5 tools and websites I use daily as a freelance Webflow Designer

After a brief hiatus I am now back with new blog posts about freelancing, design and Webflow. As (Web) Designers we use a variety of software and tools to make our businesses run smoothly. For this blog post I have collected 5 tools and websites that are essential for me in my freelance business. I have deliberately excluded the usual suspects such as Adobe CC, Figma or Sketch – instead I am focusing on little helpers that make my life easier and that are conveniently located in the bookmarks section of my browser. This way I can access all of them easily with the click of a button. Now, let's get started.

Percentage Calculator

This website does just one thing: it lets you easily calculate percentages for a certain amount. The tool comes in quite handy as it lets you quickly calculate how much tax you have to store away from any money you receive from you clients. Yes, you could calculate this in your head, but why not make this even easier for yourself? As someone who never liked maths in school, this tool is a godsend.

https://percentagecalculator.net/

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Hello Bonsai

This nifty tool is my go-to site for sending invoices, recording expenses or tracking time. It can also send quotes and contracts. What more would you want? It's not as good in terms of client management as something like Dubsado, but that's fine with me. It does what I need it to do and it does it well. By the way Hello Bonsai also has a phone app which lets you send invoices on the go and look and check for money received, which is quite nice as well.

https://www.hellobonsai.com/

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Pomodoro Timer

I use the Pomodoro Timer to help me to spurts of really focused work and then a few minutes of "down time" (maybe watch a YouTube video or make a cuppa). While I don't use it all the time, I find it especially useful for getting through tasks that I am not particularly excited about. This is because I know in advance that I only have to work for X amount of time before it's time to have a break and it keeps me focused on the task at hand and I am not tempted to wander off and do something else in between.

https://pomofocus.io/

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Currency Converter

Here I basically have just typed "currency converter" into Google ans bookmarked the results. It comes up with – surprise, surprise – a currency converter. This is super handy for when I am working with international clients I want to write quotes for in US Dollars or Euros. I am based in Australia myself, so I am most comfortable with Australian Dollars and like having a tool that lets me easily convert it into other currencies.

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Notion

I use Notion mainly to write down ideas, and plan my online content and blog posts. In my bookmarks I have a link that leads directly to the Notion page with all future blog post ideas for easy access. This also has the advantage that I can have access via the browser on my phone as well and write and brainstorm blog posts on to go. Yes, I am aware there is a Notion desktop app, as well as phone app - unfortunately I have had issues with the desktop app on Mac which required me to constantly re-install it. Therefore it was more convenient for me to use Notion in the browser and access it via my bookmarks.

https://www.notion.so/

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Got other tools and websites you think are great? Let me know via email!