5 Tech Startups that Help Freelancers, for Free
Startups are great, particularly when:
- They are free or freemium.
- They have easy-to-use products.
- They help you deal with daunting business tasks that make you lose valuable time you should be spending doing “real” work.
Here are five internet startups who can be really handy for creative freelancers, and whose core service is absolutely free of charge.
1. When you have to find a new freelance project: Working-Not-Working
There are a lot of marketplaces for freelancers, and they all have pros and cons. Working-Not-Working is a new network for designers and freelance creatives to get new gigs without having to scour hundred of job posting or cheapen your brand in generic freelance sites.
Created by Justin Gignac, art director, it is a platform where you can quickly build your profile, and specify your availability: are you working or not working? Do you have time to start a new project? WNW does a great job in populating the site with quality creative companies that need freelance talent, like Ogilvy, Mullen and Etsy.
The best part is it that the hiring managers pay a monthly subscription for taking a peak at you, making this the most freelancer-friendly job board out there. The only catch is the invite-only policy, but you can apply on the site.
2. When you have to sign a contract: Docracy
Docracy is a pretty useful idea: a free and open source library of contract templates. This is particularly great for bootstrapped freelancers who cannot afford a lawyer but still need basic legal protection. You can search for the document you need, be it a consulting or a design agreement, or you can start with the curated Freelancer Bundle in the homepage.
What’s nice about this site is that you can see not only who wrote the document, but also how many times it has been downloaded or used by others and what changed between versions. They also have an e-signing feature, so you can even send a contract to your client directly from the site and get it signed, privately and free of charge. So, time to apply the principles of 8 Contract Clauses You Should Never Freelance Without with the help of a contract template!
Full disclosure: I’m in charge of content at Docracy. My job is to curate all the documents that come to the website. For example, I handpicked a set of useful templates for freelancers that you can customize and re-use for your business needs.
3. When you need to bill you client: Billable
Billable.Me is a minimalist invoice application. Completely and absolutely free, it allows you to create and download an invoice in seconds. You don’t even have to create an account. This nifty web app was created by two folks who “didn’t like invoicing and couldn’t find anyone who did… Billable is currently in beta and we’ve got a lot of plans for the future. We’re doing this for the creators, for the people who are trying to make something great, but have to pay for noodles in the meantime.”
It is also mobile optimized, so it is great for hassle-free, on-the-go invoicing (before you forget!) Upcoming features include personalized logo and accounts.
4. When you need to get paid: ZenCash
ZenCash, instead, is service for when the invoices have been duly sent, but, sadly, you haven’t been paid. If you are a freelancer, it probably happened to you, too. And it’s an uncomfortable situation, because you don’t want to push hard on a client and ruin a business relationship, but you also need to get what you are owed. ZenCash helps you out by being your automated “receivable machine”.
They will send automatic reminders to clients for overdue invoices. This is good not just because you don’t have to think about it, but also because ZenCash acts like a third party service and politely (but firmly) addresses your clients without making you look like a collection agency. Then, when things go really bad, they actually call a real collection agency for you — but you don’t pay a cent before that moment!
5. When you need to get things done: Trello
Trello is a very flexible to-do list and project management tool. With its skeuomorphic, web-based interface that resembles a neat set of cards stacked in lists, it definitely stands out from the competition. They recently added a bunch of collaboration features, mobile app, but most importantly it is still completely free.
They say that “everything that’s free today will be free tomorrow and forever”, which sounds awesome. Trello is great for monitoring projects, breaking down tasks and being productive in an enjoyable and modern way. It works great for solo project as well as for teams, and you can share your Trello Boards even with people not on the service, which can be a nice way to communicate your progress to clients.
What Free or Freemium Services Do You Use?
These startups are awesome because they provide free (or freemium) and useful services to creative professionals, but there are probably many more out there. Which ones do you love? Share your tech resources in the comments!
Leave a Comment
I like the docracy and the billable.
Good ideas!
Docracy is a great idea, thanks for sharing.
I use Asana as well for task management. It’s an excellent tool.
I currently use CurdBee for Invoicing (getting estimates feature soon) and Toggl for time tracking.
I’ll be taking a look at some of these when I get home form work.
Trello is great and can save a lot of time in addition to making managing of tasks more efficient. Ever since I started using it, my productivity has increased manifold. Before I used to rely mainly on sending emails and documents back and forther between myself and other members of my team. With Trello, the entire collaboration has become much more streamlined.
Thanks so much for article, really helpful. Sent on to a forum I’m a member of bmyers.com and know they will enjoy as well.
Thanks again.
Wave Accounting (http://www.waveaccounting.com/) is an excellent free accounting package. It allows you to manage multiple businesses, each with it’s own tab and accounts, and there’s even a tab for your personal finances. Unlike Mint, it can be used by anyone, anywhere in the world.
I like these alot. Thanks for the info.
I just started using WorkFlowly and it’s awesome!
And yes, it’s FREE.
It’s simple and very easy to use. I’m not an affiliate or anything, I just really like the service!
I like Outright for managing finances. It doesn’t do invoicing or anything (I don’t think, because I use a desktop app for that), but it does give me an estimated taxes feature.
What’s worse than invoicing? Taxes.
I use OurDeal.com for contracts, Freshbooks for billing (and past due invoice reminders), and TeuxDeux to keep track of my list o’ stuff.
I love these articles. Thank you very much as well as all the comments that help here too.
I use Catch online and on my phone. It’s great for me because I can download pictures and attach them to notes for inspiration.
I’ve been using Teamlab for about a month now and it’s a great project management tool. Unlimited projects, daily updates, time tracking and a whole lot of other features all for free.
It’s a little more confusing to figure out than Basecamp but hey, it doesn’t cost a dime.
Podio is by far the best online tool I use to date.
Before this though I used the following and sometimes still use these.
Task Management: Basecamp & Highrise all by 37Signals. Others are: Action Method, Any.Do, Do.com, & Asana.
Project Management: Springloops.com
Finances: Wave Accounting
Leads: Podio and Base
Pipeline: Pipedriver
Online Storage: Dropbox
Online Clipping : Evernote
Email: Gmail, I intergrated it with my business using Google for Business.
Hope this helps!
Great list – I’ve bookmarked this article for reference later! We started using Docracy a couple of weeks ago and love it!!
Invoiceberry (http://www.invoiceberry.com) is great for sending invoices. We use it since 3 months and I can’t complain!
You guys missed out on http://skylightit.com/ this app does every thing for me in one place! dont know why you dont review it!
tired of using 16 app for each thing i was waisting so much time just moving information from one place to the other now its in one app. tasks. projects. time billing. invoices and even paypal – i get paid by my clients via paypal it just rocks
oh did i mention custom headers for invoices, project templates and the fancy quotes…ah loving it.
I use Asana for tracking personal and business tasks (back-end)–I like it because it’s easy to use and keep track of everything.
I use Podio for collaborating with clients and contractors–I like it because there are a lot of widgets that you can customize depending on the client’s needs.
I use Trello, not for task management, but for organizing my blog posts. I create a card for each post idea and then attach resource articles, documents, etc. to each card. I move the cards from IDEA to IN PROGRESS and, finally, to PUBLISHED. This is by far the easiest way to manage blog posts.
I also use Protopage to organize ALL my apps. It’s my workspace/dashboard–it’s my start page in Chrome.I create “tabs” for each area of my business:
“Client Workspace” — Podio
“My Workspace” — Asana
“Blog Posts” — Trello
“Editorial Calendar” — Divvy HQ
“My Ideas” — Catch.com
“Contacts” — Contactually
I also have a tab for each business, with different widgets — mostly bookmarks by category. For example, for my VA biz, I have a widgets to organize my bookmarks. I have a social media widget with a link to FB, G+, Tumblr, etc. Another widget for Research with links to favorite sites–and so on.
I also use Evernote and have multiple cloud storage accounts because not all clients use the same, but I use Otixo as a dashboard, so I only have to sign in to one app and can transfer files from one storage account to another quite easily.
Sorry, I didn’t mean to go on and on. I just love all things apps!