For most of the topics studied, such as online accounting or invoicing software, I do not recommend the same software to a micro-entrepreneur as to a small business, even if the other answers to the questionnaire are the same.
There are many other criteria (price, language, support, integrations), but knowing your profile allows you to first select the software that suits you.
Today, I take the subject in reverse, focusing on micro-entrepreneurs (or auto-entrepreneurs). We proceed to our selection of the ideal stack.
We’ll talk about invoicing, accounting, and topics like project management, email management, and some surprises. Micro-entrepreneurs include professionals from many sectors; we focus on the more “digital” micro-entrepreneurs for this selection.
Without further ado, here is my software hall of fame for micro-entrepreneurs.
Management software for micro-businesses
The accounting requirements for self-employed entrepreneurs are relatively simple. Many accounting, invoicing, and payment management software specialized in this growing market segment. The number of micro-businesses is increasing, and so is the size of the market.
Freebe
Freebe is a management software for self-employed entrepreneurs or microentrepreneurs. The software is distinguished by its ease of use and the numerous automation possibilities.
The software covers your billing, accounting, payments, and time management. Thanks to its winning combo, I regularly recommend it for micro-entrepreneurs: features + design + customer service.
Tikki
Tikki is an alternative to Freebe and all-in-one software for freelancers. The software offers all the functionalities to accompany freelancers daily: quotes and invoices, accounting, to-do lists, project management, and CRM.
In addition to the many features, the second advantage of Tikki is that the software is entirely free. It gathers 4-5 software (invoicing, accounting, project management, to-do list, and CRM) in 1 and allows to centralize all its activity.
Henrri
Henrri is the invoicing software with a completely free part of the market. When micro-entrepreneurs are looking for free invoicing software, they often Henrri that they turn to.
Spayce
The problem of invoice payments for micro-entrepreneurs is recurrent. Which professional has not struggled one day (“struggled” seemed too weak) to get paid on time or paid at all? There are tools to help micro-entrepreneurs on this subject, such as Spayce, allowing freelancers to fluidify the crucial payment step.
Spayce offers software that allows your client to see the result of your work and pay you to download the document to solve the problem of payments. If your client still hasn’t paid, the software automates reminders to save you time. The first transfer is free, and Spayce applies a 5% commission per payment.
Project management for micro-businesses
One of the expected points for many micro-businesses is project management. You spend a lot of time communicating with your clients, whether you’re a designer, a writer, a developer, or other professions ending in -eur.
To facilitate this work, many tools are at your disposal. We are talking about project management in the broadest sense, from tools to manage your to-do to video conferencing software and specific tools for project management.
Todoist
Many applications manage your tasks (or your to-do’s). You can manage your schedule with a notebook and a pen, but if I had to choose one application to manage your tasks, it would be Todoist.
The tool is available in web or mobile applications. It’s free, and it’s easy to use. Go for it!
Trello
Do I still need to introduce Trello? It’s one of the best-known project management tools on the market, used by both micro-entrepreneurs and more developed companies.
The software offers a very easy-to-use solution to manage your projects. The tool is based on the Kanban productivity system. To summarize, the project is divided into different stages materialized in the form of columns. In addition to the visual aspect, I also like the possibilities of automation and integration.
PaperHelp
This is a service with a huge database of essays on a wide variety of topics. They also have an opportunity to order a text on the necessary topic. A nice bonus is that they periodically have discounts if you use the PaperHelp discount code. So if you need to properly compose a letter or write content for the site, this service will be an excellent choice.
Monday
It has the same functionalities as Trello, even if the project management aspect does not include the Kanban system.
The tool is easy to use, customizable, and slightly more powerful than Trello for automation.
Notion
Notion is an all-in-one tool or an all-in-one workplace, as the company claims on its website.
The software allows you to centralize :
- Documentation and processes of your company;
- Note-taking ;
- Your to-do’s;
- Project management.
The tool steps on the toes of solutions such as Trello, Monday, Evernote, Google Docs and Jira by centralizing all the functionalities within a single tool.
Google Workspace
Google Workspace is the ally of micro-entrepreneurs with Gmail, Google Calendar, Google Drive, Google Meet, and Google Sheet.
The Google suite allows you to manage many parts of your micro-business within the same ecosystem. Even if I lack originality, I highly recommend it.
Whereby
Even though I could have recommended Zoom or Google Meet, my choice for micro-businesses is Whereby, formerly known as Appear.in.
It’s not the most famous video conferencing software, but it allows you to hold meetings simply thanks to secure “rooms.” The free version allows you to gather up to 4 people, often more than enough for micro-businesses.
Calendly
The last tool for this “project management” part with Calendly. It is software that facilitates appointment scheduling. No more “send me your availabilities by email.” Your customers or partners can make appointments directly within your Calendly, linked to an online calendar, for example.
The solution allows you to save a lot of time, and the tool is very easy to use and free to go ahead with your eyes closed.
Calendly offers many integrations (Zapier, Zoom, Intercom, or Paypal), which allow you to automate much more than just making appointments.
Software to better manage your emails
The time spent managing your emails when you are a micro-entrepreneur can be substantial. Whether it is to prospect, to answer your customers’ requests, or to process incoming requests, tools exist to facilitate your work and, for a change, save time.
Mailtrack
Mailtrack is a tool to track the opening of your emails on Gmail. Knowing if your customers or prospects have consulted your emails; allows you to measure your reminders better and adapt your responses.
With this tool, you can know when your email has been opened and even be notified. If all self-employed are not concerned by Mailtrack, it is a tool that will cost you less than 9 euros per month, which can easily fluidify your email exchanges.
Dropcontact
I could have mentioned Lusha, Hunter.io, and many other solutions, I will settle for Dropcontact. This tool allows you to discover the email address and phone number on the internet.
It is a helpful tool for commercial prospecting that can be linked to your different tools like your CRM to automate all your prospecting.
Zapier
Let’s continue on the automation with Zapier. This tool is used to link a lot of software to automate your tasks. Some examples of Zap for micro-businesses:
- Send an automatic email after a response to a form;
- Add a new customer/prospect to an email list;
- Receive a notification when your client modifies your Trello or your Monday;
- Send an invoice automatically.
The possibilities with Zapier are almost endless, I use it a lot, and if you haven’t tried it yet, I highly recommend it. Zapier is not only for professionals with technical skills, and you can easily automate your tasks without being a developer.
Software to make beautiful visuals
Canva
Canva is a software that allows you to make many visuals like banners, visuals for advertisements, or illustrations for your presentations.
If microentrepreneurs designers prefer more specialized software (Photoshop, Indesign, or Figma, to name a few), Canva will provide many services thanks to its ease of use and free.
Pexels
For the inevitable royalty-free image bank, I decided to be more original than ShutterStock and Unsplash by quoting Pexels. Suppose the two previously mentioned solutions are very qualitative. I prefer Pexels on the free image part, which is sometimes a bit lacking on the side of the market giants.
Loom
We move slightly away from creating visuals with our last tool for micro-businesses: Loom. The software allows you to quickly record a video of your screen, you or both at the same time to send it to your client or prospect.
The video allows you to gain clarity and time compared to emails. The tool is not yet widely used by micro-entrepreneurs. You can stand out by making clear and professional feedback using the video format.
According to INSEE, the increase in the number of micro-businesses (+9% in 2020) leads to an increase in service offerings for this specific audience. I mainly consider Wemind, its mutual insurance offer, Shine and its bank account for self-employed people Jump and its wage portage 2.0 offer, or the fintech Finfrog with its adapted credit offer auto-entrepreneurs.
For my software selection for auto-entrepreneurs, that’s it, but this article will be regularly updated. I can’t list all the software for micro-businesses; the goal is to offer a selection from which you can draw according to your needs.
