12.05.2021

Our vision & purpose

ZimTik was built after the realization, that while I enjoyed freelancing tremendously, most of my colleagues had very varied experiences where those that weren't really happy, had one thing in common: They didn't have a good steady flow of work.

Personally, I've never had any trouble finding new clients and its not because I'm particularly charming or do a lot of sales - In fact its mostly this: If someone mentions a possible gig, I followed up with that person routinely. If there's no deal to be made, I move on quickly, otherwise I check in routinely. This is why ZimTik starts you off in the pipeline. Add every prospect and job you've heard of and set a date for next follow up, we'll remind you when it's time.

Any pipeline entry that ends in a sale, is directly convertible to an active task that you can estimate, time-track and eventually invoice.

Faster than Excel & more powerful

Many systems exist to handle both CRM/Pipelining and tasks but to understand our approach, I'll have to relate a story from 2012. I was hired to streamline the sales process at media company. They had made various attempts at systematizing the entire workflow, but somehow it never had the impact they intended. When I was introduced to their complex Sales Force set-up, I knew why. Gaining an overview was hard, updating cases on the fly was too time-consuming and at the end of the day, every sales rep had concluded that they would make more money but using notes and spreadsheets, instead of Sales Force.

Instead of changing their workflows, I decided to augment them. I created a very simple shared spreadsheet, where you could punch in your client, a date, deal title, total value and a percentage indicating in which phase the sale was. The entire data-entry job took each sales rep approximately 15 seconds per deal, which was low enough that everyone started using it without any objections. The added value was of course, that I could now make predictions across all pipelines and it sparked some positive competition.

This insight has driven every design choice in ZimTIk. Nothing should take more than 15 seconds and everything you track in ZimTik allows us to add value to your workflow.

Freelancers most common pitfall

The second part of our vision also relates to obtaining a steady workflow. The most common mistake I see freelancers make, is that they don't get paid for every hour they work. When you're in the zone, the only hours you can't invoice are those spent on sales and the price you quote should in some way reflect the effort you had to put into the sales process - But that's a bigger topic.

You'll find that ZimTik is opinionated in the sense, that unless you chose otherwise tasks and invoices are based off the actual work you've done, not the original estimate. If you cap the price at your original estimate, then it was never an estimate but a fixed price quote. Fixed price quotes are of course fully acceptable, some clients require them, but as a rule of thumb you should add 10 - 20% to your estimates when you convert to a fixed price. We ensure these decisions are made with open eyes for both parties, the seller and the buyer.

One of the ways we created transparency is that we offer a way to estimate an entire project using 3 datapoints: Optimistic, Realistic and Pessimistic. Once filled in, we'll calculate a weighted average where we value the realistic case 6x that of the optimistic view, but only twice as much as the pessimistic view. That means that your estimates will likely err on the high side, which is what you want. Once you've completed your estimates, you can invite the client to view the estimates and all of your notes. The client will see the estimates, the estimated cost (based on that clients hourly rate) and they will be able to approve tasks directly in that interface. Approved tasks are converted to active tasks.

Our purpose is your success

We want all freelancers to win big in the Gig economy. If your ambitions is to make millions, we'll make that easier. If you simply want to maximize time with your family while earning a decent wage, we support that too. If you've taken the bold step to go freelance, our purpose is to support you on that journey and make sure you find success, whatever that may be for you.

As a final note: We're a "No strings attached" kind of company. Not only is your subscription without any binding, you can cancel at anytime. But we also safe-guard your data vigilantly and permit zero tracking on our site - No analytics, no fingerprinting, nothing.