If you’re going to become a freelance designer, the first tool I’ll say right off the bat is worth the investments will be Dubsado. Dubsado is an online CRM (customer relationship management) platform built for freelancers to help increase productivity, streamline systems, create a professional client experience, and grow their business.
 
Is it worth the investment? Absolutely.
Here are my top three reasons why:
No.1 : Streamline your process
When you become a full time freelancer, you’re wearing 30+ different hats, it’s tough swtiching from creative, to account, to bookkeeper, to sales rep. Dubsado makes it easy to get back to doing what you do best.
 
Lead Capture Forms:
You can use Dubsado to create a lead capture form and put it directly on your website. When potential clients fill out their information on your form, it automatically gets inputed into the CRM system so you have all of their details and contact info.
 
Workflows:
Once you have your process worked out, you can create custom workflows to handle onboarding, proposals, contract signing, and off boarding. Another task taken right off your plate (which alone is well worth the money).
 
Reporting:
Set monthly financial goals to track against and see how you are doing month-to-month on your own project dashboard. Your dashboard will show you an overview of where your income is coming from, your expenses being paid out, your net profit and your successfull sales.
No.2 : Elevate the client experience

You want to charge more money for your services? Well, you need to make sure you are delivering on that quality service to justify the cost. Dubsado allows me to create user portals for my clients to log in where they can access all of our documents and information. Every time I send out a user portal to a client I had such positive feedback saying how easy and professional it was to have a set up like this.

Online Portal: Every client get’s their own unique log in where they can access all of our documents shared, sign contracts, view proposals, answer questionnaires, schedule meetings and pay invoices. 

Canned Emails: I set my CRM system up to send professional reminder emails automatically when invoices are due or late. This takes the daunting task of chasing down payments off my plate and relieves the awkwardness of me personally sending follow up emails reminding clients about their bill.

Payment: Create flexible payment plans to break down the overall bill of your projects. Clients can log into their portal and make payments using credit cards or paypal, Dubsado even provides users an option to leave a tip if they wish.

No.3 - Support and tools

I get it, it can be overwhelming learning a new program on top of all of the work you’re doing. I was in this same boat and it was what made me so hesitant about signing up at first. But I am SO glad I did because now I am saving so much time and money, and really focusing on what I love the most about my business- creating! What’s amazing about Dubsado is they will give you a three client maximum trial (rather than timed) so you can really take as much time as you need to learn the ins and outs.

Customer Service: The Dubsado team has one of the best customer support systems I’ve experienced. They are very informative and quick to respond with any questions I have had. They also provide numerous videos and articles on everything as broad as setting up your system, to specific as editing a payment schedule.

Facebook Group: There is a wonderful community of entrepreneurs always asking questions, seeking and sharing advice/tips, as well as wonderful resources.

Endless Resources: I didn’t realize how huge Dubsasdo was until I was in the weeds of googling everything I wanted to know about it. It seems like there are ENDLESS resources online, lots of videos, lots of templates, and lots of coaches who are happy to help set up your program, custimize it, and teach you what you need to know along the way. 

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