“A man and his tools make a man and his trade” – Vita Sackville-West
The saying goes without a doubt. Today we live in a world of complexities and to simplify, breakdown and ease the problems we require tools. Be it the physical or in the virtual world, tools are irreplaceable.
Being a freelancer, you need to have the right set of tools. With the right tools, a freelancer can work with ease and can scale to newer heights. So, what are all the essential TOOLS every freelancer needs to be easy and precise? Let’s have a look.
1. Google Keep
– It is an online tool which enables us to make notes, lists and even images or audios. The following can be done on Google Keep:
- Formats – Not only notes and lists can be created but also audio and video files can be uploaded.
- Labels – Putting a label on a list makes it easy to search. Also, you can categorize lists into different labels. There are default categories of labels to choose from, or you can create your own category.
- Color options – There is a wide variety of choice of colors available for list templates. You can also categorize the lists based on color.
- Reminder – Just like setting your alarm; you can set a reminder for a list which would remind you just on time.
- Filters – You can search a file by putting filters like- ‘audio’, ‘images’, ‘reminders’ and even ‘shared’.
- Sharing – Just like Docs you can share a list or audio file or an image file with people.
2. SlideShare
Slideshare is a presentation sharing tool by Linkedin. It empowers to you share your presentations over the internet with people sitting anywhere around the world. PDF files and PowerPoint presentations can be uploaded to it. Presentations can be more interactive by integrating audio and video files. Social media like Twitter and Facebook can also be fused with slide share.
3. Hootsuite
“It’s omnipresent, and it has seeped into the ground”. – Tom Piazza.
Is it possible to be omnipresent? Probably not yet but what about being omnipresent on social media? Yes, you can be omnipresent on social media. Hootsuite is a platform for managing social media. Facebook, Twitter, Linkedin, Google+ and much more can be integrated with Hootsuite. From just one place you can control everything that’s going on, on your various social media platforms.
4. Mailchimp
Email never was late to be identified as a great tool for marketing. Today email marketing is widely used across all industries. Mailchimp facilitates sending bulk mails of a campaign across all your email database. A few features:
a. Receiver’s behavior – Mailchimp helps you in gauging the precise behavior of the recipient by providing you with the analysis of – how many people read your campaign, how many people clicked on the link or the call to action button in the campaign, time of opening the mail, frequency of opening the mail in the case when the same mail is opened several times.
b. Built-in templates – It also provides with built-in templates which can be used for your campaigns. You can upload your own templates too.
c. Schedules campaigns – Mailchimp helps in scheduling the campaigns too. If you are unavailable yet the campaign needs to shoot, you just need to schedule it to when you want it to shoot off.
b. Auto responses and Welcome messages – It also facilitates you with auto responses and welcome messages to be sent to your contacts in case you are unavailable, or your clients are based overseas.
5. Basecamp
Basecamp is a project management tool which helps teams work together. There are various tools in Basecamp – Campfire, Message Board, To-dos, Schedule, Automatic Check-ins and Docs & Files.
a. Campfire -It is a group messenger facilitating communication within a team for sharing links and files.
b. Message Board-It is for more permanent conversations.
c. To-dos – This helps in keeping track of the tasks which are needed to be done.
d. Schedule -Schedule helps in marking important dates, events, meetings, appointments, etc
e. Check-ins -This is a tool which asks short questions to the teams on a regular basis. All the answers and feedbacks are collected and stored on check-ins.
f. Docs & Files -Docs & Files helps in keeping longer documents and upload files.
6. Google G Suite
G Suite is a collaborative software which was developed by Google. It helps in easing the tasks where some people are involved. It has Gmail (email), hangouts (IM), calender G+ (social media). Apart from the communication tools, it provides docs, sheets, forms and slides also. Today G Suits is extensively used across businesses.
7. Zoho
Today every business needs a stronger customer relationship, even more than a stronger customer base. Zoho is a subscription-based CRM software which helps you out with all the hassles of CRM.
8. Skype
Skype is the alternative to all the expensive voice calls and video conferencing. It is a free tool to communicate long distances. To use Skype the caller and receiver both need to have Skype at both ends. Much of the services are free on Skype, although it charges if calls are made to a mobile-phone or a landline number. Initially, it was restricted to desktops and laptops, but today you can get Skype on your mobile phones too by downloading the mobile app.
9. Sanebox
Now we have a tool which can manage our MAILS too. We get tons and tons of emails daily and it is very distracting to see so many mails also prioritizing them becomes difficult too. How about a tool which tells you what should be addressed first and so on? Sanebox helps in identifying the important mails and keeping them in the inbox. The other unimportant mails are kept aside in another folder for future references.
10. Bidsketch
Bidsketch is an online proposal tool which helps in creating proposals. Every business today require making proposals and doing that is a time-consuming affair. Now you can make and send proposals in no time. Bidsketch helps in making precise and uniform proposals making them look more professional.
These are some amazing tools which can be used by freelancers. No buying expensive licensed software, no long download durations, no installations, just get on internet and there you are.
We’re an IT company based in Indore, a tier-2 city of India. We develop tech products for startups and entrepreneurs to help you build them from scratch by visualizing your need. You can get in touch with us at EngineerBabu.