Before we drill down into Harpoon's specific features (the fun stuff), let's take this blog post to first define our target audience. Who is Harpoon for? And where does it fit among the existing suite of freelance business tools?
Harpoon is a financial management and planning tool built for freelancers who run service-based businesses. This would include any type of contractor or consultant, marketers, designers, developers, writers, photographers, entrepreneurs, etc. Any freelancer who gets paid by their clients to provide a service fits the description.
The Existing Landscape
There are a bunch of fantastic financial tools out there already. And for the most part these financial tools can be grouped into two main categories: tools that help you interact with clients, and tools that help you interact with accountants. The client tools provide features like invoicing, estimates, proposals, time-tracking, etc. Apps like Harvest, FreshBooks, Ballpark, Planscope, and Bidsketch would fit into this category. The accounting tools are the ledger-based financial record-keeping apps that help you work with your accountant. This would include apps like LessAccounting, Xero, Outright, QuickBooks, etc. (I realize some of the above tools crossover into both categories, but you get the picture.)
Where Does Harpoon Fit?
So where does Harpoon fit into the landscape? Are we competing with the apps in either one of the above categories? The short answer is no. Harpoon isn't a client interaction tool, and it certainly isn't built for your accountant. Instead it's built for YOU, the freelancer, the one who's running the business. Harpoon provides a unique view of your finances that your accountant might not care about, but it's a view you as the business owner should care deeply about. It's a financial view which will enable you to make intelligent decisions about the direction of your business. You could call Harpoon a financial decision-making tool. It's high level. It's revenue-focused. It's lightweight. Harpoon will promote you from simply being your company's bookkeeper to being its chief financial officer. In short Harpoon empowers the freelancer to run their business like a business.
Over the next few blog posts we'll be revealing some of Harpoon's main features, with the goal of whetting your appetite and getting your feedback. If you'd like to be first in line to try out Harpoon please sign up on our mailing list!
