3 free and easy automation hacks for busy freelancers
Small, daily tasks can add up and slow you down. Don’t despair! I’ll show you some tools that’ll automate your business processes – even for non-techie people! I’ll add to this list in future, so visit again.
Hack 1: Automate your to-do list.
You can create a free Zapier account and connect your email provider to your favourite organisation tool. Then, star or highlight particular emails you want to add to an automatic to-do list. Done! (Just set yourself a reminder to check your to-do list each morning…)
Example:
Connect Gmail to Trello. A starred email in Gmail will create an automatic card in Trello. (Screenshot in Zapier below). You can also connect different programmes, such as Outlook and Todoist. The possibilities are endless!
Hack 2: Use automatic tools to onboard clients.
A completely free solution (up to a certain number of projects) is Dubsado. It can automate all sorts of processes, including onboarding clients. Alternatively, use Zapier to connect your own relevant programmes.
Examples:
- Send an automatic email to a potential client who’s interested in a discovery call with you. This email will include a link to your scheduling/booking app (you can zap e.g. Gmail and Calendly).
- If the client would like to work with you, automatically send your contract and a link to your terms and conditions to them to sign electronically, again using an automatic tailored email. For example, you can zap HelloSign and your email provider or you can also use Dubsado to do this.
- Save the client’s details automatically to your CRM. (Use e.g. Dubsado, HubSpot, or you can set up zaps to your own CRM.)
Hack 3: Automatically send invoices and chase payments.
There are lots of excellent accounting tools, such as Xero, which will help with all aspects of invoicing and accounting, as well as with chasing payments if needed (though most accounting tools are not free).
Again, free tools like Dubsado can be your friend here. See how easy it is to create and send invoices via Dubsado in their video tutorial.
Do you have any favourite automation tools? Let me know!
