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I use Billings Pro. I'm not sure whether it needs an account, but it does have a free plan. For your purposes it could work very well, the plans only affect how many invoices and estimates you can create per month, so you could use it for free forever if you have another solution for those things. It also has an iOS app, and even a Watch app.

I've found it to be such a great tool that I'll gladly pay for it. It makes invoices and estimates a breeze, and it can give you good reports on how the time's being spent, which clients haven't paid on time, etc.

Not to mention the free plan is fairly generous. If you only have a handful of clients, you might not need to pay anything at all.

Billings Pro and Wave Apps also look pretty decent (not sure how tightly they integrate with time-tracking if you need that though)

If you use a Mac, I highly recommend Billings Pro from Marketcircle. https://www.marketcircle.com/billingspro/

Watch the video on their website. A license includes an iPhone / iPad app that syncs between all devices. It's simple to use, nice interface, and at a very reasonable cost. It includes client and project management, time tracking, invoicing, and more. I have used it for years and have nothing negative to say.

Edit: Answering the rest of the questions.

I normally send invoices as a PDF via email and provide multiple payment options. "Send check to - Pay via PayPal to..."

I also usually require a deposit upfront to execute a contract with a client. Billings Pro supports retainers and prepayments that you can apply to projects and invoices.

I use this: https://www.marketcircle.com/billingspro

But it's an invoicing system, not an accounting system. So I have my own accountant who takes care of the invoices and submitting them to the tax authorities.

I did hear that Xero is good though.

I'd recommend you first look at how much time and money you can invest in marketing. Also, before looking at marketing, have you looked at creating a business plan in general, as well?

Firstly, I'd say that if you are starting a business you're serious about, a website is a must.

From there, there are several free things you can do - referrals are a hugely important way to get more leads and free "marketing" so creating some kind of referral program for your existing network would be a great start.

Having a presence on social media is really helpful as well - ads are great, but you can also just post, which is free of course. Join groups on Facebook and LinkedIn that are related to your business. You can look at automating your social media posts as well to save you time.

Here's a good blog post as well about more stuff you can do!

I also work in marketing and right now I use Things + Bear. It's far from perfect but the combination is better than anything else I've tried (including Things + Notion). My main problem is that my projects tend to be complicated and time sensitive and often require detailed notes. While Things handles the task management aspect of my jobs perfectly, there's no way the built in notes are going to be sufficient.

So, for now, I create my project in Things and then create the same project in Bear. I then create a link to Bear in Things, and do the same in Bear. This way my project assets are always just a click away no matter which app I'm in. For good measure, I also place in a link to the job folder so I've got access to all of my files.

Yes, I'd rather do this all in one app but there doesn't seem to be an app that does all that — at least not one that was built for someone that works solo. The closest I've found might be Daylite or Copper but neither offer good note taking. Moreover, Daylite feels clunky to me and Copper is really flakey. Half the time the GSuite integration doesn't even work.

So, yeah, I feel your pain. There really isn't a product that addresses our workflow. Not that I've found, anyway. So we've got to cobble together our own solutions.

While I'm more an hobbyist than a professional videographer, I do own a web design company where I have multiple approaches and planning methods for different tasks (e.g. making a website, designing a marketing campaign etc.).

I noticed around a year ago that I sometimes forgot agreements with clients that were made during a small talk, and therefore I spent ages discovering a proper CRM (Customer Relationship Management) tool. I tried many programs, but a lot of them did not offer proper customization to fit the program to your own company workflow.

And then I found Daylite, a program by Marketcircle (only Mac unfortunately) that offers everything you need. From planning in an agenda, to connecting emails and phone calls to relations. But the most useful tool is the workflow. Whenever you create a project (e.g. Wedding of Romeo and Juliet), you get a unique environment to plan solely for that event. Based on your experience, you once design the workflow you know is good for weddings, and load it into the project. From now you can easily see in which state you are and what default steps you still have to do. Also, you can attach custom fields to these projects and connect all contact details of people included in the project.

I personally do not want anything else anymore. Since it is cloud based, I have access on all my devices, and when you company grows, you can add employees as well. The price is around €30 a month, but I see this as proper project and client management. It is also possible to buy it at once and run in on your home Mac server.

If you have any questions concerning Daylite, let me know!

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Daylite has been around for many years. I have personally never used it so this is NOT an endorsement. https://www.marketcircle.com/daylite/

FullContact is another, but I don't know much about it. https://www.fullcontact.com

MarketCircle specialises in apps for freelancers on IOS/Mac OS only:

1. Daylite - Daylite helps you manage your customers, sales opportunities, projects, schedule, emails, and more–all in one app.

2.BillingsPro - Billing made easy.. Here's a quick link to the video.

1. Xero. Yeah Xero is awesome for small businesses and freelancers, they offer easy and quick payments and have a ridiculously easy to use interface (anyone can use it)

If you're still not too sure on which software is right for you, I found this great online marketplace (it's free) for SaaS tools. Check them out DiscoverCloud.

I have been using Billings Pro for years. Tracks time, projects, invoices, etc... still get mailed paper checks. Once in a while I get a cool client that sets up electronic deposit directly into my account.

https://www.marketcircle.com/

first of all mate, congrats on the very nice website, very clean and very intuitive!

In terms of 'expecting more sign ups' what you have to remember is that whilst you are obviously enthusiastic and have conviction in your products and services, that enthusiasm and passion needs to be relayed to your potential customers - you are not entitled to them, in the nicest way possible, no one is ever entitled to a customer, they have to be won and they have to be sold to.

I would be happy to assist you with your current sales strategy for any telesales / emails / mailshots you are planning on doing and helping you devise good scripts or other things you may need to facilitate more sales.

If you are on a mac - may I suggest https://www.marketcircle.com/daylite/ for a good CRM - it will help you organise and follow up prospects in a very clean way - alternatively, go with the good but ugly and basic option of Excel as it is probably very familiar to most :)

I use a combination of Billings for invoicing and Shake for contracts. If you haven't tried Shake yet, I highly recommend it. It's an app that makes contracts for you and it's SUPER easy to use. Oh, and it's free. can't beat that.

I like Billings because it's a one time cost and then you own it forever so you're not paying per month or anything like that. both are awesome.