Software/Services for Virtual Assistants
On this page you’ll find some of our favourite software and apps for virtual assistants; things that VAs just love to use – for themselves, and for their clients!
We are committed to keeping VA Professional a free resource that will continue to help and support our industry. In order to make that possible, some of the links we share are affiliate links, which means we might get paid something if you make a purchase. that being said, you can be assured that we will only ever recommend things that we have tried and tested ourselves, or that we absolutely know are helpful for our members.
The Perfect Pricing Formula
If you’re looking for equipment to get you started as a VA check out:
Essentials you can’t live without:
These products I use on a weekly, if not daily basis. I have no idea where I would be without them and I think you will have the same feeling too once you try them!
My brain just couldn’t manage without LastPass, a password manager and generator that keeps everything in a secure vault and remembers them for you when you visit a site.
I’m sure most of you have already used google workspace products such as docs, sheets and calendar. Take your VA business or your clients business to the next level with Google’s business starter or standard plan. This gives you your own custom email address cloud storage and more!
Use code: VCVUR7GHJCQE9UF for 10% off their starter plan
Use code N4U4EEAH7QAHXQD for 10% off their standard plan
Canva is one of the best platforms for creating eye-catching images for any social media platform. I use canva daily for my social media platforms and with the pro option you can schedule content accross 8 different social media channels. You HAVE to try out this platform!
The Society of Virtual Assistants’ annual survey is designed to take a snapshot of the UK VA industry answering business critical questions like: How much can I charge?What will I earn as a VA? What are the most effective marketing strategies? What services are most popular?
Where do I find clients? Well worth a read!
Microsoft Business is a great service similar to Google Workspace. If you prefer Microsoft products and love OneDrive then Microsoft Business is the right choice for you. They have reasonably priced tiers and make it easy to add new users as your business grows and expands!
Dubsado helps your business stay in motion. Build relationships, schedule appointments, and create workflows to streamline your projects from start to finish. Their basic account is free so it’s perfect for new VA businesses.
Monday is one of the best solutions for project management and task organisation. Automate your workflow, share files and projects with stakeholders so they can see the process too! Monday also intergrates with existing apps such as Facebook, mailchimp and more!
Do you want peace of mind over your data? Backblaze is an incredible solution to data backup. Just download the application to your computer and enjoy UNLIMITED backup for all your files and external drives. Backblaze has saved me from tricky situations, such as explaining to clients why I couldn’t deliver their service due to data loss. Set it up and forget about data loss forever!
Email & CRM Solutions:
A key aspect of most businesses these days includes email marketing and CRM (Customer Relationship Management). Most solutions analayse customer interactions and use automations to deliver them key messages to help keep them a happy customer and drive more sales. I have listed a few below to help get you started with your research. Some are more expensive than others depending on the features you need and how many customers you have.
Capsule is a sales CRM to help keep track and manage your customers. It stores all the key information about your customers in one place and has great integrations with Xero, Zapier and more!
Salesflare is another great CRM solution for smaller businesses, priced similarly to Capsule but with no free tier. Salesflare focuses on looking at how customers interact with you to help you generate more sales.
Keap’s easy automations save time, automates daily tasks, and converts more leads into sales. Keep focuses on organising contacts and custom invoicing so you can get paid faster. Keap also has great resources and documentation to help you get the most out of your subscription.
Ontraport is one of the best CRM systems out there! It’s aimed at larger businesses (with a high monthly cost.) It includes everything such as, customer tracking, membership sites, payment portals, integrations, campaigns and so much more. If you have a large customer base, use Ontraport!
Another point to mention is Ontraport’s great customer service team. If you ever have an issue, you won’t need to worry.
Kartra is one of my all time favourite tools for small business owners when it comes to building landing pages, online courses, memberships sites, selling online or email marketing. It’s an all in one platform that makes basic business automation a breeze. If you find CRM systems overwhelming, you should give Kartra a go.
Our link gets you an extended
30-day trial.
AWeber is an all in one CRM system, email marketer, eCommerce platform to help you grow audiences and produce more sales. They have great integrations and automations so you can get going quickly. You can use their service for free up until 500 contacts but their pro sub subscription is very reasonable too!
Automated mailing system makes work some much easier if you create newsletters and customer updates within your business. Mailchimp is a great email marketing service that will help you reach your target audience with an all-in-one system making it straightforward to use.
ActiveCampaign is your one stop shop to CRM email automation. Choose from their pre-existing automations or create your own to enhance your customer experience with WordPress, Facebook and Google sheets integrations. It is a great combination with eCommerce platforms or B2C companies.
Hello bar is a service that allows you to convert page visits into customers. It provides tools and features that enable you to message visitors with correct timing. I’ve found that using a service like this with a CRM system is a great combination
Online Marketing and VA Solutions
These products are great for helping VAs, landing pages and online cources
Instapage is a service that lets you build
landing pages for your online marketing
and promotion campaigns with ease. It
offers features such as A/B testing,
multiple campaign management, easy
page building, and a lot more.
This has been a game changer for me
when I’ve worked on campaigns.
Contracts, policies, agreements and GDPR support groups, designed specifically for virtual assistants.
KoffeeKlatch is the one-stop shop for VAs and other outsourced businesses to gain clarity in their business legalities. Our link provides you with a 10% discount. Simply use code VAPRO at checkout.
Thinkific is my go to solution for building out online courses to sell to my clients or other businesses. You can drip feed customers content, use your own domain build a video only course and so much more!
Products to help with fincance
These solutions help me to keep track of finances so I can stay on top of my money!
If you are a person that finds it difficult to manage your time, Paymo makes it easy to keep on top of it. Its away for you to see what your team is doing and for employees to know their page times.
The FSB offer a wide range of business services including advice, financial expertise and support. Their legal helpline has been invaluable, as has the reassurance that I’d be paid if on jury service or had an HMRC inspection.
If you are like me or any other person I am guessing you don’t like the expensive international transfer fees when sending money to an international bank account. Transferwise is a money transfer service that allows you to send money all over the world with the best transfer rates and at low fees.
Notable Mentions
These online products also offer great value to myself and many other VAs
Cleverly is a LinkedIn prospecting software that allows you to scale your leads on LinkedIn, drive more revenue and helps with copywriting.
123Reg offers excellent domain name registration and website hosting. It’s a very good combination with WordPress sites or your own custom site. They do offer a simple website builder but I would recommend something else if you were going down that route.
Rev is a speech-to-text company that provides closed captioning, subtitles, and transcription services. If you are someone who as better at speaking than typing them Rev is an ideal software to use
I don’t save any files locally on a PC anymore. I save everything on Dropbox and then I can get to all my files from anywhere, on any device, and share folders and files with clients.
LinkedIn Learning (formally Lynda.com) is a great platform to grow your skillset. They have courses from how to use advanced functions in excel to public speaking cources. It contains every course a Virtual Assistant may need!