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Invoice template for freelance work for Security

let's talk tool today specifically the tools i  needed and used when i first started freelancing   online you guys know i'm all about simplicity  i think it's easy to overcomplicate when you're   thinking about starting something new or exciting  especially when you're starting freelancing or   new business and that's a really common pitfall  people get trapped in is this pitfall of over   complicating everything this never ending you know  oh no what tools do i need to get started maybe i   also need that and that and also that and now you  have like a list of 40 tools you need before you   even begin and so and so just said they love this  tool more than that tool so maybe i should swap   this tool for that tool before i begin it's really  a way of sabotaging ourselves from beginning and i   do not want you to get stuck there so i only want  to give you in this video what you truly need to   begin and i know sometimes people give like way  too many different options and you don't really   know which one to pick so i'll also let you know  which one the deus choice option is aka which tool   i personally used and liked myself again this is  just my opinion on these tools tools are kind of   a subjective matter depending on your priority  so if there's something you personally don't   like that's fine you can use one of the other  alternatives that i mentioned or find one that   suits your needs better one not also if there is a  tool that a client requests you to use for her or   his business specifically they should be paying  for that tool you shouldn't be paying for it   you should only be paying for tools that you  use as a freelancer to work with your clients   and not the tools that they need within their  businesses if that makes sense because those   would be tools that they pay for as their business  expenses not your business expenses at the end of   this video i'll also share a few nice to have  optional more advanced tools but to get started   you really only need these seven tools that i will  talk about and of course i'll link everything down   below for your convenience most of this if not all  is not sponsored so you know i really mean it when   i like these tools hey my name is dia freelancer  digital business manager most recently unprepared   and as always you can find sections on the play  bar below if you want to skip to a certain part   of the video your time is precious take what you  need and go and if you want to watch this on 2x   i will not be offended in the least so feel free  to do that okay let's dive straight into the video the first and most important thing that  you need is some tool to allow you to take   money from your clients you need to get  paid that cash money has to be deposited   somewhere and you need to get this organized  beforehand so that when it does come time to pay   your client can seamlessly make it rain on you  here are a few popular payment tool options   the first one the most well-known one i would  say is paypal the easiest for most clients but   honestly i personally don't recommend doing  paypal long term you can do it when you're just   getting started but look to switch to another one  soon because there are a few issues with paypal   freezing accounts and the fees aren't really ideal  you can however also send invoices via paypal   directly to clients which makes everything super  simple if you are in a pinch so when in doubt you   do have this option with paypal they take a cut  of each transaction so just keep that in mind   the next one is stripe stripe is another easy one  you can also send invoices directly via stripe to   your client's email account they can normally  pay easily via credit or debit card that way   with stripe they also take a cut of each action  the third option is why this is a dea's choice   wise is what i personally use for the past four  to five years i recommend it 100 it's great for   international transactions across borders so  if you have clients from other countries really   really easy to use the fees are really good it's  super easy to use you can hook it up to your bank   account i have an affiliate link for it below  if you want to use it but you can also just type   wise.com into your browser and find the info there  for some reason you don't want to use my affiliate   link it's awesome and i would recommend it even  if i weren't part of their affiliate program next up are legal invoicing contracts that  kind of stuff the first one is ann co which   is a dia's choice so anco is really the only tool  i've ever really used other than google docs to   send invoices it's pretty easy to use it walks  you through it you can send an invoice to your   client directly and they can view everything there  it's very easy they give you like a dashboard and   everything where you can kind of see the summary  of all of your invoices and your client works   you can separate it by client all that stuff the  next one is dubsado which is also a dia's choice   dubsado is a client management tool i personally  really like it is free for up to three clients i   believe so that's really great to get started with  you can set up contracts invoices in there you can   also set up automations client dashboards  etc that's a little bit more advanced so to   really get started all you need is the contracts  and invoicing with dubsado it like streamlines   everything so the client can just go there and do  everything step by step if you don't like anco or   dubsado for whatever reason other options i like  are honeybook for our us peeps and bonsai which   again i'll link everything below next up is hello  sign which is the dia's choice is a tool   i use to get documents signed you get three free  documents every single month so that's awesome and   you really don't need more than that unless you're  signing tons of clients every month so i send my   contracts to clients via hello sign they can sign  it there and then i download the pdf of the signed   document and done another option is panda dock  next up is i've heard lots   of cool things about basically you can get legal  documents like contracts or templates if you're   looking for more contractor help another one i  can recommend is the contract shop by christina   scalera super awesome she's got loads of contract  templates for freelancers and small business   owners like an independent contractor template  which is all you really need to begin everything   else it's also possible that the client will send  it to you which is also fine of course as well next up of course we need some way of storing all  the files documents and all that good stuff that   clients need you to work on online so your options  are one google drive which is a dia's choice again   i love google drive it has everything i could ever  need i keep everything in my drive and i use all   these sorted products that are offered google docs  love it google spreadsheet love it google slides   love it google drawings love it i upgraded my  storage with google drive and so now i pay for   it but you really don't need to like the free  plan is more than you need to get started the   other option here is dropbox personally i don't  get the dropbox over google drive decision but   if you don't like google drive you can definitely  go with dropbox which does a similar thing as well chances are your client will add you into their  project management tools so that's great but if   not you may want to have some sort of project  management tool for your own to like keep track   of your own things across clients and everything  so your options here are asana which is a deus   choice for sure the free plan is plenty you can  make a project for each of your clients and put   all the to do's in there assign dates the whole  shebang another option is click up another day's   choice for sure so click up is awesome as well  the learning curve i would say is a bit steeper   so if you're not as tech savvy or you just want  to get started faster without learning too much   go with asana another option is trello trello  is a good option it's a very simple system of   just like a kanban view which is like with  the different views and you can like drag   things depending on their status which  by the way asana and click up both also   have a kanban view they just have more and like  more variations of views which is really useful   but with trello it's a little bit more  minimalistic so if you know you'll get   overwhelmed you don't really want to deal  with a bunch of buttons or features then yeah   go with trello because then that will keep  you from procrastinating out of overwhelm   next up you will need some sort of calendar  system to schedule calls and keep track of   important deadlines so your options here are  google calendar which is a deus choice no surprise   love it i love everything integrated with my gmail  account so easy consolidated i love consolidation   all my readings and calls go into my calendar  system so i can keep track of everything in one   place another option calendly that's another dia's  choice so for booking calls i really like countley   for scheduling any type of calls so catch ups  discovery calls i use the free plan there too   i just send my calendly link to  somebody if they want to book a free   slot on my calendar it integrates with my  calendar on gmail as well and then they can   book a time and then it shows up on my calendar  really easy if you don't like handling or you   need something a little bit heavier duty you can  use acuity scheduling which i also really like   all right next up we have to communicate with our  clients i know i know we need some way of talking   to them at a minimum you will need a proper  professional email gmail is dia's choice but   honestly whatever will work as long as it's not  like your kitten underscore baby underscore cutie   email from middle school next up is slack dia's  choice as well so aside from email this one is   kind of it's not super necessary to get  started but for quicker conversations   it's also chances are your client will add  you into their communication tool of choice   like slack but if they don't you can also set  up something like snack for your clients to   chat with them quicker it's much better  than email because you can go back and   forth faster and not kind of lose track of the  conversation with like a million email threads   another thing i like here is voxer voxer is great  for voice messages with clients as well but this   one is optional depending on if your clients  want that with you and if you want to offer   it at the end of the day okay time for meetings  i like both zoom and google hangouts now i use   google hangouts more because i pay 4g like the  google workspace anyway so i get that included   but either is fine so just set up an account  on either one you prefer free one works fine finally you will need a tool to store  passwords that you get from clients when   they share accesses and login info  with you safely so lastpass is the   dia's choice here i personally use lastpass i  think it's fine it's not perfect but it will do   the job an alternative to lastpass is one password  if for some reason you really don't like lastpass so a little recap of all the deus choices here are  the tools that idea personally use as a freelancer   and would recommend you have to begin freelancing  online one wise for getting paid two dubsado for   invoicing contracts general lite client management  three google workspace or google drive for file   storage for asana for project management google  calendar and calendly for calendar management   and scheduling of calls six an email of some  kind and google hangouts for communication   or zoom again seven lastpass for storing passwords  that's it and bonus all of these tools have   free versions that work fantastic my freelance  business had so few expenses because of these free   slash cheap tools do not create any other  hurdles for yourself you don't need   any other fancy or complicated tools to begin this  what i just mentioned is all you need to begin   so now here are some optional more advanced  freelancing tools that you may want to entertain   depending on your situation one day if you're just  getting started again you don't you probably don't   need any of these i'll say it again if you're just  getting started you probably do not need these   but first up is some sort of a time tracker to  track your time and audit where your time is going   i love tracking my time and figuring out what's  happening there um i personally really like toggle   or harvest next up security to protect your online  privacy so the vpn i like to use is expressvpn   i think it's great ing to its website i  actually had to look it up and figure out what   exactly it is that they do it encrypts all your  web traffic hide your ip allows you to browse   privately this came in handy also when i was in  certain countries where certain websites were   blocked that i needed for work like for example  vimeo was blocked when i was in indonesia and some   social media platforms are blocked in china so a  vpn kind of helps you get around that plus it lets   me watch different countries as netflix which  is amazing next up is accounting i'm not sure   if this is an unpopular controversial opinion  but i believe when you're just getting started   as a freelancer you can just keep all of your  invoices in a folder on google drive and track   any expenses in a spreadsheet you don't really  need a proper accounting tool because chances   are you won't have that many transactions but if  you do find yourself needing one later on you can   check out options like freshbooks quickbooks or  waive next up insurance now i personally did not   know business insurance was a thing when i first  began and i'm not giving any legal advice here   this is a you decision here are some options you  can check out if you want to get insurance dinky   collective benefits and duo against everything  linked below so i know i'm butchering these things   next up if you want more heavy duty client  relationship and pipeline management like   the pipeline of how they're coming into getting  to know you you nurturing them getting them on   a sales call potentially booking them proposals  that entire process you can check out pipedrive   air table or streak all potential good options  as well when it comes to marketing and sales   for a website yeah i bet you thought a website  was a non-negotiable sensual essential was a   non-negotiable essential but no i didn't have a  website at all when i first got started i actually   didn't even have a website until like year  three or four and even then i didn't really see   the point of it i i can see the use for somebody  who like a website is part of your sales process   for me it really wasn't so i didn't really  need a website but if you do need a website for   some reason here are some great website options  wordpress squarespace show it they're all awesome   but don't feel like you need to  have a website before you start   freelancing because it you just you don't right  like you really don't you can get one later but   it's not like one of those essentials as a  foundation or anything like that for social   media or an organic content strategy lots of tool  options here all the social media channels plus   you can use a social media scheduling tool like  smarter queue later meet edgar to schedule out   promotional content for your freelance business  on facebook twitter instagram linkedin that kind   of stuff for pitching and selling you can check  out hunter.io for cold pitching loom for sending   quick proposal videos for proposals you can also  use like proposify or quiller i don't know how to   pronounce that they put a lot of weird letters  together i'm linking everything below again but   there are way more here i like options here but  i think i would need a lot more time to dive into   all things marketing and sales for freelancing if  you want a more in-depth video on that you can let   me know below as well but yeah i hope that was  useful if there are any tools that you love for   freelancing that i did not mention let me know  below so we can all benefit from the learning   comment circle of the comment section and  i'll catch you in the next episode okay you