A Thorough Look At Honeybook And Dubsado. Which Is Best For Your Design Business

Whether you’re starting your design business or you’ve been established for years, you need a client relationship management system (CRM) that works for you. Let’s take a look at what a CRM has to make your life easier before we look at two of the best CRMs to decide which platform works best for you. 

What is a CRM?

A client relationship management system (CRM) is a system designed to manage your relationship with clients from lead to reflection. You set up your CRM to sit in the background of your business until it’s needed, automatically running as you want it to. Your CRM is integrated on your website to capture and nurture leads. It will send emails and guides to potential new clients and send proposals, quotes, invoices, reminders, and more to clients. 

A CRM will have

• Email templates

• Online contracts and e-signatures

• Payment processing (secure payments directly from bank accounts or credit cards)

• Gratuity acceptance (cha-ching!)

• Project calendars

• Note-taking and checklists for each project

• Organized finances (QuickBook integration)

• Business statistics (booked leads, total income, etc.)

• Great support teams in case you need help

There are so many options out there, but for designers like myself, there are two that are leaps above the others: Dubsado and HoneyBook. Both are worthwhile investments, but it’s up to you to decide which works best for you. 

Dubsado

Dubsado is best if you need a robust system with full automation and customization. If you’re not afraid of a comprehensive system that takes time to set up and to learn, Dubsado might be right for you. Some of the features that Dubsado excels at are listed below.

• Fully automated workflows. With everything you can do in Dubsado, it's extremely easy for you to start a workflow and never look back. The system automatically checks to see if a payment was made, if a form was completed, and if a meeting was scheduled. With this level of automation, you won't have to stop and help it unless you absolutely want to.

• Embedded images and code into forms. This feature is great for reviewing artwork and gaining feedback all in one document in one place. With everything in one place, you save time and effort. 

• Customization. You can fully customize all of your client-facing materials with Dubsado. Your forms, proposals, contracts, invoices, and client portal are completely customizable, so you can fully brand every aspect of your CRM. All aspects are also white-labeled, so clients will not see Dubsado labels. Dubsado makes you look like the professional you are. 

• Scheduling and integration. The embedded scheduler fits into the workflows, so you don't have to use any additional third-party apps. Dubsado does, however, integrate well with other apps if you want to stick to what you are familiar with. (Note: I still use Acuity and link it to my Dubsado via Zapier. I like that Acuity automatically creates a Google Meet meeting for me whenever a meeting is scheduled. I love reminders!)

Perhaps the biggest complaint I see about Dubsado has been that it’s overwhelming. There are so many features and so many options that many designers feel they are wasting money on a system that they aren’t going to use all of the features of. I get that. If you don’t need them, don’t use them. But if you want to start simpler, check out HoneyBook. 

HoneyBook

HoneyBook's interface is personable and fun to use. If you’re looking for an intuitive system that can be set up for you, HoneyBook might be what you’re looking for. Some of the features that HoneyBook excels at are listed below.

• Interactive brochures. HoneyBook has these interactive brochures that are as clever as they are clean. These brochures items are listed like a table of contents for potential clients to build their proposal. Clean, simple, and easy to use, clients can click on an item to learn about that product or service before adding it to their package. It can be fully customized to fit your business and your brand. This is a new feature for HoneyBook, but it's amazing.

• Beautiful and friendly interface. You will want to log into HoneyBook because of the interface. Beyond being easy to use and simple, the at-a-glance overview is amazing. You can see everything about a project from the dashboard. You can see what stage a project is in, tasks, time tracked, notes, and everything else you want to see quickly. As a bonus, each time you log in, HoneyBook has a cute inspirational message to cheer you on. I’ve logged in a few times just to see the different messages for some encouragement to get me through the day. 

• Attachment library. Your attachment library is a neat and tidy way to see everything associated with clients. Inside a project, you can click on the Library tab to see every attachment and form you've sent the client. Photos, pdfs, invoices, questionnaires, and forms are all automatically saved to your client's library, which they can also access. They don't have to search through emails for important information and neither do you.

• Automation and support. Setting up systems can be overwhelming. If workflows are new to you, the automation in HoneyBook is simple enough to understand and create. If you’re struggling, you can also access their amazing customer service. They are always quick to respond to questions. HoneyBook even offers a concierge service to set up your CMS for you in the beginning. They also call quarterly to survey clients about what they could be doing better. 

Perhaps the biggest complaint I see about HoneyBook is the limitations. They require more hands-on focus, and you may need an added system or integration that HoneyBook does not offer. HoneyBook makes sense for designers who are just starting, but if you’re more established or looking to manage a larger business, Dubsado might be the right choice.

Final Thoughts

Dubsado and HoneyBook are both amazing CRMs that will help your design business. Try out both systems with their free trials to figure out which system is right for you. 

Feeling nervous or overwhelmed? Schedule a systems strategy session to ask targeted questions and get answers specifically pertaining to your business.