The Freelance Writing Tools You Should Be Using Right Now

*This is a collaborative post

Freelance writing can be a fantastic career choice or even a lucrative way to boost your income. With more people working from home than ever before, blogging or editing allows you to choose your location and make money from anywhere in the world. 

However, freelance writing can be hard work too. Before you start advertising your services or promoting your business, it’s important to ensure you’ve got everything down. No matter how great your writing is, you’ll need a range of tools at your disposal if you want to make money. With the potential to maximise your productivity and profitability, these top freelance writing tools are essential for budding entrepreneurs…

Project management system

As a freelance writer, you’ll (hopefully) be working for multiple clients at the same time. With varying briefs and differing in-house styles, it’s only a matter of time before you forget something important. To avoid making unnecessary mistakes, find a project management system that works for you. 

There are plenty of platforms you can use to manage your workload, and many are even able free of charge. Ideally, choose a platform that’s operational in the cloud, as this will enable you to access it from any location. 

As well as using a project management system to make a note of upcoming deadlines, be sure to use it to plan your day too. When you schedule your workload in detail, it’s easy to see where you might be stretching yourself too thin. Having to turn clients away can be frustrating, but it’s better than taking on too much and letting people down. 

With the right project management system, you can ensure your workload is manageable, provide clients with realistic timeframes and prioritise projects when you need to. 

Manage the Legalities

Even if you’re not formally launching a business, it’s important to consider the legal implications of starting a freelance writing career. Whether you’re publishing your own content on your blog or writing on behalf of clients, you’ll want to ensure that your writing is protected. 

Depending on your location, there are various copyright and intellectual property laws that could be applicable to the content you publish online. When you’re working with other people, however, it’s always useful to have a business document template management system in place. This will allow you to draw up contracts quickly and complete negotiations with people you are planning to collaborate with. 

You’ll certainly need to use contracts if you’re working for clients, but you may also need them if you’re publishing content on a blog. If you want to increase your reach by working with influencers, for example, you’ll need to ensure you have a contract in place to protect your interests. Similarly, if you feature guest content on your blog or you produce content that’s featured on another platform, you’ll want to have a contract in place. 

Instead of trying to draft a brand-new contract every time you need one, have a pre-prepared template ready to use. With some slight amendments, you can modify the terms and conditions to reflect the particulars of your agreement and conclude your negotiations quickly, amicably and successfully.

Accounting software

As your freelance writing career takes off, your income should increase accordingly. However, you’ll need to assess your tax liabilities to ensure that you’re not going to be surprised by a big bill at the end of the financial year. Furthermore, you’ll want to keep a close eye on what you’re earning so that you can calculate your productivity accurately and monitor your growing success. 

Although you could use a professional accountancy firm to do this for you, there’s often no need. Today’s accountancy software provides a quick, easy and user-friendly way to monitor your income and expenditure, so you can avoid paying costly fees and access the tools you need yourself. 

With various options available, you may even find that you can do everything you need to with free versions of professional software. When you’re first getting started, for example, a relatively simple cashflow sheet may be all you need to monitor your success. Over time, you can increase the range of features you use and take advantage of more detailed financial analysis to grow your enterprise. 

Make the Most of Freelance Writing

If you’ve got a particular interest or skill, put it to good use and make it your specialist subject. When you write about something you’re knowledgeable about or something you enjoy, it really does shine through. While it can take time for you to find your niche, freelance writing is a side-hustle that almost everyone can do and a hobby that can be as fun as it is lucrative.