by Liesha Petrovich
Anyone who’s been freelancing for a while already uses the most popular tools. PayPal or Square for invoicing and receiving payments, Canva for social media graphics, Trello for project management and probably Evernote for jotting down your brilliant ideas. We often get used to a daily routine that we overlook awesome tools that would help our businesses grow.
Instead of sticking with the same old thing, it’s time to try a few new tools that help build your freelance business in a new way.
Professional Branding with WiseStamp
Everyone knows that building a brand is essential in the freelancing business. Enter a platform like WiseStamp. It’s an email signature tool that’s an easy way to share your details and it can be tailored to fit certain clients or prospects. Keri Jaehnig, from Idea Girl Media, explains that she has “I have four set up right now that draw attention to different facets of my business. I can cater what each contact sees at the bottom of my email based on their niche and how we are connected.”
Network Like a Pro with Covve
It’s not a secret that I don’t love networking. I hate forced small talk while smiling like I’m completely interested. Yet, as a freelancer, I’d rather spend time networking in the hope of getting a referral than cold calling any day. Covve is a business networking app that helps users find and get referrals with a twist. It only works with people you already know and trust. You connect with people and can anonymously search your contact’s contacts. Then you simply ask your friend for an introduction. Why spend your time and energy searching large impersonal networking sites? Since time is money, it’s crucial that you focus on what brings in the most business with the least effort.
Save Time with Google Keep
I can’t claim credit for this brilliant idea. It comes from Owner Media’s Chris Brogan who introduced Google Keep to me in his 20 Minute Plan Jumpstart program. Chris explains his process as human programming saying it’s for “Little recipes that I follow when I get up in the morning, the first things I do in the day, if I’m feeling a little stuttery, and I have a little extra time in the day, I’ll go to my keep and see what I can get done.”We can all keep lists, but what’s really helped me is the creation of process lists in Google Keep. It’s for all the things I’ve done a million times. For example, I teach a few online classes. There are several things I need to do at the end of each term. Yes, I can definitely wing it and I probably won’t forget anything on that list. But now I don’t need to tax my brain and can breeze through each task by glancing at the process list (human programming) I’ve created in Google Keep. I have lists for everything I do in the freelance business. Teaching classes, writing articles, sharing stuff on social media – everything. And Google Keep just seems to be the best tool for this process.
Never be Satisfied
You want your business to grow each year. And in the freelance business, we rely heavily on tools to get our jobs done. It’s not like we have a large staff of people to do this stuff for us. Usually, it’s just us and our laptops against the world. So don’t be satisfied with the tools you’re currently using. I would have never known Chris Brogan’s tip about Google Keep if I’d just said “Nevermind, I use Evernote”. This simple tool saves me time every single day. Time I can spend growing my business.
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Liesha‘s a freelancer by day and Kyokushin Black Belt by night. A late-blooming academic, she’s happiest teaching business and globalization at UoPeople. Her newest project is Work Mobly, an online magazine called which helps freelancers find freedom, happiness, and profit while working from anywhere.
Get in touch with Liesha on Twitter.
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