Black Friday Edition: The Best Investments for Freelance Designers

With inflation in full force, we have to be mindful of our spending ESPECIALLY with the tempting Black Friday deals. This time of year when the deals are hot is my most recommended time to make those investments in your freelance design business.

I have compiled the best Black Friday deals to make those “AHHHHH😩” things in your business to “ahhh😌”. Each resource is paired of course with my thoughts so you can make the most strategic decision on what to invest on!

This post will include some affiliate links (marked with *), which means that I receive a small commission when you purchase through my links at no extra cost to you! If you choose to purchase through my affiliate link, thank you for the support!

First off… a freelancing must-haves

If the legal side of your business is not your jam or area of expertise (I’m right there with you!), then this is for you! Contracts Market* provides legal contract templates to help you protect your business and can be used whether you’re based in Canada or the US.

You can choose from tons of industry-specific contracts to find the contract(s) that fit your exact needs. As we head into the new year, there is truly NO better time to protect your business and get your legal bases covered. You no longer have to worry about if you’ve included all of the right clauses or worded things “just right” in these contracts, because these lawyer-drafted, peer-reviewed legal contracts take care of ALL OF THAT for us!

You can save 30% on ALL CONTRACTS and 40% on ALL CONTRACT BUNDLES from November 21st to 28th, 2022!

Protect your biz with a contract here*! Bundles are the best deal with the necessary agreements AND a website privacy policy + terms of use. And if you’re like “what is that?!” You can read all about it in this blog post

Streamline business operations

Dubsado*

If it’s getting harder and harder to manage all your client’s in your Google Workspace, from manually sending the same email over and over again when an inquiry comes to having their proposal, invoice, and contract all in one place, it might be a good time to consider a end-to-end customer relationship management (CRM) software.

Dubsado* is having its biggest sale yet for both its starter and premier plan! For their starter, you have everything you need (contracts, invoices, questionnaires, lead capture forms, and more) and you have it all for $15/month.⁠ Their premier plan is best for those taking their business to the next level by leveraging using automation. If you book a lot of calls or are tired of manually sending contracts, invoices, and emails, you're going to need the scheduler and workflow options available only in the Premier plan. This plan is on sale for $35/month. This sale ends November 29th at 2 pm PT.

PLUS if you use my affiliate link you will get even more of a deal. I personally recommend the premier plan if you need more robust features. There is a better deal below for features in the starter plan. Here is also my onboarding process with clients via Dubsado for additional support!

Honeybook

Everything I said about Dubsado, is just like Honeybook. BUT it’s a lot less robust. If the Dubsado premier plan isn’t for you, I recommend this deal from Honeybook over the Dubsado starter plan. Honeybook is giving you everything you need to do business for just $1/month for your first 6 months. ⁠From client communication and automation to online contracts, payment processing, + more, HoneyBook makes managing your business easier than ever. ⁠Use code ONLY1 for just $1/month for your first 6 months.

Honeybook is a lot less user-friendly than Dubsado and payments get processed directly through them while Dubsado’s payments get processed through Stripe, Paypal or Square. From a deal standpoint, Honeybook is better but the decision is ultimately yours. Here is a really great blog post I found that really outlines the best comparison between the two.

Berrycast*

Zoom fatigue is so frickin’ real and most of the time, meetings don’t need to be held but a quick little video recording. I personally use Loom in my business but I am ALWAYS looking for the next best alternative at a lower cost and Berrycast* is that! I am actually going to be switching to this myself because you get a LIFETIME DEAL of just one payment of $19! And if you’re using Loom, make the switch before this insane deal expires!

Designer Business Templates*

Streamline your design process with One6Creative’s Designer Business Templates. These help you completely transform your client experience (which is something I really hone in on when I value-based price my services and build their trust to grow referrals).

From strategically written proposals (that you can input into your CRM platform after too😉) to present your design concepts effectively, and more! Save 40% on all templates (or the entire bundle!) with code BFLOVE. Trust me—you’re gonna want to click add to cart* if you own a design biz.

transform your client experience with 40% off business templates for designers

Designer Resources

Creative Market

I don’t think there is no designer that DOESN’T use Creative Market. It’s the biggest creative assets libraries: from fonts (my personal favourite), graphics, templates, and more! This is the best time to splurge and stock up on all designer’s biggest weakness fonts 😂 with up to 50% off all their product categories!

Moyo Studio*

The most beautiful mockups and stock photos on the Internet! I think that’s enough said 😬. I literally only use their mockups now for displaying my portfolio work to using them to present concepts to clients. Moyo Studio*’s Black Friday bundle comes with 120 photo mockups, 15 colour customizable mockups, Plus 50 BONUS aesthetic stock photos. These are handpicked from their entire product catalogue. All for an incredible price of just $69—making it 90% off! Shop my most favourite mockups and stock photos here

Marketing your services

Interact*

Who doesn’t love quizzes? Nobody! We’re all guilty of loving those Buzzfeed quizzes. That is why it’s the perfect lead magnet for your business. Interact* allows you to build interactive custom quizzes. You then can get them on your mailing list and start creating targeted email marketing campaigns to market your services to qualified leads. Interact is offering 40% off for new customers’ first year on ANY annual plan. Shop now here with the code 22HOLIDAY before it ends on November 28th, 2022!

Mailerlite*

We just talked about creating targeted email marketing campaigns to market your services. But where would you do that?! Mailerlite is the answer! I use Mailerlite* for my stationery shop and MAN is it ever user-friendly! You can integrate seamlessly to other platforms i.e. for me it’s Shopify, not to mention their advanced features really level up your email marketing. Get 3 free months here when you upgrade to the annual Advanced plan—making it 25% off! This deal ends on December 5th, 2022.

Education

Morgan Rapp’s “you pick bundle”

There are 3 things you can choose from Morgan Rapp’s “you pick bundle” deal but her 1:1 coaching session vs. her Shopify course, Amplify Shopify. This is bundled with her OG course for designers ( 400+ alumni ), Design Biz Mastery, that helps you grow to $10k months sustainably with High-value clients. Her 1:1 coaching session helps to build out and launch your eco-system of offers beyond services and have me in your backpocket while you do it. This package is usually for those that have reached 6 figures already in their business and are looking to grow to a multi-six figure year (lock in 2022 pricing and save $3000). Check it out here and if you have any questions, you can DM Morgan Rapp on Instagram here.

The Shopify (Code)x

An aspiring web designer for e-commerce brands? Or you are currently one and you are eager to add more to your skill set? The Shopify (Code)X course is for you! You will have support changing the framework of your business to run a multi-6-figure even 7-figure studio to something simpler! This is so much more than just learning the ins and outs of coding on Shopify, it’s truly upleveling your web development skills AND client services. Learn more here with their lowest-ever sale of 40% off!

The Squarespace Design Framework

A course by Foxtrot Branding, for those who have been needing a guide to follow to start feeling confident in launching your web design career. The Squarespace Design Framework course is a step-by-step guide to confidently & easily designing Squarespace websites your clients will love. In over 25+ bite-sized video lessons, you’ll learn about: setting up your project for success with great planning and set-up, streamlining your design process in the Squarespace platform, how to handle client reviews and the website finalization, and successfully launching and handing off your website PLUS 2 bonuses (one of them being an intro to CSS!). During their Black Friday sale of 50% off, they will be donating 10% of all sales to Colorado Gives 365 by The Colorado Healing Fund to help victims and their families deal with the aftermath of the mass violence that occurred on November 20th at Club Q, an LGBTQ+ nightclub in Colorado Springs. Shop now this course at 50% off now by using the code BLACKFRIDAY here.

Client Gifting

Sam and Lance*

Whether you’re looking to send a thank-you, celebrate a client win, or wish them a happy holidays, these Sam and Lance gift boxes* that focus on sustainability and uplifting women in business will be your new go-to. Their build-your-own box option is on sale for 20% off with the code BYB20! Shop your client gifts here*.

Friendly reminder to not go over board with these Black Friday sales

I encourage you to look at all your business expenses and tools across the board and prioritize something that will truly fill the gap in your freelance design business. Think about all the pain points you are having in your business and write them down. Once you have written them down, put a number beside them with respect to their priority. For instance, if your number 1 is feeling lost and looking for a curated business support that is unique to you, Morgan Rapp’s “you pick bundle” would most likely be for you.