Hey hey!
As I start this new adventure of being my own boss I thought I would start a blogging mini series of all the bits and pieces which I have learnt along the way and I thought I would start by sharing with you my favourite online tools I have found so far in the hope that they might help you in your businesses too:
1. Canva
Canva is a game changer – once you get into it you will never look back. I have used it in my own influencer brand and my VA work alike to create everything from logos to full suites of social media templates which are all on brand. It is free and web-based, but there is a paid version and it may well be one of the first premium packages (all of the suggested have premium and free versions) I go for as my business grows, I just love how intuitive it is and I just love working on creating stuff there.
2. Toggl
OK, Toggl is something I heard about through the VA and freelance community and it is actually the first thing which I have invested in, as for around £6-£7 a month (charged annually) you can track all your work with multiple clients and multiple projects and calculate on your agreed hourly rate and then download and send them beautiful PDF reports to go with their invoices each month, to see what you have spent your time doing, this includes lovely pie-charts. I’m telling you if you have an inner geek (as I do) this programme is most certainly for you, and is so much easier than trying to track your time manually!
3. Asana
I am an Associate VA for a couple of clients and I learnt about Asana through my client/mentor Lauren… again it was a game changer for me and has become a core part of onboarding new clients.
I had used other project managing tools in my office job, like trello for example, but never really got on with them, which I think is entirely down to personal preference but for me Asana has far more options in the free version than Trello, for example a “List View” (where I spend all my time) where you can list out all the projects you are working on as a team in subcategories, eg Instagram, Facebook, Web Updates, Email Marketing etc. You can then create reoccurring tasks or one off tasks in tick box lists, with so many options, from assigning to a specific member of the team, due date and priorities.
Then when you click into each task you can go back and forth in conversation by typing the persons username/email address with an @ in front, you can also upload documents and images and link to OneDrive folders – the possibilities honestly seem endless but I am learning all the time.
Fundamentally by using this as your project management system you can get your clients to contact you under each given task rather than sending you lots of emails and Whatsapp Messages which are very easy to loose track of or re-find the specific one afterwards.
4. Loom
Loom is another invaluable and free tool which I found out about through my client Lauren, and it allows you, on the free version, to record up to 5 minute videos which are video screen shots, with audio and your face in the corner (if you want it), which is so amazing as a tool for handing over any projects, creating work instructions, or sharing what you can see on your screen if you aren’t able to find something which someone has asked of you. I don’t know how I didn’t ever hear of this, but it is honestly brilliant and such a better way to communicate and hand work with explanations between each other rather than sending through endless still screenshots and instructions.
I even used it the other day when I was trying to set something up on a email marketing piece of software to send to their support desk and it was perfect for that too, rather than me trying to explain what I mean and the query I have in a laymen terms and not really getting anywhere! It is a free add on to Google Chrome and they also have an app version for your phone (which I have downloaded but am yet to try).
Whenever you complete a recording it automatically gives you it as a link to share, but you can also download the video, so you could also use these to post to your YouTube channel for video tutorials – it’s just brilliant!