The best apps to help you go freelance

Whether you’re exploring freelancing as a way of earning some spare cash or considering a full-time freelance career, you’ll need to use every method available to save time and money.

In this guest post for beepurple by Lauren Wise, content writer for Pandle, you’ll discover some of the apps that can help.

Hootsuite

As a freelancer, you’ll need to be your own cheerleader and market yourself to potential clients.

While it can be tempting to inundate your Twitter followers and Facebook friends with sales pitches of your new business venture, there are more subtle (and effective!) ways of getting the message across.

Social media management tools allow you to schedule your social updates and build a steady stream of social media posts targeted to your audience at the perfect time. Hootsuite is the perfect option for freelancers as it’s free and allows you access to some basic analytics.

 

Trello

For those who struggle to organise their workload, Trello is the perfect to do list for you new freelancing lifestyle.

When it comes to sorting work in time for your deadlines, you need to be particularly punctual, especially when you have clients to write for. Trello is ideal for those who work visually, and enjoy the satisfaction of checking off a task as complete.

Its method of boards, lists and cards mean you can break down your tasks into easy to manage chunks, and work on managing it in a specific timeframe.

You can create an unlimited number of boards,  which you can base on each project; for example, ‘Magazine Articles’, ‘Holiday Checklist’ or, simply, ‘Freelance Projects’. Give it a try if you find breaking down tasks a challenge.

Evernote

Many students of English and Journalism find freelancing the perfect way to get their writing into a variety of publications and a great way to build up a portfolio.

In order to keep track of your different articles and notes, you can put them all in one place in Evernote. This note taking app may not offer the extensive features that come with word processors, but it’s perfect if you often find yourself writing on-the-go.

With everything stored on the cloud, you can start off writing on your phone on the bus ride home and pick up where you left off from the comfort of your laptop when you get in.

Pocket

As a freelancer, there are numerous helpful articles that will give you valuable advice on your industry, tips on finding clients and even help on doing your accounts.

Unfortunately, you don’t always have time to give the articles a read, and the more you bookmark to your browser’s ‘Favourites’, the less likely you’ll remember to find them!

The answer is here in Pocket. You can save all the articles you don’t have time to read today and come back to them when you have a spare ten minutes. Perfect for advancing your freelancing skills.

Pomo Done App

When balancing freelance work with university work and other activities, it’s vital you manage your time effectively.

One great app to help you do that is the Pomo Done App. This is based on the Pomodoro Technique, a time management technique where you focus for 25 minutes and then take a break for 5 minutes. After four of these ‘Pomodoros’ you then take a longer break.

The Pomo Done App integrates with Trello, so you can apply the technique to your daily tasks – meaning your freelance work gets done as efficiently as possible, and you have more time for your other studies.

Dropbox

The classic storage folder is just as trusty as ever. Dropbox is perfect for freelancer who need to transfer files and keep them all in the same place and easy to update.

You can even share your folders with clients via Dropbox with shared folder invitation. This can be particularly helpful if you have a file that needs editing, as it will save multiple versions being created.

A Dropbox Basic account will give you a maximum of 2GB of storage space. If you need more space than this, you can use check out their pricing plans.

 

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