If you’re wondering how a Virtual Assistant can stay organized and on task or if you’re looking to get organized and stay on task yourself as a small business owner, you’ve come to the right post!
As the top Virtual Assistant in Santa Clarita Valley I am always searching the internet for online tools that will keep my business staying productive and keep my client projects on task and on-time.
I have put a list together with in-depth descriptions of my favorite top 5 online tools I use as the top Virtual Assistant in Santa Clarita Valley.
“ It’s not the tools that you have faith in – tools are just tools. They work, or they don’t work. It’s the people you have faith in or not.” ~ Steve Jobs
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Asana https://app.asana.com
Asana is a project management tool within google apps that in my opinion, far exceeds any of the team project management programs I’ve used in the past. I use Asana for my personal projects as well as my Virtual Assistant client projects. This app is free for up to 15 teams. After that you can go as high as $8.33 per month billed annually. The secret for me is: The definition of team for a Virtual Assistant is client. So I can have up to 15 clients and as many team members assigned to each client as needed for free. There are integrations within Asana that can be used such as Harvest which is a time tracker, so that each project and task can be timed and a timesheet is created for billing and client purposes. Google Docs can be uploaded and shared with clients and team members. Asana also has a mobile app for iOS and android. It eliminates the dreaded email inbox that is busting at the seams. Each Client can have several projects with tasks attached to each project. In Asana the clients and team members can comment on each project and task. You decide what notifications you want to come to your email inbox.
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Dropbox https://dropbox.com
Dropbox is a file sharing tool that can be synced to your computer and/or your mobile device. This is a Virtual Assistants dream. You can invite clients and colleagues to a share a file. I use Dropbox for large media files. Dropbox gives you 5GB for FREE. After that it goes up to $8.25 a month for individuals and $12.25 for Teams. This is 1T of storage. Obviously the more you pay, the more you get. It is easy to use and serves as a good backup for files.
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Google/Gmail, Calendar and Drive https://google.com
I use Gmail to send and receive emails from all my email accounts. I absolutely love the Gmail security. It detects viruses and suspicious incoming emails and will warn you by the google Gmail team. I was able to pop my .com & .net email addresses into google and create labels and folders and a color coding system. I can re-direct emails to specific folders automatically, or I can do it manually. I have a very organized inbox, and all I need to do is read and respond to the most important emails daily.
Google Calendar is another must have in my office. First and foremost, as a Virtual Assistant I work out of my home, I need to keep a very tight schedule. I am able to schedule my day and share that with my children and my husband so they know mom’s at a networking event, or mom is working do not disturb.
That’s just on the personal side. On the business side, I never miss an appointment with a client, a networking event, or a community event. I can also share my calendar with my team members. I also have clients that share their google calendars with us, so we can schedule appointments for the client and create reminders for the client’s appointments.
Google drive formerly google docs is another “I can’t live without” Google drive has taken the place of Microsoft word and Excel. I can create Word Docs and share with team member and clients. I can create spreadsheets and team members and clients can change/update as needed. It is cloud based therefore the doc is always in my shared files unless I move it to my personal files. These docs upload nicely to Asana without a fuss. They can also convert to Word and Excel nicely.
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WordPress https://wordpress.org or https://wordpress.com
Having a Website is important for me as a Virtual Assistant. I need a place for my prospective clients to go and find out a little bit about me and my services. I also need a place to post my blog and there is no better place than my website. WordPress.org is where you would go to purchase a website usually directed there by your website host. WordPress.com is free for a limited theme if you just want to blog. Eventually, most small business owners should get a website, and a WordPress site is recommended by most. You will be connecting a plugin that comes with most WordPress Websites called a jetpack that will connect to WordPress.com, so you will not lose any of the blog post followers you’ve gained. Both are very easy to use and a perfect way to show off your expertise as I have done here.
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QuickBooks Online https://qbo.intuit.com
As a small business owner you have to keep
excellent financial records. QuickBooks Online and so easy to get started with . It is $40.00 per month. It walks you through step-by-step to set you up. If you are still intimidated you can hire someone like me to set it up and keep your records for you. It is a web-based tool and can be used from everywhere. It also has a mobile app for iOS and android.
These are just a few of the online tools that keeps my business and team members working in sync. There are a lot more that I use. Particularly for social media strategy planning and managing. I will talk a little more about those in my next post “Event Promotion Tips”
“ Man is a tool-using animal. Without tools he is nothing, with tools he is all.” ~ Thomas Carlyle
For more about me The Virtual Assistant Check Out my website https://www.lmsassistyou.com Please “Like” this post “Share” this post and feel free to comment. I will respond quickly. Also feel free to connect with me, my social links are at the bottom of the page!
Great list of tools but I think ProofHub should also be there in your list. Very handy tool.