Unfortunately, without a boss or supervisor breathing down your neck, the accountability starts to decrease and freelancers can become entangled in a web of distractions and procrastination without even realizing it.

Facebook, emails, Twitter, blog comments, your mother calling to gossip about the family —all of these and more vie for your attention.

Distractions

Image credits

Distractions are all around you, from your telephone and your neighbor’s barking dog to Facebook and a YouTube video that has been calling your name.

Do any of these distract you too? I know I have fallen prey to these types of distractions more than once.

• Your mother calls and you pick up the phone while in the middle of a client’s project…how can you leave your mother hanging?

• Your friend emails you about his latest accomplishment…how can you not call him back? He deserves a quick congratulations. You can finish your work later.

• A client emails you about a project but it is not a rush. You feel obligated to answer even though you need to finish what you are working on. You will finish the project later. The email will only take a few minutes.

LATER

This word will take on a life of its own if you do not omit it from your mind’s vocabulary. Trust me, distractions always last more than a few minutes, even if they are only one minute long. If you add that time up, it will amount to money you could be making doing more projects.

Friends and Family

Consider your workday similar to how you would work for an employer. Our friends and family don’t seem to understand that just because we work from home doesn’t mean we are available during the day. When I started freelancing, I often was asked to help family and friends with tasks during the day. Because I was working from home I decided it was not a big deal. I soon realized that these activities were stealing my productivity. It was time for me to consider my workday the same as anyone else in corporate America or anyone who works for an employer.

How do you resist these distractions?

First, create a daily schedule…

Scheduling

Image by iotdfi

If you don’t set daily goals, you will open up the door to many distractions. It’s nearly impossible to stay focused if you don’t have a clear idea of what you need to accomplish and when.

Break up your weekly goals into daily tasks. At the end of the day, you will feel great for accomplishing your goals and you will also not be struggling at the end of the week to get your work done because you were distracted.

Here is a rundown of some tips and the steps I take to create a daily schedule:

• Every Saturday or Sunday, compile your tasks by weekly goals and client deadlines.

• Break up your tasks into daily increments. Your goals should reflect the time you have in the day, not overwhelm you or give way for multiple distractions. For example, every other Monday I have a personal commitment so I know on Mondays I cannot complete as much work as I can  on Tuesday. I factor this into the equation instead of just randomly filling out the schedule.

• Don’t forget about miscellaneous tasks. For me, this equates to lead generation, social media updating, responding to project inquiries and emails, crafting proposals. Some other miscellaneous job-related tasks could include writing a blog post, researching a competing website, watching a design tutorial, etc. Factor these tasks into your week as long as they are applicable to the work you are doing. You can research training tips for your dog during breaks or after work hours.

• Schedule your miscellaneous tasks. Pay attention to how much time you are spending on them. You may need to adjust your schedule as you move along, but this is a great starting point. I currently spend about 30 minutes to an hour on miscellaneous tasks daily. How do I know this? Stay tuned to learn about a cool time tracking tool below!

• Your work schedule doesn’t have to be 9-5. As a freelancer you have the ability to create your own schedule. If you are a parent, your hours may be different than someone who is single. The goal is to ensure you meet your daily goals whether your day starts at 12 pm or 7 am.

• Breaks and Fun Stuff – Make sure to schedule breaks because they are very important. Your mind will need time to re-energize. I schedule a few small breaks during the day and one lunch break. On your breaks you can do fun stuff like going on Facebook for pleasure, watching cool videos or taking a walk in the beautiful weather (yes, I live in sunny Southern California).

• Tip: If you have trouble staying on one project for more than 30 minutes, schedule your breaks in smaller increments. You may need 5-10 smaller breaks during the day instead of 2 large ones.

• To beat those urges to procrastinate, write out your weekly schedule and post it in front of your computer. As you finish each goal, check it off and go on to the next one.

Tips to Deal with Procrastination

Project Completion

When you are working on a project, try not to step away from it until it is complete. If you are like me, you have 25 windows open at the same time and any one of them can be a distraction. Email is my biggest challenge. To combat this, I tell myself I can only check my email once a project is complete and I cannot answer any emails until my miscellaneous time or after work hours. The only emails to which I respond are pressing client projects or deliverables.

Boredom

We all know how boring a task can become if it is dragging on and on. Instead of running to Facebook or texting your friend, switch to another project or start doing some of your miscellaneous tasks. Resist the urge to go off your schedule unless it is close to break time. Sometimes your brain just needs something different to do.

Accountability

If you feel like you will have a hard time sticking to your daily schedule, ask someone you trust to make you accountable at the end of every day. Put your schedule up for all to see so you can be held to it.

Use a Time Scheduling Tool

Chrometa is an amazing free tool that tracks your every move on your computer. It will show you exactly what you do each day from how much time you spend on Facebook to the hours you put into a client’s project.

The image above is what a day would look like in its simplest form. As you can see I was away for 2 hours and 51 minutes (you can pause the tool when you step away from your computer) and it breaks down my tasks into the sites and programs I visited. If I click on each entry, it will display a detailed summary of specific information. For example, if I click on Mozilla Firefox, it will show me the 32 sites I visited and how much time I spent on each.

You can also categorize by project and create invoices for clients. If you are working on a project paid by the hour, you can send your client an invoice directly from the interface with a detailed description of your time (this is a paid service). You can personalize the entire system to your freelancing schedule and projects.

This tool helped me realize how much I was procrastinating and how much time I was spending on frivolous tasks. I realized that one minute away led to ten and when I added up all of my one minute distractions, it amounted to hours of procrastination…not a good business model by any means.

Other Awesome Tools:

• Wunderlist - to keep track of your tasks
• RescueTime – to save you from wasting too much time by telling you what you did

Be Honest

In the end, if you want to beat procrastination, you must get honest with yourself. Look at your daily activities as if you were someone else looking over your shoulder. In the end, it is YOUR success that is being affected.

No one is perfect so take a load off…but don’t allow yourself to become complacent in the process. We all face procrastination in one form or another. If you really want to become efficient and grow your freelancing business by accomplishing your goals, you must take a close look at what you are doing daily.

Also…please don’t think you can’t do this. I was the queen of procrastination. I used to do my work whenever I felt like it and was constantly distracted by Facebook and emails. If I can become more efficient and productive, so can you.

Take it from a fellow procrastinator…if you put the effort in, you will get the same reward back. And eventually, finishing tasks will feel more rewarding and something you will want instead of something you dread.

Do you ever procrastinate as a freelancer? Share with our readers how you beat procrastination or if you need more help accomplishing your goals.

As a freelancer, you become your own task master. This means you’re not only responsible for making sure you complete tasks, but just as importantly you need to determine which tasks are to be performed in the first place. For people who lack motivation and/or self-discipline, this can present a big problem. Combined with the numerous distractions a freelancer faces e.g. family/friends, favorite TV shows, temptation to sleep til lunch; you have a formula for incredible inefficiency. In this article we’ll look at the benefits of being more efficient and then some road tested ways of dramatically improving your efficiency.

Good reasons for being more efficient

Image source: somewhere

Establishing motivation is an important first step for any process. So before we delve into ‘how’ to become more efficient as a freelancer, lets look at ‘why’ you should become more efficient.

Take the fear out of deadlines: No doubt you’ve gained a few gray hairs and pulled numerous all-nighter’s in the process of meeting deadlines. Building efficiency will help better utilize time, meaning you can maintain your healthy head of hair and significantly reduce your red bull/coffee intake.

More profitable client base: Improving your efficiency will help make your client base more profitable in two ways. Firstly, you’ll learn to focus more time and energy into the clients that provide most value to you. Secondly, by shifting your attention to higher value clients you’ll create more time to take on more of the work that delivers higher value, and stop wasting it on clients who demand a lot and return little.

Stress reduction: As you become more efficient at what you do, you’ll feel more empowered with what you’re doing, and consequently your stress levels will drop considerably.

More time for the good stuff: You started out freelancing with dreams of being able to spend more time with your family/friends and enjoying your favourite activities right? Then your days got crammed with a million and one tasks and you don’t even know what you’re doing. Building efficiency will help get you back on track to finding your original dream.

Happier you, happier clients: As you take control of your days and start feeling a genuine sense of progress your overall happiness and satisfaction will lift immeasurably. A spin-off effect of this is that your creativity and work quality will also improve, which will lead to much happier clients.

Sound good? Of course it does. So the big question, how to do it?

1. Have goals

Photo by LarryLens

Goals are essential for staying motivated. They’ll give you a reason to get out of bed in the morning (and not the afternoon), and they’ll help guide you in setting tasks for yourself. So what goals should you set? There are two main kinds, financial and lifestyle. A lot of people put financial first, however if happiness and satisfaction are important to you, I’d recommend starting with lifestyle. Think about what you want your lifestyle to include: how much free time you’ll have, the material items you’ll have, when you want to retire etc. Once you’ve got that figured out, figure out what you’ll need to achieve on the financial side to meet your lifestyle goals.

2. Scheduling

Effective scheduling is critical for freelancers to maintain efficiency. Even if you entered the freelancing field to getaway from the day-to-day grind and routine of employed work, don’t feel like scheduling is the enemy. By allotting specific amounts of time to certain tasks each day, you’ll find that you complete them much more efficiently than if you were to cruise through the day completing tasks ad hoc.

3. To-do list

Photo by Mattox

A technique which I find works particularly well and know has worked well for many others is creating a list of to-do list the night before. Before you go to bed, list down the six most important things you need to do the next day and order them by importance. This will get your mind working sub-consciously the night before and you’ll be focused as soon as you wake up. Get to work on the first item on your list and stick with it until it’s completed or until you can’t work on it anymore, only then move on to the next item. Don’t stress if you don’t get all six done, because if you can’t complete them following this method you wouldn’t have been able to in any other way. Completing tasks this way will allow you to focus on one thing at a time which is much more powerful than trying to multi-task.

4. Take yourself seriously

Just because you have the opportunity to work in your pj’s with a bowl of fruit loops in front of you doesn’t mean your job is any less important than one which requires you to suit up and eat sushi at lunch. By taking the mindset that your role is somehow less important than others you’ll only sabotage your own productivity and be more inclined to procrastinate, hence reducing efficiency.

5. Refresh

Take some timeout, both long and short:

• Short breaks – Utilizing short breaks hourly will not only help you stay fresh and motivated, it can have considerable health benefits.
• Long breaks – While you might feel like you need to be on the ball every day of the week, most people find they get more out of a 5 or 6 day working week with a rest day to help rejuvenate in between.
• Vacations – Organizing a getaway for a week or so every few months is not only a great way to recharge your batteries, it will help inspire new ideas.

6. How have other people done it?

There’s a strong chance that someone has already blazed the trail you’re following. Look at how people in a similar role to yours have done things and learn from them. It’s not copying and it’s not being unoriginal – it’s being smart. If you can learn from the mistakes that other people have made then it saves you the time and cost of making them yourself.

7. Pareto’s law – 80% of success from 20% of effort

A trap many freelancers fall into is spending a bunch of time on tasks that deliver no value to them. These time drainers can come in many forms: marketing efforts, crappy clients who pay little and demand too much, doing things yourself that would be better outsourced. The key is identifying the tasks that deliver most value to you and focusing on these. The time wasters can be hard to let go of (it’s a bit like throwing away junk from the cupboard) but you’ll be much happier once you do, and have more time to focus on the things that deliver value, monetarily and in satisfaction.

8. Analyze how you spend a day

Dedicate a day where every 15 minutes you write down what you’re doing. It might sound like a real pain in the butt, but it can be quite amazing (and disturbing) to see how much time you waste on trivial tasks and procrastination. Performing an honest evaluation of how you spend your time will allow you to cut out a lot of the things that are wasting your time.

9. Consider power naps

Many people associate napping during the day with laziness – however a short power nap during the day can have amazing positive effects on your productivity. By using the correct power napping techniques you’ll gain a lot more than you would from pounding coffees and red bulls all day.

10. Quit WOW

If World of Warcraft or some other time killer like Farmville is taking precedence over servicing your valuable clients, then maybe it’s time to make a clean-cut. Put it in perspective and make the decision.

Conclusion

These tips aren’t hard and fast. Everyone is different and will require a different system to achieve maximum efficiency. The best thing you can do is to commit to testing out these techniques consistently over the next few weeks and seeing how they work for you. The key is to take note of results and be honest with yourself about what is and isn’t working. If you can do this you’ll be able to come up with a customized system that will have you delivering maniac levels of productivity in no time.

How have you increased your efficiency as a freelancer?

For freelancers it might be a bit difficult to handle social media, because of the loads of information on and about it. There are many myths about social media oand I will list some of them here, so you will not have to think about them anymore from now on.

1. Social Media Equals Immediate Success

Well no, it doesn’t. As much as I would like to say it does, instant success is not something social media guarantees. If you created a page for your company on Facebook, it’s very unlikely for you to get the first client within a week. You need to spend time and maybe even money to bring people there, while also spending time and money on trying to make them want your services.

The best way to have success in social media is spending a few hours each day on it, not getting burned out by working 24/7 work for weeks in row, because this doesn’t guarantee the success will come faster – the probability is actually lower.

So don’t think that having social media accounts on Twitter, LinkedIn and Facebook will bring you success right away, because it is not like that. Use social media wisely and wait to see the results – good things come to those who are willing to wait for them.

2. Be on Every Platform

Photo by Lee Traupel

This is another false myth people talk about all the time. It is not a requirement to be on all the social media platforms, although it could be an advantage. On the other side, being on all the platforms (in case you are a small company) might actually do less than you thought. This might turn out bad because as a small company you probably do not have somebody employed just to take care of your social media responsible, therefore you probably do everything. This means there will not be enough time for every platform and some of them might get left behind. This will do anything but create a good impression for your clients, so avoid signing up everywhere if you are not confident you can handle all of them.

Moreover, not every new platform will reach success like the big ones, so make sure you have accounts on the big social media platforms and take it from there. If you think some other minnows have chances as well, have an account there too, but keep in mind that you do this for the sake of your clients. If they are not present on the respective platform, there is not need for you to be there either.

3. Social Media Replaces a Website

No, it doesn’t. I can’t stress enough about how important it is to have a website – separate from your social media accounts. The web 2.0 platforms are there to only aid your website, not to replace it. The most important thing about your website is that you have total control over it – from the host and domain, to platform and content. This is different on a social media platform where you are restrained by different rules. Whereas a website is yours as long as you want, a social media platform where you have all your clients can fail and cease to exist in a matter of days – if you have no website, how will you regain contact with your  clients?

This can’t happen with a website, which is yours and where only you decide on the content and layout. Nobody changes the rules without you knowing and if the host company goes bankrupt, you always have your backup (providing you actually do, which is a good thing to keep in mind) and can move in an instant to another provider. Social media does not replace a website because they have totally different purposes. This is why you should always have both of them.

4. No Contacts Are Made Through Social Media

This is another one which should totally be ignored. Clients can be landed through social media, this is something that I did before and that I will continue doing. Sure, social media is for fun and in our private circle we use for a total other purpose, but in a business environment clients are often landed through social media. Now if you are a freelance editor, don’t expect to land Darren Rowse and start writing for him immediately, because this will not happen. However, it is very possible to land any kind of client on Facebook, Twitter or LinkedIn and, after building a strong relationship with him, to actually make him pay for your services.

5. Social Media is a Waste of Time

This couldn’t be more wrong. Not only is social media is important for any kind of business, it will also bring you clients and make you more popular on the internet – which, last time I’ve checked, was the second most used media in the world – far more used than radio or newspapers and close behind TV. You could consider that for some people social media is a waste of time, but I repeat, this is for some people. Companies need social media like air, especially because of the reasons mentioned above, but also because of many others.

If you have a strong social media strategy and want to invest time and money into it, social media will transform into a way of keeping your clients closer. Think they would rather read about your latest information on your Facebook page than get a weekly e-mail from you, which will end up sooner or later in the spam folder. You are the only one who can make your social media strategy transform this channel into a useful one.

6. High Number Equals Good Results

If your social media strategy is having as many followers as possible, then it is probably a waste of time for you too. Having numerous uninterested and untargeted followers will never bring the results you look for and you will end up thinking social media is a waste time. The large number of followers does not impress too many people when you are a business or a freelancer, if they are not interested in what you have to say. You can be followed by 1.000 people in the first two weeks, if only three of them interact with your, that is your real audience.

Try to target your audience a bit more and learn something about each one of them – at least while you still have a small number of followers. Clients feel when companies make an effort for them and appreciate it, so jump into this right away when you sign up on a social media platform.

7. Not Everything You Say or Do Matters

Unfortunately it does. If you don’t believe me, try to look for the stories about people who were fired from their jobs because of social media mistakes. Employers, employees, clients and prospects follow you closely and weigh every sentence and answer you make public. When you are a freelancer it might not cause that much damage, but if you are a company it might tear you apart – especially with the press following social media today as well, so pay attention to every detail of your conversations online (and for that matter offline too).

Conclusion

Social Media is huge today and if you are still not convinced about this, then there is something wrong. Try to take a look around you and realize everybody is active there and your clients are probably part of “everybody”. If your prospects are there, you have to be there too, otherwise they will move to another freelancer or company who is active on social media, and you will remain with those few faithful contacts everybody has.

Use social media wisely, have a strategy beforehand, follow it, be ready to invest in it; closely follow your discussions and watch for conversation mistakes and you will be just fine. Before considering these myths and many others, try to conduct some research yourself and you will realize most of them are false.

Do you know some other myths about social media? Do you ignore them or do you believe in them?

There are many habits that contribute to business failure online, but these seem to outline the top 5:

1. Fear of Failure

Failure is an inevitable fact of life. The unfortunate thing is that people often associate failure with a blow to their own identity.

No person starts a business and says, “I can’t wait to fail”. Failure never feels good, but if you spend your time and resources trying to avoid it, you will also avoid finding success.

You have to take a few chances to get what you want in life and the same goes for your business. By taking more chances, you will have more opportunities to make mistakes, but you will also have more opportunities to succeed.

I’ve failed over and over and over again in my life and that is why I succeed. Michael Jordan

The only time you will ever truly fail is if you don’t take a chance and try.

2. Paralysis of Analysis

Paralysis of analysis is when you spend so much time analyzing and planning a decision that you never take action.

The ability to plan is a fantastic trait. I struggled with planning years ago and started to pay more attention to the details as a result. My life got a whole lot easier. The problem, though, is that we can get stuck in the planning stage and over think everything.

There comes a time when you must shut your brain off and get moving. I believe that the fear of failure is the driving force behind getting stuck in “paralysis by analysis”. We all want things to run smoothly and be perfect, but if we continue to analyze, we will never make decisions. Without forward progress, goals remain unfulfilled.

If you wait for a perfect plan, you will be waiting forever. Take the gun and pull the trigger…what’s the worst that could happen? You will make a mistake and you will learn the right way to do it the second time.

3. Jack of All Trades, Master of None

In online business, “Jack of all Trades, Master of None” refers to the act of spreading your energy in so many different directions that nothing actually gets accomplished.

Consider this common scenario: You start a website and you are ready to market it online. You start doing some search engine optimization. With SEO you are concentrating on linking with article marketing, videos and press releases. Into your inbox you see a new SEO strategy and the headline catches your eye “Top Google Rankings in 48 Hours or Less”. How can you pass this up? The more the merrier, right?

You buy the product and get moving. You realize that it takes more work than you expected and you start and finish half way…back to the drawing board. This continues over and over until you have 20 half-finished new strategies in addition to your original strategies which aren’t producing results because you are too busy getting distracted.

You don’t need to master EVERY marketing strategy to get results online; you just need to follow through with what you have.

Even if a strategy fails, it’s important that you followed through with it so you learned what works and what doesn’t. It may sound easy, but this issue is one of the main reasons people fail to produce an income online.

Focus your efforts on a few marketing strategies at a time. If you want to do more, consider hiring an assistant. Try not to be distracted by the next new thing unless you have the resources to take it on.

Tip: I often get distracted by my email inbox and all of the new strategies and products. A good tip is to unsubscribe from most of the marketers except for the few you feel are worthy of attention. This way you will not be as tempted to open emails.

4. Unique, not Copycat

With billions of websites and businesses online competing for attention, it’s important to remember to be unique to separate yourself from the pack.

I guarantee if you take a look at most of the websites in your industry, you will find mediocre brands without clear messaging or a unique selling point.

It’s easy to follow the businesses that are making all the money in your industry, but if you copy what they are doing, you will never stand out. It’s wise to research your competitors and listen to what the “gurus” say, but it’s not wise to follow without defining yourself as a brand.

Many success stories evolved from people who went against the grain and did something they felt in their gut. Their ideas were unique but they succeeded even if it did not line up with the industry standards.

This may sound cliché, but we are all different and we have a unique selling point. This especially applies to those who are branding themselves.

Ask yourself these questions:

What makes you unique?
What are your strong qualities?
What are your hobbies?
What do your friends and family say is your greatest personality trait?

I often revert to Mari Smith as a prime example of a unique brand. Mari is an expert in her field and though she offers information that other experts offer, she injects her own unique personality into it and this is evident in her website, social media profiles and everything else she offers. She is fun and energetic, and people value what she says because she is comfortable enough to share the essence of who she is with her audience.

There will never be another Mari Smith. And there will never be another you.

Find out what makes you great and capitalize on it.

5. Right Brain vs. Left Brain – Losing Balance

Right-brained activity includes the side of your mental processing that is creative, flexible and takes risks. Your left brain is associated with stable actions, organized and logical thoughts. One isn’t better than the other but the right balance of the two is very important.

Right-brained activities are beneficial regardless of your type of online business. Creativity is more than painting and sculpting. It refers to a way of viewing the world and a specific type of thought process.

Creativity in business means generating fresh ideas, looking to the future with hope and visualizing your goals. Left-brained business activities involve evaluating the ideas, organizing thoughts to determine what works and logically making sense out of them.

Many businesses start the creation process (right-brained) and end it abruptly because they do not see the value from a dollar standpoint. The left brain kicks in and says, “Let’s get going so we don’t waste time when we could be making more profit”. Yet, this creation process is paramount because in it, you will create ground-breaking ideas that could skyrocket your profits.

Spend a little more time creating new ideas and allow the process to complete. Then apply the right logic to make a decision over what the next step should be.

One Step at a Time

No person has mastered all of this information. We all deal with a form of these habits at one time or another. I work on them daily and as I write I am inspired to take my own advice. If you can manage to take a look at your business and be honest about your progress and where you can adjust…as long as you are moving forward, you are on the right track.

Web-based project management and collaboration tools are the top choice of hundreds of entrepreneurs and thousands of small and medium size businesses. These tools will maximize your productivity, organization, and help you keep on top of your projects effortlessly. Keep track of your projects, manage your workers, set milestones, schedule your work, upload your files, send invoices, sync with your mobile – all of these features and more make these apps almost necessary.

Continue reading if you’re looking for your first project management app or just seeking to check out alternatives. With a lot to choose from it might be frustrating to find the right app for you. This article presents some of the best project management and collaboration tools out there. There are also tools for brainstorming ideas, hosting conversations and even managing a newsroom. Each of them share common general features, however each of them also has something unique to offer. Most of these tools come with a fixed monthly price, some of them you’ll have to pay for per user and month. Also a trial period is available with most of them so you’ll have the chance to examine and check out if it’s the right choice. Each description contains brief features the service offers as well as the pricing plans.

1. Teambox

Teambox is voted the best online project collaboration software for project managers, contractors, freelancers and teams. Teambox is the pioneer in joining social collaboration tools with online project management. It’s mission is to change the way people work by making it easier and more fun to get things done.

Features:

• Teambox Projects consist of conversations, task lists, pages and file storage.
• Share ideas, files, images and video. Discuss details and solve problems, stay alert thanks to email notifications.
• Simple, fast and linear task creation. Add due dates and task owners in seconds. Quickly see what is getting done.
• All of your important documents and media in one place. File storage that is simple and linear.
• Various communication options. RSS, Email, Mobile Access and Web interfaces are just the beginning of how you can communicate.

Pricing:

• Free: $0/month
• Personal : $12/month
• Basic: $29/month
• Professional : $99/month

2. Projecturf

Projecturf is the Web-based project management app that helps individuals and businesses manage projects, people, and tasks. A project can be big or small, personal or business. Once a project is created, you add team members to the project who gain instant access to it via the Web. Within a project, there are tons of features and functions that can be done, such as creating and managing tasks, events on the calendar, and discussions; uploading and storing designs and documents; and analyzing project data using the Dashboard activity history and reporting.

Features:

• Projecturf keeps you up-to-date on all your projects and stores everything in one place, that is always accessible, secure, and backed up.
• Upload your own logo, create your own custom URL, change the colors, and tailor our app to suit your needs.
• Projecturf uses the highest level of security available on all accounts at all times.
• Pay only for your consumption. Pricing charts are built on project amount per month. Unlimited users, unlimited storage.

Pricing:

• 20 projects: $39.99/month
• 40 projects: $69.99/month
• 70 projects: $99.99/month
• 100 projects: $119.99/month

3. Apollo

Apollo is project and contact management done right. Using Apollo, you will realize that it’s built to help you get things done, quickly and efficiently. With Apollo, you will always know where your projects, your contacts and your life are at and you will feel on top of everything — regardless of how hectic your schedule is.

Features:

• Keep everything under control – use the overview to keep track of what’s going on across all of your projects, calendars and personal tasks.
• Start interactive timers – with interactive timers, you can start a timer and keep track of how long you are spending on a task.
• See your project’s activity – in the activity screen you can see who did what on your project and who is allowed to access it.
• Set your milestones – you can assign a task list to a milestone, to divide your project into stages and throw a party when you complete a full stage.

Pricing:

• Basic: $23/month
• Plus: $48/month
• Premium: $96/month
• Max: $148/month

4. Basecamp

Basecamp is the top choice for entrepreneurs, freelancers, small businesses, and groups inside big organizations. Projects go well when people talk to each other, discuss issues openly, and communicate clearly. Basecamp is focused on making this easy.

Features:

• No more messy email threads. Post messages to Basecamp instead.
• Easily share files, documents, images, and designs with your clients or team.
• Assign to-dos with deadlines. Making to-do lists and adding to-do items literally just takes seconds.
• Templates jump start your project. Instead of creating new projects from scratch every time, use Basecamp project templates to set up standardized projects ahead of time.

Pricing:

• Plus: $49/month
• Premium: $99/month
• Max: $149/month

5. Huddle

Huddle is the world’s leading cloud-based collaboration platform, used by 90,000 businesses and government organizations in more than 180 countries.

Features:

• Online file storage – Huddle encrypts all data exchanged with the server to industry standard levels as well as authenticating the server itself to the user.
• Discussions – quickly start discussions with team members and keep all conversations and comments in one central place.
• Tasks & files – immediately track deadlines and milestones for your projects. Attach files to specific tasks.
• Permissions – set granular permissions against each workspace or folder, controlling who can view specific items.

Pricing:

• $15/per user and month

6. Lighthouse

Lighthouse will simplify your workflow so you can do the job you were hired to do. Collaborate effortlessly on projects. Whether you’re a team of 5 or studio of 50, Lighthouse will help you keep track of your project development with ease.

Features:

• Keep up with your project on the go – no matter where you are, we have the tools to keep you up to date on your project.
• We’ll organize. You work – Lighthouse has given you all the tools you need to organize your tickets – custom states, a powerful tagging system, an advanced search, saved searches (we call them ticket bins), and a mass editing tool.
• Setting your project goals – milestones help you group your tickets in timely releases.
• Plays well with others – thanks to Lighthouse’s robust API, there are already dozens of useful services that integrate with Lighthouse.

Pricing:

• Bronze: $25/month
• Silver: $50/month
• Gold: $100/month

7. Goplan

Goplan lets you keep track of your projects and collaborate with your colleagues securely through an intuitive user interface. Goplan was developed to scratch developers own itch – they needed a better tool to manage our projects, communicate with clients, and organize our personal lives. Goplan has become a consumer-facing product ever since then.

Features:

• Everything in its right place – the Goplan dashboard gives you an overview of everything that’s happening with your company and your projects.
• Task management – organize your projects into tasks and milestones. Tasks can have any number of sub-tasks, with sub-tasks of their own.
• Issue tracking – if you’re running a software project, you’re probably aware of the notion of tickets and issue tracking. Tickets capture project defects, which can then prioritized and filtered.
• File management – upload files and documents directly to Goplan and have all your projects assets in one secure place.

Pricing:

• Startup: $10/month
• Professional: $35/month
• Unlimited: $80/month

8. Action Method

Action Method by Behance is a task-management methodology designed to help creative thinkers push their ideas forward. Based on the power of capturing and managing tasks you need to complete, Action Method ensures ideas are executed. From beautifully designed paper products, to Action Method Online, to Action Method for iPhone, this system of products works together to maximize productivity, organization, and accountability.

Features:

• Capture Action Steps – action Steps are tasks that need to be completed. Each Action Step should start with a verb: “Call Y,” “Follow up with X,” “Buy a gift for Z.”
• Delegate tasks – you can delegate Action Steps to anyone with an email address. Once an Action Step is delegated, you can monitor its progress.
• Manage projects – all of your items in Action Method online are organized by project. A project could be a client, a project at work, a party you’re planning.
• Sync with mobile – automatically sync with your mobile device to manage your tasks wherever you are. No wifi required.

Pricing:

• Introductory: free
• Premium: $12/month

9. Rule.fm

Rule – one application to make your business simply productive. People, CRM, Projects, Documents and more- all interacting and coexisting with total transparency online in an activity stream — so you can finally manage your business under one rule.

Features:

• The stream – know what’s happening in your business up to the moment. View, filter and collaborate on all activity for all Rule assets.
• Projects – simple, powerful, collaborative. Your Milestones, Tasks, Time Tracking, Project Calendar, Documents & Discussions come together to make project management what it should be.
• Docs – get busy sharing folders and files with multi-file upload and group/individual sharing and permissions.
• CRM – from the pipeline to your bottom line – manage customer relationships and the deal flow (sales cycle) process with the Rule CRM – integrated with your other valuable Rule assets.

Pricing:

• they’re prompting a free account however their TOS says that Rule.fm has 4 paid pricing plans

10. Freedcamp

Freedcamp offers unlimited user and unlimited project solution for everyone, completely free, forever. By offering an amazing web application Freedcamp believes there will finally be a standard in project management.

Features:

• The dashboard is where you can get your morning cup of information about projects, important tasks, and recent activity.
• Discussions provide a forum-like experience, allowing you to create entries in a simple format. Use it to discuss ideas, give suggestions, and collaborate on the important things in life.
• Milestones are a great way to keep your projects on track. Set dates for each milestone in your project and then try to complete it by the due date.
• Keeping track of time is a fundamental part of project management. This is where you can keep a record of the amount of time you’ve spent on a specific task.

Pricing:

• completely free

11. Onehub Workspaces

Onehub makes large file sharing easy. Secure, fast and easy to use file sharing for any size business. Manage projects, share files and collaborate with others. With Workspaces and Transfers products Onehub has solutions to help growing businesses work more efficiently by improving communication and information sharing.

Features:

• Online Workspaces – organize your files by team, project, client or file type — it’s up to you.
• Content management – workspaces is a simple and secure way to manage your documents, media and content online.
• Secure sharing – share your Workspaces, folders or files with unlimited users on every plan, no per user fees.
• Real-time chat – the ideal way to collaborate with your team in real-time. See who is online in your workspace.

Pricing:

• Free: $0
• Personal: $29/month
• Team: $99/month
• Enterprise: $499/month

12. So1o

Keep on top of your projects with So1o. Intelligently track how much time you’ve spent and what you’ve spent it on. See how many days to deadline, what you’ve quoted and how close a project is to completion. Beautifully designed graphs show a visual breakdown of your project.

Features:

• Dashboard – the hub of the solo experience. The dashboard allows you to easily keep track of the day-to-day things that really matter.
• Projects – keep on top of your projects with Solo. Intelligently track how much time you’ve spent and what you’ve spent it on.
• Diary – manage deadlines, milestones , meetings, tasks and todo’s all in one place.
• Invoicing – electronically send invoices directly to your clients, Solo lets you know when they’re due to be paid, are overdue or need to be sent.

Pricing:

• $10/month

13. Worketc

WORKetc combines CRM, project management, billing, sales, support and more with a powerful automation engine to help take your small business to the next level.

Features:

• Manage your entire customer lifecycle in one application, and easily reference any part of that lifecycle through detailed contact histories.
• Save time and effort by automatically converting sales leads into projects, duplicating existing projects, or using project templates.
• For recurring bills, use a list of products and attach these to customers and invoices. Set up shipping, local taxes, offer discounts, and manage commissions.
• Setting up reminders and to-dos across your business is as simple as a few clicks, and these can take the form of e-mail or RSS, so you can always be up to date even when you’re on the go.

Pricing:

• $39/per user and month (discount for more users)

14. ProWorkFlow

ProWorkflow is the top project management software currently helping thousands of customers globally to optimize their business processes, manage staff resources, track projects, tasks and time and keep on top of it all.

Features:

• Web-based technology allows you to manage your company remotely.
• Get organized with the project manager & assign tasks to employees.
• The task manager allows you to create task lists for each employee, and see activity in real-time.
• Gain knowledge on company performance using the reports manager.

Pricing:

• Standard: €10/per user and month
• Professional: €20/per user and month
• Advanced: €30/per user and month

15. activeCollab

activeCollab is a project management and collaboration tool that installs on your server or local network. activeCollab gives you full control over your files and communications, with unlimited users, unlimited projects, and unlimited storage space – it grows with your company, with no monthly fees.

Features:

• Keep projects on track –  activeCollab provides platform for planning, progress tracking and communication.
• Collaborate – work with your associates and clients, assign tasks, share files, get notified when something happens, discuss and comment.
• Email notifications – activeCollab sends you an email when something important happens.
• Be in control –  install activeCollab on your server and invite people to work with you.

Pricing:

• Small Biz: $249
• Corporate: $499

16. Teamwork PM

Teamwork Project Manager is an easy-to-use online teamwork & project management software application that helps managers, staff and clients work together more productively online.

Features:

• Assign tasks to keep on top of everything – with Teamwork, you can assign tasks to staff, co-workers and contractors in seconds.
• Never miss a milestone again – with Teamwork, you can add Project Milestones to keep everybody on the project informed about key dates and goals.
• Project management – Teamwork allows you to take a birds eye view of all your projects and visualize your overall schedule.
• Track every hour – Teamwork allows you to track the time you spend on every project allowing you to keep projects on-cost and efficiently bill your clients.

Pricing

• Personal: $12/month
• Business 1: $24/month
• Business 2: $49/month
• Corporate: $99/month
• Enterprise: $149/month

17. Conceptboard

Conceptboard offers real time teamwork on thoughts and documents which you can share and discuss with your colleagues, customers & friends. Conceptboard is a great work space for your ideas, documents and pictures. It’s very intuitive and makes online collaboration easy as pie.

Features:

• Use your own files – edit your documents as if they were printed. Highlight, underline and more with just one click.
• Get things done on the iPad – Conceptboard is optimized for the iPad. There is no app you need to download, it works just fine in the browser.
• Comment without the fuss – opinions, ideas, thoughts – comment directly on the object of discussion.
• Work live with your team – discuss drafts, make decisions and produce results. Work cooperatively on your boards in real time

Pricing:

• Basic: free
• Professional: $8/per user and month
• Enterprise: $25/per user and month

p>18. Zoho Projects

Zoho Projects is an online project management software with collaboration and bug tracking that allows project teams to collaborate and get work done faster. Planning and Tracking helps you keep your project on schedule. Collaboration helps improve the communication within the team and keep everyone on the same page.

Features:

• With Zoho Projects planning your projects becomes a snap. Use milestones to organize projects, set dependency for your tasks, assign ownership and priorities.
• The bug tracker combines a clean interface to organize bugs with custom workflows, business rules and fix bugs which makes bug tracking painless and simple.
• Record your working hours. Export data and generate reports quickly with time-sheets.
• Create files directly on the browser without having to install any additional software. Tag files with labels and keep track of changes with the version history.

Pricing:

• Express: $20/month
• Premium: $35/month
• Enterprise: $80/month

19. Teamlab

TeamLab is a web-based platform for business collaboration and project management. It has been developed by Ascensio System Limited, a fast-growing company that offers IT-solutions for personal and corporate use.

Features:

• Project management – build teams and assign tasks. Schedule project milestones, track project activity and generate reports.
• Business collaboration – create posts in blogs and forums, view employee details. Share photos, bookmarks and Wiki pages.
• Time tracking – save information on time spent for a certain project task. Add details to the work done and generate time-tracking reports.
• Mobile full version – access your portal from Android or iOS mobile phone. Keep track of team and project activities regardless of your location.

Pricing:

SaaS, Open-Source, AMI: free

20. DeskAway

DeskAway is a web-based project collaboration software that provides teams a central location to easily organize, manage and track their projects & work. DeskAway is carefully hand-crafted by a small team of developers and designers. Each feature is custom-made to give you the ease of use and power to help you grow your business.

Features:

• Go green – DeskAway will have all your project stuff in a central location – project plans, reports, to-do’s, notes etc. This way you and your team are less likely to hit the print button. Save the trees and help conserve energy.
• Less email clutter – once you start using DeskAway, you will automatically have less email clutter in your inbox and no problems finding old project information.
• You control who sees what information – DeskAway’s permission-control system is built with the idea that not everyone should know and see everything.
• Nothing to download or install – since DeskAway is an on-demand business software delivered on the Internet, there is nothing to install, compile or configure.

Pricing:

• Professional: $35/month
• Plus: $49/month
• Power: $99/month

21. Producteev

Working on a Product Launch? Got a Team? Producteev is a dead simple, fast, smart Task Management platform connected to your daily communication services.

Features:

• Multiple team support – manage multiple teams with Producteev using simple, built-in features.
• Filters and reports – easily generate useful reports on project and team activity.
• Overview – see a real-time overview of what’s been accomplished and what should be done next for each team and project with integrated activity feeds, timelines, and alerts.
• Producteev Academy – turn task management into a social game. The Academy is a built-in, fun competition to see who can get the most done.

Pricing:

• Free: $0
• Plus: $5/month
• Premium: $20/month
• Platinum: $30/month

22. Kapost

Kapost is an online newsroom for web publishing also used by 1stwebdesigner. Kapost handles the entire content production process: from pitch to payment and everything in between. Enable your editorial team to focus on audience and content, not administrative tasks. Easily scale your set of contributors.

Features:

• Kapost moves the content production process on to its online workflow: from pitches & story ideas, to assignments & editorial calendars, to drafts & publishing, and into performance and payment tracking.
• Kapost enables the entire production workflow to be moved online. In Kapost, anyone can create Story Ideas, which can be closed or approved and assigned.
• Track the performance of your content in terms of page views, uniques, re-tweets, FB Likes, etc.
• Easily automate the tracking of the payment of your contributors. Kapost handles the calculation and reporting of payments.

Pricing:

• Starter: free
• Standard: $8/month
• Plus: $15/month (coming soon)

23. Campfire

Campfire is a web-based group chat tool that lets you set up password-protected chat rooms in just seconds. Invite a client, colleague, or vendor to chat, collaborate, and make decisions. Link to a room on your intranet for internal communications.

Features:

• Basecamp integration – use Campfire with Basecamp, the leading web-based project collaboration tool.
• Live image previews – upload a GIF, JPG, or PNG, and it shows up right in the chat room.
• Conference calling – invite your chat room to a voice conference call with a single click.
• Jump back in time – read past chat transcripts anytime you want. Campfire keeps a history.

Pricing:

• Basic: $12/month
• Plus: $24/month
• Premium: $49/month
• Max: $99/month

24. Socialcast

Socialcast is an enterprise collaboration platform that unites your company’s people, data, and applications in real-time. Socialcast’s software creates a flexible, simple, data-rich collaborative space where employees can find information from applications, systems, and people across the enterprise.

Features:

• Activity Streams are the future of enterprise collaboration, uniting people, data, and applications in real-time in a central, accessible, virtual interface.
• Contribute to an evolving hub of company information with every note, question, and document shared.
• Social Business Intelligence is a suite of analytics that provides real-time feedback and actionable insights into the employees, topics, and information-sharing occurring in your Socialcast community.
• User Roles enables community administrators to grant people access to social tools such as Reach, Social Business Analytics and External Contributors, providing people with the resources and information they need to get work done faster.

Pricing:

• Basic: free
• Enterprise: contact the service

25. Flowdock

Flowdock creates a bridge between conversation and knowledge management. You don’t have to use clumsy tools like instant messaging, IRC or email for group conversation on one hand, and wikis, ticketing systems etc for knowledge management on the other. With Flowdock, you can reduce your ways to a light-weight, effortless process, where the conversation flows and the barrier of creating knowledge is diminished.

Features:

• Real-time group chat – Flowdock’s efficient real-time group chat saves you time and helps your team get answers right away.
• Easy file sharing & storage – upload mockups, images, code snippets, presentations or other documents to Flowdock and share them with others instantly.
• Bring your systems together – Flowdock integrates your wikis, project management tools, customer feedback, Twitter feeds and much more into one simple feed.
• Constant brainstorm – with Flowdock, recording ideas or gathering knowledge is just as easy as chatting. Just jot down the idea in the chat, tag it and it’s immediately saved and shared with the team.

Pricing:

• Team: $19/month
• Unit: $39/month
• Department: $79/month
• Division: $159/month

26. Thoughtboxes

Whether you want to brainstorm ideas for your next big project or you just want to keep track of tasks, Thoughtboxes makes it fun and easy. With a single click, you can share your thoughts with anyone, or collaborate privately with your friends, family, and co-workers.

27. Peers.me

Peers.me offers hosted conversations to keep everyone involved in an easy way. By using Peers.me for group communication your email inbox stays clean. No fancy stuff, Peers.me is all about communication. And Peers.me is free up to 10 users.

28. BrixHQ

BrixHQ makes online agile project management and collaboration easy and cost effective.

Features:

• Dashboard – the Dashboard gives you a visual snapshot of where your projects are at via; The Wall, Gantt Chart, My Tasks and Graphs.
• The wall – visualize all your projects and tasks on the wall.
• Gantt Chart – the Gantt Chart gives you a graphical representation of your tasks and where they are all at.
• Reports – reporting is part of all projects; use some flexible reports to ensure your needs are met

Pricing:

• Up to 10 users: $19.99/month
• Up to 100 users:  $99.99/month
• 100 Plus:  $199.99/month

29. Podio

Podio is an online platform with a new take on work and how it gets done. It gives people more power than they’ve ever had before to do everyday work better, smarter and in their own way. Podio is used by a variety of teams and organizations for a wide range of purposes. For the first time ever you can create your own work tools and shape the way you work.

Features:

Project Management

• Discover the easy way to run projects – smple yet fully flexible. Enjoy successfully finished projects.
• Product development – boost your development process. Stay on top of customizable workflows. Leverage team power to create great products.
• CRM & lead management – stay on top of all your business relations. Fully customizable to close more deals and know your customers better.
• Event management – all you need to organize great events. Easily keep track of budgets, participants and your team’s tasks.

Pricing:

• Up to 10 users: free
• $4/per user and month

30. Scadaplan

Scadaplan is a project management and collaboration tool for small and middle groups. There are many similar programs can be found across the internet, which consist of functions like Tasks, Deadlines, Calendars, Comments, etc. The Scadaplan team has tried using dozen of similar programs, working in the design and development industry for 9 years. This is why they have decided to develop something of their own and to let the people use their product.

Features:

• Create, track and collaborate – it takes seconds to create, assign and name your task. Every task has built-in timer to log work time and plan your goals.
• Plan and analyze – with Scadaplan calendar you’ll see the whole picture of your team. Besides today’s everyone`s tasks, you can see future work and analyze past projects.
• Never miss a thing – being used to Like-facebook notifications, you will be able to be aware of all updates and actions with necessary tasks.

Pricing:

• Microbe: $9.99/month
• Lab: $29.99/month
• Factory: $49.99/month

I once tried to hire someone on one of these sites to help me design some graphics only to waste two precious days trying to explain what I wanted while at the same time ending up being disappointed. The problem isn’t with the fact that there aren’t great designers out there, it is because they are all relying on a system that is making it difficult for them to move forward.

If you’re a freelance designer with great skills and talent it is very important for you to realize that all those low paying jobs aren’t your best option – you’re supposed to be in control, you’re supposed to choose the jobs you want to work on and you’re also supposed to set your prices. In fact, there is nothing stopping you from being rich as a freelance designer.

I’ve learned a lot about the art of getting clients and putting yourself in control in the last 8 months and in this article I will be giving you some tips to help you eliminate the competition and start getting more offers as a freelance designer.

Be an Active Proponent of the Service You have to Offer

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I’ve actually been studying the freelancing world for some time now and one thing I have noticed is that every highly successful freelancer not only offer their service, they are a product of the service they offer. It doesn’t matter what service you offer, or how great your skills are, the best way for people to see what you’re truly capable of is if you’re a living example of it.

By this I mean, as a freelance designer, instead of having to fight for the latest job posted on Elance.com or any other freelancing portal, why not create a platform where you will be showing people your work and the results you get from it.

In most cases most people need to see how powerful the services you offer will be and what they will get from it, and you don’t necessarily need to preach this to them before they realize it – all you need to do is let them see that you’re a living example of what you have to offer and let them know the kind of results you’re getting from it.

For example, I’m a freelance writer who has written over 500 guest posts in the past two years. I didn’t get a client until I wrote an article on how I was able to write 270 guest posts in 8 months. The article instantly showed people that I’m capable of writing on a large-scale and that a lot of my guest posts get approved, I also explained how I was able to write that many guest posts and the results I got from doing so. The end result is that even though I didn’t have a page asking people to hire me on my blog at the time of writing that article it has resulted in me getting clients (some of which I rejected).

There’s a saying that action speaks louder than words. Instead of trying to compete for every job offer on freelance portals, why not make yourself the center of attention by creating a website that shows people how you are making effective use of your talent?

Try to Master the Art of Pricing

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Do you think telling me you can do that same high quality design I paid $1,000 for at just $80 will impress me? Far from it!

Have you ever wondered why free things are undervalued in the world we live today? The reality is that cheaper things are even more undervalued than free things.

It is human nature to perceive things that are too cheap as not valuable and people also tend to avoid things that are too expensive – it is your duty as a freelance designer to be able to balance both.

As a freelance designer who is looking to get a lot of job offers don’t think you can beat your competition by lowering your price. There are a lot of factors that determine how great your work will be besides the price, and those great clients you will end up appreciating in the long run won’t choose you because you have a low price.

You need to realize that every client wanting to hire you wants the best work possible and you should also realize that they don’t want to spend a fortune to get this work done. What this means is that you shouldn’t just price your service low or high – you need to master the art of effective pricing and you should learn to charge the right prices.

If the real value of the design work you will be doing is $700, don’t charge $500 for it to make it more attractive to clients. That will only backfire!

If you can learn the right amount to charge for your services then you will easily become a magnet that attracts the right clients who are willing to pay the right amount for your services.

Don’t Accept Every Offer You Get

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Another important thing to ensure you stand out from your competition and get a lot more offers as a freelancer is by being careful with which offers you accept.

This means you should try to know who your ideal clients are from the beginning and you should start accepting offers from only those people you think are the best fit for you.

If clients see you as someone who is very picky with the kind of job he/she accepts then they will start giving you more respect and will also ensure you’re always satisfied. What I mean is that if you’re the kind of person who is happy to accept those $10 jobs whenever you see one, whenever quality clients see you they will have a low opinion of you and will therefore think you are incapable of doing what they want and thereby leave you.

I know it might not be easy to turn down some offers at first but you need to see it as building your career. Some offers will destroy your freelancing career if accepted as they will only be wasting more of your time instead of making it easy for you to work on more great jobs.

Anytime you see an offer that you don’t think is right for you, reject it, and spend half the time you will have spent working on it marketing yourself – you will be amazed to see how great that can work for you.

Understand that Your Work Doesn’t End as a Designer, Marketing is Part of Your Business

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This is probably the most important tip in this article and also what many designers get wrong.

The difference between you going broke and becoming very rich as a designer will be determined by how good you are at marketing your business.

You need to realize that we’re now in a world where there is a lot of competition, especially since it is easy for just anybody to learn design and start using his/her skills. It is therefore very important for you not to just sit down in one place expecting offers to come to you but, rather, go out there and market yourself.

Since you are already a living example of your work, the next thing is to get people to see this. This means you should try to be everywhere your potential clients are. Take a look at the top design blogs in your field and start contributing great tutorials to them every once in a while and also use the opportunity to let people know you’re up for hire. You should also leverage your email signature and your signature on the forums you’re very active at to let people know you’re up for hire.

The reality is that we will be getting a lot more offers if only we could let people know we need it. Don’t just sit down there and expect clients to come to you, go out there and market yourself.

And, no! I’m not saying you should start struggling for jobs on those freelance writing sites again – instead, try to be independent and make yourself the only center of attention, now use every opportunity to get people to discover you. This way you will be the only option they have and they will have no other choice than to start working with you on your terms.

Conclusion

You need to face the reality that the designers making the most money from their skills are not those fighting for jobs on freelance portals. Some designers get projects that pay them as high as 4 and 5 figures in one day, not by competing for jobs on freelancing portals but by making themselves the center of attention. You can follow the tips in this article to start getting more offers for your work and start making more money as a freelance designer.

Project Initiation

One of the most important steps in the design process is accumulating the information you’ll need. This is usually achieved by either a face-to-face meeting with the client, a questionnaire, or even a Skype meeting if you really wish to establish a personal relationship with your client. In gathering this information, you now know your client’s objectives and can focus on the details for inclusion in your brief.

The Brief: Although it may seem like more work than necessary, a design brief has a couple of key benefits, no matter how big or small the project seems to you:

1. It ensures the client knows what he or she wants from the project
2. It acts as your point of reference during the project

The more information the client provides initially, the better the result for the both of you (especially the client). Topics for inclusion in the design brief may vary but a few good starting points may be:

• Corporate Profile – A summary of the business
• Market Position – An evaluation of the company’s service/product in relation to the competition.
• Communication Task – What’s the message trying to be conveyed and through what means (e.g. taglines, body copy, photography, etc.)
• Target Market – Demographics — the age, gender, income, employment, geography, lifestyle of those the client wants to reach.
• Objectives – What quantifiable result does the client want to achieve?
• Schedule/Deadline – A realistic schedule of how the project should proceed.

At this stage it’s also a good idea to accept a deposit for the first half of the project.

Research

After you’ve met with the client and have a firm understanding of the task at hand, it’s now time to put your nose to the grindstone. After reviewing the materials given to you you can start research. This phase usually entails taking into account competitors, market trends, product/service differentiators, the history of the business, and the future of it as well.

While this stage isn’t usually going to be your favorite but it’s well worth it in the end. There’s nothing worse than creating a beautiful logo only to discover it’s too similar to a competitor’s. You’ll reap the rewards of the time you put into research, trust me.

Strategy

This step may vary depending on the scale of your project, but generally it’s best to develop a strategy before putting pencil to paper. Through this you analyze the research gathered and decide on design and functionality criteria. This can be as simple as a theme carried across all marketing materials. You can present this strategy to the client to get approval or disapproval before heading on in the hopes of getting more creative direction.

Development

Once you have a clear strategy, the idea is to then create preliminary design concepts based on the strategy you developed. Developing concepts can be done through various means when inspiration strikes, but here are some of the most effective.

• Mind Mapping: A diagram that’s used to represent words, ideas, and tasks linked to your central idea. Encourages a brainstorming approach to planning and organizing tasks.
• Storyboarding: Meant to pre-visualize a motion picture, animation, etc by organizing illustration in a sequence.
• Free Writing: A great way to get your ideas down on paper and later expand on them.

• Layout Creation: Sketch layouts from collected inspiration, play around with color schemes and typography until a direction strikes you, and then explore it more.

Develop several different concepts through the above methods. The idea here is to create as many different options before choosing the most viable one. Through the help of the client, these ideas can them be narrowed down to a couple of ideas for further development and refinement.

Presentation/Refinement

Often best presented as a PDF file with the design in context. It’s now the job of the client to review the designs and provide feedback based on their objectives and the needs of their target audience.

At this stage the designer is tasked with making changes to the aesthetic elements based on client’s request or putting the final touches on an agreed upon design.

Production/Launch

With an approved design, the designer is now able to implement the finished piece across all deliverables, which may include both print and web. Depending on the project and/or media, the materials may often be handed off to a third-party, which includes:

1. Prepress/Printer
2. Media Outlet
3. Launched on the Web

If it’s a web project, instructions and documentation may be required for administrative purposes, as well as Search Engine submission.

Completion

There’s nothing more rewarding than turning over a completed project to a satisfied client, so congratulate yourself.

You can now invoice your client the remaining bill for the project. Oftentimes this is best achieved through online invoicing software, which will help save time associated with putting together an invoice. One application that I personally recommend is Freshbooks.

With a solid process in place for completing a design project, you not only establish a closer relationship with your client, but you take a lot of the guesswork away when it comes down to creating something memorable for them. Consider it one less hurdle you have to overcome. Do you have a design process in place that you utilize with each new project? Feel free to share any tips with us that I may have missed.

The best designers and developers are the ones we don’t know about, the only difference is that they don’t need, don’t know or don’t care about self-promotion, or promotion at all. But if you value your work, you should value the way you are presenting it to the world. So before you sell a product, you need to sell yourself. Tell them why you deserve to be chosen, why you.

“Self-promotion is the act or practice of promoting one’s own interests, profile, work, etc.”

If this sounds obvious to you, think twice and ask yourself if you are really doing everything you should. Why are you receiving 200 visits / month, when others receive 5000 visits / month with similar work and services? Because they are promoting themselves better.

In this article, I will try to give you some insight about how and where you should promote yourself. Take a look below.

How

Have an Online Presence

If you plan to expand your brand and to sell your work, having a professional online presence is mandatory. Building a portfolio is the perfect way to share your experience, knowledge, work and clients, while showing your personality through creativity. Don’t forget to reference your website as much as possible, especially to clients. You can reference it in your email signature, artwork, ads, business cards, etc.

Keep Your Website Updated

Content is slightly more important than aesthetics. If your website looks great, but your last post is dated from 2009, your visitor won’t return because he’s not expecting updates in the near future, and he’s right. Ideally it would be great to update your site daily, if you can’t at least try to update it once a week.

Support Good Causes

More and more charities are adopting online media to raise funds for their causes. If you have the time, supporting charitable causes makes the world a better place, and helps you achieve positive feedback, respect, and influential clients. It’s also a lot more fun than regular work.

Socialize

This is definitely the most important step in the whole process of self-promotion. Actively participating in the community is an opportunity to expand your network of contacts, meet perspective clients, learn new methods, meet agencies and have friendly discussions. Open yourself to others in the business, help people that ask you for advice, and spread the word about your new artwork or website.

Blog

Sharing your point of view about the business in general, gives your clients and readers some an idea about your personality and professionalism. New content like  articles, case studies, tutorials, etc,  transforms your website into a place of valuable information, and keeps your visitors coming back. It’s also a place where you can easily promote your most recent work.

Offer Freebies

The best way to let your visitors know how good your work is, is giving it to them for free so they can try it. offering quality freebies like icons, buttons, layouts, brushes, patterns, textures, etc,  increases your self-motivation, respect and more importantly, exposure.

Showcase Your Work

Personally, I think this should be one of the first things you should do as soon as you launch your website. There are many great showcase galleries out there (especially CSS galleries) with a big impact in your website exposure and evaluation. A gallery can bring you 10 times more visits, and besides they are mainly seen by other professionals, it can be a plus for clients.

Make Sure They Know You Did It

Simply put, never forget to sign your work. If people like the work, they will try to find out who did it, and they will know it was you. You will start to be asked to do the same kind of work for clients, or “how you did it” questions within the community.

Share

Help, collaborate, share your experience and insights, and answer people and clients even if you don’t have the time to do more work. Giving back inspires others to do the same. You can learn a lot and make great friends within the business, just by sharing your knowledge and experience. It also increases your self-esteem, and keeps people coming back.

Look for Work

If you find an opportunity to work with good professionals or big clients, do it. Don’t think twice. It can be a great plus for you and your portfolio. Being a part of great projects or great teams, promotes your expertise and makes it easier to find new jobs and projects to join in the future. So the more experience you have, the more likely is to increase it.

Where

Twitter

http://twitter.com/

Facebook

http://www.facebook.com/

Linkedin

http://www.linkedin.com/

Behance

http://www.behance.net/

Designers Couch

http://designerscouch.org/

Sortfolio

http://sortfolio.com

Deviantart

http://www.deviantart.com/

Concept Feedback

http://www.conceptfeedback.com/

CSS Based

http://cssbased.com/

CSS Mania

http://cssmania.com/

Creattica

http://creattica.com/

Folio Focus

http://foliofocus.com/

Awwwards

http://www.awwwards.com/

FWA

http://www.thefwa.com/

ThemeForest

http://themeforest.net/

Brandstack

http://brandstack.com/

CrowdSpring

http://www.crowdspring.com/

Conclusion

At this point, you should know that building a portfolio is just the beginning, you now need to keep it updated and spread the word. What about starting a blog? or offering freebies? Don’t be afraid of starting new adventures, meeting people, applying for jobs…

Nothing in life is achieved without hard work, so if you want to be a great freelancer, you need to do it right or don’t try it at all.

You should by now have been educated that there are several business formats available for today’s entrepreneur. Should you launch an online business or go with the traditional brick and mortar setup? The decision is yours to make alone, but this article will help guide you through a wiser and more profitable decision.

Traditional Brick and Mortar Business Setup

A traditional brick and mortar business, first of all, can be very costly. The start-up costs and overhead costs include the lease, inventory, taxes, utility bills and the labor.

Apple is among the top brick and mortar electronic stores (Photo by Apple Insider)

Location is very important for a brick and mortar business–it can bring about the establishment’s success or demise. Because of this, you need to set aside a lot of time for market research to know more about the market’s psychographics and demographics where you plan to establish the business. This means doing the legwork for surveys, interviews, etc. within the area.

Finally, if your main intention for having your own business is to escape the 9 to 5 hour grind, you are in for a surprise: having your own brick and mortar business will cause you plenty of sleepless nights, and a work day that is usually much longer than the usual 8 hours. This is especially true during the first year of the business.

Pros:

• There is a sense of trust and reliability that comes with having your own brick and mortar store. Many customers still feel safer buying from a store. There are shady websites everywhere, so having your own physical store adds a touch of professionalism.
• Walk-ins are another benefit that comes with having your own store. This is the old-fashioned way of buying products. In high traffic locations, you can have plenty of walk-ins in a day.
• Many customers still want to see, feel, and touch the product physically before purchasing anything.

Cons:

• Business is only open during business hours. You can’t do business when you’re closed, obviously–since no one can accommodate your customers during that time.
• Huge startup capital and overhead costs come with having your own brick and mortar store.

Virtual Online Business Setup

A virtual online business is arguably easier, but the work you need to do is just the same. You still need to do market research for your specified target demographics. However this time you are no longer limited to a specific area or location. Instead of exhausting legwork, you can do the research sitting comfortably in front of the computer; using all the necessary online tools, social networking tools, forums, etc.

Startup capital for an online business is dramatically less.When it comes to the costs for marketing and advertising, there is a huge difference between online and brick and mortar. Advertising is relatively cheaper, and in some cases even free. You just need to make some noise in forums, chat rooms and social networking sites and people will come to your site.

Overhead costs are also comparatively less. You only need a computer, decent internet connection, cellphone or telephone so that clients can contact you. You will need to have your own website, so you need to pay for your own domain name and web hosting. That’s pretty much it and you’re ready to open for business.

While it is far easier and less expensive to start an internet business versus launching a brick and mortar business, the work is just as hard. You’ll have to conduct market research, spend hours in front of your computer, and learn techniques that may be unfamiliar to you. However, you can do this from the comfort of your own home at any hour of the day or night. Yes, you can earn money even while you are asleep.

Pros:

• Low costs for start-up, but open 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year.
• High number of visitors in a day. It’s easy to create some noise to get people to click your link and visit your site. However, turning these website visitors into customers is another matter.

Cons:

• False sense of security. While the internet can be a great gold mine, you should remember that the work to make money is just as hard. Internet entrepreneurs and traditional entrepreneurs are both hardworking, and persevering.
• No personal interaction with the client. Sometimes it’s better to talk to your customers one on one, it gives them a better shopping experience.
• There are too many distractions with operating an online business. You can easily get lost and distracted about what you want to sell. Just be sure to know what products you want to sell and stick to that niche.

How about Brick and Click?

But if you are up to it, why not get a little bit of both by making use of the Brick and Click Business Model? The Brick and Click is a business format that integrates both traditional brick and mortar (offline) and clicks (online). This means that they have both an online and offline presence, where customers can buy products traditionally through the store or they can just go online, order, and have it shipped straight to their door. This business model is already popular especially with clothing, retail, electronic and popular ‘big box’ stores.

Forever 21 is one good example of a company implementing the Bricks-and-Mortar strategy

While there are countless ways to organize your workspace, and no hard and fast rules for doing so, it is still worthwhile to explore ways to construct your office setup to maximize productivity. Through this article I will present 5 ways to do just that!

Storage boxes like these from Ikea are a simple way to organize your office and clean up clutter.

Clean Up Clutter

Disorganization and clutter can be a constant battle in your home office if you don’t have a system set up to manage it. Clean the desktop of anything you don’t use or need anymore. Set up a time each week/month where you clean out your office, too. Creating a proper schedule ensures your desk and overall workspace looks neat only for you but potential clients that may come through.

Use the storage features of your desk regularly. Check often to make sure there are no unused papers, files or other items that can make drawers or cabinets needlessly full. A messy look can reflect on your personality and capability – something to not look forward to when you have a deadline looming.

Include Sufficient Lighting

One of the elements that has a large impact on the overall appearance of your space, but is often overlooked it lighting.

• You should try to incorporate two sources of light into your room – an overhead light as well as a task light.
• If you prefer a natural feel and you have access to it, natural lighting can do wonders to improve your mood in addition to providing the light you need to get the task done.
• Extra seating can also be highlighted by a floor lamp.
• It’s easy to express your personality through lighting with a large variety of modern styles available today.
• It’s also important to set up the lighting to reduce glare. Your desk lamp can use LED technology to consume less energy and be more efficient overall.
• Use curtains or a lamp shade to reduce glare.

Sources:
Ikea.com
CB2.com
JustHomeDecor

Establish A Focal Point

Having a focal point that directs your attention can keep you focused on the task. Many home offices don’t have one but it’s to your benefit to establish one.

• For designers this can simply be your MAC or PC at your desk.
• To enhance the visual impact, offset your computer with some hanged grouped artwork in the background or installing a specialized wall treatment such as wallpaper or a mural.
• Adding an area rug also grounds the space and adds a little something extra in the process.
• A focal point is a necessary design element that grounds the space so take careful considerations in how you wish to organize it.

Choose the Wall Color

It may be beneficial to set up your home office and the materials you wish to include in it, then chose a wall color that compliments them as opposed to the other way around. Remember a room can be interesting without the walls screaming of color, so choosing a neutral shade with a touch of color may be to your benefit. It’s also hard to grow tired of a neutral color, which means less painting over the long haul. And remember that colors are often more intense than they are on a paint chip so you’re best bet is to move down a shade or two on the color card before finalizing.

• Yellow is known to stimulate creativity, clarity of though, and mental activity – making it an excellent choice for a home office color.
• Red is an aggressive color, so it’s good for those selling or making deals.
• Blue-Green can be a soothing color – a great choice for writers.
• Oranges encourage socialization – great for a small office using a team approach to management.

Here’s a guide on Color Psychology that can help in your decision.

Inspire Yourself

This is perhaps the most fun aspect of decorating your home office – inspiring yourself through:

• Artwork
• A whiteboard
• Family photos
• An inspirational quote that speaks to you
• Fresh flowers that liven up the room can go along way in enhancing your productivity and keeping you motivated

Since a lot of web designers are freelancers who work from home, we have full creative control over what we place in our workspace to keep us on task. Use this category to express your personality and motivate yourself through visual encouragement.

Sources:

Wallwords

Showcase of Workstations

Joseph Lifrieri

This creative workspace by Joseph Lifrieri clearly makes use of a focal point in his home office workstation. Behind his PC’s are posters expressing his personal interests and lend to the overall style of the workstation very well.

Ignaty Nikulin

Ignaty Kikulin uses a creative mix of existing shelving and bought to create his workspace. Although there are trinkets, the space remains clutter free and still gives you a glimpse into the designer’s personality.

Jonas Lekevicius

This bare bones, modern workspace allows the designer the comfort and convenience of focusing solely on their work with this minimalist backdrop.

Matt Regan

The workstation of Matt Regan utilizes task lighting and the materials essential for a designer to get their work accomplished.

Brendon Grobler

Through the use of natural lighting, this workstation of designer Brendon Grobler utilizes a key element in maximizing productivity.

Jonathan Patterson

This slick, modern workstation for designer Jonathan Patterson is another example of a simple layout with a focal point – the Mac.

Dean Oakley

Through the use of posters and stereo speakers, the designer Dean Oakley achieves a personalized space effective for getting work done.

Additional Resources

There are websites that are designed to show you workstation setups. Check out Workstation Setups and also one of my personal favorites, Deskography. If you find another workstation setup that you would like to share, feel free to leave a comment about the website!

Conclusion

Here are some tips to take away from this article (and more to consider) in designing your new space:

• Just because a paint color is on a chip doesn’t mean it should be on a wall
• Incorporate something that inspires you, such as a piece of artwork, area rug, or accessory
• Eyes 24-36 inches from computer screen and the top of your monitor should be below or at eye-level
• Feet should be on a foot rest or planted firmly on the floor
• Slightly reclined chair posture is best to reduce vertebrae pressure and minimize lower back pain
• Enhance your focal point and offset it with a bookshelf, wallpaper, or decorative mural
• Pick lighting that suits your personal tastes
• Your office design can match your brand, have fun with it!

Your home office has a big impact on your productivity, creativity, and energy levels. Clutter as well as an uninspired space can deter your business goals, so taking these steps to enhance your home office setup can help your feeling of personal success.