I am going to start using Facebook Live. Haven’t tried it out yet. I tried Periscope and liked it but I could not save the videos to my phone for some reason so gave up on it. So I’m going to call it one of my favourite tools, because I watch a lot of people using it now, but this is a blind recommendation (for once!). Maybe I’ll circle back in a week or two and tell you my favourite things about it! 🙂 See you there!
Dropbox is a cloud filing system I use in my business every day and I could never be without it! Dropbox allows you to save documents to a folder in the cloud as well as on your computer so you can access them anywhere. You can also share the files you want with clients or colleagues or even the general public. A couple of years ago I moved my entire business filing system into Dropbox so I can literally work from anywhere just by logging in. And the neat thing about Dropbox is that you can earn extra storage when you invite people to join. The price of about $100 per year is more than worth it for me for Dropbox… Read More »Favourite Tools for VAs: Dropbox
Roundcube Webmail is one of my favourite tools to access email anywhere. If you are like me, you have several clients and they all want to set up an email address for you so you can communicate with them and their clients. I used to set these folks up in my Gmail, until my Gmail got filled up. Now I choose to access their email from Roundcube, a web-based program, and that means I can log in when I need to, to work directly on their stuff. It is liberating for me and it is a super easy way to keep things organized, since only that email information is contained in the webmail program. Sometimes simple really is best. I… Read More »Favourite Tools for VAs: Roundcube Webmail
Zapier is an automation service that allows you to connect two unrelated programs, so that they can work together. For instance, when someone signs up for a Go to Webinar event, you can have Zapier ‘talk to’ Aweber so that your registrant automatically gets added to a list in Aweber, and can then get your follow up sequences. There are a lot of different programs that you can integrate with Zapier. They have a free level as well as a premium levels depending on the programs you want to integrate. Some free ones include: Facebook, Twitter, Trello, Google Sheets, Paypal, Slack, Google Calendar, Mailchimp, Evernote, WordPress, Asana, Office 365,. Gmail, and so much more. Another few examples: – publish a… Read More »Favourite Tools for VAs: Zapier
Audacity is a free audio editing software that I use a lot in my business. My clients record their training calls and Audacity makes it very simple to edit the audio to add new sections, take out what we don’t want, and even merge two audios together. It’s an invaluable tool for me, because it helps me provide an add-on service for my clients. I also use it to do all of my own audio work. I really enjoy it! It’s got a lot of other great features too, like a sound mixer and audio recording software. I use it very simply in my business. 🙂 It is very easy to use too. What more could you ask for? Check it… Read More »Favourite Tools for VAs: Audacity
Square is such a handy payment tool. If you want to take credit cards in your business, it’s a simple solution whether you are doing business in person or over the Internet. It’s a simple device & app for your smartphone that allows you to process orders and send receipts to your customers. The money you collect gets deposited to your bank account the following day, making it faster than Paypal. The fee is slightly higher – about 3% – but can be worth it if you are at a live event or in my case this week Paypal wouldn’t accept my client’s credit card. (Paypal makes up its own rules sometimes!) So I ran it through my Square without… Read More »Favourite Tools for VAs: Square
Office 365 is one of the indispensable tools that I use in my business. Almost everyone uses a software package like this in our line of business, and when I discovered Office 365 I bought it and never looked back at an actual program install again! Office 365 Business costs only about $10 / month and you get desktop and web versions of all of the MS Office Suite of products for web and mobile. The versions are always kept up to date, and you can install on 5 devices for that price. It’s crazy! And you get 1 TB of storage space online too – so everything is in the cloud and you can access anything you need anywhere. So… Read More »Favourite Tools for VAs: Office 365
Timetrade is an online scheduling system that I have been using for many years. It’s a simple way for your clients (or anyone!) to book an appointment with you, without the back and forth emails that usually take place trying to find a time that suits both parties. Timetrade allows you to set up available appointments in your calendar, and it syncs with Google Calendar so you can block times easily if you have other appointments. I love the ability to enter recurring availability too, so I am not constantly updating my calendar. My time is valuable, and so is that of the people I do business with. Timetrade is a tool that I can’t do without in my business. And for… Read More »Favourite Tools for VAs: Timetrade