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Wappalyzer

Wappalyzer is an indispensable extension that identifies the technologies used on any website. With just a click, you can get detailed insights into the frameworks, libraries, content management systems, and more, providing valuable context when troubleshooting or researching new projects.

Lighthouse

Developed by Google, Lighthouse is a powerful tool for checking a website’s performance, accessibility, and SEO. With this extension, you can quickly generate reports that provide actionable recommendations to improve your site’s overall quality and user experience, ensuring that your project adheres to best practices.

Web Developer

The Web Developer extension equips your browser with a plethora of web design-related tools. It offers various features including DOM manipulation and CSS inspection to form control and responsive design testing. While it may seem more oriented towards developers, as a designer, understanding and using these features can facilitate a healthy collaboration with the development team.

CSSViewer

CSSViewer is a simple yet handy Chrome extension that allows you to inspect the CSS properties of any page element. By hovering over the desired element, you can instantly view its dimensions, fonts, colors, and other CSS properties, making it easier to debug and refine your designs.

Axe

The Axe extension assists in auditing your website for accessibility issues and offers practical guidance on addressing them. This tool is designed to eliminate false positive results, saving you time by focusing on genuine issues.

Bonus Pro Tip

For an additional productivity boost, consider using a Chrome extension like Tab Wrangler to automatically manage and close inactive tabs, reducing clutter and freeing up valuable system resources during your development sessions.

Once you’ve agreed that you need one, finding the right project management tool can be a daunting task. That’s why we’ve gathered some of the best options available right now to save you some of your valuable time. What follows are some of the best project management tools for freelancers we’ve found that you can start using right now, with either free or very affordable pricing.

Kosmo

Kosmo purports to be the best tool to manage clients, projects, invoicing, proposals, contracts, payments, and more, all in one place! It really sounds to good to be true, but based on our research, it actually is.

Features:

• Unlimited clients with contact information, related invoices, and projects
• Unlimited projects with goals, files, notes, and more
• Unlimited branded invoices
• Unlimited proposals and contracts that can be digitally signed
• Accept online payments via credit card, ACH transfer, Stripe, and PayPal, with payment tracking and reminders
• Time and task tracking that can be added to invoices easily
• Trackable income goals
• Recurring tasks
• Branded emails
• Reminders

For an overview of how it all works you can watch their excellent video.

Pricing

Here’s the best (and almost unbelievable) part: all of these features are absolutely free! We don’t know how they can offer this robust of a project management system for no cost to the user, but they do! The only way you will pay anything is if you want to remove the Kosmo branding and get priority support, which is also very affordable at a cost of $9 per month, and that plan is not even available yet. Still, you can utilize all of their features with your own branding and without limitations 100% free.

Conclusion

Honestly, we’ve never seen a free or even paid project management tool that incorporates all of these elements into a single system, much less do it so well. It’s seamless, intuitive, beautifully designed, and a huge time saver. To be clear, this is not a sponsored post, nor are we receiving any affiliate commissions or any other incentives to rave about Kosmo as much as we are – it’s simply too good to not share! The only caveat we can come up with is that it is a very new tool, so there will be more to come as it gets discovered and grows, but we can’t attest to its longevity at this point. That said, we’re already moving our projects into Kosmo as of this writing, so we can move away from using a variety of separate tools and apps that don’t necessarily integrate well together. In our opinion, Kosmo is the best project management tool for freelancers that is available right now.

ClickUp

ClickUp says it is “one app to replace them all”, and it doesn’t look like they are kidding! Projects and tasks, chat with clients and team members (if you have a team), goals, and customizable views are just a few of the features they offer yet another well-designed package. ClickUp is a much more complex system than Kosmo, which may or may not be suited to your needs, but if you want a vast amount of features and granular organization and control of every aspect of your work, then ClickUp may be a great tool for you.

Features and Pricing

Honestly, there are way too many features to list here, but you can check out their features page to view them all. here are some of the top level items available in the Free plan to give you an idea.

• 100MB Storage
• Unlimited Tasks
• Unlimited Members
• Two-Factor Authentication
• Collaborative Docs
• Whiteboards
• Real-Time Chat
• Email in ClickUp
• Kanban Boards
• Sprint Management
• Native Time Tracking
• In-App Video Recording
• 24/7 Support

From there, you can upgrade to the Unlimited plan for only $5 per month, which includes everything in the Free plan, plus the following:

• Unlimited Storage
• Unlimited Integrations
• Unlimited Dashboards
• Guests with Permissions
• Unlimited Gantt Charts
• Unlimited Custom Fields
• Teams (User Groups)
• Goals & Portfolios
• Form View
• Resource Management
• Agile Reporting

Conclusion

ClickUp is a massive, robust project management tool that rivals those used by large businesses, and, in fact, it has plans available to accommodate such use cases. For solo freelancers this may be too much, but if you are someone who really likes to dig deep into your project management, planning, and organization down to the finest details, then ClickUp could be your solution. We couldn’t find any invoicing or payment options, however, so if you’re looking to include invoicing in your project management tool, then ClickUp may not be right for you. Otherwise, for the highly detail-oriented freelancer, ClickUp offers just about everything you could possibly need at a very affordable (or even free) price!

Hectic

Hectic is another app that is similar to Kosmo, designed specifically for freelancers with a feature list to manage and grow your business in one place. Client management, proposals and contracts, accounting, invoicing, time tracking, a client portal, a mobile app, and more make Hectic an appealing project management solution.

Features and Pricing

The “Free forever” plan offers pretty much everything you need to get started, without any limits and the ability to upgrade as your business grows.

• Unlimited clients
• Client relationship management
• Project management
• Invoices & Subscriptions
• Accept online payments
• Proposals & Contracts
• Expenses & Accounting
• Forms
• Time tracking
• Calendar
• iOS & Android apps

If you want or need even more features, the next tier costs only $11.99 per month and includes everything in the free plan plus:

• Client portals
• Custom domain & emails
• Meeting scheduler
• Sales pipeline
• Collaborators
• Automated expense tracking

Conclusion

Hectic looks to be a freelancer’s project management dream. It is similar to Kosmo in what it has to offer, with additional features that may be more appealing to freelancers who need them. With all of this available for free or a low monthly price, it is easy to see why Hectic made our list.

Which project management tool is the best fit for you?

It’s pretty obvious in which direction we lean as our top pick, but each of these three offerings are great choices. It really depends on what your personal preference and use case is, and determining which one of these tools will best fit. Regardless of which one you choose, we know that utilizing one of these project management tools will help grow and significantly improve your freelance business, so be sure to try and pick one to start wrangling your projects, clients, and entire business under control.

In this article we’re going to show you what the new Creative Assistant is, what it does, and how easy it is to use it. Let’s get started!

What Is Mailchimp’s Creative Assistant?

Creative Assistant is the first AI-powered design tool in a major online marketing platform that makes beautiful multichannel designs for you. By simply entering your website’s URL, the AI gets to know your brand and then creates a Brand Kit along with unique, branded designs so you can build better marketing and grow your sales. It uses design best practices and AI to ensure your designs help drive engagement and are professional, beautiful and consistent across channels  —  but you still have the final say to easily make adjustments before publishing. It also resizes the designs based on the marketing channel you plan to use them on. In short, it’s pretty sweet!

How Does The Creative Assistant Work?

To show you how simple it is to start using the Creative Assistant, we decided to give it a try in our own Mailchimp account. Here’s how easy it was to get up and running.

First, we signed into our Mailchimp account, navigated to the Content Studio, entered our URL and clicked the button labeled “Show Me Designs”.

After a minute or two, this screen showed up:

As you can see, the AI grabbed our logo, Google fonts, brand colors, and an excerpt from one of our latest posts. It even managed to take our logo and create a white version for darker backgrounds (this setting can be tweaked in the Brand Kit that is also created). The stock image was pulled by the AI from Unsplash.

This was an impressive start, but we wanted to take this up a notch, so we clicked on the “Content” button in the top right and quickly changed out the text and images to get this:

Wow! That was quick! Now we have ready-made, professional designs that we can use across our marketing channels to promote this post. By clicking the dropdown next to the size we’re viewing, we could see the designs in various sizes, automatically generated for a number of marketing channels at the correct sizes. Check out some of the Instagram posts that were generated:

Color us impressed! There are also a variety of other sizes that the Creative Assistant can generate for Facebook posts and ads, Twitter, Linkedin, and much more. So instead of having to open up your favorite design software and create your own marketing assets for each platform every time, it can all be done quickly and easily for you all in one place. This can save us so much time!

Of course, you can also edit the style and designs of each of the assets created, and do the same with the Brand Kit that was generated. Here’s a look at the Brand Kit it created for us:

By clicking on any of the above assets we were able to edit them to our liking, changing colors, contexts, setting primary logo, and setting the Brand Personality. The changes we make are then used throughout our account in design assets and campaigns.

The Creative Assistant can also be used in other ways and other areas throughout Mailchimp. For instance, it can be used while editing a newsletter’s design. Look how, by simply clicking the Creative Assistant button within the newsletter editing page, the first screenshot was replaced by the second.

Before:

After:

Start Using This New Tool Today!

Obviously, the results of our experience with Mailchimp’s new Creative Assistant were beyond impressive. We will definitely be using it from now on and learning how our marketing efforts can benefit even more than this brief look has shown us. The Creative Assistant is currently in beta, but that doesn’t mean you can’t start using it today. As you’ve seen, it is already an important, time-saving, and unique tool to add to your marketing arsenal. If you’re already using Mailchimp, you must give this new feature a try. And if you’re not a current Mailchimp account holder, we strongly encourage you to get signed up – their pricing plans are inexpensive and they even have a free plan. So head on over and get started with Mailchimp’s Creative Assistant now!

Today, we’ll introduce you to the concept of WordPress maintenance mode as well as example scenarios for its use. Then, we’ll show you how easy it is to implement on your own website. Let’s get started!

What Is Maintenance Mode?

Changing a page or post within WordPress is a simple process. You can add, edit or delete content as needed. But there are cases when you need to do more – and it could have a negative impact on your site’s visitors.

Maintenance mode is built for these instances. Through the use of a plugin, it limits the general public’s access to the front end of your website. At the same time, it allows logged-in site administrators to view the website as usual.

This makes it extremely handy for implementing large or complex changes. Users who come to your website will see a customized screen, thus avoiding the possibility of experiencing a broken page or feature.

For developers, it provides peace of mind. You can complete your work without the fear of causing issues for users. When you’ve finished and tested the results, it’s easy to return to normal.

Potential Usage Scenarios

Routine changes, such as adding a new blog post or editing the contents of a page, won’t necessitate putting your website into maintenance mode. However, there are a number of scenarios where it may be appropriate:

eCommerce Websites

If you’re making significant changes to your WooCommerce shop, you probably won’t want customers browsing, adding items to their cart or completing orders. A customer caught in the middle of these updates could be charged incorrectly or encounter usability issues.

Online Courses

WordPress makes for a great learning management system, as you can use it to build interactive courses. But, just as with eCommerce, you won’t want to implement changes while students are in the middle of a course. This could hamper their progress – not to mention the potential for causing confusion.

Bug Fixes

This is also ideal for times when you’re performing actual maintenance. If, for example, a feature is broken and is rendering all or part of your site unusable, temporarily shutting it off from public view may be the best way to go.

Of course, there are a number of other scenarios where this tool could come in handy. Hopefully these examples provide some context as to when to implement it on your WordPress website.

Putting Your Website in Maintenance Mode

Now that we’ve covered what maintenance mode is and why you’d want to use it, let’s put it into action. Thankfully, it’s a fairly straightforward process.

1. Install the WP Maintenance Mode Plugin

There are a number of different WordPress plugins that enable the use of maintenance mode. They all have their own strengths, and it’s worth taking the time to find a good fit for your needs. But for our purposes, we’re going to use WP Maintenance Mode, a popular choice that offers all the basics.

To install it from the WordPress Dashboard, go to Plugins > Add New and search for “WP Maintenance Mode”. From there, install and activate the plugin.

2. Customize Your Maintenance Mode Screen

Next, it’s time to make sure that our maintenance mode screen looks good and provides the right information to users. To do so, let’s head over to Settings > WP Maintenance Mode.

Then, click on the Design tab to start customizing. WP Maintenance Mode lets us choose a heading, text, colors and a background for the screen. You can even upload a background image, if you like.

Once you’ve set things up the way you want, save the settings and then click on the Modules tab.

Among the available modules are a countdown timer, social media links and general contact info. Google Analytics may also be added here. There’s even a built-in method for users to input their email address and find out when the site is back online.

To keep things simple, we’ll just choose a countdown timer, add a couple social media links and contact info.

3. Testing It Out

Since we’re experimenting with a local install of WordPress, there’s no harm in checking out what our custom screen will look like.

We can turn on maintenance mode by visiting Settings > WP Maintenance Mode and making sure we’re within the General tab.

Here, we can choose to activate maintenance mode. In addition, there are options for defining which user roles can access the front and back ends (administrators always have access), how to handle search engines and more.

Remember, since administrators still have regular access to the website, you’ll need to log out in order to see things as a typical user would. Once we’ve done that, we can take a look at the results.

4. Return to Normal

Putting your website back to normal is quick and easy. Visit Settings > WP Maintenance Mode and make sure you’re within the General tab. Click the “Deactivated” radio button and save the settings. That’s all there is to it!

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A Helpful Tool for WordPress Maintenance

The great thing about utilizing a WordPress maintenance mode plugin is that it allows you to work on your website while keeping users out. This gives you room to make necessary changes while preventing any publicly viewable mishaps.

In addition, it’s incredibly easy to use. Set up a few options, activate maintenance mode and you’re good to go. Turning it off is just as quick.

Now that you have this handy addition to your toolbox, maintaining your WordPress website will be a little less stressful.

The good news is that the WordPress community has dealt with these issues too. That’s why a number of plugins have been developed to help you make quick work of even the most painful items on your to-do list.

Today, we’ll introduce you to a selection of plugins that you can use to rip through those tasks with ruthless efficiency. But don’t worry – you won’t have to tell your client how fast you did it. A developer needs a chance to kick back and relax, after all.

Enable Media Replace

We’ve all been there. An image or other downloadable file is uploaded to a WordPress site. Sometimes, that item is used in multiple places. When a change is required, it means hunting down every single instance. That’s exactly what Enable Media Replace intends to fix. It enables you to replace any file uploaded to the WordPress Media Library. In addition, it replaces each instance of it throughout your site. You can even rename the file.

Better Search Replace

There are times when a word, phrase or URL needs to be changed en masse throughout a website. It can take a whole lot of grunt work to find them all. That’s where Better Search Replace comes in to make quick work of the job. The plugin will search your database, even allowing you to select which tables to look in. From there, it will automatically replace each matching occurrence with the content of your choosing. Thankfully, the “Dry Run” mode lets you see changes before they are made.

Broadcast

Broadcast is a plugin built exclusively for sharing content within WordPress Multisite installations. Pages, posts, file attachments and more can be synced between websites. Update the “parent” content, and the changes will be automatically synced throughout the network. It even works with custom fields.

Simple History

If your website has multiple users making changes in the back end, it can be difficult to track down who made a particular change. Instead of asking everyone in a mass email, try installing Simple History. The plugin keeps track of all sorts of changes to content, plugins, menus and a whole lot more. It’s an easy way to keep tabs on what users are doing.

PW WooCommerce Bulk Edit

Running a WooCommerce shop can be a lot of work. And editing products is one of the most time-consuming tasks. PW WooCommerce Bulk Edit takes some of that pain away by enabling you to edit all of your products on a single screen. In-line editing means that you can click on a setting, like a product description or price, and make changes right then and there.

ACF Theme Code for Advanced Custom Fields

Advanced Custom Fields (ACF) is one of the most popular and powerful plugins for WordPress. You can use it to add all sorts of content and functionality to your website. But it does require writing code to get those fields to show up in your theme. ACF Theme Code can save you tons of time by generating that code for you. Copy and paste the generated code into your theme, then customize to meet your needs. Easy!

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Import and Export Users and Customers

Adding multiple users to your WordPress website can be time-consuming. Import and Export Users and Customers makes it easy, with the ability to import users via a CSV file. The plugin also works with WooCommerce, BuddyPress and a number of popular membership plugins. Need to export the entire list? That’s only a few clicks away as well.

TablePress

Talk about a tedious process. Creating HTML tables in WordPress the old-fashioned way means adding data cell-by-cell. TablePress has a better way. This free plugin allows you to import CSV or MS Excel files and turn them into tables. It also utilizes the DataTables JavaScript Library, allowing users to sort tables by column and a whole lot more.

Manage WordPress More Efficiently

The best WordPress plugins tend to make quick work of otherwise difficult tasks. That’s why the selections above are at the top of their class. They’re great at saving you time and eliminating that pesky grunt work. Plus, they may just save you from the sore wrists that accompany click after click of repetitive work.

The more you can streamline site management, the better. We hope these plugins will turbocharge your workflow.

Thankfully, we can handle the first part easily. Envato Elements is truly a one-stop resource for so many templates, themes, graphics, illustrations, photos, and more that you can use immediately in your work. Once you sign up, you gain access to thousands of items.

But if you’re not convinced, let’s talk about some of the ways you can use Envato Elements to make stellar online content starting immediately.

Build a Website Using a Template

If you’re creating online, you need a website. And Envato Elements makes it super easy to do this. It features a wide array of templates that make it easy to build and launch a site quickly. There’s no shortage of options as well, so you can choose anything from an HTML template to a full CMS template. Here’s the full breakdown of the types of templates offered here:

• HTML
• WordPress
• Drupal
• Joomla
• Magento
• Muse
• OpenCart
• PrestaShop
• Shopify
• Unbounce
• Ghost
• Tumblr

And within these options you can narrow your search by features (responsiveness, eCommerce, PSD files included) by focus (admin, landing page, or site) and topic (beauty, corporate, fitness, etc).

Create Presentations to Accompany Online Courses

If you want to offer or sell online courses, you may wish to create and share this content via presentations. This means you’ll need some solid templates on hand if you want to make a real impact. Lucky for you, Envato Elements offers these as well. You can select from templates for Keynote, PowerPoint, and Google Slides, all of which are super professional-looking and easy to use. Just download the template, add your custom content, and export it. That’s all there is to it.

The crux of the situation here is that you shouldn’t have to labor over these elements of your work if you don’t have to.

Create Graphics for Social Media

If you run a business online, you should have a social media presence. But yet again, that’s another thing you have to create consistent content for. If coming up with an endless supply of compelling graphics doesn’t sound fun to you, Envato Elements can help. Its graphic templates section is loaded with a wide variety of options including templates for infographics and logos.

They also have scene generators or mockups, which make it easy to display your product or app on a background that’s been carefully (and stylishly) presented.

You can pair these templates with some other resources as well like the selection of graphics available. You can select from graphics that encompass the following categories:

• Backgrounds
• Textures
• Patterns
• Icons
• Objects
• Illustrations

They also have a dedicated Social category that you can browse for social media platform specific templates.

As if all of that weren’t enough, there’s also a Photo category that includes thousands of photographs you can use for anything under the sun.

Make Explainer and Promotional Videos

The last thing we’ll discuss here today is how you can make videos using resources on Envato Elements. If you haven’t already dipped your toes into the video-making market, now’s the time. Video is extremely popular and it’s been proven to increase visitor engagement. Because of this, many opted to create promotional videos or explainer videos that describe something practical. And while you may need to film some footage yourself, having stock footage on hand is beneficial. Wouldn’t you know it that Elements has this as well?

Hundreds of thousands of stock videos and motion graphics are available to choose from to add to your creations.

Or, if you need a templated solution, there are thousands of video templates to pick from as well. They cover categories like:

• Logo stings
• Openers
• Product promos
• Titles
• Video Displays
• And more

And you can find specific options for the likes of After Effects, Premiere Pro, Apple Motion, and Final Cut Pro.

When you’re in edit mode, you can add in sound effects or music as well. The sky’s the limit here.

Don’t Wait to Start Creating

So you see, you really have no excuses not to start creating unique content for your online presence, whatever that may look like for you. From websites to videos, Envato Elements has you covered from top to bottom.

What will you create next?

Again, that’s why streamlining operations as much as possible is so important. You should be spending most of your work time completing assignments that make money. So, the more you can limit the time you need to spend on day-to-day operations the better. What follows are five tips and suggestions for streamlining your freelance workflow starting immediately.

1. Use a Project Management Tool

If you do nothing else on this list, setting up a project management tool alone will save you a ton of time. Why? Because these tools already eliminate the need for so many other apps and software.

For instance, some tools allow you to add projects, create milestones or tasks for each project, and assign tasks to other people. These tools are also helpful for organizing assignments, creating priorities, and tracking progress. The “at-a-glance” ability project management tools make it easy to see where you’re at on your projects, keep tabs on how projects are progressing, and manage all related files and communication.

The latter point is the most time-saving, in my opinion, because you’ll no longer have to hunt through emails to find that PDF a client sent over as a reference or the login information to someone’s WordPress site. It’ll all be stored safely in one spot for quick-access and reference at any time.

A few popular choices for project management tools include Trello, Asana, and Basecamp. Personally, I use Trello to keep track of my assignments, due dates, article specifications, and client information.

2. Streamline Communication

This ties into number one on our list but it warrants its own section. One of the things that can take up most of your time as a freelancer is correspondence. Responding to messages is time-consuming enough, but add in the actual wrangling of messages and you’ve got a huge time suck on your hands.

Many project management tools include chat or commenting features. However, if you need a live chat option, Slack is always a good choice. This app allows you to create channels for talking with clients and colleagues. With paid plans, you should be able to create dedicated channels for each of your clients. This makes it super easy to stay in touch and to ask questions (or answer them) quickly. It has an accompanying desktop and mobile app as well, so communicating is easy and intuitive.

Basically, if you want to free up some time, ditch emails for good.

3. Create a Project Scope Document for Each Project

Scope creep is a real problem for freelancers. And it happens all too often. You start out on a project with an idea of what it will entail. Cut to a few weeks later and you’re five rounds of edits in with no end in sight. When the scope of a project continually expands, you lose time and money.

To prevent this issue, take the extra time at the beginning of your projects to write up a quick project scope document. After having initial talks with your client, write out what you both agreed the project would involve. Send it to the client for review. Detail the number of revisions you’ll cover before additional fees are required.  After you both agree upon the document’s contents, you can begin working in confidence.

4. Automate Invoicing and Finances

Dealing with the financial part of your freelance business can be super time-consuming. But it doesn’t have to be if you use the right tools. First of all, don’t spend hours manually creating invoices each month to send out to your clients. Use templates, for starters. Or better yet, use an invoicing service like FreshBooks, Harvest, or Invoicely to create, manage, and send invoices. In fact, you can configure these services to automatically send your invoices on a given date each month to save you even more time.

All of this financial info is compiled in a straightforward way as well, so it can be exported into your financial tracking software or linked directly to it so the data is updated in real-time without you having to lift a finger.

5. Eliminate Guesswork in Creating Media

A major part of doing work online is creating media. Now, certainly those in the graphic design field will need to create a lot more media and images than those who aren’t. But the need for media and graphics applies across the board. From writers to videographers, the need for stock images and graphical elements remain.

To save time, you can use a reliable source of images for everything. A one-stop shop, if you will. For that, I like to use Envato Elements, which streamlines how I find templates and graphics to accompany articles. With it, I source hundreds of photos, graphics, and media templates, which is a huge time saver for everything from marketing to actual client work.

Once you get your resource materials, you can customize as you see fit. Many use something like Photoshop for this work, but something simpler like Canva is highly effective, too.

Make Your Freelance Workflow Easier

Hopefully you’ve found these five tips useful. With them, you can shave time off your freelance workflow and find ways to simplify how you do business. And at the very least, you’ll be more organized overall.

Best of luck to you!

That’s why we’ve done the hard part for you and sourced 16 pitch deck templates that offer real functionality and look great doing it. Each of these have a slightly different look that can be utilized for a wide range of businesses or projects.

Pitch Deck Keynote Presentation

This pitch deck offers a clean layout with a definitive style that can serve your presentation well. It’s got a lot of whitespace but plenty of key feature sections that can make your content stand out.

Nia Pitch Deck

The Nia Pitch Deck is lovely to look at. The layouts utilize angles to stunning effect to make your content look unique. It can be used for corporate work but skips the traditional boxy design.

Business Pitch Deck Keynote

Another option is the Business Pitch Deck Keynote. This one makes stunning use of a grayscale layout with colorful punctuation to make a statement.

Pitch Deck Powerpoint Template

If you’re looking for something clean, the Pitch Deck PowerPoint Template is a nice choice. Create bulleted lists, colorful charts, graphs, icons, and more.

Pitch Werk

Pitch Werk is another great option for making a presentation that makes an impact. Drop shadow effects on images, unique chart options, and image gallery layouts offer diversity in presentation.

Manola Pitch Deck Keynote Presentation

Or you can use the Manola presentation that offers an all-business pitch deck layout that gets your point across without being boring.

Lyon – Presentation Deck Template

The Lyon pitch deck is super simple but has the benefit of offering plenty of color options for backgrounds, text, and charts.

Pitch Deck Powerpoint Template

Your pitch deck will look professional and sophisticated if you use this option. It offers interesting design elements, however, that make it stand out. Check out the angular graphics on that pricing table slide, for instance.

Matrix – Minimal Powerpoint Presentation Template

If a darker look is more your thing, the Matrix PPT is lovely. Use full-width images, add delicate overlaid text and icons and more to get the effect you want.

Startup Pitch Deck Presentation

The Startup Pitch Deck Presentation offers plenty of colorful backgrounds, text options, and stylized numbering and graphics to keep your audience engaged.

Pitch Deck

The Scofe Pitch Deck is corporate-looking, with lots of whitespace, room for charts and maps, as well as a unified color story.

Pitch Deck Powerpoint Template

Another option worth checking out is this Pitch Deck PowerPoint Template. With curved graphical elements and interesting image segmentation, your presentation will be as engaging as it is informative.

Pitch Deck Keynote Template

This option includes 32 slides with a variety of style and layout choices. Include images, statistics, maps, charts and graphs, image overlays, bullet points, and more.

Spielburg – Pitch Deck

Still another choice is this Spielburg pitch deck. Its large, bold headings make it easy for your audience to stay abreast of the topic at hand. In addition, the easy flow of information is concise and attractive.

Bright Pitch Deck Keynote

You may also wish to consider the Bright Pitch Deck, which uses bold and bright colors to draw you in. Who ever said presentations have to be boring?

Fintech Startup Pitch Deck Presentation

Last on our list is the Fintech Startup Pitch Deck Presentation. This one offers bright, solid color to engage the eye, all while using subtle color variants to overlay text boxes, charts, and graphics. This one uses the best of web design to create a familiar presentation layout that works.

Getting Started with Pitch Deck Templates

Pitch deck templates can help you immensely when trying to put together a presentation that appeals to your target audience. Without it, you’ll be tasked with spending a lot of time custom designing something when you could be spending that time carrying out other operations of your company.

Hopefully, this collection of pitch deck templates will guide you toward an option that suits your needs and truly best represents what you’re about.

Just carving out a space of your own can be tough. Then there are the struggles associated with scheduling, communication and trying not to alienate your household. It’s uncharted territory for sure.

But just because working from home is novel to you doesn’t mean you get a pass on productivity. There are still things that need to get done and bills to pay.

Today, we’ll share some tips to help you get the most out of that new home office.

Declare Your Space

The first part of the equation is in finding a place to work. This depends so much on your living situation.

Ideally, you’d already have an office setup or at least a spare room. Even a basement or an attic will do, provided they have the amenities you need.

In these cases, working from home becomes that much easier. A little bit of isolation can be a good thing as it helps you to focus on work without interruption. But this is not the case for everyone.

You might instead be stuck trying to write code at the kitchen table (complete with kids and pets running about). What then?

It’s going to be tough, but you have to make the best of the situation. You’ll have to claim some space for work purposes – at least during working hours. Set some guidelines for others and (kindly) help them understand your needs.

The important thing to remember is that this isn’t going to be perfect. Adjusting to a new working space is a process and will take some time. Eventually, it will start to feel more comfortable.

Set a Schedule, Create a Routine

Because you’re now working in a completely different environment, your daily rituals are bound to be thrown into disarray. The more distractions at home, the more wayward your schedule becomes.

Still, you’ll want to dedicate blocks of time exclusively to getting things done. It may not be the same as what you were used to. You might even have to split your workday into multiple shifts to accommodate children. There’s absolutely no shame in it. Clients and colleagues alike are probably facing similar situations.

Flexibility is going to be key in this area. Staying rigid and expecting things to go exactly as they did in your old office is going to be stressful. Instead, focus on what works best for you and your family. If you have to take a couple of hours off in the middle of the day, so be it.

That being said, look to establish consistency where you can. That means doing the same things at the same time each day, when possible. This will at least get you into a daily rhythm – which is a huge help when you have a job that requires creativity.

Stock up on Supplies

Web design and development can be done from just about anywhere. Yet, transitioning to a home-based office may require some sacrifices when it comes to hardware and software.

If you work for an agency, they may provide you with a powerhouse desktop computer and all the high-end apps you need. Out of the office, you might well be on your own to some degree.

This is actually a pretty big deal. We often set up our workflows in very specific ways. A disruption here means using unfamiliar tools with less-powerful devices to run them. There’s a certain amount of frustration that goes along with the territory.

Therefore, workflow may be the one area where mimicking your physical office makes the most sense. Even if you don’t necessarily have access to the same level of hardware, grab as many of your go-to apps as possible.

The familiarity will help you accomplish tasks without having to search out completely new methods.

Let the Positives Inspire You

Well, maybe you are stuck working on your couch and it’s far from ideal. But what are the bright spots? Perhaps your pet is by your side. Or your little one is drawing you a picture. There are still reasons to smile.

Sometimes, it’s all too easy to dwell on how we think things should be. That doesn’t lend itself to productivity, though.

Instead, look for the good things about your situation – no matter what they are. Something as simple as getting to listen to the music you want can stir up creative energy. The same can be said for taking the laptop out into the backyard.

Working from home is actually a pretty great opportunity. It’s a way to look at things through a different lens. And you may just find out why so many web designers prefer it to a brick-and-mortar office. There’s a certain freedom that you can’t get anywhere else.

What follows is 12 New Year’s resolutions for web designers that you can commit to at the outset of 2020 and carry with you for the rest of the year.

1. Step Out of Your Comfort Zone

“New year, new me.” That means different things to different people. But if you’re a web designer, it should be don’t be afraid to take risks. Grow your skills. Try new things. Branch outside of your niche. Be bold!

2. Update Your Portfolio

The start of the new year is always a good time to set aside a moment to update your portfolio. Make sure it shows your current best work. Oh, and don’t forget to update your resume, too.

3. Learn a New Skill

No, not a web design skill. Something completely unrelated to web design. That’s going to mean different things to different people. Maybe you try watercolors for the first time. Or take up piano. Maybe you take a stab at writing. Whatever it is, building a new skill is vital for keeping your brain sharp.

4. Clean Your Desk

This applies to anyone who works in an office or who has a workspace but committing thet time to clean your desk is well worth the effort. Having a cluttered desk can be a real demoralizing so start the new year off on the right foot and clean it up!

5. Share With the Web Design Community

Start a blog. Or contribute articles to other blogs. Create an online course that you offer for free or for a premium. Speak at an industry conference or meetup. Whatever you decide to do, pour your heart into it. Share what you’ve learned in your years as a professional. Give back.

6. Be Picky

You don’t need to take on every client that comes your way. Some won’t be financially worth your while. Others will drain your time, energy, and leave you with nothing to show for it. If you do nothing else “new” this year, let it be eliminating vampiric clients from your roster.

7. Set Up a Workflow

If you don’t have a dedicated workflow process, now is the time to create one. Basically, evaluate how you currently do work, keep what works, toss what doesn’t, and encapsulate the best into a written-down how-to guide that you can give to subcontractors and clients, alike. Make working for/with you easy for everyone — most of all, yourself.

8. Give Your Website a Makeover

Too often those who work in web design don’t dedicate the proper time to update their own websites. Make sure your site is the best reflection of your current skill set before you click “update”

9. Keep Organized

If you struggle with organization, there’s no time like the top of the year to prioritize it. This means organizing your receipts, paying your quarterly taxes on time, and creating (and using) calendars so you can track all deadlines with ease.

10. Avoid the Urge to be Trendy

Sure, they’re fun to experiment with but hopping on every bandwagon will leave your work lacking style and ultimately looking dated fast. Pass on following every trend and instead opt for educating your clients about what works and what doesn’t.

11. Avoid Procrastination

For many, this means cutting down on social media usage. Maintaining a social media presence is good for business, and some leisurely scrolling is fine, too. But too much, and you’ll find that your deadlines are in jeopardy for no good reason. Balance is key.

12. Invest in Photography

Stock photography can be very useful and Adobe Stock offers a 30-day trial and 10 free images. However, don’t rule out hiring a photographer to represent your brand and business. If nothing else, have real photos taken of you and your office space to lend real personality to your business website.

Get Started with Your 2020 New Year Resolutions

We’re a week or two into the new year but it’s not too late to make a resolution and stick to it. In fact, if you’re reading this in June, you can still make a resolution. After all, resolutions are just goals. So why don’t you go ahead and make some and see where your hard work takes you?