Some of the Best Freelancing Hacks

So you’re a freelancer? Congratulations! Freelancing is one of the best ways to take control of your life and find financial freedom. The trouble is freelancing is very time-consuming, and while you don’t have a boss breathing down your neck, there are other stresses you have to think about. Finding freelancing hacks is not only convenient; it’s increasingly necessary for success.

Business Mindset
Chances are you got into freelancing because you wanted to escape the daily grind of commuting to the office and working for someone else. Congratulations, you have successfully made the switch to freelance life, but to make it work, you need to think like a business person.

The first freelancing hack on the list is to think of your freelance life as a business taking control of the processes that form the foundations of your enterprise. These processes include effective planning, administrative tasks, project management, and organizing your cash flow effectively. It’s not easy to be a business owner, but it’s worth it when you consider the trade-offs.

Automation
When you switch to freelance life, you abandon the conventional nine-to-five schedule; you also give up a lot of the systems and infrastructure that supported you to do a job for a company. All of a sudden, you have a lot more to do; you might struggle to organise your time and workload.

Nowadays, most businesses are automating where they can to reduce time, increase productivity, and give employees and managers more time to grow the business. As a freelancer, you can automate processes, too; use apps like Zapier and Honeybook.

Task Planning
Productivity is desirable for businesses and freelancers; the more productive you can be, the faster you can work through your jobs and increase your revenue streams. Some people think that multitasking is the best way to be productive, but monotasking is much more effective.

When you multitask, you split your attention between different activities – a process called “task-switching”, but this uses more brain power than focusing on a single task. Line up your tasks and work on them for a set time, then schedule a break for better productivity.

Hotspotting
Freelancers work in a wide range of fields and have different working environments, but one of the best things about freelancing is the freedom to work from anywhere. There are two excellent reasons for using SMARTY for hotspotting, it is very convenient, and it creates more security.

Hotspotting is the process of linking your smartphone to your laptop, desktop, or tablet computer. If you have a quality plan on your phone with cost-effective data, you can work from anywhere without having to worry about local internet connections, giving you more flexibility.

Admin Time
Freelancing offers freedom, but that freedom comes at a cost; the cost is the time and energy you have to dedicate to administrative tasks such as taxes, invoicing, payroll, as well as sourcing finance and sourcing clients. These tasks can eat into your everyday freelancing.

One of the best ways to hack this issue is to dedicate time to your admin tasks. It doesn’t matter how many tasks you have to attend to; you can simply adjust your dedicated time. Ring fence time in your day, week, or month, to concentrate solely on admin tasks. It improves productivity.

Tailor Workload
When you work as a freelancer, your personality and working style are your brand identity. As a beginning freelancer, it can be easy to onboard as many clients as possible, but at some point, you need to be selective or diversify your business. Tailor your workload to protect your brand.

Don’t be afraid to say no to clients if you can’t complete the work to a high standard. It’s better to turn down a client rather than receive the payment along with a sub-standard review. If you have some employees, encourage them to work to a brand standard too and protect your reputation.

Video
Technology has changed the way we do business; it is streamlining workflow processes and making communication more convenient and workable. While messaging, emailing, and phone calls still have their place, live video communication is better and more accessible than ever.

Video communication is live; it allows you to talk to clients directly about the work helping you gain a clearer understanding of the project requirements. With messaging and emailing, there is plenty of room for miscommunication and wasted time, but that is not the case using video.

Make Lists
If you want to be a successful freelancer, you need to be organized, which means organization on the macro scale as well as the micro scale. One of the best and most effective ways to organize your day, week, month, and long-term business strategy is to create regular lists.

Do you feel snowed under by all of the work you have on your plate? How are you going to finish it all to a high standard and grow your small business at the same time? The answer is to prioritize by making lists. Decide what projects fit with your business goals and work on those.

Use Templates
Whether it is for invoicing, project management, or the freelance work itself, it is more effective to create templates or use ones that have already been developed. If you find yourself using the same brain power, again and again, it’s time to create a neat template to streamline workflows.

Templates can be created using apps or free cloud services, so don’t wait until you are snowed under before making a start on them, create a rough draft as you work. Alternatively, you can find pre-made templates on the internet that are already formulated for your freelance business.

Use Apps
Apps are now an indispensable part of freelance business infrastructure; there are excellent apps for communication, accounting and financing, project management, and more. If you want to streamline your freelance business and create more time to take it to the next level, solve your regular problems with convenient apps. Read online reviews to find the best apps for you.