Freelancer Goes From Broke To Stoked!

If your like me, up at all hours of the night trying to build a viable business that you can call your own, then your not alone. I spend hour after hour trying to find the best resources online that will help me achieve my ultimate goals. We all have them, and unlike some people I like to share my resources and knowledge with others. I had a friend call me the other day and he asked about all of the tools I use to build my business. So, like the kind soul I am, I email him links to all of my affiliates. ( smile ) Well, at least my word of mouth networking will earn me a few bucks, hopefully. I have found that sharing my resources and knowledge has only generated more business opportunities for me. I will now list those tools for you in an effort to shine some light on your business as well.

First and foremost we have Freshbooks. When Freshbooks came into my life, it changes the course of my business forever. Not joke! Then we have the other very important Basecamp. If your a freelancer and want to manage multiple projects, then Basecamp is a must. Tracking time and billing clients was a pain and now I enjoy it, Seriously! See for yourself, and let me know how much you profit after the first few months of using it. These are the two basic tools I use to manage my business and have since shared these tools with my two major clients and they are both multi-million dollar companies.

Then there are the template resources. I don’t really like the word template, but that’s what it is, a template. Templates expedite the process of designing, developing, and deploying a website or blog.  You know those projects that you get where the budget is somewhat non-existent, well that’s where templates come in.  Templates can be used on static websites, Content Mangement Systems such as Joomla, Wordpress, Drupal, and even E-Commerce sites.  TemplateMonster.com offers Flash, Magento, OScommerce, and static CSS designs at an affordable price. The only thing about these sites is that there is Unique price and a Regular price. The Unique price is much higher and they take the template down once you buy it, and the Regular price everyone gets. That means there could be hundreds of sites like yours on the web if you don’t customize it. Again, I ‘ve made alot of money just customizing templates. It’s inexpensive for the client to start and quick turnaround for the designer. Another site that is a pretty good resource is Elegant Themes. I’ve notices alot of big named people using their Wordpress templates.

I mentioned Flash earlier and I want to get back to that. Flash can add some very interesting elements to your site. I’ve used Flash on Wordpress blogs and even Joomla sites. I think Flash is great, and one secret resource that I have and you will have now too is FlashDen.net. FlashDen has been my friend this year and has helped me whoo my clients with interactive elements for my sites. Some of the programmers on FlashDen.net are amazing. It is free to register and you can browse their vast archive of Flash resources. Whether your looking for full Flash sites, Flash Loaders, Flash Components, Flash Galleries, Flash Sliders, or Flash Navigations, I could go on and on. FlashDen has what your looking for.  Envato also has ThemeForest.com which from the research that I have done lately has some very nice designs for Wordpress, and their Flash stuff isn’t too shabby either.

Last but not least, I’m still amazed at the amount of people doing business online that still don’t have a PayPal account. I have the business account and a debit card in my wallet that connects to my account. Freshbooks allows your customers to easily pay with PayPal and It connects easily to your bank account. Please, If you don’t have some sort of online PayPal or Google Checkout account, please for the love of God, Get you a PayPal account already.

I’m Jacob Hodgson and I hope you find this information helpful. I look forward to you coming back and leaving a comment about how much this helped your business grow or how much you failed, either way.