October 2021 - Millennial Nextdoor

You're running a freelance business. Freelancing is something I've personally done for years and still do. I love it for the freedom, flexibility, independence, and unlimited income potential. You can work with 5 clients or 15 clients, whatever you want. Designing my dream schedule is the best part. I can take a 3 hour lunch with my husband or start late in the day at 1pm if I have a morning doctor's appointment or want to sleep. I'm not going to sell you on freelancing. If you're reading this, you probably already do this or you're looking to start. This article is about Bonsai! Bonsai helps you automate your freelance business. This is how they do it... What's Bonsai? They help you streamline and automate your freelance business. From proposals, contracts, accounting, taxes and more, Bonsai can help you manage it all. They break down each of their components into these categories: Proposals Contracts Client CRM Time tracking Invoices Task tracking Accounting and taxes Forms Proposals Proposals are the action-taking documents you send to prospects that outline the work you're doing for them. For example, if you're ghostwriting an ebook, your proposal may include pricing, timeline, communication requirements and frequency, and other details. It's like the roadmap to the project you're going to work on. I don't know about you but proposal-making from scratch is a pain in the butt. If you're a designer or copywriter, it may come easier to you but everyone doesn't have these skills. And, even if you do, it's just a lot easier and more time-efficient to outsource this tedious task. Bonsai can help. Creating proposals with Bonsai just takes a few clicks and you're done. No stress, no headache, and easy for anyone to do. Contracts Contracts are another tedious part of freelancing. It's absolutely essential in freelance business. You want everyone to be on the same page. The client should know what work they're paying for, deadlines, milestones, timeline, etc. And, the freelancer should know these exact goals they are working toward and working for. It just makes everything all the more clearer. In the beginning I was a lazy freelancer and I worked contract-free. Because I didn't do a ton of freelance work, just a few projects throughout the year, I could get away with this for a long time. I didn't have many major hang ups and I was only stiffed by clients twice that partially paid me. But, I still encountered some headaches like ending a project without notice, changing the pay rate in the middle of a project due to their own business constraints, and other changes that popped up causing major bottlenecks. Contracts can help protect against this. Many freelancers avoid them because they can be tough to create but now you have Bonsai. All you do is answer a few questions and get a contract generated. Easy! Client CRM Client management is next. You can manage all your client work in one place. Instead of fumbling through emails and various communication channels like platform message features, Telegram, social media, etc. you can just use the client CRM provided by Bonsai. Major time saver and you'll feel like a grown up business professional. Time Tracking Track the time you're working with Bonsai. Ever wonder how much time you actually spend on a project. It can be something a lot of freelancers overlook, especially if they aren't paid hourly. They just work and work without tracking their time. You can get better organized and run your business more smoothly if you know how much time you're dedicating to tasks and you can do that with Bonsai. Invoices Invoices! For me it was balancing between Paypal and Square while looking at other invoice options from providers I use like Quickbooks and other SAAS tools. Manage it effortlessly all in one place with Bonsai. Task Tracking Track your tasks so you know what you're doing and when you're doing it. This can add more structure to your business and that can be beneficial for so many reasons: save money, save time, run a more efficient business, etc. Accounting and Taxes The bain of my existence: taxes. I just finished my taxes recently and they were a pain. Use Bonsai's automatic expense tracker to be like your own personal bookkeeper. It can help with income reporting and tax planning. Forms Bonsai can help you create customized forms without the need to do any coding. You can integrate them with your projects, customize fields, set up reusable forms and more. Bonsai Pricing and Features Next, we talk about the money. Bonsai sounds great, right? But, how much does it cost? First, you'll love that you can start with Bonsai for free. They have worked with 250K business owners and you can join them! The paid plans are Workflow and Workflow Plus: Both options are under $50/month which is super affordable for the freelancer community. For some of the pro-level integrations and support options, I'd go with the Plus plan. They have monthly and annual plans (monthly shown above). The annual plan gives you two months free. There are also premium add-ons you can apply to your plan if you so desire like the accounting and tax assistant, partners, and collaborators options. How does Bonsai pricing look? Affordable is the first word that comes to mind. So many times I see $100+ monthly subscriptions that are just not freelancer-friendly. I like how there are multiple plans and monthly and annual options for pricing. How does Bonsai work? After you setup your free account, you'll have free rein over Bonsai. Check out all the features and get started using them right away. You can choose to start with the 14-day free trial or the Workflow or Workflow Plus plan. I'd choose the Plus option so you can fully try out all the options. Common Questions about Bonsai Now, to your burning questions you might be wondering about Bonsai. 1. How does the free trial with Bonsai work? They offer a 14-day free trial. This gives you two weeks to test out their product to see how useful you find it in your freelance business. The free trial gives you full and unlimited access to Bonsai. You pick if you want to try out the Worklow or Workflow Plus option. Credit card info is required to start the trial but you're not charged during the 14-day trial time. You can cancel anytime during your trial and at the end of your trial if you don't cancel you'll be charged. 2. Can your Bonsai subscription be paused? They offer penalty-free subscription pausing and cancellation. You can access pausing in your Account. 3. How do refunds work? You can contact them within 2 weeks of being charged for Bonsai and you'll get a refund. In your account just go to Subscriptions to request to cancel. 4. Can you change your plan after you start? Yes, changing your plan can totally happen. Downgrades or upgrades are possible and easy to do on your own in your Account. Is Bonsai Worth it? They offer a lot of what freelancers need in their business. Organization, planning, tools, templates, and more. The pricing is affordable and it looks like making a change after you start (pausing, upgrading, downgrading or cancelling) can be done pretty easily. If this sound good to you click here to start your free 14-day trial at Bonsai.