OpenGoo and other business management tools for the freelancer
Nov 20, 2009 by M. Scott Brauer 8 Comments »
OpenGoo
Pictures are the easy part. A great deal of success as a freelancer is figuring out how to efficiently run one’s business. It’s a constant struggle keeping track of clients and leads and deadlines and tasks and invoices and estimates and late payments. A number of fee-based websites can do this, and Google has Calendars and Docs and Wave.
I’ve just found out about OpenGoo, and it seems like an extremely useful tool, especially for photo collectives, independent one-off festivals and exhibitions, and other endeavors lacking considerable financial backing. It installs on a webserver using the same technology as an average blog, supports multiple users, and handles calendars, tasks, contacts, and documents, among other features. It’s still actively being developed, but it’s already a pretty robust office management system. Definitely worth a test-drive.
None of this solves the problem of invoicing. A simple wordprocessor only works for so long. Blinkbid’s great, but tough to use if you need to access invoices on the road and it’s on another computer. I like SideJobTrack, which unfortunately no longer allows new signups. Here’s a decent survey of online invoicing systems. Invoice Journal is one free online invoice system, and a few open-source installable invoicing systems exist, as well: MyClientBase, Simple Invoices, and Bamboo Invoice all seem promising.
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Really interesting – seems to have some really nice elements all in one place. Agreed about Blinkbid – I love it, but have started look at online options, like FreshBooks as I’m currently not able to send estimates/invoices from the road.
A while back I wrote up some of the web tools I use on a daily basis: http://www.stephenvoss.com/blog/2008/03/online-tools-for-the-working-p.html
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M. Scott Brauer Reply:
November 21st, 2009 at 3:40 am
Thanks for sharing, Stephen. Interesting to see how these tools get used by different people. Similar to Photoshelter’s periodic workflow features they used to do.
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[...] OpenGoo and other business management tools for the freelancer … [...]
I just use PayPal for my invoicing. It allows me to keep track easily and clients don’t have to use PayPal to pay me, although many do.
Thinking I’m going to use Google Docs to track my expenses from now on, like Stephen Voss does. Good plan.
Paul Treacy
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[...] OpenGoo and other business management tools for the freelancer … [...]
i think , this is somewhat useful for me thank you and keep going on.
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Hey – thanks for the mention of MyClientBase! Much appreciated. Those of you reading – MCB is a young app which thrives on input and suggestions from all of you, so please feel free to visit and give me your thoughts and suggestions.
Thanks!
Jesse
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Интересно, а есть хоть кто-то, кто не согласен с автором?
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