So, you’ve tackled the first step towards outsourcing your business and now it's time to communicate with your freelancers! 

Congratulations on making the best decision to grow your empire towards its max potential!

Hiring your first freelancer may have been a daunting experience, but now that you have an entire team, it’s time to boss up, ladies and gentlemen!

Working with freelancers is a wonderful way to delegate tasks that slow you down while focusing on your priorities in business. 

It makes life easier; you can finally afford to sit with your dog and enjoy a glass (or an entire bottle) of wine while binge-watching the latest season of Stranger Things on Netflix. 

While this level of being a Zen-boss lady is not far out of our reach, it does take a team and a plan.

You might be thinking that working with several freelancers could turn out to be more than you bargained for: A chaotic mess.

Let me stop you right there.

Any organization has the potential of turning into a huge pile of OH NO’s when they don’t follow a simple step: Communication! 

Today, we’re going to run through tips and strategies that will make you an expert at communicating with freelancers on your team. 

How to Effectively Communicate With  Freelancers

Start With a Win!

The first thing you can do to communicate with your freelancers is to take time to onboard them.

Onboarding involves helping your freelancers understand the business and you. Have an initial meeting to help them get to know things like:

• Your big goals and vision
• How you like to communicate
• What are your expectations regarding work completion, turnaround times, availability, etc...?
• The tools and systems you are currently using
• Who else they may be working with
• What do do when something doesn't go right. (Hey, it happens and if they know how you prefer to handle it, things will work better overall).

Set Regular Meetings 

You can set the tone with the entire team by hosting a meeting using group video call once a week or based on a schedule that makes sense for the workload. Use this time to prep and communicate with freelancers on your team and keep them aware of the newest developments. Remember to help them understand the big picture and not just their small piece.

Create a standard agenda that covers:

• A quick assessment of the performance from last week.
• Discussing ongoing projects and bring them up to speed with new contracts or changes in the organization.
• Setting the priorities for the current week along with delegating tasks.
• Brainstorming creative ideas.

Be sure to include time for your freelancers to ask questions or discuss their concerns with you. And encourage them to do so. They have to feel safe expressing things to you or they won't.

Set Clear and Realistic Deadlines 

It's important to communicate with freelancers about deadlines in advance. Set a deadline by double confirming with your team members. This is especially helpful when you are on a tight schedule. When you consistently encourage your team to share their feedback and input, they will let you know if your deadlines aren't realistic. If you don't encourage this, the lack of communication with freelancers can result in missed deadlines or poor quality work.

If they say they can do it, make sure that they keep their word, which brings us to the next tip.

Request Routine Updates

Keep in touch and communicate with freelancers via email or a project management program. Prompt for updates within the same thread as the ongoing project to avoid confusion and wasted time searching for the right communication. Make sure that all the freelancers connected to the same project are included in the thread.

Regular Feedback And Progress Reports

Feedback is probably just as important as your routine meetings. If you think there’s a scope of improvement with a certain freelancer, let them know. They will appreciate you for letting them know of a possible blind spot. When they’re doing well, don’t forget to pat them on the back and thank them for their dedication.

Utilize Tools

One of the things that can really boost your relationship with the team is modern tools that allow you to manage all the communication and even automate them for that matter.

We highly recommend integrating your business communication with project-management and other tools that can dramatically improve your results with your freelancers.

Teamwork

Teamwork is an amazing cloud-based project management solution. It also happens to be the one that Virtual A Team uses so we may be a little biased.

What makes it so impressive is the way it integrates all the functions from a two-party perspective, i.e. the project manager as well as the team members. The features include task lists, time tracking, file uploads and messaging. You’ll be able to assign tasks, schedule updates and keep a track of ongoing processes in real-time.

Zoom

Zoom facilitates communication by bringing face-to-face conversation to teams around the world. Jump on video calls, record them and share communications with team members across the globe.

Slack

Slack is a workflow builder based on simplicity. By creating a system that promotes automation, oversight, proper planning and team collaboration, slack helps you manage all the pieces of your work starting from meeting to tracking a project.

While this tool is loved by many organizations, Virtual A Team has found it to cause more distractions than benefits. If using Slack, be sure to allow your team to have certain closed door hours to get their heads down and focus.

Loom

Loom.com is a handy way to do a quick recording or walkthrough of something you'd like to communicate to freelancers when you aren't on the same schedule. It's handy for sharing feedback on projects, or giving a visual walkthrough of processes.

So, now when you have everything ready at the backend, how to get started with assigning and delegating tasks to your freelancers? Let’s find out.

How to Request Tasks from Freelancers

As entrepreneurs with fresh ideas, it's tempting to want every new idea done today! When you have a new task waiting to be started with, you may not want to push too much on to a team member’s plate. Not only can this lead your business in the wrong direction, chasing too many shiny objects, but it can overload your freelancers with too much work.

Once you've determined that your idea really is valid and should take life, talk with your freelancers before getting started.

• Ask for their availability and interest in a new task through email.
• Send a brief for the new task once the member sends an affirmative response.
• Keep track of their work by asking for a snippet before completing the entire task.

To help your freelancers out, you can also:

• Be Thorough; add samples and sources for reference and guidance.
• Make sure you clear the doubts and questions of your freelancers.
• Follow a Procedure and course-correct while editing their snippets.
• Provide genuine feedback on how they’re doing.

Interactive Tips for Interpersonal Communication with Freelancers

It's not enough to just communicate your specific needs with your freelancers. The best client/freelancer relationships will also include some quality interpersonal communication.

Inviting and Appreciating their Honest Opinion on a Project

Since you chose your freelancers, we know they have to have some amazing skills and work experience. When it comes to ongoing and new projects, invite new perspectives and ideas. Maybe they can help you make it better than you ever imagined!

Being Open to Feedback

You providing feedback is just one side of the coin of a team. Ask your freelancers about things that could use improvement, and take it under consideration. Individual experiences can help your business grow exponentially through a fresh set of eyes.

Saying it as it is

When you work with a team of freelancers, there’s no sugarcoating anything. Being honest about the work you’re getting done will give you better results.

Checking Up on Your Team’s Wellbeing and Personal Progress

Work aside; it is also essential that business leaders build a bond or kinship among their team members. Asking about their overall wellbeing and personal milestones (if they’re receptive to it) is a nice way to establish a better connection. Familiarity helps more than strangers working with each other!

Celebrating Victories Together

As a team, it’s a different experience to celebrate the small and big milestones together. Rewarding your team and involving them in the success of your growth will boost their morale, make them feel like they belong and are appreciated.

Wrapping Up

Since freelancers are extremely talented free spirits, each of them may have a different mechanism of getting things done. But, while juggling several of these magical unicorns who turn your business into a cakewalk, you can’t afford to spend too much time.

If you’re a coach or a consultant trying to improve the life of your clientele, you understand the importance of clear and effective communication. While your clients look up to you to light the way, your team does too!

Are you facing troubles communicating effectively with your virtual team? We have just the right solutions for you at Virtual A Team. We have pre-built communication systems in place to help you get started with a few clicks!

 

Have you ever listened to the chimes of an old grandfather clock? These chimes alert us to the passing hours in the day and elicit a sense of excitement as our favorite holidays approach. Whether it’s Christmas, New Years Day or Thanksgiving, it’s heart-warming to hear that clock chime to let us know that the holiday is almost here!

Family-time is pivotal during any holiday. Every other day in the year tends to be filled with work and other life demands that quality family time is non-existent. So, you want to use as much of the holidays as possible to appreciate and love your family. Depending on the holiday, you’ll have relatives traveling from near and far. Getting your house in order is keeping you on your toes! Cleaning, organizing, cooking, gift wrapping...the whole works!

Great thrill can be found in preparing for and enjoying the holidays with your family. However, this thrill can often be overwhelming, especially when you’re hosting guests. There seems to be no time available to work on your business. Sure, the holiday season should really be your downtime; a vacation from work. The reality is, however, that a solopreneur doesn’t have the luxury of taking long breaks from work. This is particularly true during the early stages of business. 

How can you remain productive at the height of any holiday season? Prepare. Reflect. Deliver.

Prepare 

While you’re caught up in the flurry of preparing your home and family for the holidays, don’t forget that you also need to prepare yourself to complete client work during the holidays. Preparation depends heavily on time management. Here are some tips to help you effectively prepare and better manage your time:

• Plan holiday shopping for weeks before the holiday season. Spreading your shopping over a few weeks will help you beat the holiday rush and the inevitable outcome of hours being spent wandering around for the perfect gift.

• Don’t overcommit. You may need to accept projects so that you can keep your finances afloat during the holiday season. However, don’t take on more projects than you can handle given the time constraints.

• Use your downtime wisely. You may need to stay up later than usual so that you can get some work done while everyone else is asleep.
• Automate processes as much as possible. For instance, you can schedule blog posts and social media advertisements. Getting as much done as possible before the holidays is wise.
• Plan for some me-time. Your body needs some time to rest and re-energise so it’s important to plan some time to do what makes you happy and relaxed.
  

  Reflect

  The holidays are a good time for reflection and evaluation, especially the holidays that are at the end of the year such as New Year’s Eve. This period of reflection should include looking back at your company’s growth over the past year and creating a growth plan for the upcoming year. It’s important to look back at where you’ve come from so that you can now how to prepare the way forward.

  Deliver

  There are many demands for your time and attention during the holidays. You love being with your family and experiencing the joy of the holidays, but  it can become overwhelming. The pressure is even greater when you have work to complete for clients. The good news is that you can do it. Be positive about your ability to deliver; don’t complain, just do. You’ll be surprised by how much you’re able to accomplish when you adopt a more positive mindset. 

Putting It All Together

Being productive during the holidays can be difficult. You want to be a part of the fun but have to ensure that your business continues to grow. Take a deep breath and say this slowly, “You can do this!” Prepare in advance by making good use of the time before the holidays. Use the time to reflect and create a growth plan. Always remember that you can accomplish anything once you believe in yourself and think positively. 

One of the best ways to showcase your expertise is to run an online course. The days when you could simply promise your prospects that you’re worth their investment are long gone. Today, you have to prove that you are worth every penny. 

When you teach a topic you are good at, you leave no shadow of doubt about your expertise. You prove to your audience that you know what you’re talking about. It is also a good way of showing that you are a real expert in your field.

Online courses are now an essential part of any expert, entrepreneur, or business owner’s toolbox. Apart from having a website or business card, you may need an online course to brand yourself. It is one of the fastest ways of getting knowledge out to a global marketplace. 

An online course can scale up your coaching business. Your daily activities may include interacting with other coaches from various industries. But you also need a way of showcasing your expertise. An online course allows you to connect with your audience on a personal level. It can convert your prospects into paying customers by showing how good you are.

The major challenge that people face when running an online course is lack of time. There is so much to do for one person. When you’ve just started out, you might enjoy doing everything on your own. But with time, it may be overwhelming to cover everything by yourself. That’s where a virtual team comes in. 

Download our Ultimate Guide to Delegating for More Tips & Tools on How to Delegate as a Solopreneur

What is a Virtual Team?

A virtual team is also known as a remote, distributed, or geographically dispersed team. It is a group of individuals in different geographical locations who work together using communication technologies. Each individual is known as a virtual assistant (VA). They participate in a project by contributing efforts in a virtual work environment to achieve a shared goal.

One of the best ways of becoming an online coach is by sharing knowledge. You don’t have to be a technical expert to build a success online coaching business. You can outsource the technical bits to freelance experts. This leaves you time for other things like managing your clients and accepting payments. 

A virtual assistant can help you set up and run a successful online course for your business. Hiring a virtual assistant will enable you to outsource some tasks such as graphic design, video editing, content creation, or build up an email list.

How a Virtual Team Can Help You Run a Profitable Online Course

The best way to benefit from a virtual team is to outsource tasks that suck away your time and the ones you’re not good at. With a helping hand on the side, you can focus more on things that matter the most for your business. You will be able to run an online course that is audience-specific and impactful.

A team of VAs will help develop your online course and grow your business faster. They will help you in setting up, building, launching, and marketing your courses. The team can help you in areas like content creation and editing, marketing, accounting and branding. 

Among the many benefits of virtual teams is that they do not have to be full-time employees. Most course creators hire independent contractors and freelancers from around the world on a task basis. The following are some of the ways you can benefit from a team of experts working in a virtual space.

1. Setting Up Templates

Templates allow you to create a consistent flow within each course and from course to course. Once you have spent the effort, time and money to create a template that works for the course content and identifies with your brand, you can use it for future courses.  An experienced virtual team can help you build templates for your courses. All you need to do is add content and teach!

To run a successful online course, you need to create slideshows, videos, graphics, emails and more. Since you may not good in designing every aspect of your course, outsource the work that you aren't good at and focus on what you’re good at. 

2. Conduct Research and Analysis

In order to identify the course content that your prospective clients would like and benefit from, you need to conduct research and analysis. Research and analysis can take up much of your time. Outsourcing this part of business to someone else can save you a lot of  time.

A freelance researcher will do basic research and gather additional information for your course content. They will look for good sources of information, summarize and organize the information for you. Depending on your data needs, a good freelancer may also conduct online surveys and present reports for you. 

3. Apply Your Brand to Content

You'll want all the content that you create to be consistent with your brand. This may include branding your templates, graphics, video's, infographics.

4. Customize Your Content

Creating an online course is a lot of work. Although you'll be doing most of the content creation, you'll rely on a team of contractors to help you launch this course. Ensure that the final presentation or course goes through several rounds of editing, proof reading and fact checking.

5. Edit and Design Graphics

Graphic elements are a critical component of any online course. This cannot be overstated enough. Graphics include: images, slideshows, infographics, video's logos, and more. Graphics convey a message, they create movement, visual interest and set the tone for the entire presentation.  Brand consistency is key but does not have to be boring. Create visuals that engage your audience. Additionally, they are a great source of social media content. 

6. Publishing and Converting Content

To engage your audience, you need to create workbooks or worksheets for your students. These worksheets add value to the course and can be used for reference.  After a template has been created by a great graphic designer, an experienced VA can help convert and publish your content in various formats to meet the needs of your audience.

Your VA can create an eBook, convert content into ready-to-publish format or convert your slideshow into a video, using music or audio t0 make it more engaging. Once you have a great video, upload it to  YouTube, Facebook, Instagram. There are so many ways to leverage the content that you have created! 

7. Running Your SEO Campaign

Search engine optimization (SEO) is essential when marketing your online course. It requires ample time and attention to create content that ranks high on search engines. An SEO expert will create SEO-rich text, meta-data and choose the right keywords for your course.  

They will help your course be more visible to your target audience, and drive useful traffic to your business. You can be sure of more conversions instead of random traffic to your course. 

8. Set up Your Online Course

To be successful, your online course must be properly set up. Assign the time consuming task of course set up to an experienced VA. The VA will set up the outline structure on your platform and upload to the relevant modules.

The outline structure may include basic module titles, individual lesson contents and graphics. Once set up, you will have placeholders for everything ready. The VA can go ahead to add the content when it is ready and make sure that everything is working.

9. Setting up Your Marketing Funnel 

When you are starting off, you may be comfortable setting a series of emails and other marketing funnels by yourself. But as your business grows, the task may be too much for one person. You can outsource this area to a virtual marketer. The marketer will set up email follow-ups, opt-in pages, sales pages and thank you pages.

Ensure you understand your funnel before outsourcing this area. You can even have your funnel in place and teach your VA how to set it up. This makes it easy for them to replicate the funnel to other courses.

10. Managing Your Social Media Platforms 

Social media is a powerful marketing tool in this age. They provide a great platform for customers to interact with your brand. You get to talk directly to your customers, market your brand, and provide feedback. But with so many social platforms, it is not easy to manage them all by yourself.

A virtual social media manager will help you manage your social media accounts. You need to brief them about your platforms, the kind of contents to post, and the frequency of publishing. Over time, they can also moderate comments and requests on your behalf. 

11. Offer Customer Support 

Adding customer support to your online course guides your audience to using your services correctly. A customer may have difficulties navigating through the course. Guiding them or answering their questions builds a great customer experience.

Since you will not always be there to answer questions, a virtual customer support assistant can help. Let them know your business and understand your values. They will answer customer questions, and help customers access your content. They can also deal with refunds requests and share links to helpful resources. 

12. Setting Up and Moderating Webinars

A webinar allows you to share documents, audio, video, and applications with your audience. Due to its interactive feature, it gives you the ability to give and receive information in real-time. It requires set up and moderation during the webinar

Hire a VA that can help you set up the webinar and moderate comments and questions. Additionally, the VA can download the recordings and edit them for future use. The video can then be uploaded to YouTube or your course platform.

13. Handling eCommerce Aspects 

Running a profitable online course is a form of eCommerce business. It requires the ability to handle transactions seamlessly, and provide customer-oriented services. An eCommerce adept freelancer will manage your online course to keep it profitable.

They will handle transactions for you and take care of order processing. They will create SEO-friendly descriptions for your course and edit images to make them attractive. They will also conduct competitor’s analysis and help in strategy development. 

14. Support and Manage Projects

As a business owner, you probably have so many projects running simultaneously. You may need someone to ensure that all projects are meeting their deadlines. A VA in project support and management will manage the project for you and write progress reports. Here are some great tips on what to expect when working with a VA

What are you waiting for? 

A virtual team can save you time to run you online course. You can hire individuals from all over the world to tackle specific areas of your course. While some will help in setting up your course, others will help in launching and marketing it. Although you may wish to have a single VA doing all the task, it is rare to find an individual good in everything. 

You need to build a team of individuals with unique skills and expertise. You have to pick and choose individuals who are most important to you. Your virtual team can comprise of freelance researchers, social media managers and graphic designers. It all depends on the aspects of your business that you want to focus on and what you want to outsource.

A great way of deciding who to hire is creating a to do list. Identify areas of the business that you want to do on your own, and the others that you can delegate to someone else.

From the best system to get your inbox to zero or the best way to organize your files, when coming up with a strategic plan isn't your thing, Delegate THIS!

Today I talk with Nicole Lux-Ritchie of Luxcentric about how you can outsource the strategy to help you get tech organized! Visit Nicole at https://www.luxcentric.com/

LinkedIn? Is that still a thing?

Oh, wait, that’s the “social media network” for finding a job, right? Can that even be considered “social media”?

LinkedIn has often been considered a black sheep of the social media networks because it doesn’t really feel, well, social.

But, it does, in fact, check all the boxes on what Wikipedia considers social media. (You can check those out here).

What makes us think less of LinkedIn is that it tends to have a singular purpose and not a place we would regularly “hang out” like we do on Facebook or Instagram or even Twitter.

That being said, LinkedIn is like it’s very own business networking event. It’s not just for job seekers anymore.

LinkedIn has grown up a little and now offers a valuable place to find and connect with new leads.

Is Networking on LinkedIn right for me?

Before deciding if LinkedIn is the right place for you to network, you should know the demographics of who’s there.

According to Omnicoreagency.com:

• There are currently 154 million LinkedIn users in the US.
• 61 million users are senior level or above.
• 40 million users are students or recent college graduates.
• There are 87 million Millenials on the platform.
• 44% of LinkedIn users earn more than $75,000 per year.

What does that mean for you? If you have a product or service that targets professionals of any age or are in a B2B industry, then LinkedIn may be a great place to get new leads!

How to Network on LinkedIn

First, let me say this is not another post telling you how to optimize your profile page. Yes, that’s important, but there are plenty of articles out there that will teach you how to do that. Here’s one of my favorite by the awesome John Nemo.

I find a lot of LinkedIn trainings only focus on how to set up your profile. But what then?

It’s important to have a strategy around what you will do once your profile is created. Unfortunately, “If you build it, they will come” only works in Kevin Costner movies.

This article isn’t focused on what to post in articles or the news feed. Our primary plan to network on Linkedin is to reach out and connect via messages.

Download our Ultimate Guide to Delegating Here for More Tips & Tools on How to Delegate as a Solopreneur

But First: Know your Audience

Working with coaches and speakers for almost 15 years, I’d guess this is probably the number one reason they don’t use LinkedIn more often.

LinkedIn works best when you know who you want to connect with. Need help with this? Check out our article on finding your target audience.

I don’t mean that you have to personally know the head of HR at Zappos. And it doesn’t even mean you would have to know their name.

What it means is knowing the title, interests, and other demographics of the person you want to connect with.

You see, LinkedIn has this really amazing people search.

You can search by name, title, company, college, location, industries and more.

Some of this detail is searchable within the actual search feature and some of it is just a magical thing that happens when people customize their profile headline to contain certain information.

For example, my headline used to read:

I help coaches, consultants, & speakers grow their businesses & have more time by providing virtual assistant services.

Because of this, I would get connection requests on a regular basis from people looking to connect with coaches.

Your first step, then, is to make a list of the types of people you’d like to reach out to.

Then do a search for those types of people!

I recommend targeting your first level connections as a starting point. This is a warmer audience and LinkedIn allows you to message them for free.

Break the Ice

The best Linkedin networking scripts I’ve found are created by John Nemo. If you haven’t heard this guy, you should really check out his podcast, he’s quite entertaining!

The next step is to make that first contact. Here’s where a lot of people go wrong. Their first message is all about them. They want to reach out and instantly share all the details about what they are selling. When someone does this to me, it’s an instant “unfriend”.

Instead, break the ice. Take a little time to check out their profile. Find something in common. It’s Linkedin NETWORKING after all, not Linkedin cold calling!

For example:

• Did you attend the same school?
• Are you from the same town?
• Do their group interests align with yours?

Yes, it takes a little more time to read through each profile to find something you might be able to connect on but it’s well worth your time.

Once you’ve found something, message them and start a conversation around that topic.

Gently Lead In

Your next message will be a soft offer. Perhaps you have a free optin or webinar the prospect may be interested in. Nemo suggests not just sending them a link but inviting them to raise their hand. If they say they are interested, THEN send them a link. It will come across far less spammy that way. It also helps you to track who is actually engaging with your messages.

What’s Next

Nemo has an entire process for Linkedin Networking that he’s outlined in his book, Linkedin Riches. I highly recommend you get the Kindle or paperback version so you can best use the scripts he shares.

Of course, if you’d rather have someone else set up the details and work your initial leads, that’s a great area to outsource when you have the right team in place.

Virtual A Team is actively using the Nemo approach to Linkedin Networking with a few of our clients and our own business. If you’d like some help implementing this approach into your business contact us for a free consultation.

Networking on Social Media

If you aren’t ready or Linkedin isn’t the right fit for your business, check out our other Networking Articles:

How To Network on Facebook

How To Network on Instagram

What online appointment scheduling app do you recommend?

That’s one of the most frequently asked questions I see in Facebook groups.

And it’s always good to get recommendations but recommendations don’t provide you with details.

I use Acuity.

Calendly is my favorite.

I switched to vCita from Appointy.

The responses leave you with no more information than doing a quick google search for online appointment scheduling apps.

Whenever you are choosing a new program to use in your business, it’s best to do a comparison of the features and benefits. Sometimes you just don’t know what you don’t know until you start looking at all the details.

Unfortunately, that can take a lot of time. So we’ve done the work for you!

What to Consider When Reviewing an Appointment Scheduling App

Let’s jump in and review the top 5 online appointment scheduling apps recommended for coaches and other solopreneur business owners.

In this comparison, we are going to cover 9 of the most common features you might be looking for. These include price, calendar integration, group class scheduling, reminder emails, invoicing, phone apps, email system integration, # of appointments/people and website integration.

Price:

This one is pretty obvious. What is the price for the appointment scheduling app based on different levels.

Calendar Sync:

Does the app sync with your Google or another type of online calendar? This can be a two-way sync. First, does it limit the offered time slots based on the appointments on your calendar? Second, does it add the scheduled appointments to your calendar?

Group Class/Event Scheduling:

If you offer group classes, group coaching or other events that include more than two people, this may be a beneficial feature for you.

Reminder Emails:

Does the system automatically send out a reminder email to your meeting attendees to increase the chances of them not missing the appointment?

Invoicing:

Does the online appointment scheduling app have a built-in invoicing feature so that you can charge clients immediately upon them signing up? If not, you may need to set up a work-around such as having them visit your invoicing page first and then, upon completion of payment, redirecting them to your online calendar.

Phone Apps:

If you tend to do a lot from your phone, having an app might be a requirement for the program you use.

Download our Ultimate Guide to Delegating Here for More Tips & Tools on How to Delegate as a Solopreneur

Email System Integration:

While almost all calendar systems can integrate with email programs via tools like Zapier, it might be worthwhile to you if you can choose a program that already integrates with the tools you use.

Number of appointment types/people:

While you may be a solopreneur and only need to schedule appointments for yourself, do you have different types of appointments you want to set up? Maybe you have an appointment for your discovery calls and another for your actual coaching appointments. Or, maybe you even have calls scheduled for your podcast show and ones for “virtual networking meetings”. If you have different requirements for different appointments, you’ll want a tool that accommodates those requirements.

As an example, I don’t schedule with anyone other than my team on Mondays and I don’t schedule with anyone other than clients on Fridays. That means my prospect calls will only be scheduled on Tuesdays through Thursdays.

Website Integration:

And finally, does your chosen appointment scheduling app integrate smoothly with your website? If you want to offer times directly on your site, you may want one that plays well with the type of website you have. As an example, if you visit my Contact Us page, you can see how the calendar is built right in. As soon as you select a time, it will take you out to the actual appointment scheduling app to complete the process.

Other tools may have pop up bars or certain features. If you are specific about how you want it to look on your site, you may want to research that first.

There may be other factors you want to consider based on your specific business needs.

Let the Comparison Begin

While it’s not good to compare yourself to others, comparing one program to another can help you make a more informed decision.

Acuity

Acuity seems to be the most commonly recommended tool out there so we’ll start here.

Price

Emerging Plan: $15/mo (1 Calendar)

Growing Plan: $25/mo (6 Calendars)

Powerhouse Plan: $50/mo (36 Calendars)

Calendar Sync

Acuity offers 1 or 2-way sync with Google Calendar, iCloud, or Outlook.

Group Class Scheduling

Yes, you can schedule group classes or events using Acuity.

Automatic Reminder Emails

You can set up reminder emails on any of the paid versions of Acuity. You can also set up reminder texts on the Growing or Powerhouse plan.

Invoicing

Direct invoicing from Acuity is not available. However, Acuity does integrate with Quickbooks, Freshbooks, and Xero for invoice creation.

Phone App

Apps are available for both iPhone and Android to let you edit your availability and manage your appointments when you are away from the office.

Third Party Integrations

Acuity integrates with a variety of other apps and programs either directly or through the use of a service like Zapier. Please see this list to determine if your programs are included.

Website Integration

There are a number of sites that allow you to integrate Acuity directly. However, tools such as pop-ups and booking bar are somewhat limited without having a knowledge of advanced coding.

The Numbers

With Acuity, you can have an unlimited number of appointment types and individuals scheduled on any of the paid accounts. What is limited is the number of different calendars available.

TimeTrade

TimeTrade isn’t as commonly recommended in the solopreneur business world but it’s the one Virtual A Team uses and recommends. It is often marketed to larger businesses but has an individual plan that is much less expensive than the competition.

Price

Individual Plan: $78/Yr ($6.50 per user/mo)

Business Plan: $149/Yr ($12.42 per user/mo)

Business Plus Plan: $300/Yr ($25 per user/mo)

Calendar Sync

Timetrade offers 1 or 2-way sync with Google Calendar, iCloud, or Outlook.

Group Class Scheduling

Available but not in one of the preset plans.

Automatic Reminder Emails

Customizable reminder emails are available in any of the versions. Text messaging is an add on service.

Invoicing

Direct invoicing from TimeTrade is not available. However, we’ve set our TimeTrade up to be linked after payment is submitted rather than the other way around.

Phone App

Apps are available for both iPhone and Android to let you edit your availability and manage your appointments when you are away from the office.

Third Party Integrations

TimeTrade integrates with a few programs directly and many more through the use of a service like Zapier.

Website Integration

Timetrade provides embed codes to add your online calendar to your website or app.

The Numbers

With TimeTrade, you can have an unlimited number of appointment types and individuals scheduled.

vCita

When I started out with online appointment scheduling apps, I started with vCita. It definitely has some advanced features not available in the other programs but those features come with a hefty price. That’s because vCita offers more than just online appointment scheduling. You can use it for events, customer relationship management, and more.

Price

Scheduling Only: $15/mo

Essentials Plan: $29/mo

Business Plan: $59/mo

Calendar Sync

vCita offers 1 or 2-way sync with Google Calendar, iCloud, or Outlook.

Group Class Scheduling

Available on all plans.

Automatic Reminder Emails

Available on all plans. Text messages are also available for an additional charge.

Invoicing

The Essentials level and above includes billing and invoicing.

Phone App

Apps are available for both iPhone and Android to let you edit your availability and manage your appointments when you are away from the office.

Third Party Integrations

Integrations are available in the Essentials Plan and above.

Website Integration

Website widgets are available in the individual plan and above.

The Numbers

With TimeTrade, you can have an unlimited number of appointment types for up to 300 clients. If you wish to have additional team members, they charge an additional $15 per month.

Calendly

Calendly is often recommended as a basic starter system. It’s inexpensive and easy to use. I just happen to have a personal issue because I can never spell it right! 😉

Price

Basic Plan: Free

Premium: $8/mo

Pro: $12/mo

Calendar Sync

2-way sync is available with Google Calendar, iCloud, or Outlook.

Group Class Scheduling

Calendly offers group events on all paid plans.

Automatic Reminder Emails

All plans offer notifications. Calendly offers custom notifications on paid plans. Text messages are available on Pro plan.

Invoicing

You can’t directly invoice with Calendly but the Pro plan includes integration with Paypal and Stripe.

Phone App

This one might be a deal breaker. At the time of this writing, there is no phone app available for either iOS or Andriod. The company says they are working on it.

Third Party Integrations

On the paid programs, you can use Zapier to integrate with other programs.

Website Integration

Calendly offers an API that can be used to integrate with various websites.

The Numbers

With the free program, you can have one appointment type. This is not limited on the paid versions.

YouCanBook.me

YouCanBook.me is not as often recommended but still offers some good options for those just getting started with online appointment scheduling apps.

One feature it seems to have that many of the others do not include is appointment duration variation. You can set a minimum, average, and maximum times for booking.

This program also allows you to set appointments as tentative requiring your approval, a nice feature if you want to have more control over your calendar.

Price

Basic Plan: Free

Paid: $10/mo/per calendar

Calendar Sync

2-way sync is available with Google Calendar, iCloud, or Outlook (this one is still in beta at the time of this writing).

Group Class Scheduling

YouCanBook.me allows you to take more than one booking per time slot to allow for groups, meetings or events.

Automatic Reminder Emails

Paid plans allow you to customize your calendar appointment and reminder emails.

Invoicing

Integrates with Stripe to add a payment form to your booking request form.

Phone App

This is another program that does not currently have a mobile app. The company says their website is fully mobile responsive.

Third Party Integrations

On the paid programs, you can use Zapier to integrate with other programs.

Website Integration

As with most other options, YouCanBook.me can be embeded onto a website using code. It does not offer a direct integration.

The Numbers

With the free program, you can have one appointment type. This is not limited on the paid versions.

Appointy

We can’t forget Appointy in our review. This is another often recommended option when people ask for online scheduling app recommendations. However, it also falls into the higher price point category. Let’s see how it stacks up for the extra cost.

Price

Basic Plan: Free

Growth: $29.99/mo

Professional: $59.99/mo

Enterprise: $99.99/mo

Calendar Sync

2-way sync is available with Google Calendar, iCloud, or Outlook (via iCal) on Paid versions.

Group Class Scheduling

YouCanBook.me allows you to take more than one booking per time slot to allow for groups, meetings or events.

Automatic Reminder Emails

Paid plans allow you to customize your calendar appointment and reminder emails.

Invoicing

Appointy appears to offer one of the best options if accepting prepayments for services is important to you.

Phone App

Available for both iOS and Andriod

Third Party Integrations

You can use Zapier to integrate with other programs.

Website Integration

Appointy offers several options for integration onto a website or even your Facebook page.

The Numbers

Appointy’s pricing is based more on the number of staff than the number of appointments or calendars used. If you are primarily a business of one, then the Growth plan will probably be sufficient for you.

Which appointment scheduling app do you like?

While some people say that all programs are about the same, that’s only partially true. If you have specific needs that a program doesn’t meet, that make doing business with them very frustrating. After reviewing some of the top features of online scheduling apps, there are some clear differences.

Now that you know WHAT to look for in online appointment scheduling apps and have seen how some of the top programs compare, have you made a choice?

Did we miss your favorite app? Did we forget a feature that’s important to you? Let us know!

And, if you are ready to implement an online scheduling app in your business but need some help, schedule a call with Virtual A Team. We are here to help.

As a coach, your client onboarding process is the first impression a new client will get. It helps them to know exactly what to expect from you and your business. If it isn’t a great first impression, you’ll have a lot of recovery to do.

Most coaches start out with only one or two clients at a time. They don’t feel that a formal client onboarding process is necessary. However, there’s a lot of power in a concrete set of steps that a client will take. It helps eliminate potential buyer’s remorse. It helps facilitate a level of confidence and it starts the coaching process from the instant they hand over their payment.

And, eventually, you’ll want to spend more time finding and working with clients rather than dealing with getting new clients all set up.

Here, we will reveal to you how to successfully onboard new clients. But let’s start by explaining what we mean.

What is a client onboarding process?

Client onboarding is the act of welcoming a new client to your business. It's a chance for you to promote a healthy relationship, treat pressing matters, help the client set up and start the relationship on the right path.

After all, we all want our clients to feel confident about hiring us to help them meet their desired goals. A client onboarding process can make that happen.

However, remember that client onboarding differs from lead generation. In fact, client onboarding comes after lead generation, it starts when a prospective client is ready to become a real client for your business.

The client onboarding process functions as a channel to understand each other well. That understanding will enable you to give in your best while the client also provides necessary assistance to help you provide the best service.

To make it simpler, we have divided the client onboarding process into different parts.

What to Include in Your Client Onboarding Process:

• Getting Started Email
• Contract outlining terms and agreements
• Payment options
• New Client Intake Form
• Welcome email
• What to expect message
• Additional emails with tips
• Getting started/next steps

First Steps

The first steps consist of the actions that take place immediately after the prospective client agrees to work with you but before the working relationship begins.

Download our Checklist for Onboarding New Clients

New Client Email

Your first email in your new client onboarding process will consist of a few getting started steps. You will want to explain to them how to complete these steps based on your process.

• Information about Contract
• Payment information
• New Client Intake Form

Take a look at the sample email below.

Hey! (Insert client's name),

I'm very excited to hear that you are interested in collaborating with me! I'm honored to work with you and look forward to seeing your magic come to life!

Here is a checklist of next steps to complete before we get started.

• Sign the agreement. Your contract will be sent via HelloSign for your signature. Please review and submit as soon as possible.
• Attached is a copy of your invoice. Please submit payment via this Paypal link.
• After you have completed those steps, you can now proceed to fill out the new client intake form: (Insert link to form).

Once you have completed the tasks above, I'll forward a link to you to arrange our first meeting! And a welcome package that will help us get to know each other better.

If you have any questions, suggestions or change you want to make within the terms and agreement. Feel free to contact me.

Looking forward to work with you!

Warm Regards,

(Insert your name)

Contract

Once your prospective client has agreed to work with you, the first step is to get them to agree to your specific terms.

A contract is a document that helps to legally establish the rules for engagement between your client and you. While a lot of new coaches opt not to get a signed contract, we highly recommend that you get a written agreement before moving to the next level in your relationship. In the absence of that, your client may become disillusioned with their results and demand a refund in full.

Some important things to consider when creating a contract include:

• Description of services
• Length of relationship
• Financial compensation
• Expectations
• Confidentiality agreements
• Release of Liability

Please note: We are not attorneys and highly recommend you work with a qualified professional to avoid any potential liability.

You can use tools like HelloSign or Docusign to create your contracts and send them out for signature. It’s much more effective than sending a word doc and hoping they can scan and fax it back to you.

Payment

Upon completion of a signed contract, you will want to secure payment.

There are many different ways you may want to consider receiving payments.

• Paypal
• Credit card processing (such as Stripe)
• Check
• Venmo

When looking at the options, consider whether you want to have the option to take payments. Some payment processing services allow recurring payments made over a period of time while others don’t.

Include a link in your welcome email with instructions on how they can make payments.

New Client Intake Form

In many cases, you’ll want to gather some information about your new client before you begin the coaching process. This may include what they expect to gain from working with you, what are their goals, or what have they done to improve their situation in the past. It might also include things like their birthday (so you can send a card) or how to best reach them.

Some of this may have been gathered prior to your discovery call with them but now is the time to fill in any gaps.

Having this information all in one place at one time saves you from appearing unprofessional when you have to go back and ask things over and over.

Tools like Google Forms, JotForm or NinjaForms (for Wordpress) are extremely useful for gathering this detailed information in one place.

Let’s Begin

Now that the “paperwork” is out of the way, it’s time to get started! This may be your client’s first impression of your ability to coach so make it a good one!

Welcome/What to Expect

It’s time for the official Welcome! If you have a name for your “tribe” members, welcome them in that way. I simply welcome my new clients to the “family”.

"What to expect message" is an email explaining the next event on the list. A sample of what to expect message is shown below.

Subject line: Welcome to the tribe!

Hello (Insert client’s name)!

It’s official and I’m so glad that we are on the way.

The next step is to schedule your 6 months worth of calls with me. You can use my online calendar at (insert link) to get those set up. I recommend scheduling them all in advance. If something comes up and we need to move one around, we can handle that individually.

Here’s your first homework assignment. This prep work will help us get right to the heart of things on our first call. Don’t worry, it will take you less than 10 minutes to complete this task.

Regards,

(Insert your name).

Additional email with tips

Additional emails in your welcome campaign can help the client onboarding process by allowing new clients to get better prepared for expectations.

Consider how much information you want to share up front and break it into a series of emails that go out over several days or weeks.

Below is what the message can contain.

Subject line: Mark your calendar

Hello (Insert client's name)!

One of the awesome benefits of the coaching package you selected is an opportunity to join our live retreat in Sedona, Arizona June 15th through the 18th.

Be sure to block your calendar now. We will be sending more information as the date approaches.

Warm Regards,

(Insert your name)

or…

Subject line: Did you know

Hello (Insert client's name)!

Many of my clients struggle with a new coaching relationship in the first few sessions. It’s totally normal to have some hesitation when beginning. Here are some tips that may help make the process run a little more smoothly for you:

(Share your tips here).

And please let me know immediately if you have any concerns whatsoever.

Warm Regards,

(Insert your name)

A Little More About Tools

Now that we know what the steps include, let’s make the process a bit easier to manage. A new client onboarding process can be automated and streamlined with the use of the right tools.

But why automate? Why set up processes?

Your automated process helps eliminate the need to think about what you might be forgetting. At its most basic, an automated process is a simple checklist for each client. A list that helps you not forget.

Cloze.com can help with this kind of a checklist with their Next Steps feature.

However, there are tools that can work together so that you don’t even have to check a box!

Let's quickly walk through some of them.

Online forms

Online forms are great tools used to gather information, understand client's preferences, or receive feedback from clients. They can be used to create survey or questionnaires as well. Examples of tools used to create forms include JotForm, Google Forms, Ninja Forms and many more.

JotForm is one of the easiest ways to create online forms. Whether you want to generate leads, carry out client survey, register guests for an event, or collect order payments; JotForm is one of the best options. It is a user-friendly form builder that allows you to create a custom online form that best suits your specifications.

Google Forms is great for creating surveys. However, one of the disadvantages of using Google Forms is that your client will need to use a Gmail address, something they may not want to do.

Ninja Forms is another tool for creating online form free of charge. With Ninja Forms, you can create forms directly on your Wordpress website. We recommend it for beginners because it doesn't require code. Hence, they can quickly build complex forms with ease.

Esignature tools

Esignature tools makes it easier and faster for clients to sign documents. Examples are HelloSign, DocuSign and the likes.

HelloSign is an easy and classy way to sign, edit and scan a document with your mobile device. If you need to sign a document or you want your client to sign a document immediately, just use HelloSign.

DocuSign is very similar to Hellosign. It is also a kind of esignature application that allows you to sign documents on the go. You can also use DocuSign to dispatch documents to clients so they can append their signature on it.

Email autoresponder

An email autoresponder is a sequence of emails, usually targeted for a particular purpose, sent one after the other at predetermined intervals. We recommend that you start sending the emails when a client clicks the subscribe button to receive emails from you.

It is also a series of automated emails delivered to a particular set of people on your email list. It is activated by a specific action, like subscribing to your email list, browsing activity, purchasing a product online, downloading a PDF file and the likes.

ActiveCampaign is a good example of email autoresponder tool you can use to forward automated emails to your client at a predetermined period.

Online calendar system

The online calendar system is a proficient method to manage your day to day activities at home or while at work. They come with other amazing features such as address books, photo manager and others. Some of them support uploading and sharing of documents as well.

Guess what?

You can also schedule meetings with your clients using the online calendar. Examples of such online calendar include Calendly, Timetrade, Acuity and many more. Check out our review of the best online scheduling tools.

Invoicing system is a tool that creates automated invoices which contain the cost of products and services offered to a client. Paypal and Stripe are examples of an invoicing system for online businesses.

Zapier or IFTTT

Once you know what systems you’ll be using, you can use a tool like Zapier or IFTTT to integrate the process. For example, upon receiving a signed contract from HelloSign and payment via Paypal, Zapier can add the contract to Active Campaign, log the payment and trigger a welcome email to be sent.

Should You Automate or Delegate Your Client Onboarding Process?

Now that we've presented all of the ways you CAN automate, let's consider whether or not you SHOULD.

It’s always interesting when we have clients that want to set up complex automation systems. It seems like a great idea in theory. If they have a great automation in place, they won’t have to continue paying someone to handle the details.

Unfortunately, that’s only great in theory, most of the time. You see, automations require a babysitter. They break down each time a system or program changes and someone needs to know how to go in and make sure everything is still working. So, they still require human power.

There’s a point where automations make sense but it’s important to evaluate the cost/benefit of setting up the automation.

If you are onboarding MANY clients at once, then automation probably pays for itself. If you only have a few new clients at a time, then it might make more sense to create a process and hand it over to your Virtual Assistant to handle.

Conclusion

A new client onboarding process that is designed to impress will include all of the following:

• Your contract or agreement,
• Automated payment options,
• Detailed new client forms,
• Simple scheduling systems, and
• A series of welcome emails.

In case you don't have the time to do it yourself or still experienced some difficulties, don't hesitate to request the service of the Virtual A Team.

You’ve finally decided you are going to delegating more work. You’ve searched for and found your first virtual assistant. You know exactly what project or tasks you want them to get started with. Now what? How do you manage all the details? There are contracts and procedures. Do you track processes and tasks? What about communicating all these tools to manage virtual teams to your employees?

One of the hardest parts of starting my virtual services company was researching and finding the right tools. It took many months and hours of comparison shopping. In addition, there were some tools I hadn’t even thought about needing.

Finding and using the right tools for working with your virtual staff can make your life a WHOLE lot easier. It’s not just about communicating with your team. The right tools can ensure your data security, help track hours and improve relationships.

Password Programs Tools to Manage Virtual Teams

What is it?

This may be the most important and yet one of the most often overlooked tools to manage virtual teams. Password managers provide users with a convenient and secure way to generate, store, retrieve and sometimes share passwords with others. Browser-based password managers are the most common. If you've ever used Chrome and gotten that little message in the upper right asking if you wanted Chrome to remember your username and password, then you are familiar with basic password managers.

Why use one?

Whenever you receive an email letting you know there has been a data breach or hack on a specific website, the first thing they recommend you do is to change your passwords.

They say this because most people use the same password is used across multiple sites and the hackers will use that information to attempt to access other websites.

By changing your passwords, you minimize the chances that someone will access another site.

Password managers reduce the risk of this happening by allowing you to create unique passwords for every website without having to try to remember a random string of letters, numbers and symbols.

And, when using a password manager with a virtual staff, you are sharing these unique passwords for ONLY the sites you want your virtual staff to access instead of inadvertently giving them the keys to the kingdom.

Many password managers also allow you to share access without directly sharing the password. You can then revoke this access whenever the individual is no longer working with you.

Which one to use?

There are several options for password managers. These options fall into two primary categories.

Browser-Based: These include password managers that are based within a browser, such as Chrome, Firefox or Safari. The limitation of these password managers is that they typically only store passwords for access on their browser. They do not include unique password creation or sharing across multiple devices or locations.

Dedicated Password Managers: These tools generally work across multiple platforms, offer several more options and include encryption forms. These are what we recommend to our clients.

Our Choice

LastPass is our favorite here at Virtual A Team and we use it with all of our client's information. LastPass has both cloud and desktop-based options with the cloud-based being the most common. It includes the ability to share access without sharing passwords or sharing access and passwords (which is sometimes necessary). You can even share secure notes if you need to provide information like credit card numbers to your virtual staff.

Additional dedicated options include Dashlane and KeePass.

Pro Tips: Take some time setting up your Password Manager when you first get it. Make sure you’ve logged your most used usernames and passwords. Set up folders for the different team members so you can quickly determine who has access to what. Check out more tips from How-To Geek on setting up LastPass.

Project Managers

Whether you simply have a long list of tasks or full projects that need to be managed, having the right tools to manage virtual teams can help keep everything organized and in one place. I spent the most time researching this for Virtual A Team.

What is it?

A project management tool can be a simple list of tasks centrally located for everyone to access. It can also be a full-featured, and often pricey, program with many extra bells and whistles.

Why use it?

Without using some form of a project manager, it becomes easy for tasks to get missed or forgotten. Project managers can also help reduce the amount of back-and-forth by keeping everything organized in one place.

Which one to use?

Our biggest tip is to take your time and research your options. Just because your friend loves Trello doesn’t mean it will work well for you. Asana may be the most popular tool on the market, but that doesn’t make it the best for your needs.

We’ve already done a review of the top 5 Project Management Programs. This will give you a good place to start in your research.

Our Choice

I compared everything from Trello and Asana to Basecamp and more. We finally landed on and LOVE Teamwork. It combines the best of project management systems and communication tools.

Download our Ultimate Guide to Delegating Here for More Tips & Tools on How to Delegate as a Solopreneur

File Sharing and Collaboration Tools

What is it?

Once upon a time, if you wanted to share a file with someone, you had to put it on a CD (or flop drive…) and mail it to them. This was time-consuming and made working remotely nearly impossible. I mean, can you imagine having to send files to one another? I still remember the days of uploading files to my website manually so someone on the other end could download them.

Fortunately, we now have tools like Google Drive, Dropbox, Microsoft OneDrive and many others to make this process far easier. In fact, many solopreneurs and small businesses no longer store any files on their local devices. They prefer to use cloud-based solutions as a backup and to ensure the files are with them wherever they travel.

Why use it?

Cloud-based storage tools allow folders to be accessed via the internet so that files can be shared to multiple locations. This comes in handy if you travel regularly. It is ideal for when you need your team to access something without you having to send it to them every time.

Today, most of these tools also include collaboration features. These features allow multiple individuals to work on the same file and share comments and notes. This makes it far easier to share thoughts and ideas while reviewing and directing your team.

Which one?

There are many tools available in this arena. We generally recommend sticking with the most common ones.

For a complete review of Google Drive, Dropbox and some of the other file storage and collaboration tools you can use, check out PC Magazine’s review.

Our Choice

Currently, Virtual A-Team uses Dropbox for most of our needs. We aren’t particularly raving fans but it does the job as well as any of the others.

Communication Tools

What is it?

Communication tools are the ways you keep in touch with your virtual team. These can include everything from email to video conference services.

Why use it?

Communication is the foundation of a good working relationship. Without great communication, your team will not have a clear understanding of your needs. They won’t be able to discuss issues or concerns when they arise.

Which one?

You’ll want to incorporate a few options for communicating with your team. Consider the following categories:

• General communication. This includes things like routine correspondence and updates. Email may be just fine for this purpose or your team may decide to use tools like Slack which offer private chat options.
• Scheduled meetings. While your team may not be working in the same location as you, it is important to have scheduled meetings to check in. These are often done using conferencing tools such as Zoom or Skype. These tools do not require a high upfront cost (if any) and are accessible to just about everyone with an internet connection.
• Urgent needs. There will be times when you or a team member has an urgent need. Text messages or chat apps can be very beneficial in these situations. It may be necessary to clearly outline the times when text message are allowable if you have specific boundaries on your availability.

One of the most important tools to manage virtual teams is the telephone. There will be times when the written word just does not go over as well as the spoken word. Take the time to pick up the phone to have a more meaningful conversation.

Our choice

Here at Virtual A Team, we use Teamwork Projects to keep track of communications and streamline information sharing. We also use Zoom to meet “face-to-face” with other team members and clients.

Training Tools

What is it?

Training tools are the ways in which you share information with your team to get them up to speed on your routines, tasks and projects. Training can be as simple as a procedure manual or series of guidelines or as complex as hands-on training for a specific program used in your business.

Why use it?

When you don’t invest the time to properly train your team, you will struggle with errors and problems. In his book, Procrastinate on Purpose, Rory Vaden talks about how it takes 30x the amount of time to train someone to do a task as it takes you to complete it. While this may not be required for most basic tasks, the concept of training is important.

Investing in getting your team properly trained up front will save many headaches and challenges in the long run.

Which one?

Training starts with a basic set of guidelines for your business. Share with your team who you are and what your company is about. These guidelines can be shared in a simple document format or in a tool such as Evernote.

If you have specific programs or concepts you want to make sure your virtual team is familiar with, sites such as Udemy or Lynda.com can be very beneficial. One of the benefits of hiring freelancers is that many of them will not expect you to pay for their training on specific programs. They consider this an investment in their future skills.

Tools such as Zoom, Loom, or Snagit can be helpful when helping team members learn specifics about your business. Zoom allows you to jump on a call with your team members, show them your screen (or demonstrate on theirs) and talk about specific questions. Loom is one of the great tools to manage virtual teams if you simply want to record a workflow and save it as a Standard Operating Procedure.

Our choice

Virtual A Team leans heavily on the use of Zoom for live trainings and Loom to send and share input and feedback on our own schedules.

Other Useful Tools

Time Tracking

While many virtual assistants will track time using their own systems, if you have a larger team, you may want to handle the time tracking on your own. Tools like Toggl or Everhour are very useful for this purpose. Some project management programs such as Teamwork also include time tracking.

Payment Processing

Most virtual assistants will not be set up to take credit card payments other than through services like Paypal. Discuss options for payments with your VA’s. This might include sending them checks via a bill pay service or using apps like Venmo to transfer funds to their bank account.

Scheduling

Sometimes you will need to schedule meetings with your team members. While you may already have a system like Calendly or TimeTrade for scheduling with your clients, tools such as Assistant.to can help schedule quick meetings with your team. If you have multiple individuals needing to schedule at the same time, use Doodle.com to find a time that works best for everyone.

Email

Sending emails to your team at 1 am on a Saturday morning probably isn't a good way to build long-term loyalty. They have families and personal care needs like the rest of us. While you may be up working at those times (I know I have been), it makes sense to use something that allows you to schedule the emails to go out on Monday morning (or any time that works for you). Something like Boomerang is great for this purpose. Today, Gmail even has an option to schedule emails at a later date.

Contracts and W9s

One of the biggest mistakes I see freelancers, and those hiring them, make is not getting a contract in place. Getting documentation up front helps to prevent potential legal issues down the road. Tools like HelloSign or DocuSign can help make sure you get your paperwork signed and recorded.

Procedure Manual/Guidelines

It is helpful for new team members to have guidelines that they can review to better understand your business. These guidelines should share some details about your business and the things you find important. Your procedure manual can be a simple document stored in an online file sharing system. Need a template? Check out ours here.

Conclusion

Project managers.

File sharing services.

Communication mediums…

There are a LOT of helpful tools for working with a virtual team. Fortunately, it doesn’t have to prevent you from delegating. Take some time to research what works best (or get your VA to do that for you). When you make smart choices about these options, it will help automate the process and prevent many challenges.

You can manage all of these details on your own or use an agency like Virtual A Team to save you the headache!

What are your favorite tools for working with virtual teams?

Are you ready to spring clean your business? It’s time to start looking forward to warmer weather and fresh spring air. It’s also time to make sure everything still works before getting ready to grow your business this year. Review whether you’re getting the ideal return on your time an effort. Double check that your existing clients are still excited about your brand and you’re still bringing in new clients. Take the opportunity this spring to shake out your business and let in some fresh ideas. Once you’ve finished spring cleaning, you’ll be ready to check out 7 Ways to Grow Your Business This Year.

Here are six steps to give your business new life and color this spring:

Out With the Old…

What has begun to build up? It’s time to question whether your business has grown out of some of your older service or product offerings, or even clients. When you spring clean your business it’s a great time to analyze your product list and review whether your clients (and you) get enough value out of each product. Does every product provide enough value for the time and effort it costs you to provide? Value your time appropriately and be careful what you’re saying yes to this year. Ensure that you are only putting your time where you will gain the most value out of it – be it emotional or financial value. A stressful client who never pays on time and requires ten times the communication as other clients may not be worth the effort. An old finance software that has so many bugs it can’t open in the time it takes to make tea should also go.

How else can you declutter? Necessary but tedious tasks that don’t require your immediate oversight should be delegated to a virtual assistant. A VA can save you both time and energy (see why you should hire a VA for blog management for example). You need to handle the clients, but someone else can handle the paperwork.

Do People Wonder What You Actually Do?

Whether your business is young or overgrown, you may have issues with inconsistent brand presentation. Perhaps you came into your business overwhelmed by all of the possibilities and avoided putting all of your eggs in one basket by spreading them all around a broad category of service. It’s time to gather those eggs and narrow your niche. Figure out where your clients gain the most value – which you can do through market research and client feedback – and start narrowing your service offerings.

Spring clean your business by defining your niche. Once you have a clear idea of who your market is, make sure your marketing materials and website echo that focus. If you’ve had trouble targeting your marketing campaigns or locating your audience in social media, this narrowing of your focus will help. The better you know yourself, the better you can know your ideal clients.

Start Recycling

The effort you put into each email or blog post should bring you value for months, not hours. You can increase this lifespan through templates and automation. Create templates from your best client emails to save you time when a similar situation arises. Set up automated social media and email marketing campaigns. These can repeat after a certain period, or can simply be updated with new sets of blog posts. This way you can continue gaining value from the time and effort you put in at first over several months or years. Utilize autoresponders to retain clients and hook new clients, as well as to get the most out of web and email content.

All of these templates and your growing cache of reusable content will help you to save time while retaining and increasing your client base. Don’t forget you can recycle blog posts too! If you had a blog post a few months (or even years) ago, it might be in need of an update. If you take the few minutes to fact check it and bring it into 2018, you’ll have put in far less effort for the same value as a brand new post!

How Long Since You’ve Redecorated?

Perhaps your brand image is perfect – pristine, modern, and a perfect reflection of your business values and services. Nevertheless, even the most successful companies regularly review and update their brand image. Reviewing your website, color scheme, logo, business documents and services for uniformity and focus can be a great way to spring clean your business. Make sure that every aspect of your business targets your newly focused niche.  You should also ensure it fits the aesthetic that your particular target market will be drawn to.

If you have an office (or a home office), this would also be a great opportunity to revitalize the space and make it welcoming to you and your clients. Bring in a plant, new shelves or drawers, and an even more efficient organization scheme. Make sure that your software and hardware are up to date, and get the best tools to improve your service.

You Missed a Spot…

Your office is clean, your brand image is up to date, your online presence is focused and automated, and you know exactly who you are and what your target market wants. Now it’s time to acknowledge that there might be more to dig out for a deeper spring clean of your business. Perhaps you still have old client paper files that you’ve been meaning to scan and shred but haven’t gotten around to. Perhaps you haven’t updated your letterhead because it’s ‘good enough’, or you couldn’t bring yourself to go back past a few months ago to clear out or update old blog archives that are no longer relevant to your business. It’s time to roll up your sleeves and take out the trash.

However, if you can’t bring yourself to audit your archive or reconsider your marketing plan you can still:

Hire a Professional

Not sure where to start? Have your archives grown impenetrable through years of neglect? Are you at a loss when you consider brand redesign or marketing campaigns? Delegate, delegate, delegate.

You’re the expert in your business – but you can’t be an expert in everything. You love your business, and you know it deserves only the best. Give yourself more time to take care of the big picture by hiring specialists for everything else.

Virtual assistants are a great resource for administration, especially those at Virtual A Team who provide you a supportive network of project managers and virtual assistants so that you never have a task or project fall through. Have something too big to handle? Bring in an expert. Need a website redesign? Don’t just rely on YouTube and hope. Bring in a website designer or consultant. Need a new logo or letterhead? Trust a graphic designer who specializes in businesses like yours. Focus on what you do best, we’ll do the rest.

Being effective in small business is critically important today. As small business owners, we are bombarded by ways in which to grow businesses and it often seems like doing MORE is the only path to success. When we begin to scale back, we often look first to being more efficient. Getting “more” done better. We confuse efficiency with being effective. We can be efficient without being effective. Our systems may be great at streamlining our processes and yet our growth may be stagnant. We are able to do more but we aren’t always focused on the “right” more to do.

“There is nothing so useless as doing efficiently that which should not be done at all.” – Peter Drucker

As entrepreneurs, we need to recognize our core strengths and build around ourselves those that can help us optimize our weaknesses. Don’t be afraid to ask for help. Being effective in small business is essential but it’s also important to be efficient. We do not want to be one or the other but build a system for our small business growth that is both. Let’s dig a bit further into the difference between being effective and efficient. We will also share three keys habits that will help you to achieve both for yourself and your business.

What is Efficient

According to Drucker efficiency is defined as, “Doing things right.” Efficiency is often synonymous with productivity. The core principles of efficiency include eliminating waste and streamlining processes. We understand that we have limited resource and to find the best uses for our energies is core to success. Where is our time best spent? Which areas of need are the most important?

Removing obstacles comes by analyzing the energy drains on our time. We need tools that help us to gather data on where we are spending our resources and which investments are bringing us a return. Efficiency, in the extreme, can remove the art from an organization and make it only science. As entrepreneurs, we want to bring both beauty and technical skill to our efforts.

What is Effective

Drucker defines effectiveness as, “Doing things the right way.” Whether we have our plan mapped out and all the details in order or we are fumbling through, it is important to move towards our vision. Even when our resources are limited, or running low, we can develop ways to remain productive. As we have noted previously, “You don’t have to be unproductive when faced with times when there are limited resources. Getting the most of these opportunities just requires some careful planning.”

We want to do things the right way. Our goals include developing a plan and follow it through. It’s important that we remain open to new information and adapt our system as we work through obstacles. Starting with a good foundation will enable us to create ways to be more efficient in our entrepreneurial journey. With a clarity of purpose, we can optimize our ability to be both effective and efficient. If you don’t know where to start, let us share a few simple to execute disciplines that will enable you to keep yourself on the right path.

How to Be More Effective in Your Small Business

1. Eliminate

Drucker championed the concept of management by objectives (also self-control) whereby he distinguished between needs and goals rather than a single value as the guiding principle for an organization. When we prioritize our goals we enable ourselves to focus on the things that are most important to us. Eliminating distractions will bring us the greatest leverage for our opportunities. Doing the right things should include reducing energy spent on the wrong things.

2. Automate

There are so many tools available to the modern entrepreneur. Taking the time to invest in automating your systems will boost your efficiency. Being able to focus on the areas where you can be the most effective can be achieved through automating your processes. We have broken down some of the best scheduling programs that can help you automate. Having the right tools will assist you to minimize redundancy and thus save you time. Many online and mobile applications are available to help keep you on track, on schedule and working optimally are worth utilizing.

3. Delegate

In the spirit of efficiency and effectiveness, Peter Drucker said, “Do what you do best and outsource the rest.” While outsourcing on a national level can have negative connotations, at the personal level this can be very positive. Reaching out to expand your network of professionals can be a boost to your abilities. You may not be ready to hire full time help, but hiring a virtual assistant can be cost effective and a huge productivity boost. We have broken down what you can expect when you hire a virtual assistant as a guide to this process.

As small business owners, we want to be effective and efficient. If we struggle with one or the other we need to bring people and resources around us that fill in some of those gaps. Many of the greatest boosts to our abilities are simple habits such as elimination, automation and delegation. Take some time to identify your areas of need and to work through these three core disciplines so that you can start this year off with the right momentum.