Quick Dubsado tips for freelancers and service providers

If you’re struggling to do all the admin type things in your business and you constantly feel behind or out of control, drowning in your inbox, and just not super legit in your freelance business because of that chaos, this is for you.

Using Dubsado can save you 4+ hours per week and organize your lead and client workflows as a freelance copywriter.

That’s exactly what I discovered when I started using Dubsado. 

Maybe it’s because I’m the most Type A Type A you’ll ever meet. Or maybe it’s just because I’ve been at this for a while and I genuinely want my clients to feel GOOD in my care and that starts from the first point of contact. And it could quite possibly be because I’m so dedicated to my business and all things around this brand (it’s my first baby)…⁠

Whatever the reason, I’ve figured out how to combine efficiency (for better work/life integration) with showing up to give 150% to every client.

This is a behind the scenes look at specific tactics I implemented to grow my business to this point so you can do the same. Dubsado is one of my favourite tools that I found years ago and it still saves me HOURS of time each week.

What is Dubsado used for?

Dubsado is a CRM that gives you more control over each step in your business. It’s more robust than alternative options (like Honeybook, 17 Hats, or Better Proposals) because it can AUTOMATE things. With Dubsado you can templatize everything to limit creating from scratch for each client or project.

It’s not just proposal software or JUST a client portal. It does everything and the automation aspect is key. That makes it great for all types of service providers, but *especially* freelance copywriters and marketing studio owners. 

3 Dubsado tips to save time.

Not to brag, but people kinda like how I run things around here…⁠ 👀

My business is extremely organized, detail oriented, and even though I’m juggling full time momming and running this business right now, things aren’t falling through the cracks. Here’s how I’ve automated parts of our workflow through Dubsado in order to ensure this.

1. Automating onboarding with Dubsado.

Stop sending multiple emails to onboard your clients! Dubsado can help you with so many steps of your onboarding process as a freelancer.

• Automate your lead inquiry process so they can fill out an application, book a call, and receive booking information without any involvement from you.
• Streamline your onboarding process by keeping everything in one simple place. You can do this by building out forms, and storing these in their unique client portal.
• You can also group the proposal, contract, and invoice into a single document link with easy to navigate tabs that auto-populate info as they accept each stage.

2. Automating invoicing with Dubsado.

How much time do you waste with invoices? Creating them, sending them, remembering to send them at the right time. With Dubsado, you take away all that bs.

Dubsado allows you to:

• Build and save packages in the platform to easily add to invoices.
• Preset payment plans and apply these easily to projects and packages.
• Schedule automated payment and late payment reminders.
• And clients can opt in for auto-pay so they’re never late. 🥳

3. Minimizing inbox time with canned emails.

One of my big hacks to make all of the above happen without ever missing a step? Prioritizing communication with canned email templates.⁠

I have a template for literally everything throughout my signature processes, which makes it super easy to send personalized touch points that over-communicate goals, milestones, and next steps.⁠

This is one of my favourite conversations because so many people waste a ton of time with emails! It’s also so important to consider how you email within your client experience because how you talk to clients is a reflection of HOW you do business in general. Not only can you save time in your inbox by over-communicating, but you can create a great client experience by guiding them with email updates throughout the process.

• I created templates for all the emails that I send repeatedly.
• ALSO the ones that happen less often, but are tough conversations to have, so I wanted to make sure I got the wording right to convey the correct message.
• These are all saved in my Dubsado account. Some are automated. But even the ones that are just saved in our template library do 2 things for me:
  • Saves time when writing a similar email because you can fill in the blanks.
  • My assistant can use this library to email for me/us in a way that feels on brand. Saving me even more time… no need to explain and the task is off my list.

The result?⁠

My inbox is actually manageable because clients have very little questions about where we’re at in a project, or what to expect next. I guide them throughout the entire process, and so much of it is automated that it’s not even a notable time commitment on me personally anymore.⁠

It’s seriously so simple, but also a huge time suck to set up. I know because I’ve been there. I planned and wrote all of these the first time around. 🤣😅

The good news? You can steal my exact Canned Email Templates in The Biz Bar. Just fill in the blanks to fit your brand personality and plug them into your CRM of choice… I bet you’ll save yourself hours by starting with a solid base.⁠

Dubsado workflows make life easy.

You might be stuck in the phase where every next step has to be done from scratch, but when you integrate Dubsado with other apps, you save *tons* of time. Instead of creating custom workflows every time you onboard a client, Dubsado workflows give you automatic control that once set up, takes almost zero effort.

For example, when someone signs a contract and pays their project deposit in Dubsado, Zapier sends a message to ClickUp and Google Drive to continue automating the onboarding process.

For me + the team, that means…

• ClickUp automatically creates a project workflow (kanban board) that includes every single step. This templated workflow includes the SOPs for each stage of the journey.
• ClickUp also assigns tasks in this workflow to me + my assistant before we even get started. Then she can go in and add the appropriate dates for the project. We add other team members as needed/as they agree to the project scope (a step in the larger workflow that yes, we also have an SOP for 🤪).
• EVERYTHING is in here, including what to say in the email sending deliverables to the client throughout the project and what to say in the coffee gift card we send every client the morning of their kick-off meeting (coffee’s on us today!).
• Zapier also tells Google Drive what kind of project we just booked, it sets up the client’s master folder in our DFY studio section of the shared drive, and it adds the corresponding folders and documents that match this type of project. Ex. We have templated copy decks, strategy docs, and more to just fill in the blanks as needed for each client—no guessing or trying to remember what process-related details we add to a standard doc, so everything is clear for the client AND the team members working on a project.

We use Stripe for payment processing, QBO for accounting, but all invoices are sent and managed via Dubsado because that’s the easiest for clients!

When clients are onboarded, they also get emailed calendar invites, reminders, and the zoom link for our kick-off call—all possible because of our Dubsado workflow.

Stop doing everything from scratch.

Building and scaling your biz means pinpointing the parts of your business that can be optimized. You don’t really need to be going into your invoicing platform and creating an invoice for the same client every month. And clients deserve a streamlined experience that sets expectations from the get go. 

That’s exactly what I’ve created using Dubsado in my own business—automation wherever possible, and SOPs implemented on autopilot so I can focus on big picture things.

If you’re curious to see what using all this automation has done for me and my biz, you can get a BTS look at what life and work looks like for me now with the 6-Figure Schedule (a free download!).