of getting hands-on your data, that is why VPN is a must for freelancers.
Using a VPN will also help freelancers to access any block website and/or content, these websites might be blocked because of your location, maybe one of those websites contain a good content that makes your freelancing more powerful and creative.
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