Small business tools and tips
In this article, I’ll talk a bit about the tools and web services I have decided to use to support my freelancing business, along with a brief review of each.
Let me start by saying that appstorm.net has a great article that identifies a number of online tools to support your freelancing needs. It’s where I started, and I recommend it highly to get a feel for what’s out there to support your freelancing business.
Invoicing and Time Tracking – Harvest.com
After signing up for the trial of a few of the listed services, I ended up choosing Harvest and am very glad I did. I had been struggling with having invested myself in MS Project training in the past, but feeling it was just too cumbersome for what I needed. Harvest provides me with an effective time tracking system so that I can ensure I’m spending my time on the right things, according to my priorities.
Also, Harvest actually kills two birds with one stone by also providing me with a very effective and elegant solution for estimating and invoicing. I was previously using QuickBooks Online for managing my invoices, but was never quite satisfied with it. The feeling was always “well, it’s an industry standard, and maybe I just need to get used to it”. Well, that’s not the case with Harvest. I actually enjoy using it.
Side note: as I’ve been writing this entry, the Harvest website seems to be having some technical difficulties because I can’t even get to their home page, let alone my account info (Bad Gateway error). Stay tuned… Hmm.. so I just cleared my cache and now it’s back up…
Financial / Accounting – Quickbooks Online
Currently, I am still using QuickBooks Online for my ledger, asset tracking, and reporting, but I’m considering whether I really need it any longer since I now prefer Harvest. Also, I am using Mint.com for my personal finances, which is also tracking my separate business checking account transactions. I may be able to say goodbye to QuickBooks (at least for now)!
Project Management – RememberTheMilk.com
As I mentioned before, I have experience with MS Project, but feel it’s overkill for my purposes at this time in freelancing. I’ve considered Basecamp, but just can’t seem to force myself to like it – I really don’t see what the fuss is all about with that product. I’ve chosen to use RememberTheMilk.com for my task management needs. As I learn more about its organizational capabilities, I feel less and less of a need for a project management system. The only thing that I think I’d benefit from that RTM doesn’t support well is dependent tasks. But as a one man shop, it’s not a show-stopper for me. RTM’s interface is clean and easy to use – and it’s free.
File Management – MS Office Live
I checked out each of the suggestions listed. However, nothing met my needs as well as what I’ve already been using – MS Office Live. I use MS Office, so it’s a nice feature to be able to open my files directly from MS Office Live. It’s not perfect, but it’s doing the job – and it’s free.
CRM – Zoho CRM
Right now, I have decided to use Zoho CRM, mostly because it’s free and it will give me good context for what I like or don’t like in a CRM when I have greater need for a potentially more advanced system. So far, though, so good.
Social Tools – Facebook, Twitter
Facebook and Twitter have been obvious choices to get up and running and begin building a network on. It will take some time and effort, and it’s not quite priority right now, but they are obviously important tools for social networking.
Productivity – Delicious
Hosting – GoDaddy.com
Education – Lynda.com
One service that I have discovered that I must mention before wrapping up this article is Lynda.com. Although the investment seems steep, I have been extremely pleased with the value I have received from this service just with the trial period I received with my purchase of Adobe Web Premium CS4. I will definitely be subscribing for their premium service (there’s also some coupons available out there on www.RetailMeNot.com).