Hajra Naz
With the rise of the side hustle, freelancing, and gig economy, having an extra income stream has become common. Many share success stories of earning substantial figures through freelancing, tempting others to join. However, mastering the art of high-income side hustles requires essential elements and careful navigation of the freelance journey.
The first step is to decide whatever high-income skill you currently possess or would like to learn. The next set of essential soft skills include problem-solving, time management, and communication abilities.
Setting realistic expectations, defining goals, establishing a niche, and building a personal brand are crucial steps. Additionally, to facilitate the creation of passive income, streamline processes, and manage the balancing act of personal and professional life, incorporating essential business tools and apps is vital for freelancers in 2024.
1. Dubsado
This app has a full array of useful features, including client portals, automated processes, and invoice preparation, that greatly simplify your administrative tasks. Client portals make it easier to sign contracts and communicate with clients by centralizing these tasks in one location, which will relieve one of your worries after a demanding workday. Additionally, Dubsado offers you forms and templates for vital paperwork—like contracts and questionnaires—that you’ll need to run your side business.
2. Canva
For independent contractors, Canva is incredibly helpful, particularly if your area of expertise is not design. Additionally, it offers AI-powered support to help you organize your brand and expedite the creation of photographs and videos to showcase your work and online presence on social media. Canva may also be used for creating visually appealing presentations for potential clients, as well as for your primary employment.
Canva is a great tool to utilize for other branding components, like creating custom t-shirts.
3. Doodle
You may be familiar with scheduling tools that work with your email calendar, like Calendly. Setting up a meeting with multiple people at once, however, can be challenging, particularly if your customer is a company. Initial impressions matter, and arguing over the finer points of scheduling meetings might make your clients reluctant to cooperate with you as well as cause tension and uncertainty.
Doodle, a timely software, is useful since it lets you set up a group poll with precise times and dates. Those who receive an invitation to participate can select as many timeslots as suit them. With this, you can quickly come to a decision and schedule your next meeting without having to worry about rescheduling time and date.
4. HyperWrite
On the internet, there are a lot of artificial intelligence writing tools like Grammarly and ChatGPT. Another AI-powered writing assistant is called HyperWrite, and it can assist you as a freelancer with various errands like composing marketing copy, answering time-consuming emails, altering content, and reposting blogs and social media posts. It also includes a useful Chrome plugin.
5. OneNote
Indeed, even with the most thorough preparation, life doesn’t go as arranged 100% of the time. Startling occasions can emerge in your own or proficient life and lose your carefully laid plans. OneNote might be a helpful tool to help you keep on task. This software, which is a part of the Microsoft MSFT -0.7% Office suite, helps you keep your notes organized by letting you categorize them and make divisions and sub-sections (pages) for distinct ideas.
In addition, you can write, draw, or make tables that resemble small spreadsheets. This productivity tool is great for those of you who have an idea for a side project but don’t currently have the time to devote to business planning because of work obligations.
Conclusion
These five tools are essential if you plan to launch a profitable side business or freelance in 2024. They help with content production, brainstorming and note-taking, client and project management, and organization.
You can’t expect to have a successful, high-income side gig if you can’t manage your time, yourself, or your client projects. After you begin utilizing these tools, you will eventually be able to look into and find other software that will enable you to work more productively and scale more quickly.
