What are best tools to help freelancers?

Originally Answered: what are best tools to help freelancers?

Hi! I’ve been freelancing for 4 years now, full time for 2 years. I’ll tell you a few of the tools that are the most helpful for me…

The ones everyone recommends and are awesome:

• G Suite. $5 per month. Email on your own domain (instead of using a “@ gmail.com” address). I use Google Docs for almost all my writing and Google Drive for all my files. I also use Sheets for reporting and tracking my metrics.
• Dropbox. Some companies use Dropbox for everything so you’ll need an account. The free account is enough for most people.
• Trello. For project management. Can also be used to collaborate and work through the steps of a project with a client.
• Paypal. Get a business account. It’s good for moving money around, especially across borders.
• Wave Apps. For accounting. Also has a free invoicing service. They take a percentage of the fee if you use it, similar to PayPal. Which is totally worth it because it lets people pay with credit or debit cards.

Here are a few that you might not have heard of that I absolutely love…

• Free Email Tracker. This is a Chrome extension that adds tracking to all my outbound emails. Awesome because I can see if my messages to clients have been opened.
• FocusMate. This is a community of people more than a tool. But basically, it’s online co-working service. It’s the best thing I’ve found to blast procrastination.
• Focus@Will. Music that’s scientifically optimized to make you more productive. When I’m writing, this is what I listen to (I’m listening to it even as I write this actually).
• Free Screencast Recording for Gmail. Sometimes I have a complex problem or conversation I need to talk through with a client. Instead of writing a long email, I record a voice over video showing my screen. This saves me tons of time.

I hope that helps. Best of luck!