7 Tools I Use to Run my Freelance Business that Save Me Time, Money and Stress
Yes, I write about technology, but I was surprisingly dense about recognizing the ways I could use apps and tools in my own business to save time and make more money. Over the last year I have focused on becoming more efficient with my time by using tools and outsourcing.
Here are 7 tools that I have found most helpful in my business:
Hunter (Formerly Email Hunter) – Finding the email addresses of potential clients is time consuming and frustrating. The way this FREE tool works is that you put in the person you want to find and the domain name of their company, then it gives you their most probable email address, along with a percentage representing the likelihood that it is correct. It is right a very high percentage of the time. The best part is the add-on (also free) which adds a button in LinkedIn so you can get someone’s email address while looking at their profile.
Invoicing software – So invoicing has always been one my weaknesses. Finally, a few months ago I gave in and started using an invoicing tool and cannot believe the difference it makes. It’s so easy to invoice clients and I can much more easily keep track of my income (much better than just add up the deposits into PayPal and my business account). I use Freshbooks, but I have also heard great things about QuickBooks Self Employed, which has a great invoicing tool. You can either purchase the invoicing portion standalone or as a part of Quickbooks. Regardless of which product you choose, I think the most important criteria is to use a tool geared towards freelancers or small businesses, which both of these are.
Tape a Call – I’ve learned that I can create much better content if I am fully participating in interviews instead of frantically taking notes like I used to do. I can now ask more intelligent follow-up questions and not worry about accuracy. I think that this is true with most any topic, but especially in tech with complicated concepts and many non-native English speakers. Tape a Call is an app that you download for $9.99 per year with unlimited minutes. If you do a lot of recording then it is considerably cheaper than the apps that charge per minute. When you care done you can email the file, upload it to Dropbox or send it straight to Rev for transcription.
Rev – Yes, transcription seems expensive. But if you take a business-minded approach to it, you often LOSE money by doing it yourself, so outsourcing is a smart move. Rev is an online transcription service where you upload your audio file and you can get back the transcription in around 24 hours, but sometimes much shorter. So let’s say you are earning $100 an hour and you are booked with paying work. If you do your own transcribing of a 60 minute interview and it takes you 1.5 hours, then it costs you $150 as opposed to the $60 ($1 per audio minute) you would have spent on transcribing – meaning you waste or lose $90 by doing your own. I’ve used private transcriptionists, but I find Rev to be much quicker and there’s no more dealing with invoices at the end of the month, since you just charge it to your credit card as you go.
Calendly – Scheduling interviews can be challenging – the back and forth of who is available at what time, not to mention the time zone puzzle. When I’ve had large batches of interviews to schedule, I use Calendly to save time. The way it works is you sync it to your calendar and then set up parameters for these interviews. You send out a special link to everyone you want to talk with, and they select the time to meet. The meeting shows up on your calendar with all the call information and you are good to go.
Free Conference Call – While this doesn’t save me time per se, I think it helps me look more professional. While most of the time my clients set up a conference line, there are times I’m interviewing a source and need to talk to different people in different locations at the same time. It’s free and easy to get your own conference number so that you always have one when you need it. You can also record calls using this tool as well.
Adobe Pro – I have almost lost many clients before I’ve written a word because of my inability to get my contracts and agreement paperwork on time. Yes, I know it’s unprofessional and awful. But the act of printing and signing and scanning just seems to take so long and my scanner is always in a mood. So when one of my client’s suggested I used Adobe Pro to digitally sign contracts, I checked it out. Yes, you can use the free version to just put in your digital signature, but a lot of time my contracts and agreements require me to put in other information – SSN, email, phone – and this tool lets me do it without ever having to involve my scanner. At first it seems expensive at $120 a year, but that is an hour of my time over a year and I spend WAY more than that scanning. Not to mention the fact that I am no longer peeving off clients because I will return contracts right away since I know it’s only a few clicks.
What tools do you find most valuable for your business?
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This is such a timely post for me, Jennifer! I’ve just been looking at Freshbooks and thinking of switching…wasn’t even aware of Quickbooks Self-Employed, but definitely going to check that out. 🙂
I, too, threw in the towel on transcription a while back–just too much of a time sink. I use a private transcription service, CLK Transcription, (http://clktranscription.com/) and have been *very* happy with cost and turn around time. It’s been a lifesaver.
Another tool that’s really helped my productivity, though it may sound somewhat odd, is Focus@will (www.focusatwill.com). I find that listening to this music really helps me to focus and concentrate on the task at hand.
Thanks again for another ‘meaty’ post. 🙂
Lori
I’m happy you’ve had good experiences with Rev. Mine was so abyssmal, I had to re-transcribe it myself (they did return my fee). I use CLK Transcription and they’re more expensive, but perfect every time. Love some of your other ideas. My organizational skills are definitely lacking!
I’m glad you like the other ideas. I am not overly organized either. Until Freshbooks, my accounting system was basically add up all the money I deposited into my business account and hope that every paid me. I know, it was terrible.
That’s good to know you had a bad experience with Rev. I will keep in mind your experiences with Rev when recommending them. I’ve used them probably 150 times over the past 2 years and only had a few mediocre transcripts. I like that Rev just bills my credit card, no invoices to deal with. Was it just one time or multiple bad experiences?
I started using Rev because I had some bad experiences with CLK and did not want to use her anymore. The transcriptions were fine, but slow – I had issues with the business portion – invoicing and emails were less than professional. But I know many people who love CLK and tend to think my experience was an outlier, so I don’t bash or bad mouth her. One of the benefits of CLK are that all transcriptionists are US based.
Thanks for the suggested tools, Jennifer. I was looking for a new recording app, as it’s getting too expensive with my current pay-by-the-minute app. I’ve got about 7-10 interviews lined up in the next 2 weeks, so this is perfect timing!
Okay, Jennifer. This is going to make me sound pathetic. But I never considered calculating my hourly rate to see if using a transcription service such as Rev, made sense. I just always thought to myself, “Nope, I don’t have money yet to be outsourcing like that.” Well, I just calculated it for a project I’m working on now and…Wow! Thanks for laying it out there so plain and simple like that!