There are a lot of benefits to being a freelance web designer. The freedom to work your own hours (all of them) and the ability to choose what web projects you take on (how much you charge) and which you decline. However, with as much responsibility that a freelance web designer takes on there is a need for a lot of tools to manage it all. Being a freelance web designer is a lot of being an entire design firm, you have to take control of the sales, customer service, project management, design layout, web development and programming. There are a lot of these tasks that we can outsource but for the most part, a lot of our projects can consist of all of the above and so choosing the right tools for the job is a task that we don’t take lightly.

Project Management

The most important tool in our arsenal of freelancing tools is the project management. This tool defines our organization for our business as well as communication with the client. Choosing the write tool for optimal productivity is of the highest importance.

Basecamp
http://basecamphq.com
This is the most popular (by far) tool for managing projects, nearly every design firm and freelance web worker I have spoken with uses it and will swear by it. It went down, once, that I know of when a truck hit a power substation in Texas (most of Rackspace’s clients went down). It created more commotion in the blogosphere than when Britney Spears shaved her head. With over 1,000,000 clients worldwide they are the premier solution in project management.

The system allows you to create and assign milestones and to-dos. You can give clients access and communicate with them through their entire project as well as assign milestones to them (content build out, etc). It also allows you to share files with clients and any one else you may be working on the project with. It is awesome. I use it. There are also two Yahoo widgets that work with it, Avalanche and Headquarters that are pretty handy. There is also an OS X Dashboard widget.

Only complaint? There is tiered pricing, so if you work with more than 1 client you are going to have to pay for an account.

Project2Manage
http://project2manage.com
This is very similar to basecamp, except it is completely free. It has a lot of the same abilities, creating and assigning milestones and to-dos. You can add clients and use it to communicate to your clients also. You can manage unlimited projects and clients. The only things it is missing is file upload and time tracking.

Time Tracking

Keeping a record of the amount of time spent on a project or task is a big part of managing your freelance business. Even if you don’t charge by the hour it is important to know how much time you spend on each task to make sure you are utilizing your time as best as you can. It can easily help you to know if you need to raise your prices or find a quicker way to do some of your tasks.

Tick
http://tickspot.com
This is an excellent way to track your time, it provides a web-based interface that will easily allow you to start and stop timers as well as record your time for certain projects. It is extremely simple to use and give you a centralized location to record your time.

One of the best features of Tick is that it has a Yahoo Widgets application (and an OSX Dashboard widget) you can use to record your time and have it send that information back to the Tick website. The service has tiered pricing (starting at $9/mo for 3 OPEN projects), but the Tick timer is free and easy to use even if you don’t use their service.

Slimtimer
http://slimtimer.com
This is another great option for recording your time. It is completely web-based which can be a benefit for some and a hindrance for others. It is completely free which is one major bonus, it allows you to even have unlimited projects and unlimited tasks assigned to those projects. The timer works in a pop-up window, unfortunately if you close that window it does not appear to continue tracking time. Seems like a major oversight on their part— all they would have to do is acknowledge the timer was never stopped and the timer start time. Still an excellent solution for freelancers.

There are a ton of other timers available such as Job Timer (another Yahoo Widget) that can manage job times and record your time that aren’t web-based.

Invoicing

Managing your clients paying you can be much more complicated that simply keeping an excel file on each one of your clients. It can also be troubling if you work from more than one computer to have easy access to your client’s information. There are several services available that do it very well.

Zoho
http://invoicing.zoho.com
With Zoho invoicing you can manage your clients and invoicing, notification, payment gateways, late fees, payment subscriptions and more easily through their interface. It will save all of your customer data such as address, phone number, email and more. You initially get 5 free invoices a month and paid plans start around $5/month for 25 invoices per month then go up from there. This web application does more than just invoicing which I will cover in the next section.

Simplybill
http://www.simplybill.com/
This works much in the same way that Zoho does. It allows you to have recurring invoices, reminders, time tracking and starts at $5/mo for 25 invoices (no free option). They only accept PayPal though so your options can be slightly limited when it comes to getting payment from them.

Document storage and management

When it comes to your documents, there are some that you will need over and over again and times when you need to write one right away. It is important to be able to share those documents with clients and other people you work with from time to time also. If you are like me, and work from multiple different computers throughout the week then you can appreciate the need of more than just carrying around a flash drive with files. Online document management service are another major part of being a freelance web designer.

Google Documents
http://docs.google.com
I’m sure everyone has used Google Documents but I’m going to talk about why Google Documents is what I use. The biggest reason? Folders. Being organized is one of the most necessary characteristics of a freelance worker. So being able to organize my documents in folder is a huge deal, not all of my documents are related. Another big feature is the sharing ability on Google Docs, you can live edit with other people as well as simply place a document to be shared with other users. It has all of the features that most people use with word or OpenOffice and it easily accessible from anywhere in the world with an Internet connection. For me, it is a no brainer to use over local software.

Zoho Writer
http://writer.zoho.com
I used to use Zoho writer exclusively and I love their editor, It may even be better than Google Docs’ editor when it comes to ease-of-use and load time. A lot of the same features but last I checked they didn’t have the ability to share your documents or organize them in folder which can be frustrating but may not matter to some people.

Screen sharing and remote support

For most freelancers there are times when it is necessary to show their clients how to do something or visibly walk them through something. Most of the time, they aren’t within 1000 miles of your location which can make it a little difficult. Screen sharing software (presentation software) is an essential part of a freelance web designers arsenal of tools, so choosing the right one take some serious work. Over the past year I think I have tried nearly all of them trying to find the right one.

Team Viewer
http://teamviewer.com
After trying dozens of screen sharing and remote support software applications I personally believe that Team Viewer is the best option. You can simply tell the client your user id / password (both are randomly generated numbers) and they can connect to your computer or vice versa. There are quality settings which is huge when it comes to being in the design field. Ensuring that they are seeing exactly what you are seeing is something that can’t be compromised— you can also optimize for speed instead of quality.

It also allows you to switch directions mid-session for presentation or remote support easily. This can be very handy for any number of different situations when dealing with clients or other web designers or project managers. It also has support for multiple monitors so for people like me that work with 2 or more (I work with 3) monitors I can choose which screen I want to show the client whilst still working from one of my other screens. It is free for “personal use” and you need to register (see: pay) for “corporate use” if you fall into that category.

GoToMeeting
http://gotomeeting.com
This is the most popular option when it comes to screen sharing, but I have found the software a little cumbersome and less simple for clients to use. I feel that it may confuse clients more than necessary. It does do screen sharing and remote support quite well and is the industry leader when it comes to user base. It also has chat options and recording options that can help you or your clients to communicate or store the session if necessary.

There are tons more, but lets end it here

Without getting too crazy that is the bulk of the list, I could have added more categories for stuff that I use a little less frequently but a lot of these other software applications really cover a majority of the things needed by Freelancers. The biggest one I recommend using is basecamp as it covers nearly everything you need for managing projects. I would also suggest a messaging client such as Skype for video conferences and instant messaging. Of course, twitter is also handy for venting, networking, communicating, collaborating and link sharing with other like-minded freelancers.

If you have found other things that are a major part of your freelance arsenal list them in the comments and I may add them into this list or into a misc section.

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