Designers Deserve a Better CRM

 

When I first got started as a brand and web designer way back in 2016, I quickly realized just how important project and client management are. Even though I had went to school for graphic design and felt pretty talented, I still needed a way to keep my design business organized. Because let’s be honest some of us creatives can be kind of messy when it comes to the business stuff! We would love to spend all day, sketching, logos, and curating color palettes. But unfortunately, running a successful design business also requires some not-so-fun admin tasks.

This is where a CRM comes in! And if you aren’t familiar with that acronym, it stands for “Customer Relationship Management”. A CRM is essentially a platform or software that can help you manage all of the different interactions that you might have with clients before and while working with them. Like sending proposals, setting up invoices, contracts, project timelines, and so much more.

Over the past nine years, I have tried so many CRMs trying to find the best one out there. I’ve tried the cheap ones. I’ve tried the expensive ones. I’ve tried the ones just meant for designers. I’ve tried the ones meant for any type of creative freelancer. And some of them are totally fine! They got the job done and it was better than nothing.

But of all the CRMs that I have tested, I’ve never found one that I felt truly meet the needs of brand and web designers. They’re usually too clunky and poorly designed, causing both the designer and their clients to not enjoy using it. OR the features just aren’t good enough. Many CRMs will do one or two things well and the rest feels like an afterthought. Maybe the client management side is great, but the task management side is useless. And don’t even get me started on the ugly client portals. 🙄

So after so many years of not being satisfied with my client or project management set up, I decided enough was enough. It was time to actually create something better! And if nobody else was gonna create what I wanted, then it might as well be me. So let me tell you about it ↴

My Vision for Tezzera – A (Better) CRM for Designers

01. It’s not for everyone. It’s just for designers.

Because one of the biggest mistakes that I think other CRMs make is trying to serve anyone and everyone. When you go too broad, the features end up being more generic and less tailored to what users actually need. That’s why Tezzera will be super specific to the brand packaging and web design process.

02. It’s going to prioritize customization and creativity.

Because as designers, we want to make things look pretty and on brand, right? We don’t want our client experience to feel like a basic Google form. Tezzera is going to give designers more creative control over how their client experience looks. Designers will be able to upload their own brand fonts, color palettes and apply those across the entire platform. Tezzera will also come with beautifully designed section templates and layouts that can be used in proposals, presentations and feedback forms. Elevating designers’ client experience to reflect their unique design style.

03. It’s going to finally merge the best of client and project management.

No more paying for multiple apps! Tezzera will truly be an all in one solution for you to do it all:

• Send contracts 

• Prepare invoices with automated payment plans and the ability to choose from international currencies

• Send digital proposals

• Schedule client meetings and sync them with your Google Calendar, Zoom, and Google Meet

• Get detailed reports on your inquiries and booking rate

• A simplified client portal that actually looks good and clients will be excited to use

• A task board to organize your project timelines and keep projects on track (including timeline templates for different types of design projects – from branding to packaging to web design – so you can set up new projects in one click)

• The ability to hide tasks from clients, allowing you to keep internal tasks and client facing tasks all in the same project.

• A built-in time tracking tool that allows you to track your time straight from a task and then instantly generate an invoice based on that tracked time (for those projects that end up, including lots of little extra deliverables so you can make sure you get paid for everything you do)

• And so much more!

Designers already have so much on their plates. It’s about time there was a CRM that really met our needs and allowed us to (dare I say) enjoy the admin side of running a design business??

Tezzera is coming very soon.