Editor’s Notice: Since this publish was initially revealed again in 2015, FreshBooks has rolled out newer variations. This publish has been up to date in 2024 to replicate perks, ideas and tips accessible for the most recent FreshBooks platform — which is what you’ll get in case you join a free trial at the moment.
In case you had been paid for each hour you spend working in your freelance writing enterprise, you’d be wealthy.
However once you work for your self, there’s quite a bit it’s worthwhile to do to hold your small business operating easily. Administrative duties like invoicing, maintaining monitor of funds, consumer administration and bookkeeping can eat up a great deal of time — and also you’re not paid to do them.
The extra effectively you possibly can handle these duties, the extra time you possibly can spend on paid work. And in case you can automate a couple of issues, even higher.
Enter FreshBooks, the freelance author’s time-saving and money-saving dream.
Chances are you’ll already be accustomed to this on-line invoicing software program that makes it straightforward to ship invoices and obtain funds. However do you know FreshBooks may prevent a boatload in invoicing charges? And that it may aid you keep on prime of your small business bills? Or that there’s a time-tracking characteristic?
Learn on to learn the way you need to use FreshBooks to extra effectively handle your small business and unlock time to deal with paid freelance writing work.
1. Monitor your time
Whether or not you will have shoppers on retainer, are paid a flat charge per challenge or invoice hourly, it’s all the time a good suggestion to maintain monitor of how a lot time you spend on every consumer.
Why? Since you could possibly be logging extra time than you thought. And when you already know precisely how lengthy it’s worthwhile to full a specific activity, you possibly can higher consider the initiatives you tackle and charges you cost.
For instance, it’s possible you’ll suppose you want two hours to write down a weblog publish, however by monitoring your time you uncover it takes three. Say you’re being paid $50 for the publish. Which means you’re making $16.66 an hour, not the $25 you thought — an enormous distinction.
Monitoring your time when it’s worthwhile to be doing precise work might look like a drag, however the FreshBooks app for iPhone, iPad and Android makes it tremendous straightforward. Simply choose your consumer and challenge, then begin the timer — or pause it once you want a break — and also you’ll be nicely in your strategy to time monitoring bliss.
FreshBooks can also be appropriate with a number of desktop widgets resembling ChronoMate for Mac OS-X and Toggl, so you possibly can monitor your time even once you’re offline.
FreshBooks additionally makes it straightforward to notice which of your companies you’re utilizing for any given challenge. For example, maybe you’re a contract author who affords running a blog, copywriting, and web optimization companies. Noting which of those expertise you’re using on every timer you set may also help you uncover which of your companies is most profitable — and thus, which features of your small business to speculate extra time and vitality into.
Professional tip: To set your freelance writing charges, it’s useful to know precisely how a lot time you spend on each single facet of your small business. To get a deal with on how a lot time you spend doing stuff that doesn’t herald money, create a brand new consumer: your self. Then monitor any time you spend on advertising, enterprise growth or administrative duties.
Having a full 360-degree view of the place your time goes could possibly be eye-opening. Chances are you’ll understand it’s time to lift your charges as a result of it’s worthwhile to account for that unpaid time you’re dedicating to your small business every week. (Want a bit of extra encouragement? Take a look at FreshBooks’ e-book on learn how to cost what you’re actually value.)
2. Improve your probabilities of well timed fee
Each freelance author fears the unpaid bill. To assist keep away from this uncomfortable state of affairs, every bill ought to remind shoppers of the fee phrases you agreed to in your contract. (In case you don’t have a freelance writing contract, it’s a good suggestion to begin utilizing one.)
FreshBooks has performed the heavy lifting right here and analyzed what language for fee phrases works finest. They discovered that being well mannered, telling shoppers precisely what number of days they should pay and including curiosity for late funds enhance the probability that you simply’ll be paid on time.
Professional tip: Chances are you’ll not have the identical fee phrases for all shoppers. You’ll be able to edit the default language on every bill to make sure the phrases you and a specific consumer have agreed upon are appropriate.
3. Handle your incoming funds
“I really like maintaining tabs on all my shoppers to ensure they pay on time,” mentioned no freelance author ever.
While you’ve obtained handful of invoices out for fee, it may be arduous to maintain monitor of when every fee are due — and which shoppers might have missed their deadlines to pay.
With FreshBooks, it’s straightforward to maintain monitor of who owes how a lot and after they owe it — all it’s important to do is click on on “Accounts Ageing” on the backside of your house display screen to generate a full report.
Professional tip: You’ll be able to arrange your FreshBooks account to routinely ship a reminder to shoppers who’ve missed their fee deadline. Arrange a late fee notification, personalize your message and shoppers will obtain a mild nudge in the event that they by chance overlook to pay.
4. Calculate bills and tax deductions
Come tax time, you higher consider you possibly can deduct each $5.50 almond milk latte (nicely, technically half of every one) you sipped whereas doing consumer work out of your favourite espresso store. Use FreshBooks to trace your small business bills all year long and even add pictures of receipts in case the IRS needs them later.
When you’ll should be diligent about logging and categorizing every expense all year long, it will come in useful once you want it most. FreshBooks will calculate the precise quantity you’ve spent in every class, making it a breeze to fill out these pesky tax types.
Professional tip: Do it’s worthwhile to submit bills to a consumer? No downside: FreshBooks makes it easy to mark an expense as billable, so you possibly can bill it to your consumer down the road.
5. Professionalize and personalize your invoices
There are a couple of different small issues you possibly can to to customise your invoices and showcase to shoppers how amazingly organized, skilled and beautiful to work with you’re.
In case you’d like your invoices to look a bit extra skilled, merely drag and drop so as to add your emblem. You’ll be able to even select from a wide range of preloaded templates, colours and fonts to present your invoices some pizzazz.
Use the notes part to begin constructing a superb relationship with a brand new consumer. A brief-and-sweet thank-you notice by no means hurts. Actually, FreshBooks claims that together with a well mannered “please” and “thanks” will increase the probabilities of your bill being paid.
Have a consumer who communicates another approach than e mail? You’ll be able to select to export your bill as a sharable hyperlink as an alternative of sending it by way of the FreshBooks consumer, which lets you ship it whichever approach your consumer prefers — which could aid you receives a commission in a extra well timed trend in case you work for somebody who doesn’t try for Inbox Zero.
6. Pitches, proposals and pricing
Customisable proposals and pitches give your shoppers all the small print, supported by photographs and attachments. Scope it out, define their wants and the way you meet them, the clicking ship and win that enterprise.
With in-app commenting, on-line approval and eSignatures, Proposals assist your shoppers take motion. Align timelines and simply convert Proposals to Invoices to avoid wasting time billing.
In progress, seen, or accepted. You all the time know the standing of a Proposal. Shopper questions? Reply proper in FreshBooks. Want an outdated Proposal? Monitor all of them in Shopper Profiles.
Need to be taught extra? Attempt FreshBooks free for 30 days or get 50% off for the primary 3 months!
Do you employ FreshBooks to handle your invoices and bills? Did we miss any of your favourite hacks or methods?
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