USEFUL RESOURCES FOR CREATIVE FREELANCERS
The following is a list of online resources that will be helpful in setting up your freelance business; from how to find freelance work to keeping yourself productive:
FINDING WORK
Upwork – A great service linking clients to freelancers.
Hiive – Network with fellow creative professionals and potential employers and keep up-to-date with any new opportunities.
Onsite – For the more technically minded designer, Onsite is a great place to meet quality clients.
Elevate – Run by recruitment specialists, Elevate is doing a great job in promoting the skills of freelancers to the appropriate markets.
PeoplePerHour – PeoplePerHour is a place for prospective clients to search for the perfect person to solve their problems.
Freelancers.net – A great job board for a variety of freelance opportunities from around the UK.
YunoJuno – Sign up to YunoJuno and get access to a number of well-paid jobs from a variety of high-profile clients.
Aquent – Based in the US but with a lot of remote positions on offer, Aquent is a place to search for digital creative jobs.
TaskRabbit – TaskRabbit is a decent job site to keep you ticking over, but don’t expect to earn in excess of £20 an hour.
Fiverr – Again, as the name may suggest, don’t expect Fiverr to make you rich, but it is a good place to find a variety of interesting short-term projects.
Guru – Guru tends to be a place for big projects, so if you’re up for a long-term project, you should take a look.
GETTING ADVICE AND PROTECTING YOUR BUSINESS
Freelance Advisor – Freelance Advisor is a useful service for getting a good insight into freelancing in the UK and discovering more about how to become a freelancer.
IPSE – Join the EU-based Association of Independent Professionals And the Self-Employed if you want help protecting your business.
FCSA – The FCSA works to protect a flexible work force in the UK and ensures all members are adhering to the legal requirements of running a business.
Chartered Society of Designers – The authority on professional design practice, the CSD is a great organisation to join if you’re a designer of any kind.
D&AD – A highly respected international body representing the interests of anyone working in the creative industries.
ACID – Copyright is often a complex issue for modern creatives and Anti Copying in Design (ACID) can help if you run into trouble.
The Association of Photographers – With over 40 years’ experience, the AOP defend the interests of their members and maintains the reputation of the photography industry.
British Institute of Professional Photography – The BIPP is an internationally recognised photography organisation that aims to train, qualify, and support professional photographers.
The British Institute of Interior Design – The BIID is a highly respected organisation representing the interests of interior designers internationally.
The Society of British Interior Designers – SBID represents the interests of interior designers, manufacturers, and educators in the interior design industry across the UK.
The Association of Illustrators – The AOI is a membership body that represents illustrators in the UK and campaigns for their rights.
PROJECT MANAGEMENT AND PRODUCTIVITY
MindMeister – Mind mapping application that’ll help you think through your projects with the option to turn your mind maps into presentations at the touch of a button.
FreedCamp – Create shared to-do lists to keep on top of tasks. It’s a great free for all version of Basecamp.
Evernote – Evernote is a fantastic resource for staying organised across all your devices. As your freelance business grows, you can upgrade to the plus and premium versions.
Oh, Don’t Forget – Schedule messages to be sent to your phone to make sure you don’t forget important deadlines.
Remember the Milk – Remember the Milk is a simple but powerful task management app which integrates with Gmail and Siri.
TeuxDeux – The minimalist design makes TeuxDeux a popular to-do app. They’ve really stripped it back to the basics.
Strict Workflow – Strict Workflow is a plugin for Chrome that enforces the ‘Pomodoro Technique’ – blocking distracting websites for 25 minutes then giving you a 5 minute break.
Toggl – Toggl is a simple to use tool that tracks your time. In freelancing, time is money so you need to use a tool to stay well on top of it.
RescueTime – Rescue Time is another time tracking tool that gives you a great insight into your daily habits.
1Password – Relieve the password headaches by using 1Password to keep them all in one place.
Dashlane – Dashlane is another popular tool for keeping all your passwords in one place and across all devices.
ZenWriter – As a creative freelancer, you don’t want to spend all day bashing away at the keyboard, so get it all done as fast as you can with a distraction free writing tool.
FollowUp – Staying on top of your emails is a crucial way to impress clients. Schedule emails in advance to make sure you never forget to follow up on a project.
The Email Game – The email game turns replying to emails into a game. Reply before the timer runs out and clear your inbox quickly or you lose precious points.
Sane Box – Sane Box uses a clever algorithm to determine the importance of each email and moves those deemed ‘unimportant’ into a separate folder.
COLLABORATION
Trello – Trello is a great tool for collaboration that allows you to organise all your projects into boards. At a glance, you can see what’s being done and what needs to be done.
Basecamp – Basecamp is the tool of choice for professionals who need to keep in touch on a project. It ensures everyone working on the project is up-to-date on what’s been done and what there is left to do.
Bidsketch – Bidsketch speeds up the time you take making proposals for projects and submits them to clients with a well-designed collection of templates.
DropBox – Sync all your devices to DropBox and store all current project files there to ensure you always have access to everything you need. DropBox also makes it really easy to share large files with clients.
Docstoc – If paperwork is not your thing, head to Docstoc where you’ll find templates for every business document you’ll ever need. There’s also a fantastic collection of resources to help you improve your business skills.
Clarify – It’s always surprising how many times you’ll need to take screenshots when working remotely. Clarify makes this simple allowing you to take screen recordings as well.
SnapEngage – SnapEngage is a live chat app that’s perfect if you get tired of the cumbersome emails. Keep up with your clients or collaborators in real time.
Hively – Hively makes it easy for customers to give you feedback. This is not only great for attracting new customers with testimonials but also a great way to ensure you give your best on every job.
Join Me – Join Me allows you to share your screen with clients easily, even if they’re not signed up.
FINANCIAL MANAGEMENT
FreeAgent – Free agent is a fantastic service for keeping track of everything and anything to do with your finances. With their support team of accountants on hand and the ability to submit your VAT, RTI, and Self Assessment directly to HMRC, you’ll be able to focus more on getting on with your creative work.
Freshbooks – Freshbooks helps you to keep track of billing. Calculating rates and hours can turn into a heated email battle with some clients. Cut out the confusion by letting Freshbooks work it all out for you.
Shoeboxed – Shoeboxed makes scanning and organising receipts, business cards, expense reports, and any other paperwork you need to keep track of a lot easier.
Mint – Mint is a simple free tool for keeping track of cash flow, budgets and bills. Not as in-depth as many but great if you want to keep it simple.
Braintree – Braintree from PayPal aims to integrate payment systems on the internet to make paying for things a lot easier.