so it's all well and good being able to design something that looks good
and also the client likes but that's only half of being a graphic designer
the other 50 is business related so we're talking about things like making use of your time
tracking finances contracts digital signatures and so on and today i have five of the best tools that
you need to be aware of as a graphic designer to succeed and to make the most of your time
the first resource is rescue time which does exactly that it rescues your time
now you might have heard of the phrase time is money and in business it couldn't be more true
so if you're able to see how much of your time is wasted each day you'd maybe rethink your
workflow now rescuetime is offered as a free version but that does have limited features
however the free version still comes with quite a lot now someone who is truly serious about their
business 12 a month isn't that much to hand over in business you really do need to spend money to
make money and that's something i learned myself along the way the features on rescue time are
really awesome though and you can do things like time tracking you have reports on how productive
you are and the ability to set goals and track those goals too there is so much more to offer
with rescue time and i think it is really really effective for your business career
and by the way i'm not sponsored by anything in today's video just a heads up there is also a
nifty course that you can grab and you can enroll in that course for a two-week free trial period
so it states that you can reclaim two to three hours every single day so that maybe is
something you want to look at and i've researched everything in today's video and as you can see the
overall verdict of rescue time is that it's very useful indeed every location is awarding it four
to five stars across the board so the next tool in today's video is something i find very very useful
so i've mentioned it's a platform that enables agencies to leverage media monitoring and social
media in order to increase brand awareness now you can track the goings-on of your competitors
or of course what's being said about you and your brand but also if you're designing a logo for a
brand you might want to check out what that brand is doing online and what is being said and what's
the vibe or the buzz around that brand you will give you a better picture of how things are going
however for me i have found some extremely useful resources up here in the top drop down menu
now you can find webinars courses cheat sheets and much much more all geared around things like
social media marketing or just growing your business in general marketing is crucial to
the success of a business and so you really need to be aware of how to market yourself in this
day and age this section of the website is like a treasure trove of information at your fingertips
so as freelancers or designers we're going to need to sign contracts and also we're going to
send them out too now hello sign is pretty much the industry standard when it comes to
signing digital contracts but it also makes sure things are secure and legally binding as well
it's simple and it's really straightforward to use so the plan you choose is going to depend on
the size of your business and the amount of clients that you actually work with
and if you work with pretty much no clients then of course
you're going to need to take a step back and focus on things like your marketing techniques
as we looked at in the previous example but yeah you can sign up to hello sign for free
and it does make the whole legalities of signing contracts and documents a breeze
the fourth resource is a big game changer so before i explain what coconut is apart
from being a sweet hard to get into food stuff i need to explain that when you're
dealing with things like taxes it is always a good idea to seek some professional advice
but yeah that being said coconut allows you to track your finances so things like earnings
overheads if your client has paid you on time or not but it also can help with invoicing and
calculating tax as well they do offer some accountants at the top as you can see here
the blog offers some neat insights into the financial sector of a business and there are
some nifty articles for you to read over now again i did do my research and coconut is highly rated
across the board when it comes to reviews and feedback trust pilot is probably one of the best
places to look for reviews but it's a good idea to get different reviews from different locations
the fifth tool today is something really quite remarkable
hunter.io allows you to source email addresses linked to specific companies so this is helpful
if you want to cold call a business as a means to maybe pitch a sale or an idea
so you might be trying to you know get a new job at a specific company and you want to get your
foot into the door with your portfolio but you cannot seem to find the relevant email address
or simply search for that company into hunter.io and you're going to be shown
multiple different email address linked to that company you need to sign up to see the full email
address but it is useful and it's something i just discovered whilst making this video
i do remember that being a graphic designer isn't just about sitting at your computer and
designing things you really need to put in the work to make sure you are setting up a business
where people notice you online and you attract people to you if you want to learn more about
graphic design click the video on screen but until next time guys design your future today peace
you