Business
A collection of tools and products I use to run my successful (in my eyes) freelance business.
2020 year in review
Reflecting on 2020 – a year that included the most change in my life personally and professionally for a long time.
Starting a new chapter as a full time freelancer
From the 7th September, I’ll be available for design and development projects on a full-time basis.
Office
Making over my office space for creative, productive work
With such a small space I needed to be intentional with what I included.
Key tech includes my 27” monitor which I connect to my Macbook Air (I also have a Mac Mini as a backup machine). I use the Google mesh wifi to boost my internet signal (otherwise I literally can’t do anything).
I’ve also filled my office with a bunch of plants as being around nature is good for us.
Money
Effectively managing your finances can be the difference between success or failure in business
Monzo business is at the core of my business finances. All invoices are paid into here and 40% is automatically moved into a tax pot on payment. I currently use Quickbooks for sending out invoices, but I’m thinking about moving to Monzo’s invoicing functionality.
To manage my pension I use Penfold – setup specifically for freelancers (although I think they have since shifted their positioning). Lastly, I use Moneybox for investments, this is connected to my personal bank account where the roundups are taken and invested.
Management
Keeping client and business tasks organised is a super power
Notion is my go to tool for keeping track of my business and client projects. I use it for scheduling, keeping track of clients, invoices, new leads and more.
Accompanying tools like 1Password, store all of my passwords, whilst Clockify is used to track time on projects. Dropbox takes care of all documents and assets.
Ecosia is my prefered search engine – they plants trees when you search and Plausible is a privacy-focused analytics tool.
Code
Modern tech and tools used to bring creative projects to life
NextJS and Gatsby are my go-to frameworks for front-end projects these days, having a ton of experience building out UI’s these allow me to use my existing knowledge to offer more. To build said UI’s, Storybook helps to keep all components organised.
Prismic is my prefered headless CMS, offering a great pricing model with the ability to build component-driven pages. To add more complex animations, I’ve started playing with Framer Motion – opting for CSS animations for simple ones.
Design
From writing to prototyping and fully-fledged designs, these are my go-to design tools
Figma is a powerhouse in the design space – using it for hi-fi wireframes, interactive prototypes and fully designed UIs. For personal projects, I head to Adobe Fonts for beautifully designed web fonts.
For design inspiration, I have a collection of designs I’ve added to over the years in my Raindrop mood board. When it comes to writing content I rely on Grammarly to take my writing to the next level or just catch grammatical errors.
Looking for a freelance designer or developer?
On the off chance that you need help with a project, feel free to check out my business site and drop me a message if you think we’d be a good fit – even if I’m booked up I can try and put you in touch with others who might be able to help!
See if I can help youFavourite business books
Some of my favourite business books that I’ve read over the years which have helped me on my freelance journey.
