Expert Showcase: Get Ahead VA’s favourite apps
Here at Get Ahead VA, our team of virtual assistants includes experts in a wide variety of fields. From accounting to admin, Hootsuite to holiday cover, email marketing to Excel, our VAs can add value to many aspects of your business.
With that in mind, our VAs are always on the lookout for the apps, tools and tricks of the trade that will help them to work more efficiently. We asked them to name their favourites, so you can discover the programs behind the people, and get some inspiration for your own business.
For business management
“I like Wave for invoicing and accounting, and Ripl for creating short videos.”
—Claudine
“My favourite apps are anything to do with Google Apps, Canva for any graphics/designing, and an interval timer app to keep me on track.”
—Andrea
“I really like an app called Canva. It’s great for creating social media graphics, and especially good for Facebook and Instagram. It has loads of groovy templates that you can use, and it’s super easy to create your own layouts. And it’s free!”
—Melanie
“The Twitter app on my phone: it allows me to manage my own and my clients’ profiles anywhere, anytime, so I can interact with others as and when I need to.”
—Caroline
For networking
“What’s Halfway is great when organising meetings with someone to find a venue halfway between you. Free Map Tools was also recommended to me for the same purpose.”
—Rebecca
“Foxcard is useful when at networking events. It’s free and it saves business cards to your contact lists in the app. It can add phone numbers, images and text from the cards. I think this app looks professional, as you’re not clutching at business cards, and it looks like you mean to stay in touch!”
—Keryn
“CamCard is a very useful app for small businesses. You can scan business cards, pull in all your contacts from your phone, PC, LinkedIn, CRM, and have a central store of all your contacts so you can easily access anyone’s details from anywhere.”
—Carrie
For writing
“I love Grammarly. I have the free app installed and it spell- and grammar-checks across all word-based programs. So it picks up on things in blogging platforms, LinkedIn and emails, as well as Word and PowerPoint. The free program is based on US English, but overall it’s very useful!”
—Laura
“Copywriting apps can be good for shortening unwieldy sentences, but my tip is to exercise caution. They can be so keen to make corrections that you can end up with copy that means the opposite of what you wanted it to. Consider the advice of a writing app, but don’t be a slave to it. If you’re not sure about your spelling, grammar or writing style, ask a human being, not an app!”
—Charlotte
If you need someone to check your writing, or simply to take on the tasks you don’t have the time or the skills for, Get Ahead VA is happy to help. Our team of highly experienced virtual assistants offer a wide range of business and marketing services, from researching customer prospects through to delivering social media campaigns or simply taking on your admin. Please give us a call on 01483 332220 or email us at office@getaheadva.com. We pride ourselves on being the staff you don’t see, but the difference you do.