Business Resources

Want to know what business resources I personally use? This article lists many of the tools and companies used within my business.

Disclaimer: some of the links below are affiliate links. By clicking on them, I may earn a small commission. However, I only list companies that either use myself or I highly recommend!

Looking for the goal-planning Bingo board?

Check out this post!

Insurance

I strive to make my deliverables error-free, but mistakes can happen. And while the creative businesses I use are super-friendly and understanding, I need the peace of mind that business insurance gives me. When I looked at reviews, many other Virtual Assistants (VAs) recommended Hiscox. I can understand why! The process to get insurance was painless and straightforward, and they offered a rate that was within my budget. They also charge by the month, which is handy for businesses that don’t want to be hit with a once-a-year bill!

Computer backups

Speaking of insurance – when’s the last time you backed up your computer? And I don’t mean “backing up” to a cloud service like Dropbox or OneDrive (although I do recommend using either of those for quick backups, especially for your phone). I have a reminder to back up my laptop to an external hard drive once a week, but I also use Backblaze to send my files off-site. I’ve used Backblaze for years, and it saved me a few years back when I had a laptop hard drive die. Most of what I needed was on my external hard drive, but having that extra piece of mind in case of a local disaster is well worth the annual cost.

Project Management

Keeping track of my client’s tasks and the tasks needed to keep my own business is CRUCIAL! Without some way of managing the myriad of tasks that float in each week through emails, Slack chats, etc., my business would be a hot mess. I have tried dozens of project management systems – including Trello, Todoist, Asana, Workflowy, notion … and so on. But the one that I found works best is ClickUp.

Now I’ll admit that ClickUp can seem intimidating to those just starting. This software application is so jam-packed with features and the ability to customize practically everything. This is why I plan to do a series of articles on ClickUp later to help you if you’re stuck.

I love it so much because I can use the desktop application (my preference), but I can keep on track anywhere with the mobile app or even through my browser.

Documentation

I don’t know of many people that enjoy creating documentation, but creating Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) for your business is important – for building consistency for your customers/clients, allowing scalability and delegation, and creates a powerful asset for your company!

My favorite way of documenting is to have Google Docs all stored within a single Google Drive folder.

Although, I will admit that I am considering moving my documentation AND project management over to notion, so I can have my notes AND project management in one place. Plus, it seems to be a little easier for my team to understand!

If you need help creating online documentation, a great tool to use is tango.us. It captures your screen movements while you’re working, automatically creating a document with steps and screenshots on how to complete the process. It can save you hours of SOP creation time!

WordPress Backup

When was the last time you thought about how your site was backed up? I bet it’s been a long time (or never)!

Some WordPress hosting sites, such as my preference, Siteground, automatically back up your site, allows for automated updates, and so much more.

But what happens if your web host goes down or has server problems? You have all your “eggs in one basket.” Your backup is on the same server/host as your website!

UpdraftPlus makes it so easy to create a backup of your site. If you handle your own WordPress and plugin updates, it can be set to automatically create a backup of those parts of your site before it does the update. If something happens, it makes it easy – or at least easier, to recover!

Client Management

Do you need to track the customers or clients you offer services to? Dubsado has some wonderful features, including:

- Lead Capture forms you can embed on your website

- Proposals that can be approved by clients and automatically turned into invoices

- Sending reminders for unpaid invoices

- Different calendar schedulers, allowing clients to request an appointment

and much more!!

I’ve also found Dubsado’s customer service and documentation to be a great resource and help when you get stuck!

Need to set up a Dubsado system? I can help! Schedule a Free Consultation today to discuss your needs!