Congratulations! You’ve made the sound decision to sign up for a free FreshBooks trial for 30 days.
You’re already thinking about running your small business in ways that will guarantee it’s healthy on the inside and out! And that puts you on track for success.
We know that investing in the best software to run your small business is a big decision. New software means an investment of both time and money.
We want you to make the best choice for your small business: That’s why we want you to make the most of the next 30 days. Here are some tips to make the most of your free 30-day trial.
1. Allocate Time for Yourself (and Your Team)
Whether you’re managing your invoicing and accounting on your own, or delegating to a team, it’s important to allocate time to roll up your sleeves and get your hands dirty.
Indeed, the biggest mistake you can make is to sign up for a free trial that you can’t make the most of because you’re so swamped with work.
We really want you to get in there and poke around, get familiar with all the features, and make practical use of them for the next month. That’s going to mean carving a little time out of your schedule (think of it as a health investment for your business).
The good news: A few hours of concentration upfront will pay dividends in no time. Our user-friendly interface is easy to guide yourself through and we’ll even help you with a series of how-to emails over the course of your trial.
2. Understand Your Trial Goals
It’s possible that you signed up for your free trial thinking FreshBooks is an invoicing solution. It is. But there’s a lot more to it!
To make full use of your account, explore the features beyond Invoicing.
Expense management goes hand-in-hand with invoicing—so import your business bank account to categorize and keep track of expenses. You can even re-bill expenses to clients if you want to.
It’s a cliché, but it’s true: Time is money. Whether you’re billing for hours worked or just want to manage your own productivity, Time Tracking is another feature to explore.
The clearer you are about your goals for the next 30 days, the better you’ll self-guide your activity.
Explore the product thoroughly and think about how you can use it to improve your business. Seek out the feature that will best support your goal and test it against your expectations. After all, nobody knows what you need more than you!
3. Put in Real Information
It’s natural to approach a trial with trepidation—put in some dummy information and see what things look like.
But the more “real” information you add to your trial account, the more confident you’ll be at the end of your 30-days.
So, customize your account with your real business name, contact information, and business logo. Add your actual clients. There’s no point in clicking buttons if you don’t get to see how the product actually works.
Using FreshBooks will make a real difference in how professional you look and feel, give you a sense of control over your finances, and even help you get paid faster. But you’ll only get to experience that if you use it for real!
4. Interact with Your Real Clients
The experience of using FreshBooks as a business owner is just one side of the product: There’s also the experience that FreshBooks presents to your clients.
Use the next 30-days to send some invoices, personalized with your own business logo.
If you enable online payments, bask in the ease and speed of being paid (most clients would rather pay online too!) Enjoy seeing payment statuses automatically updated. Watch the ease of interaction with clients.
FreshBooks keeps the engine of your business running smoothly, but it also makes you look more poised and polished on the outside too.
5. Get Award-Winning Support
Whether you’re still considering your options, have signed up for a trial, or are an existing customer, our award-winning support team is always here to help.
Your 30-day trial is a great time to make use of that support: Remember getting set-up and started is going to be the hardest part. Once you’re up and running it will be plain sailing.
But if you’re spending too much time trying to figure out some pesky detail, simply pick up the phone or shoot us an email. You can also browse our helpful FAQs if you’re the independent type. The point is: We don’t want you to struggle, feeling alone.
You’ll be amazed by our Support team: Customers often don’t hear the phone ring once before they’re speaking to a real live human.
So, happy exploring! Put the next 30 days to good use. And remember, we always have your back!