Best Free Freelancer Tools
Have you ever wanted to be a freelancer but don’t know where to start? Or maybe you’ve finally made the jump, left your 9-5, and are pursuing your passion and providing it as a service to others. In this article, I’m going to tell you the best free digital tools to keep you ahead of the game.
As a freelancer, things can get confusing and disorganized. It is hard to be a freelancer, especially without the proper resources. Here at Its Ease, we want to eliminate anything standing in the way of your path to success. We’ve already talked about some freelance tools here -> https://www.facebook.com/itsease/posts/755901544578392, and in this article I am going to elaborate on a few of those tools, and also introduce to you new ones.
Top Freelancing Tools
The Stack
The first free resource I want to introduce you to is the Freelance Stack. The Freelance Stack is an incredibly useful tool; but rather than a tool, the freelance stack is more like a toolbox. A toolbox filled with hundreds of tools. Learning how to navigate the stack provides a lot value to any freelancer; beginner or veteran.
Wave HQ
While there are hundreds of useful tools, not all of them are free. I want to inform you of some of the tools that provide awesome value for no cost at all on your part. The first being an Accounting tool, called Wave HQ. Wave HQ provides a free invoices software, accounting software, and receipt scanning. You can purchase a small business payroll and credit card processing, for as cheap as 15$ a month. It’s simple, useful, and right to the point. That’s why I recommend Wave HQ as a potential addition to your toolbox.
InvisionApp
Invision is making waves in almost all businesses, especially online oriented businesses, around the globe. Invision allows you to design clickable prototypes. This means you don’t have to sit down and program things. All you’d have to do is create the UX/UI, the interface, and code in buttons. This makes it very easy to work with a tech team and to show them how things are supposed to work. You can also export this into a phone and view it from there. If you’re working with anything techy, InvisionApp is a must have. The best part? It’s free. Forever.
Another great prototyping app that’s free is MarvelApp.
Toggl
If you’re anything like me, you may struggle with time management. Toggl is an app that’s helped stay more aware of my time. With its basic plan, you have full access to Toggl’s time tracking functions. It has a myriad of other capabilities; including a weekly report summarizing how you are tracking our time.
Stock Images
There are many places to get free stock images, but there are three in particular I like. Freepik, Unsplash, Pixabay all serve a similar purpose; they provide free vectors, photos, illustrations, and PSD file. All three of these sites have different content uploaded to them, and are amazing places for images that you would ever need for a project. You have hundreds of thousands of choices.
Fonts and Colors
Fonts and colors are easy to access, if you know where to look. Coolors.co is a color scheme generator. This is cool because you can generate 5 colors that look well together with the click of a button. This allows you to browse a large assortment of color arrangements that you’d like and incorporate them in a design or illustration of yours. Font Squirrel and Fonts.com are both great free font resources that sell font as well. For all your basic font needs, you should be good.
Freelance Community
Even freelancers want benefits. There are many resources for freelancers, and one is Freelancers Union. A Freelancers Union membership is free, and offers access to discounts, access to benefits, a community of other freelancers (networking!), resources and job gigs, and even retirement options. It’s very much worth considering if you are planning to make a living off freelancing.
Here at Ease we take pride in being a part of the freelance community. Our focus is giving companies the ability to hire the best remote freelancers in the US. By joining ease as a freelancer, you are given access one of the greatest freelance job markets.
Another place you may want to advertise your freelancing skills is LocalSolo. The starter pack is also free. At the end of the day, a freelancer can never have too many options. After all, that’s the whole point.
Conclusion
The world of freelancing can be scary, but at the end of the day, you are working for yourself. You are creating; using your independent will to provide value to the world. This is something all freelancers should be proud of. The key to success in anything is persistence and preparation. These free freelancer tools are great to build your foundation on. If you are new to the freelancing world, don’t be too overwhelmed. Once you get down a routine and start learning, everything will get easier; believe me.
