Julien Jobard started his own small business, Appartement 303, a few years ago. Appartement 303 is a creative and graphic studio based in Metz in the East of France. Julien has been using Billings Pro since the early days of his company and later integrated Daylite into his workflow as well.
We interviewed Julien to learn how Daylite and Billings Pro have helped him save time and grow his business.
Tell us about Appartement 303 and what you specialize in.
Julien Jobard: Appartement 303 is a creative and graphic studio based in Metz, in the east of France. Our job is to bring a touch of creativity and dynamism to your communications. We help our clients to design their branding: logo design, print (business cards, flyers, leaflets, catalogs) as well as digital media (websites, e-commerce, mobile apps).
What made you want to start your own business?
Julien: After a dozen years as a graphic designer in ads agencies in France and in Luxembourg, I had the desire to create my own company to support my clients in my own way. It was also a way to return to work in my country and work closer to my home, my family, and my friends. Appartement 303 was born in November 2013. There were different steps that brought us to where we are today. I started by working at home. Then it became apparent that I needed a location for meeting with clients. The amount of work increased, and a new member joined the team in July 2015. So there are two of us at this time.
What were some of the problems you experienced that caused you to look for solutions like Billings Pro and Daylite?
Julien: In the early days of our company, we were seeking an application that would manage our quotations and billings on Mac. We wanted a solution that we could use on our servers that would be accessible from all our devices. Being sensitive to Ergonomics and design, we wanted to have a simple, functional, customizable, and fun-to-use tool. Billings Pro is obviously the app for the job!
As our client portfolio grew, I needed a CRM that was able to sync with Billings Pro. I immediately looked into Daylite, and was convinced after testing it out in trial mode.
What did you initially love about Billings Pro?
Julien: I appreciate the recurring invoice feature in Billings Pro. Also the ability to customize the app to reflect our profession’s way of working.
How do you use Billings Pro and Daylite?
Julien: For us, Billings Pro was first and foremost a billing software. I integrated it directly in order to manage different billing types (one shot or recurring invoices). It wasn’t long before I was handling the invoice templates!
Daylite allows me to take my notes directly in the customer sheet! No more lost post-it notes or a note left on a table! It also integrates easily with Apple Mail.
Recently, I set up workflows for my projects. As the team of Appartement 303 widens, Daylite will be used at different workstations.
How have Billings Pro and Daylite changed the way you work?
Julien: These two applications have helped me make a lot of headway in my business workflow. Their ease of use and Mac OS and iOS optimization saves me time. I also appreciate the responsiveness of the support team who help me to optimize my tools. Using apps like Billings Pro and Daylite lets us focus on our real job– graphic design.
How does Daylite fit into your workflow of managing projects?
Julien: I added Daylite to my work method six months ago. I’ve set up my first workflows for some projects. I am testing them before deploying them for all my current and future projects. So far, it has been very effective!
At this time, I link tasks and notes to my clients. I’m just testing some projects and Pipelines in Daylite.
What I like is going to appointments and taking notes on either an iPad or laptop, then back at the office, creating tasks and having a full overview. When I set up Pipelines for all of our projects, it will become interesting in terms of time savings!
