By Tina Hilton of Clerical Advantage 

Since my series  “I want a virtual assistant…now what?” went into some details of working with a virtual assistant, I thought it might be helpful to share some information on some of the ‘tools of the trade’ that a virtual assistant may use in their business.  This list is no where near complete, as I’ve just listed the ones that I’ve been made aware of.  If you know of some that I haven’t listed, feel free to share the information in the comment section.

Phone:  Many virtual assistants rely heavily on telephone communication.  Some of the telephony type services available are:

Skype

Onebox

Ring Central

Magic Jack

Fax:  In lieu of a tradition fax machine the following can be used: *note: Onebox and RingCentral also offer fax services*

 eFax

Fax Digits 

Fax Zero

Time Tracking and Billing:  It is crucial for a virtual assistant to be able to track time spent on individual clients and client tasks as well as invoice for those hours.  Here are some of the time tracking and billing choices available.

Time Assistant

Time Tracker

MyHours

Time Stamp

Easy Time Tracking

FreshBooks

Cashboard

 Fanurio

Money Transfer/Wiring:  You’ve billed, now it’s time to get paid. You can go the traditional pay by check route or you can try one of these.

iKobo

PayPal

Moneybookers

File Sharing/Collaboration:  Having a central location or ‘online office space’ is important for the sharing and collaborating between client and virtual assistant.

Basecamp/Backpack

ClientSpot

Google Docs

OfficeZilla

Online Calendaring: Many of the collaboration sites listed above also have calendaring features.

Yahoo Calendar

Google Calendar

Bravenet (this service also has a large selection of web tools that can be used for marketing, forms, etc.)

Marketing: Whether you’re doing your own marketing or it’s one of your client assignments, these may be of help.

Aweber

Mail Chimp

Vertical Response

Remote Access:  Being able to access client e-mail, databases and other programs resident on their computers can be a big part of a virtual assistant’s services. To accomplish this, remote access is key.

Logmein

GoToMyPC

Freelance sites: Looking for more clients?  You can try one of the freelance sites listed below.

Odesk

Guru

GetAFreelancer 

As I said, this list is just a jumping off point, as I’m positive there are many, many more tools out there that work well for virtual assistants.  Feel free to add to the list, and if we get a  huge response, I’ll republish with all of your links added as well.

Categories: Virtual Assistant