Ever wanted to just cut your losses and leave the world of traditional work behind you? Yeah, you and everyone else.
With the internet opening up previously unheard of avenues for marketing and remote work, more and more people are choosing to leave the office for good and step into the world of freelancing.
While the freelancer’s life may not be as secure as a conventional job in various ways — such as the fact that clients can let you go with little if any warning, and you don’t get paid leave — it also offers a degree of freedom and an opportunity for self-invention that’s hard to match.
If you want to set yourself up as a freelancer — whether as a freelance photographer, writer, graphic designer, or anything else — it pays to have the right tools and systems in place to support your efforts.
So, for the sake of making your life easier, here are a few useful tools that you may want to consider looking into as a freelancer.
A portable card reader
If your profession involves interacting with clients in person and handling transactions — such as would be the case if you were a freelance photographer, for example — it’s very useful to have a way of easily processing payments in a secure and reliable manner, on the spot, instead of counting on the money to come through “eventually”.
Luckily, these days it’s easy to get a portable credit card scanner to use for on-the-spot transactions, with many different companies offering their own versions.
Even Paypal have got into the business of offering card readers for easy processing of Paypal payments.
An old-fashioned notebook
There’s a virtually unlimited number of apps and web-based tools available to help you keep track of your to-dos, manage your tasks, and track the progress of your projects.
These tools can be very helpful for a lot of people, for various reasons. But it’s also true that relying on digital tools for all of your organisation has certain downsides. For one thing, recording to-dos and notes becomes so effortless and quick, that you’re likely to store away too much information and never really reflect on it, or refer to it.
For another thing, phones, tablets and laptops can run out of battery, and servers for digital planners can go down for maintenance.
By using a traditional, old-fashioned notebook, and a simple but effective methodology like the “Bullet Journal” method or the “Getting Things Done” method, you can help to clarify your thoughts and stay on top of things, with minimal fuss.
Time-management apps
One of the ways in which apps can be most useful for your success as a freelancer, is by allowing you to keep better track of your time.
When you work in an office, you will have supervisors and other team members to hold you accountable. As a freelancer, you’ve got to be the master of your own time/
Tools like RescueTime can help you to remain mindful about how you’re spending your time, and can help to prevent you from falling into the trap of chronic procrastination.
