Two Tools I Couldn't Live Without

Running a business is hard work. Any business. Even when you are just freelancing, it's still a small business. It becomes more difficult when you increase the number of clients you design for each week/month/year. Today I'm sharing with you the 3 main resources I use to minimize the stress on my solid team of one. Mind you as freelancers, we create content, analyze growth, design brands, illustrate, you're tech support, accounting and legal all in one. I would love to hear if you have any resources you can't live without! Drop some knowledge in the comments below. Now on to the information portion of this post.

1 | ASANA

Asana is this magical platform dedicated to the management of small business owners and teams. In reality, it's a project management platform. Some of my favorite things about asana are its awesome branding (so fun! I love it), the simplicity of use and how it holds me accountable for everything, but wait for it... it's free.

Accountability

Before I jumped on the Asana bandwagon, I was a notebook hoarder, still am. But now I'm a notebook hoarder with deadlines. I'd fill my notebooks up with ideas, plans of execution, to do lists, really anything, I love to write everything down. Asana has changed a lot of that for me by allowing me to input those never-ending lists and set deadlines, It even sends email reminders and app notifications so you have no excuse to fall off track. It even has the option to set up the client workflow to make client onboarding, much, much easier. I'll preach about that when I finish setting mine up.

Simplicity of Use

Asana can't get any easier. Especially for such a complete project management platform. With a quick skimming of the interwebs, I was able to get fully set up in no time. On a brighter note, the UI of asana is exceptional, super functional and swoon-worthy in the design world. As a designer, this was a huge plus for me, as I avoid the use of ugly software, it hurts my eyes.

Branding

How can I not talk about this, on a design blog. Asana keeps the creative creating by incorporating fun mythical creatures of encouragement. Including none other than flying unicorns, Phoenix, yeti and much more taking a leap across your screen. It's things like flying unicorns that make or break a brand. While it keeps its public image simple with doses of creativity throughout the site. Asana knows what's up and knows that most of its clientele won't care, but the designers and creative weirdos of the world will remain forever loyal.

2 | G SUITE

I don't think this has to be mentioned, so I'm going to keep this simple. Who doesn't use Google? I use this bad boy for literally everything.

Gmail

You have a business? Freelance designer? Just started selling art? Get a professional email address. People will take you more seriously. It's only $5/monthly for Google for Business and it's a great investment.

Docs

Let me just take a moment to thank Google for making word processing software free... back in the day you had no choice but to buy a Microsoft product key. Now I use Docs and Sheets for all the client homework, drafts for the blog, tracking expenses and more. The best part, it autosaves anytime you make a change and can be accessed from literally anywhere with an internet connection and if you think ahead you can access without one too.

Drive

I like to save all my content here and files. Simply put because it's already linked to everything else and is easily accessible for larger file transfers I do have a drop box where I store those.

Calendar

Obvious and to the point, I use this to schedule client work and meetings. Thankfully it reminds me on my phone, my computer and tablet so I'll never miss a deadline. I just love Google.

If you made it this far, thanks for the read. Let me know what your top two are in the comments below!

XO, Melissa