Hey there, and welcome back to Write Away, the blog for
small business owners, freelancers and anybody who is thinking of starting a
business and jumping into self-employment.
Today we are looking at some tools that can help small
business owners with 1001 things on their to do list, and as a freelancer myself,
I know from first hand experience, how useful some of these can be.
So, without further ado, lets delve into the list:
1. Evernote
Quite simply a fantastic tool for keeping
all of your notes, clippings, photos, PDF’s and even audio recordings in one,
easily accessible place.
You can create separate notebooks if you
have different projects, products, customers or even stories to keep track of.
It automatically syncs to the cloud when
you save anything, allowing you to update or capture information on the go, and
access it from a number of devices.
The basic (free) version is fantastic,
there is also a premium version (obviously!) that gives more storage space and
the ability to share information with colleagues should you need it. Highly
recommended.
2. Freshbooks
Described as “Uncomplicated Accounting Software
for your Small Business” Freshbooks allows you to keep track of your business
finances easily, at a time when paying someone to do it for you may not be a
feasible option.
It has a mobile app to use on the go and an
intuitive interface allowing you to create invoices very easily and also track time
spent on projects. Entering expenses and payments is also an easy process with
the focus being on saving time but not cutting corners.
There is even a 30 day free-trial period to
see if you like it before committing.
3. Dropbox
A very popular app amongst freelancers
because of the ease of gathering information and storing it – be it photos,
videos or documents, it offers a better way of sharing this information than
e:mail, and can be accessed from anywhere you are online.
The basic version offers you upto 2GB of
storage space for free.
4. Clear
This is quite a simple, but very well
designed “to-do” list app.
First a caveat, it is currently only
available for Apple devices, which obviously does not make it suitable for all,
but certainly worth considering if you are an Apple user.
You can create simple checklists, set
reminders and personalise them, even colour code your list if you so desire,
whilst syncing to the cloud means they are accessible when you need them.
5. Google Drive
A free, multi function app, that can be a
huge benefit to small business owners who can’t afford to spend a fortune on
software.
This provides Google’s version of Word and
Excel which allows you to continually save your work without fear of losing it
midway through a titanic document or excel masterpiece!
Amazingly, Google offers an enormous 15GB of
space free of charge, and, as with some of the other apps mentioned in this
article, you only need to be online to access your documents.
This list is certainly not exhaustive, and we appreciate
these things are often about personal preference, but we hope it might just
contain something that can make your self-employed life easier.
Until next time……..
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