1099 Lyfe: 6 Apps and Tools You Need to Be Your Most Productive
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Photo: Ekaterina Bolovtsova from Pexels
Oh, the freelance world. Charming in its lack of predictability, cutthroat when it comes to competition, and total chaos when it comes to organization.
When it’s you vs. your inbox, deadline, receipts, mileage, and hustle there is a lot that can get lost in the fray. Until now.
It’s 1099 problems, but an app ain’t one. We’re rounding up some of our favorite apps and tools for freelancers to make life, organization, and even next year’s taxes that much easier. That way you can focus on the important stuff: like entrepreneur world wide web domination.
WriteRoom
Are you prone to distraction? Symptoms include: checking Instagram before reading a full paragraph, shopping online, vanity googling, googling exes, checking your RSS feed, and getting in Facebook arguments with your grandma. When you’re a freelancer, everything and anything is a welcome diversion. WriteRoom is a full-screen writing environment to minimize distractions and is super helpful when it comes to re-disciplining yourself. It’s obviously great for writers, but it also works when brainstorming ideas for brands. It’s a way to block out the noise and focus on the ideas in your brain.
“Block out the noise and focus on the ideas in your brain.”
MileIQ
If you use your personal vehicle for work, every mile you drive is worth 58 cents in tax deduction of mileage reimbursement. But logging that? Forget it. (And you do.)
The average MileIQ customer is logging $6,900 in mileage deductions. It’s an app that catches every drive, easily classifies drives as business or personal, and gives you a report with the push of a button.
Receiptmate
This is a fully integrated companion app for Evernote (also useful) that allows you to scan your receipts directly into Evernote, enter the amounts (or highlight the total and the app will read), organize and tag, and report on the totals. You don’t need an overcomplicated filing system or that shoebox under your bed (or worse, the center console in your car) because you can throw your receipts away after you scan them. Bless.
Apple Notes (yes, Apple Notes)
The notes app has come a long way. (Remember when everyone was jumping Apple ship to use the aforementioned Evernote?) You can collaborate with multiple people, live, in the notes app. For a freelancer, this means you can create interactive checklists and save time bouncing ideas back and forth in email. Even if you work alone, collaboration is crucial.
Stay Focusd
Have you ever thought, “Gosh, I would be so successful if it weren’t for the internet? Stay Focussd is a tool that blocks the amount of time you can spend on time-suck sites. It’s an app you manage yourself and is customizable. The way it works is simple. You choose the sites you want to block for a specific amount of time. If you are a freelancer who is chronically obsessed with social media, this app could help you immensely.
Toggl
If you need help tracking your hours, Toggl is the leading timesheet app for tracking hours. You can set multiple billable rates for various projects and you can organize as many projects as you can possibly juggle. They say that if you can measure it, you can improve it. Knowing exactly how long it’s taking you to complete certain projects will help you adjust billing and helps increase productivity.
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This story was originally published on June 16, 2016, and has since been updated.
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5 Ways to Prepare for Self-Employment
But first, do the homework.
Photo credit: Sarah Natasha Photography
Nowadays the term “entrepreneur” is part of our normal vocabulary, but no one striking out on their own becomes an overnight success. If you’re thinking about pursuing self-employment and running your own company, here are five ways to properly prepare yourself for setting out on your own.
DO YOUR HOMEWORK
Self-employment is not for the faint of heart. If you are committed to pursuing the pros of working for yourself, you also have to be hyper-aware of the cons. As you contemplate leaving the financial stability of your corporate job, begin to evaluate the added stresses that come with being a company that is a party of one. For example, I thought critically about having to pay a very expensive health insurance bill every month where previously health insurance had somewhat silently been deducted from every paycheck.
"Self-employment is not for the faint of heart."
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I determined that the stress of that monthly payment would be more worthwhile than the stress I was feeling from my corporate gig where I was feeling unchallenged and unfulfilled. I also looked at what I would be doing from a day-to-day basis that couldn’t be covered by a team. I’d be offering clients my services from the ground up and they’d all be handled by me - no delegating up or down on a team. By thoroughly researching what your new normal will look like, you’ll be in for less of a shock when you become accountable only to yourself.
NETWORK
By far the most valuable thing I did in preparing for self-employment was tapping into my network. I began seeding to my friends, family and acquaintances that I was planning to leave my job to consult and one by one my network grew.
Everyone wanted to put me in touch with someone who’d had the courage to do what I was planning to do. I began speaking to loads of other freelancers and consultants and I came prepared to every meeting with a list of questions. Every encounter held a powerful and helpful takeaway and the more people I spoke with, the more my network expanded and the more business leads I started to pull in. Those I spoke with also were incredibly valuable when it came to setting the costs for my services, determining what tools I’d need to invest in and helping to provide guidance on how to successfully manage my business.
GET ORGANIZED OPERATIONALLY
There’s a lot that goes into operating your own business and some of the things may even surprise you. Before you leave your job for the land of self-employment, I recommend starting to get the pieces of the operational puzzle in place. One of the first steps I took was finding a lawyer who could incorporate my business. Then I set up a business banking account so I had a checking and a savings account for the company and also a credit card for all expenses. I got set up on Quickbooks to run the financial side of my business and also built a forecast so I was setting goals for myself to meet from a revenue standpoint.
"Before you leave your job for the land of self-employment get the pieces of the operational puzzle in place."
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Next came working with my lawyer to draft contracts and other necessary paperwork I would need to run my business from a client services perspective. I also developed a capabilities deck I could send to prospective clients, built a website, ordered business cards and developed a list of companies I was interested in speaking with. Once everything was done prior to leaving my job, it was easy to hit the ground running pursuing business because I had prepared all of my operational to-dos.
PLAN FINANCIALLY
Before you commence self-employment, you have to first accept that you won’t know from where your next paycheck is coming. Which translates to having to prepare financially for those inevitable times that you won’t have steady pay coming in. Knowing I lived in the most expensive city in the world, I put pen to paper to determine what living in New York was really costing me every month in regards to expenses. I signed up for a Mint.com account to build out a budget and for two months tracked my expenses. Once I had an idea of averages in particular categories, I built out an expense worksheet for myself that included rent, health insurance, groceries, travel, utilities, etc. I knew I wanted to have whatever that number was per month times six saved before I pulled the plug on my corporate job so that when the time came to dip into savings, I felt OK doing so.
"Do the math and start saving accordingly before you up and leave your job."
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Do the math and start saving accordingly before you up and leave your job. You’ll be far better off down the line for having done so.
THINK LONG TERM
When you begin working for yourself you’ll feel like you need to say yes to whatever initial projects come your way because you fear the unknown. But when you accept projects or clients that you don’t feel passionate about, you’re defeating one of the best perks of being your own boss: the ability to say no. While you certainly need to pay your bills, you shouldn’t take on work that you don’t feel capable of delivering on or for people or brands that don’t make you feel invested in the work. If you begin to take on projects you’re not jazzed about, you are limiting the hours you have a month to pursue and accept jobs that will not only give you income but also fulfillment.
Meghan Donovan is the founder of mmd communications, a public relations and influencer marketing agency in New York City helping to elevate lifestyle brands with dynamic, meaningful ideas. In addition to her decade of experience in the marketing industry for major brands like Procter & Gamble and Virgin America, she also pens the popular life + style site, wit & whimsy. You can read more about her journey to self-employment here.
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If You're Struggling From the Work From Home Blues, Read This
Work from home, be happy.
Working from home—that is the dream, right? A recent study found that 80 percent of workers reported higher morale when working from home. But we know this isn't always the case.
Working from home can be filled with creative freedom, independence and ownership over your career. It can also be isolating, and many content creators have admitted to struggling with the “work-from-home blues.”
Don't fret yet. Follow these six work-from-home tips and you will be well on your way to a happier, healthier work/life balance.
GET DRESSED
Staying in your pajamas all day? Not great for tackling the WFH blues. Pretend you have a meeting every single day. Get dressed, do your hair and make-up and make yourself a cup of coffee.
CREATE A SPACE
Even if you don’t have a dedicated room or studio in your house, you can still create an inviting workspace. Make sure this space is quiet and free from distraction. It’s also important to make your space a real workspace—it should be the place that you go to work on your business, not a place where you chat on the phone with your bestie. Creating a distinct place will help you distinguish between work time and play time.
GET OUT
Even if you have a dedicated work-from-home space, it can sometimes feel isolating to be alone all day. Go work at a coffee shop, library or co-working space. Even if you only make small talk with the barista, you’ll feel less like a shut-in.
GET MOVING
When you work from home, it is easy to fall into the trap of working all the time. Try scheduling breaks into your daily routine, and make exercise of the upmost importance. Whether you start your day with Pilates, go to spinning at lunch, or end your day with a walk around the block, exercise helps jump start your creativity and gives your brain a break.
BE SOCIAL
Reach out to fellow content creators or anyone that you know who works from home. Schedule weekly lunch dates, coffee meet-ups or even happy hour sessions. Remember, you want to schedule leaving the house and doing social things so that you don’t feel isolated.
Reach out to fellow content creators or anyone that you know who works from home.
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FOLLOW A SCHEDULE
One of the best things about working from home is that you get to create your own schedule. Still, all that freedom can often cause you to procrastinate or get easily distracted. Real Housewives marathon, anyone?
To combat this, stick to a schedule during the week. Wake up at the same time every day, exercise, schedule weekly meetings, and you’ll be happier, more creative and more productive.
What are your WFH tips? Share with us in the comments!
The original version of this article appeared on IPSY .
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