Startup Idea: Collaborative Editing and Invoice Management for Freelance Writers
Industry Writing
Submission 1 I work in the freelance writing industry.
Usually, when a client requests work they also want "milestones" sent over in order to evaluate the progress of your work. Sometimes this gets tricky because of different formats such as word, doc, or pdf for example. PDF is usually the safest format to send work in because it does not change the look of the work.
However, it can not be edited. So, the client usually reads it and then tries to summarize their notes and ideas through a message.
A lot can get lost this way, and generally the client forgets things they wanted me to change and there is a lot of back and forth and wasted time.
If the freelance writing programs such as Upwork and Freelancer had a software that allowed work to be submitted in a unanimous format and allowed comments within the text of the work that would save a lot of time and make it easier for the writer/client.
Submission 2 I am a freelance writer, and I would really like to have a tool that would somehow merge with my word processing software (MS Word) to help me keep track of which client a document is being written for and then automatically keep a tally regarding how many documents I have written for a given client at a set price or pop up and allow me enter into it how much I will get paid for the current document.
I know this can all be done using Excel, etc. but I want something that makes it all happen automatically from within Word, without me having to create macros or whatever.
I just want Word and the app to keep track of what I have done up to a given point for a given month.
That would mean I could just ask it how much I have made, and it would tell me. Ideally, by connecting somehow with Cortana.
I could just ask Cortana, from my phone, for example, it it could tell me because it has all been connected together somehow in some super easy, super transparent way that allows me to concentrate on getting new work, writing, and submitting.
I guess it would be cool if the system also automatically generated an invoice for each client as well. If it could do all that, I would have SO much less busywork to do each month, and probably could be doing more of the work I am being paid to do.
I would think with more and more people going into working as stringers, that apps like this would sell enough to make it worth the cost of developing it.