Starting to Freelance? Best Freelancing Tools for Newbie Freelancers

If you're not a freelancer already, there are many reasons why you might want to consider becoming one: You can set your own hours, work from home, and get paid very well for your time.

However, one of the challenges freelance beginners face is identifying the variety of freelancing tools they would need to succeed.

In this guide, we’ll discuss some of the best freelance apps and tools you can leverage, as well as some tips for getting started as a freelancer.

By leveraging modern freelancing software applications, anyone who is interested in starting and growing their freelance career and business can do so more efficiently.

Benefits of Using Freelancing Apps and Software Tools

As a freelancer, it’s important to use and master the right freelancing software and apps for your niche, no matter your area of specialty. Freelancing tools enhance your services and help you become more efficient in your work. 

Freelancing apps will also help you save time by automating tasks that would otherwise require you to do them manually. The tools can also help you to focus on the work at hand, so you're not distracted by other things that might be going on in your life.

Moreover, if you have team members, modern freelancing software tools make remote collaboration easier than ever before — so much so it's almost like having another team member working right beside you!

Overall the right freelancing apps and freelance software tools can help freelancers with just about everything and every aspect of their freelance career and business, from budgeting to invoicing clients, and lead generation.

Without further ado, let’s dive in on essential and best freelancing tools for beginners...

Top Software Tools for Freelancers

If you’re ready to start freelancing, this list featuring the best software for freelancers will help you on that journey. Of course, there are other tools you can use out there, but this list is a good place to start.

Some of the top freelancing tools for freelancers to get you started and succeeding include:

1. Google Suite for document collaboration

Google Suite is a collection of tools that will help you as a freelancer.  With Google suite, you can create documents, spreadsheets, presentations or forms. You can also collaborate with others to work on projects together. You can even use chat to keep in touch with your team.

Some of Google Suite’s most valuable tools include the following:

• Google Docs is a word processor that allows you to create content, collaborate with others in real-time and share your work. 
• Google Sheets is a spreadsheet tool that allows you to organize data and automate tasks. 
• Google Slides is a presentation tool for creating visually engaging presentations. 
• Google Forms helps you collect information from your customers through surveys, polls and quizzes. 
• Google Keep allows you to capture notes anywhere on any device so that they're always available when needed.

2. Trello for workflow management

Trello is a free web-based project management tool that helps you plan, organize, and prioritize your work. It's also great for collaboration between teams.

Trello lets you create boards to organize any kind of content in the form of lists, cards, or boards. Each list has its own set of columns that can be customized to fit your needs (hint: use labels for easy categorization).

You can assign tasks or due dates on individual cards and move them from one column to another as your project progresses. You can even add attachments such as images or videos directly from within Trello.

The best thing about Trello is how customizable it is — you can easily create different boards depending on what stage a project is at. Brainstorming ideas? Create an "Ideas" board.

Development underway? Make sure everyone involved knows who's doing what by creating a "Dev Team" board.

Ready for beta testing? Create a new list with users' names assigned as labels so team members will know which testers are receiving which features first and when.

3. Adobe Premiere Pro for video editing

Adobe Premiere Pro is a popular video editing software tools in the market today freelancers can use. It's used by both newbie and seasoned freelancers to create and edit professional films, marketing videos for brands, video clips for social media, and more.

The video editing software has a very intuitive interface that makes it easy-to-learn and fun to use. It also comes with many pre-built templates which you can easily customize if you need to do so. 

The best part about this software is that it offers an extensive library of stock footage clips that you can use in your own projects. It also has an archive of cool effects and transitions, providing everything you need to produce a professional video.

4. Canva for graphic design

If you're looking to create graphics for your freelancing business, Canva is a great tool. It has a drag-and-drop interface that makes it easy for you to design graphics for any marketing campaign, social media post, or blog post.

Canva also allows you to edit images and add text with ease. The software is quite user friendly for beginners. It doesn’t require you to have any graphic design experience to use.

In addition to their free plan, Canva offers paid plans starting at $12.99/month (or $119.99/year), which gives you access to additional features like more fonts and photos.

Canva Pro also allows quick resizing of designs, so you can easily design graphics for every platform. Many freelancers are able to offer social media graphic design services using Canva.

5. Slack for conversations

Slack is one of the most popular messaging app for teams, and for good reasons. It’s essentially a digital water cooler for people to engage with each other, whether it is coworkers or customers.

If you have a team that works together on projects, Slack is an indispensable tool for them to communicate quickly and easily. Since you can share files directly from other apps, there’s no need to send emails back and forth just because someone forgot their password or forgot what they were supposed to do next. 

With Slack's chat rooms feature, users can create private groups where they can discuss all things related to their project without cluttering up the rest of your workspace with unnecessary distractions like memes or cat GIFs. 

6. Zoom for video calls

Zoom is another great tool for holding video calls as a freelancer. It’s free, easy to use and an alternative to Skype.

Zoom allows you to create as many meeting rooms as you need. You can then share these meeting rooms with your clients so that they can easily join in on the call.

In addition, Zoom gives you the power to host webinars anywhere, anytime. It also has features like screen sharing, collaboration tools, and more.

In Conclusion

Don't limit yourself to those tools only. Depending on your niche, interests, and current skill sets, you can also use other freelancing apps not mentioned here to boost your work and help you deliver high quality services.

For instance, Grammarly can be a great tool for freelance writers to edit and polish their writings, while MailChimp can come in handy if you’re interested in offering high quality email marketing services.

Consider your niche carefully and use the right freelancing tools to enhance your work and business.