In this post, we will look at the top 7 must-have tools that any freelancer should have in their arsenal. Being a freelancer implies tackling many aspects of the business yourself, from time management to handling finances. Freelancers often juggle multiple clients and projects. Saving time and energy on several aspects of your freelancing business means that you will have more time actually working on projects and building relationships with your clients. That’s where these tools come in to save the day. With that being said, let’s dive right in.
1. Best CRM Tool for Freelancers: Airtable
Airtable is an amazing CRM tool that can help you organize your business in a comprehensive way. It allows you to create customized solutions for different parts of your business. Using the tool lets you streamline work processes and save you valuable time. Airtable alone will allow you to have a unified database for managing marketing, finances, or even customer enquiries from your website. Some of the use cases of Airtable include:
- Manage all sides of your work in one place. From setting up goals to calculating invoices, Airtable could be a solution to all your problems in one place. Airtable is extremely extendable and lets you create invoices and connect them to other bases, clients or projects.
- Integrating your communication channel with Airtable. You will be amazed at how much faster you will be able to tackle the business enquiries from your website if you connect them to the communication channel of your choice, like Slack.
- Setting up and managing Facebook Ads campaigns. Did you know you can connect your Facebook Ads account with your Airtable base? From setting up advertising campaigns to creating ad sets and ad creative, it all becomes simpler with Airtable.
If you are new to Airtable, feel free to check it out here.
2. Best website building tool for freelancers: Webflow
Unicorn Factory is built with Webflow, if that’s not the proof of Webflow use case, what is? Webflow is an extremely useful tool that different types of freelancers can learn to take the scope of services they offer to their clientele to the next level. For example, copywriters will benefit from learning how to update the copy on the client’s website using Webflow. In general, learning no-code or low-code tools will elevate your value as a freelancer. Some things you can build with Webflow include:
- Creating your own mini-course. Building your own mini-course has never been easier. If you feel like there is something you are ready to share with the world, or you have just been really excited learning something new and are ready to share what you have learned with the world, Webflow is the place for you.
- Making a simple landing page for your business. Having your own landing page as a freelancer is crucial. It can bring you conversion easily and help you find your dream clients. Webflow provides you with templates and makes the building process simple and straightforward, with visual components.
- Designing your own website! Webflow can be your all-in-one website, generating leads, helping you in managing projects and billing your clients, all from one place.
Feel intrigued yet? Check out Webflow.
3. Best automation tool for workflows: Zapier
Did you know that 90% of all processes in the Unicorn Factory are automated by Zapier? This automation tool helps you manage the manual tasks of your freelance business so you can focus more on building relationships with clients. Here are a couple of examples of things you can do using Zapier:
- Receive notifications when someone fills out an enquiry form on your website. When you are a freelancer, communicating with clients in a timely manner is a game-changer. Showing your interest in the project and setting up the first call needs to happen fast. It is easy to get swamped with emails, so setting up automation whenever you get a fresh lead helps a lot. Set up Zaps when you get new leads and receive notifications in your preferred communication app.
- Connect your Gmail attachments to your Google Drive. If you are someone who often communicates with clients through Gmail and gets sent important attachments, you might be interested in this workflow. Instead of looking for each email to find that attachment, set up a Zap and save any attachment emailed to you into a selected Google Drive folder.
- Manage your content for social media. Do you create content for social media, like Youtube? Look no further since Zapier lets you create a workflow that manages your videos and publishes them for you. Want to learn more? Find out a step-by-step guide on setting up this workflow here.
4. Best client scheduling tool: Calendly
Having meetings back to back means sometimes you get lost in the pile of them. Calendly is a terrific solution for managing numerous calendars and allowing people to book appointments with you. Every appointment you plan with someone through Calendly will be added to both your primary and their calendars, with clear instructions on who will call whom and what the meeting's context is. This makes managing your time, availability and setting expectations with your clients and prospects a breeze. Calendly includes cool features like:
- Embed Calendly to your website or landing page. Calendly by default provides you with a page for setting up schedules and a link to that page. You can choose to add the link to emails you send to clients, or even put up the schedule on your website. Embedding your Calendly link to your portfolio website will help set up your meetings in a blink of an eye.
- Set up meeting polls with multiple attendees in their time zones. With this feature, you can poll attendees of your meetings in no time and schedule meetings at the best time for everyone hassle-free. I almost wish I had Calendly to set up outings with my friends.
- Payments for your time. Calendly allows you to add different integrations. That includes a possibility of connecting Calendly with your Stripe or Paypal account and accepting payments for calls or meetings with clients. Requesting payments for your time is easy with Calendly.
Check out Connor discussing Calendly in greater detail here.
5. Best project management tool: Notion
For anyone who works on multiple projects and manages their own workspace, it can get messy and confusing. Notion helps to keep things organized, connecting your team, projects and documents in one place. It offers multiple templates specifically designed for freelancers. Notion is an excellent tool for taking notes, keeping track of tasks, publishing content, and even collaborating with others. It's simple to use and effective for both beginners and advanced users. Here are a few examples of how Notion is being used by freelancers and contractors:
- Managing tasks and projects. Notion lets you create a task management system for all parts of your business and personal life. It is completely customizable, which means that you can build the perfect system for your personal needs and workflows.
- Taking structured notes. The extreme flexibility of Notion is amazing for note-taking purposes. Notion is built on blocks of content, which could be web pages, images, videos, text and so on.
- Publishing content online. Blog posts, notes, interviews, resumes and portfolios, you can create amazing content using Notion and then share it with people with a simple link. People will be able to view and if you want to, edit the contents of your page without having to log in. You can even add your content from Notion to search engines to promote your freelance business online.
6. Best invoicing and payment tool for freelancers: Hnry.co.nz
Having multiple clients, invoices and expenses must get tiring. There are many apps that can help with one’s finances, including Bonsai, Xero and Hnry. Hnry's main benefit is that, unlike Xero and other traditional accounting software, it calculates tax payments and deductions for you and makes the payments to the ACC and IRD on your behalf. This website was designed specifically for freelancers and contractors and it offers maximum convenience for freelancers who have to handle finances with multiple clients. With Hnry, you get access to many features, including:
- Not worrying about your taxes: Henry takes care of all the taxes that you need to pay before the money even reaches your bank account. It takes full control over paying your taxes and filing returns, completely replacing your need for a personal accountant.
- Receiving payments and invoicing. You can send your invoices through Hnry, and it will follow up with your client if the payment is due, but they haven’t paid yet. You can also opt to integrate your invoicing method with Hnry instead.
- Getting tax support from experts. Hnry has a team of accountants that are available to your help in a matter of minutes. So if you do encounter a question, there are professionals who will be able to help you, fast.
7. Best social media tool for freelancers: Canva
Creating eye-pleasing graphics has never been easier. Canva is an online graphic design tool that has thousands of templates for everything from Instagram posts to banners to booklets. It lets you customize your social media creative and post to it from the website, without the hassle of having to download your images first. It also has free tutorials for people that are brand new to graphic design and want to make better visuals for their projects. Canva has features including:
- Photo editing. From color correction to background removal, Canada offers a range of designer tools that are extremely beginner-friendly and intuitive to use.
- Putting together presentations. Canva is home to thousands of professional looking templates for any use. All you need to do is add and drop images of your choice. Then add your text to it, and you will be able to take your presentations to the next level.
- Creating thumbnails. Being on social media, you must know the importance of having a good looking thumbnail. It can get time-consuming trying to create a perfect thumbnail for your socials, but that’s when Canva comes into play.
There are a lot of things that a freelancer has to manage: from self promotion to taxes. These seven tools will help in your freelancing journey, and taking advantage of them will save you lots of valuable time to balance all parts of your business.
