Software recommendations for the freelancer starting out

As we start a new year many are making new year's resolutions. This is because we want to start on a good foot going forward.

I want to recommend to any photographer thinking of doing freelance to make it a goal of your's to manage the business side of photography as well if not better than the photography side of the business.

fotoBiz X is the best way to manage your business in combination with Quickbooks that I can recommend. The reason I recommend it so highly is because of a few things that for someone starting out needs more than anyone. It costs $299 and is worth the investment.

Probably the number one best selling aspect to the software is the templates that are built into the software. If you don't know how to write up a contract, no problem, there are some boiler plate templates. Everyone of these templates having explanations and help support built into the software. Then if this isn't enough all those who use the software can also go the online community forum to ask those unique questions and see if others have had experience.

The software helps you manage your contacts of your clients and prospects. I think the email templates is one of the best modules of the program.

When starting out you really have no idea how to write a cover letter for anything you may need to do with your business. You can find a email template letter and then after reading the letter you will get a better handle on the topics you need to address. Then after reading the letter the software lets you edit this letter and then you can save it as a template that you use going forward.

The wording in these letters is so professional and will help you get paid on time an thus improving your cash flow for your business.

Their series of collection letters helps you navigate the steps to getting paid from a bad client. Too many young photographers make mistakes of taking collection to a level five threatening letter, when a gentle reminder is sometimes all that is needed.

It also comes with fotoQuote which will help you understand licensing of images and how to price them.

Using fotoQuote with Quickbooks is a great combination. Here is explanation for the integration:

The difference between QuickBooks and fotoBiz is that fotoBiz is written specifically for the independent freelance photographer and as such handles your business and image management in ways that are specific to the industry. 

With fotoBiz, your invoicing includes language that protects your intellectual property rights, something a generic program like QuickBooks doesn't do. While fotoBiz helps you to track and run many types of sales reports, it is not intended to be a bookkeeping program. FotoBiz X is designed to be used in conjunction with QuickBooks. You have the options to export a group of invoices (for example by invoice date) or to export individual invoice data. The export will create a file in an .iif format for import into QuickBooks.

I can honestly say that my largest mistake running my freelance business for so many years was not buying this software earlier. I am positive that had I bought this and then dedicated some time to study all that it can do that I would have been much more profitable earlier on in my career.

Here are a few videos explaining the software that I recommend you watch.

fotoBiz X Overview

Duplicating Documents in fotoBiz X

Image License Tracking in fotoBiz X

Photographers: Diskwarrior and Reimage Keeps Your PC or Mac Like New

I want to help you fix all those quirks that eventually will happen with any computer.  Here are my two recommendations as must haves for your computer.

Both of these software solutions are helping you with your operating system. 

For the PC

Reimage is a unique repair service fixes your Windows Operating System - it reverses the damage already done with a full database of replacement files. Only software of its kind. It sells for $69.95 and for $30 more you can install it on three computers.

This chart does a great job of showing you what it can do. There are two things on that chart that make a huge difference: Repair at any time and private. I recommend this before taking your computer to a repair shop. The cost of the software will be less than the shop and if it works you saved yourself the trip.

If it is a hardware problem it will let you know and well you can replace something or then take it to a shop.

Some of the problems I was having with Windows 7 was the print spooler was not launching, I could not empty the trash can and when I clicked on the control panel under start I got error messages. Ran reimage and now it is as good as new.

Now I use VMware Fusion 5, which lets me run PC programs on my MacBook Pro. The only program I use this for is Quicken Home & Business to help with book keeping for my business.

The Quicken Home & Business sells for $99.  Great program for invoicing and keeping up with all my expenses.

VMWare Fusion 5 sells for $49.99.

Reimage needs a good internet connection because once it finds the problems it will download all the fixes and replace those registry and other files that have been corrupted to the factory settings.


For the Mac

DiskWarrior is the software I use to help improve the performance of my MacBook. It sells for $99. 

You will launch the program from either a DVD or from an external drive when you turn on your computer. I have it on an external drive and when I turn on my MacBook Pro I just hold down the "option" key and it gives me the option to start the computer from my external drive that is a complete copy of my laptops hard drive.

The reason for DiskWarrior to launch remotely is this is the only way for you to repair problems with the operating system at the root.

• DiskWarrior recovers your files including your photos, music and videos.
• DiskWarrior cures those cryptic errors reported by Disk Utility.
• DiskWarrior uses a different approach to disk directory repair than other programs.
• DiskWarrior is the only product that finds all of your data.
• DiskWarrior is the highest rated and wins more awards.

There are two other programs on your mac that you can also use: Recovery and Disk Utility.

Recovery
 
OS X Lion or OS X Mountain Lion includes a built in set of utilities in the Recovery System. Restart your Mac and hold down the Command key and the R key (Command-R), and keep holding them until the Apple icon appears, indicating that your Mac is starting up. After the Recovery System is finished starting up, you should see a desktop with a OS X menu bar and a "Mac OS X Utilities" application window. Note: If you see a login window or your own desktop and icons, it is possible that you didn't hold Command-R early enough. Restart and try again.

In order to reinstall OS X Lion or OS X Mountain Lion, you will need to be connected to an Ethernet or Wi-Fi network. The Wi-Fi menu item is in the upper-right corner of the screen. Click the icon to display all available Wi-Fi networks. Click your preferred network name and, if needed, enter a username and/or password.

Disk Utility

You can access it the same way by restart your Mac and hold down the Command key and the R key (Command-R), and keep holding them until the Apple icon appears. This will let you choose the Disk Utility.

Another way is to go to Applications folder>Utilities and select the Disk Utility.  Click on first aid and choose disk repair. This will improve performance as well.

The advantage of DiskWarrior is it goes deeper by letting you clean the hard drive at the lowest level.