I’ve been writing on a freelance basis for over seven years, either part or full-time. When I made the foray into freelancing, I ran a fairly humble operation writing the occasional article. As I gained more exposure and assumed staff writing roles with an increasing number of sites and ultimately launched my own websites, so too did my need to view freelancing as more than the casual gig; even in its early stages, freelancing is a business.
As Nathan Meunier explains in his superb freelance guide to video game journalism Up Up Down Down Left Write (an excellent read for freelancers regardless of industry) “as a freelancer, you’re not just a writer; you’re also a businessperson.” Whether you’re working a side hustle for extra income or fulfillment, pulling a night shift, or self-employed, you need to recognize your freelancing for what it is: a business. While that may seem like a daunting task, there are plenty of tools to aid you in creating a thriving freelance enterprise, even if it’s just you and your ideas. Check out the best apps for freelancers, contractors, and small business owners to help with everything from project management and time management to communication and social media scheduling!
Best Project Management Software for Freelancers and Contractors – Trello
Time management is no less important in the home office as it is in a traditional workplace. A key difference: you are your own boss. While there may be a client, editor, or other external force reminding me of a deadline, visualizing my work pipeline lends success and fosters time management.
The Write Life offers six time-management tips for freelancers. Scheduling, prioritizing, organization, and starting early rank among the awesome suggestions. I accomplish these with Trello, which I’ve used personally and as part of editorial teams in freelance and enterprise environments.
Essentially a Kanban board, Trello lets me create various boards for projects, and drag and drop cards into columns. I have mine set up as an editorial board to visually maintain my writing assignments. It’s pretty simple, but an effective solution for tracking project status. I’m using the free version, which comes packed with features. To set priorities, I add labels (green for low, yellow for medium, red for high), assign due dates, and create a checklist for subtasks.
Trello provides a bevy of resources on creating workflows and making templates, and there’s even a dedicated section for freelance and consulting. Plus mobile apps mean I can maintain my digital nomad lifestyle.
Trello cost: Free, paid tiers available
Best Time Management App – Tomato Timer
The Pomodoro Technique is a highly-successful time management plan that was invented by Francesco Cirillo in the 80s. Essentially, the Pomodoro technique breaks down work into various intervals, often about 25 minutes. These work sprints are separated by small breaks, often about 5 or 10 minutes. Then, after four Pomorodo sessions of 25-ish minutes with a short break in between, you’ll take a long break. So a specific Pomorodo technique stint might be: 25 minutes writing, 5-minute break, 25 minutes editing, 5-minute break, 25 minutes of writing, 5-minute break, 25 minutes of clearing our your email inbox, 15-30 minute break. Repeat.
But a Pomodoro session isn’t just about accomplishing work. It’s about focusing on the right tasks. When you begin, write down a list of objectives and try to complete your goals. The overall concept is to minimize distractions and maximize concentration on your to-do list. I find the Pomorodo Technique incredibly beneficial since it builds breaks into my workflow for things like doing chores around the house, grabbing a refill of coffee, walking my dog, or reviewing what I accomplished for work and assessing whether or not I stayed on task. There are tons of free Pomodoro timers including the aptly-named Tomato Timer.
Cost: Free
Best Team Communication Tool for Freelancers, Contractors, and Small Businesses – Slack
Slack probably doesn’t need much of an explanation. Communication in an office building is difficult on its own. Remote work comes with its own benefits and challenges. Absent are co-worker interruptions (unless you have housemates or live with family). Communication, whether as part of a freelance team or with clients, can be challenging however. While being remote can foster more transparency by nurturing over-communication, there’s the challenge of never being in the same physical space which can create silos.
Enter Slack. I use this as a freelance staff writer to chat with my editors and fellow freelancers. This is great both as a means of communication for work-related topics or general conversation. Sure, I love the freedom to work from my sofa, a coffee shop, or even on the treadmill. But I spend an awful lot of time cooped up in my dungeon (read: home office) basking in the light of my blue lava lamp hammering away on my keyboard. Slack means I still interact with actual people just like I would in-office co-workers.
While email remains a viable means of communication, it’s admittedly dying. John Brandon predicted in an INC article that email would be extinct by 2020, replaced by newer technology. In an Oct. 21, 2016 blog post, Slack blog editor Matt Haughey revealed that 70% of messages posted to Slack channels are public, and about 28% private, with a minimal 2% as direct messages. For running my freelance business, Slack lends an open yet non-intrusive environment. Creating segmented channels and dropping open messages builds an archive that’s much simpler to search than slogging through an email.
Further, between work and personal matters, I get a lot of emails. So notifications in something other than my Gmail mean I’m more likely to actually read the message, and there’s not the danger of a “reply all” chain. Direct messages in Slack add a sense of urgency, whereas channel messages are awesome for their transparent yet non-disruptive nature.
Perks of using Slack: superb platform compatibility. There are web, mobile, and desktop apps, including a phenomenal native Linux installer.
Slack cost: Free, paid tiers available
Best Overall Accounting Software for Freelancers and Contractors – QuickBooks Self-Employed
When it comes to freelancing, no matter the scale it’s nonetheless a business. While the work itself may be the fun part, the technical side should never be overlooked. There’s often a confusing tax situation of paying quarterly taxes and determining deductions, the record-keeping, and of course the invoicing. Intuit Quickbooks Self-Employed is the best accounting software for freelancers and contractors. As the name suggests, it’s catered to the self-employed with a feature set that includes schedule C deduction management, quarterly tax estimations, a mileage tracker, and more. You may even be able to write this off your taxes as a business expense. QuickBooks offers a heftier but still easy to use list of features and is my go-to for tracking business income and spending as well as invoicing.
Intuit Quickbooks Self-Employed price: $12+/month
Best Free Accounting App for Freelancers and Small Businesses – Wave
Wave is an awesome free tool I’ve used for accounting. Wave’s accounting, receipt scanning, and invoicing software are all free, and pretty comprehensive. Boasting reporting, integrations with the likes of PayPal, and no customer limits, Wave strikes the balance of features and simplicity. Sporting an array of features for invoicing, expense tracking, and payroll management, Wave is a great free accounting app for freelancers and small businesses alike. If you’re willing to pay, QuickBooks Self-employed offers better support, a more streamlined feel, and a better mobile app, but you can’t beat free. Ultimately, Wave is a cost-effective payroll and accounting app that’s perfect for the self-employed.
Wave price: Free, pay-per-use payments and paid payroll
Best Grammar Checker App for Freelancers – Grammarly
As a writer, I pride myself on a proper command of the English language and grammar. However, I write a ton: articles, social media posts, emails, and even grocery lists. It’s refreshing to have a sort of real-time editor, and grammar is not merely a concern of those in the publishing industry. A 2011 BBC article found that spelling mistakes cost e-commerce companies millions, a testament to the power of the written word.
I have Grammarly installed in my browser, and there’s even a Microsoft Office integration. It’s saved me loads of time as initial edits occur in real-time, resulting in a more polished first draft. And then there’s the benefit of checking emails using the in-browser app. Freelancing means I don’t have a large team of employees, so I wear a lot of hats, namely that of a content producer, editor, and social media coordinator. Using Grammarly allows me to focus on the content, and worry less about the grammar.
Grammarly cost: Free, paid version available
Best Automation App for Freelancers and Contractors – Zapier
With my business, I use several tools so there are a lot of moving parts. I use email and Slack for communication, Trello for project management, a slew of social media sites, and a handful of content management systems. Zapier lets me set up custom integrations. For instance, I have Zapier configured to send Trello notifications to Slack. I also have Gmail, WordPress, and Trello connected to Zapier which adds the ability to create Trello cards from an email or WordPress post. When a client contacts me with a proposal for a project, I can easily create a task in my Trello board all using the power of Zapier. There are near limitless possibilities, and a pretty hefty free plan lets me run five Zaps (automated integrations) with up to 100 tasks a month.
Zapier price: Free, paid tiers available
Best Overall Social Media Management App for Freelancers – Buffer
Social media has become insanely popular in the business world as a means of marketing and brand awareness. For freelancers, it’s a landscape to network, display talent, stay connected with clients, and more. Buffer aids me in streamlining my social media management. I have my Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Pinterest, Google Plus, and Instagram synced up across both tools. Included for free are basic analytics, three social channels, one user, and 10 scheduled posts. Although Buffer features great reporting tools and analytics, what’s so appealing is its ease of use. Buffer is incredibly streamlined and balances simplicity with insight. If, like me, you need a simple but effective solution for social media management, Buffer is an awesome option. Its re-Buffer feature lets you quickly re-share previous posts.
Buffer price: Free, paid tiers available
Best Social Media Tool for Freelancers With Detailed Reporting – Hootsuite
The free Hootsuite tier provides three social profiles, 30 scheduled messages, and one user. You can also upgrade to its various paid tiers which add more functionality like unlimited scheduling and additional users as well as social profiles. Where Buffer offers a streamlined interface, Hootsuite delivers fantastic reporting. Both Hootsuite and Buffer are intuitive and include detailed analytics, but Hootsuite’s reporting allows for a slightly deeper dive. If you plan to dig into social media reports more, Hootsuite is your best bet.
Hootsuite price: Free, paid plans available
Best Free Office Suite – LibreOffice
Regardless of industry, having an office suite is a must. Whether you’re making notes in a word processor, creating an invoicing spreadsheet, or making a presentation, we’ve all one installed. For my desktop client, I use LibreOffice. After many years of paying for Microsoft Office, I made the switch to the open-source LibreOffice. The free suite has a number of advantages. The latest release boasts superb compatibility with proprietary software. OpenOffice is pretty similar, with some minor differences including fewer updates than LibreOffice, less compatibility, and lack of a cloud version.
LibreOffice: Free, open-source
Best Productivity Suite for Freelancers and Contractors – Google Workspace (Formerly G Suite)
With such prevalent use of Gmail, most everyone is familiar with Google Docs. It may not be as feature-rich as a dedicated desktop app like Microsoft Office or even free alternatives such as OpenOffice and LibreOffice, but Gooogle Workspace has its major benefits. In addition to Google Docs, Google Sheets, and Google Slides as alternatives for Microsoft Word, Excel, and Powerpoint, G Suite features a calendar, video conferencing app, and more. Since Google Workspace is cloud-based it makes sharing and collaboration easy.
Furthermore, G Suite features excellent permissions for limiting who can edit or comment on files, as well as a robust revisioning capability for viewing previous iterations of a file. I’ve mostly switched to G Suite for office productivity since it’s free, great for sharing documents across distributed teams, and cloud-based with offline access for the best of both worlds. The standard G Suite is free, and just creating a free Gmail account affords most apps found in Google Workspace. But a paid upgrade yields many benefits including 30GB of cloud storage per user, custom and secure business email addresses, and more.
Google Workspace/G Suite: Free, paid options available
Best Apps for Freelancers, Contractors, and Small Businesses – Final Thoughts
If you’re a freelancer, contractor, or small business, you’ll want to make sure you’ve got the right tools for the trade. In my arsenal, I have Slack for communicating with my distributed teams, Trello set up as an editorial calendar, QuickBooks Self-employed for invoicing and tracking expenses, LibreOffice and G Suite for office productivity, Grammarly as an spell checker to minimize my post-writing edits, Buffer and Hootsuite for social media management, a Pomodoro timer for staying focused, plus Zapier for automating anything I can. Ultimately, there are plenty of must-have apps to help you along the freelance journey.
Your turn: Which tools do YOU recommend for freelancers, contractors, or small businesses?
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