Say Yes to Hoboken

Tips for Being an Organized Blogger

One of my new years resolutions this year was to get myself more organized as a blogger, particularly my finances. I wanted to give you an update on where I was at with all that- but also, I wanted to see if you had any other life saving ideas for being an organized blogger yourself. I’m a little nervous thinking that maybe I’m the last one to know about these things but hopefully there is something here that might benefit you and your blog/business (and if not please share any other organizational tricks you have!)

Just an FYI I’m not paid to write about any of these services, I just have loved my experience using them and would highly recommend them to other bloggers/small business owners.

1. Freshbooks.

A about a year ago I started to grow my blog (more about my job blogging as a career here) into a team of paid contributors, you can read all about them on my about page. And I started feeling a little out of control with my finances. There were so many people getting paid and money coming in from different places- it all made my head spin and I couldn’t tell you in one given month what I was making or spending. It was nuts! I did a little research and decided for 2013 I was going to change all that. The biggest change I made was using freshbooks.  I seriously can’t believe I functioned without it.  I’ve only used it for 4 months so there are still lots of things I might not use/know but here are a few things I  love about it so far (ps there is about a $20 fee/month but totally worth it in my opinion):

1. It organizes all of my income coming in and out each month into pretty charts and graphs

2. It makes a really easy way to send and keep track of invoices (even when you’re getting paid monthly via snail mail check). So much easier than making a time-sucking/soul-sucking pdf with your logo and more professional than paypal.

3. I can track expenses for paying my team really easily and organize them so I can fill out tax forms in a cinch when the time comes.

4. If you work hourly it’s super easy to track hours and then just click a button at the end of each month to create an invoice for unbilled hours and send it. boom. So much easier than counting hours and making a pdf.

5. I can also add expenses, track receipts and time track hours from a freshbooks app on my phone.

5 . During business hours I can just call a number and ask a nice person working for freshbooks a silly question about how to do something (life changing! I hate having a system I don’t know how to use well). This might be one of my favorite things! I’d definitely be frustrated without this. There are all kinds of video tutorials as well but I’ve found it’s so much easier just to pick up the phone and ask a quick question.

Keep on reading for a couple other organizational tools I’ve found…

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Hello Sponsors: Tea Party Ribbons

Excited to introduce to you a new sponsor on Say Yes to Hoboken.  Tea Party Ribbons is great resource for all kinds of ribbons including grosgrain ribbons, satin, sheer, decorative, etc. They also produce custom ribbons which is a fun option and I love all the metallics as well. In addition to offering a huge variety of ribbons from some of the best manufacturers they’ve also started to design their own grosgrain prints. I use ribbons all the time not only in wrapping gifts but crafts as well, seems like I can never have enough! Check out the Tea Party Ribbons site and show them a little love!

And for Say Yes readers, they’ve offering a 20% coupon code of SAYYES20, good for a one time purchase.

Sponsors and sponsored posts are what makes things run smoothly here at Say Yes to Hoboken so I can produce more quality content for you. Thank you for your support of these companies!

Interested in sponsorship at Say Yes to Hoboken? Email me at liz (at) sayyestohoboken.com for current rates 

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