Site: Shoeboxed

In this interview learn from Taylor Mingos about cloud based apps that can help your freelance business. Shoeboxed is the company he runs, which can save you time by scanning and organizing your business receipts for you. It integrates with Freshbooks and other affordable, open standards online apps as well. Taylor discusses quite a bit about launching a startup, filling a niche market’s needs, and expanding abroad. So for those of you looking to expand beyond freelancing and launch your own business, this interview will be especially interesting.

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Photo by striatic.

I’ve written numerous times about remote working, including how remote working works for freelancers and how freelancers can overcome the daily challenges of working remotely. In this post, I’ll be talking about how I’ve launched a web design studio remotely.

Why do it?

Us freelancers love working for ourselves. We like the thrills of deadlines and chasing work. A common problem we face is that our services are not always scalable, as many of us are billing by the hour and we can only ‘get out’ what we put in. By establishing a business, I can take on a managerial position and spend more time making important decisions than sweating hours–but only if that’s what I want.

There’s a nice balance here, as I can still do as much work as I like but I never feel I have to. It’s still a freelance arrangement, as all clients are remote and the business is a collection of freelance and part-time staff, but is managed in such a way that it provides 24 x 7 service. That’s the first lesson: you can continue to enjoy everything you love about freelancing if you establish your business with a freelance business model.

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