Running your freelance writing business is awesome. It can also be incredibly overwhelming. There are so many apps and tools to use. But do you really need them all? It can be hard to navigate and decide what you actually need and what you don’t. 

I will be honest, I’m the type of person that doesn’t use many apps. I DIY and track things in Google sheets and folders. What a grandma, I know. I promise, I’m a millennial (an old millenial/xennial). I was really excited when Diana reached out to write about her 8 favorite tools for freelance writers. If you are sick of DIY-ing it but unsure what to pick, Diana’s advice will help you pick the 8 tools that can help you to run your freelance writing business.

8 Tools to Help You Run Your Freelance Writing Business

Guest blog by Diana Lotti

Your dream of becoming a freelance writer has come true! But then you quickly realize, you need to run a one-person business. 

Every business has a business operations side endeavor, including self-employed freelance writers. When I first started, I knew I wanted to keep detailed records of my income and expenses, time management, clients, and so forth. 

It helps to get an idea of how I am operating my business so that I can improve with each quarter. 

It took some trial and error, but I found a few tools that help with time management, invoices, CRM, and marketing. It can be overwhelming trying to figure out how to run a business, especially with no experience. 

But, don’t worry! There are some pretty cool software and tools that can help you run your freelance writing business. 

Here are some of the tools you can explore. You don’t need to have all of them, but it’s a good idea to see what each one offers and see what works best for you.

Wave Financial: Financial Software for Small Businesses

Wave provides small businesses with software to help manage finances. The best part is that Wave offers a free plan to help you with accounting, invoicing, and payments. They also provide a pay-per-use option, which includes credit card processing.

As part of its accounting, it allows you to track income and expenses, sales tax, generates reports for overdue invoices and bills, cash flow, profit, and loss, to name a few. It even lets you create personalized invoices in different currencies for those with clients worldwide.

Clockify

Let’s say you have a client or a project that pays you an hourly rate. Clockify allows you to track the time you spend working on a particular client. The software has a time tracker and it can generate reports of your timekeeping. You can even add specific projects and clients.

As Clockify allows you to add clients, you can track them as billable under the project settings. Simply add the hourly rate and track the hours you work for the client on a daily basis. Clockify then allows you to generate a report of the hours worked showing the total hours and total dollar amount earned during that time.

It’s a great way to track your time and know how much to bill the client without doing manual calculations.

As Clockify allows you to track your time, it’s a great tool to determine how long it takes you to perform certain tasks. You can use this information to better your rates in the future or find ways to improve your time management skills. Plus, it’s free!

HoneyBook

HoneyBook helps you manage your projects, book clients, create and send invoices, among other things. HoneyBook has a start-free trial that you can check out and see if it works for you. After that, they offer three different plans, including the started plan, unlimited monthly, and unlimited annual.

Deciding which plans to sign up for will depend on where you are in your freelance writing business. 

Some of the features within HoneyBook include invoices, proposals, scheduling, contracts automation, and integrations. If you’re a business owner who likes to keep track of everything within one platform, HoneyBook will help.

QuickBooks Self-Employed

If you’re like me, then you experience stress and confusion during the quarterly and annual tax season. My advice is not to waste too much time trying to learn all the ins and outs of taxes. It’s better to have an accountant or visit a tax advisor to help with these until you learn the basic information you need to move forward on your own.

Another option is to sign up for QuickBooks Self-Employed. The accounting software has three plans for independent contractors and freelancers, including the self-employed, self-employed tax bundle, and the self-employed live tax bundle.

I personally use QuickBooks Self-Employed. It allows me to add every income and expense transaction. I even add the receipts! It helped me do my Q1 taxes as well. You can manually input the information and the software does the rest. You can even file your quarterly taxes from it (depending on the plan).

It makes a stressful and confusing process pretty easy to deal with. 

Harpoon

Harpoon is another financial planning software tool. Unlike other financial software tools, the beauty of Harpoon is that not only helps you with time-tracking and invoicing but it does forecasting too. 

That means that you can use the data to see how your freelance writing is doing and how to improve. Let’s say you have a yearly revenue goal you want to reach, Harpoon allows you to set the goal and breaks it down into manageable pieces for you to reach. 

You can do a free 14-day trial with Harpoon before it’s time to sign up for one of their plans. They have the starter, freelancer, studio, and agency plan with either monthly or yearly payments.

This software would be ideal for those who are experiencing stagnation in their financial goals as it will help you set your financial goals and breaks them down for you to achieve.

Chiggopay

Chiggopay is a financial software for freelancers. It allows you to create invoices, bills, proposals, client management, and even create a mini-website that you are able to share with potential clients. 

Chiggopay offers a free monthly plan that allows you to save up to three clients. To manage more than three clients, Chiggopay offers a basic plan and a pro plan. They allow a monthly or yearly subscription.

It’s a great option for those freelance writers who need to outsource tasks from time to time as there is a team management feature. It allows you to assign roles to team members and collaborate in real-time.

Zoho

Zoho is whole another monster as it houses different apps and customization tools. Some of the apps revolve around sales, marketing, communication, and collaboration, to name a few. You need CRM, E-mail or social media marketing, customer support, email hosting, project management, accounting, payment forms, or inventory, Zoho has it. 

I’ll admit, I was a bit overwhelmed with the sheer amount of tools Zoho houses. My business is also small at the moment, so many of the tools it had, I wasn’t going to use. But, that’s the beauty of being self-employed, you can pick and choose what works for you and your business.

Zoho offers a 30-days free trial with no credit card required, so it’s great to give it a try for your freelance writing business and see how much you can achieve with it.

Xero

Xero is another online accounting software that you can use for your business. It connects your business with the bank, accountant, bookkeeper, and some other business apps. 

It’s pretty easy to navigate and lets you track and pay your bills, approve and reimburse expenses, track projects, manage contacts, file storage, accounting reports, invoices, create and purchase orders, and create quotes, to name a few.

Xero offers a 30-day free trial period after which you can pick one of its three plans to subscribe. There are the starter, standard, and premium plans. Each plan also offers optional add-ons, which can be convenient if you don’t need the standard or premium plans.

Takeaway

Note that not all software and tools are created equal. I remember using one accounting software that I couldn’t understand, so I relied on trial and error to find the best ones that worked for me.

Remember that what one person loves, another will hate. The important thing is to realize that your freelance writing is a business, so take a few hours a day or a week to perform simple business operation tasks and keep track of your records. 

Do you use any of the tools on the list? Do you have any tools to recommend outside of this list?

Are you interested in creating a sustainable freelance writing business without the hustle? Check out my freelance writing course with a step-by-step process of exactly what you need.

Are you interested in creating a sustainable freelance writing business without the hustle? Check out my freelance writing course with a step-by-step process of exactly what you need.

About the Author

Diana Lotti is a freelance writer, editor, and photographer for hire who offers blog posts, ghostwriting, copy and line editing, and photography services. Based in Germany, she works with B2C and B2B small businesses providing written content, and product and travel photography. When work is done, you can find her practicing yoga, on hiking trails with her family, or taking nature and landscape photographs. You can find her at dianalotti.com and on LinkedIn. Check out her photos at @dlottiphography.