In the short life as DC Sites (4 years) (and shorter as Techie Mamma) we have tried many systems to work with clients. Part of this is because I am an app junkie!! I remember going to SXSW Interactive and leaving with 25 new signups of apps. That is how I was one of the first on Twitter and Foursquare and many others. That is just who I am. Always on the search for the next amazing thing that is going to change my life (for good). Well, Dubsado is no exception. I first encountered Dubsado recommended in many groups that I had recently joined as Techie Mamma.
It just kept coming up in posts and in responses to posts. It really seemed like an app that many already loved and here I was and I had never heard of it. Back in my younger days, this would have been unheard of. I was always the first to tell others about apps but almost 40 and 2 babies later and I have a harder time keeping up just because I am not on the computer or in the world as much. Still, I am an app junkie and love exploring new apps. So I took the plunge and signed up!! That day was the beginning of something very special between Dubsado and me!!
Here are my top reasons why I love Dubsado and in less than two weeks have converted not only my new business Techie Mamma but also my freelance business DC Sites.
Trial Period
1 The first reason is the trial period when you sign up. Apps that don’t have trials are hard to find sometimes but Dubsado’s approach to a trial is awesome and unique. Instead of limiting it by a certain amount of time like many others who offer 30 days or 14 day trial, Dubsado limits their trial by the number of projects you have set up or clients. So a small business just barely starting out with one, two or three clients can track their clients and get their processes set up and charge and everything. Then once they get to four clients it is an easy convince to move forward with a paid plan. I just love this approach. I am much more willing to pay for a product if I have had a long long time to try it out. At that point how can I say no?
One Price for Unlimited Clients
2 I love that you can have unlimited clients. The platform that DC Sites used before making the switch was Freshbooks. Freshbooks had a lot of awesome features but one thing that was disappointing was that every time you “made it” and wanted to celebrate more clients you had to pay more for the app. This was frustrating and led us to actually try another system for one client when we were close to the limit. It also had us removing clients and not keeping them in the system just so we could get the most of the price we were paying. Unfortunately, because of the deletion we loose the history with that client even if they are no longer active they may come back and it is too bad that we can’t keep that history without paying more. I love that in Dubsado we can have unlimited clients, archive clients as needed but still go back and see history of emails and such if they were to come back for more work or need some information in the future.
Have I convinced you yet? Check it out for free today!
Email Tracking
3 This is such an awesome feature. It is SO hard to keep track of emails and email requests. I use an app called MailButler just to know if a client has even opened the email. With Dubsado everything is in one place and it is so much easier to keep track. I find myself wanting to email solely from Dubsado to make the most use of this feature. This is a feature I have never seen in another product and I love it!! I wish they had a mobile app where I could respond to messages on the go and still keep it in Dubsado. That is the only downside that when I respond from my phone or email client it doesn’t get loved by the Dubsado interface.
Packages
4 I love the whole idea of packages. It is such an awesome idea!! Freshbooks had something almost there with their saved line items but no where close to the features of Packages. I love you can setup the description what is included and that you can integrate it into a proposal and into an invoice. So so awesome!! I have a couple of main packages and then several add-ons that clients can choose from. Especially for Techie Mamma where I am trying to price things more as a flat price I like the idea of Packages.
Want to save time in all the tedious things about having a small business and get back to what you love?! Try it out today!
Workflows
5 OMG this is so amazing. It is IFTTT just for your business. I have not explored the potential of this yet but the possibilities are endless and so incredible. I love that it exists and I can’t wait to get my process more set up so that I can go to town with Workflows!!
Canned Emails
6 This is another feature that I used to have another app for. I used TextExpander on my Mac for canned messages and emails. At a certain point you just do not want to reinvent the wheel again and again you have said it once and it worked why try to put the message together again. A lot of times I would copy and paste too but this gets so tedious and then you forget to change the name or the url and oh boy that looks so unprofessional. Canned emails are the best. This week Dubsado’s birthday week they also released a new feature where you can use canned emails in all emails and not just those coming from specific features. So incredible!
Multiple Links in an Email | Dubsado Release Notes
Ready to sign up?! Dubsado | Business Management Software
Leads and Jobs
7 Maybe it is because it is something that I never kept track of in a good way but I absolutely love the idea of having leads and jobs. This allows you to track clients who are interested but have not yet sealed the deal 😀 you can still email them you can still send them forms and everything and you can integrate with Workflow so that when they do sign the contract and pay the initial invoice they automatically get promoted to a full Job. I love that you can also customize as you need between the two so that if you do discovery with a client during the lead generation stage you can have those different stages. Also for Jobs you can set up as many stages or statuses as you want.
Calendar
8 Oh man, calendar is another thing that I have used numerous apps for. I love that you can sync a calendar directly in so that you can see when meeting with clients and you can also see your personal calendar. Last week, my son was off school Monday and Tuesday which meant I needed to block that day from any client meetings. I know the scheduling piece is in beta but I love the idea for a feature and can’t wait to use it more.
What apps do you use for your calendar and how amazing would it be if it were all in one?! Dubsado | Business Management Software
Payment Options and Schedules
9 These days with Square and Stripe and PayPal there are a number of different payment options. Some clients are comfortable with PayPal others with other payment methods. I love that there are many options to choose from. I personally have all three setup because I want to make it as easy as possible for clients to pay the invoice. You can also setup recurring invoices with many of the payments and they just released the feature to allow this with Square! The payment schedules are also awesome. Both Harvest and Freshbooks at times made it difficult to have a pay schedule of something like 20% upfront and 80% upon delivery or something different. I really like working with my clients for something that works for both of us and this makes it so easy to be so flexible with them.
Forms – Contracts, Proposals, Questionnaires
~ I saved the best for last. Dubsado has actually so changed the way I work. I had become so disheartened with contracts and proposals that I stopped using them. This then led to a lot of issues with the clients. They were so tedious and time consuming. Now with Dubsado and the flexibility and reusability of things it is so easy to create a proposal for each client. I love that they have a library full of templates as well because it is always easier than starting from scratch!! Questionnaires are my new best friend. I create them for just about everything all through the process so that I know a client has gone through and really looked at something. My favorite that I have created so far is about colors and helping clients come up with a color palette.
Enough reasons to start a trial for Dubsado?! It is seriously probably the best tool I use for my business these days! Check it out today
BY TECHIE MAMMA