Tech Tools

Whether you’re just starting your VA biz, or want to add more strings to your bow, there are some really useful pieces of tech that you could try to learn, to make you stand out from others. 

You might decide to take a short course on some of this tech, or maybe you’re someone who can just have a play around and learn as you go, but once you’ve got the hang of it, you can add it to your list of services and hopefully grab the attention of more clients.

Canva/Adobe Illustrator

This is personal preference but at the very least being able to use Canva to create graphics, leaflets, email headers, documents etc will be essential for a lot of businesses. The great thing about Canva is that it’s really simple to use and already has the templates set up to be the right size for everything from Facebook header images and Instragam stories, to A4 leaflets and presentations. There are a selection of royalty-free images, illustrations and fonts to use and even if you’re not design-minded, you can create something amazing on Canva. That said, it does have it’s limitations and there will be some clients who might not understand the quality of design that can be created on Canva, so being able to use something like Illustrator might help you stand out from the crowd. This will be useful for more design-heavy clients who want more control over their graphics. It’s harder to use but there are plenty of free tutorials to follow and it will give you so much more freedom. 

ConvertKit

ConvertKit is the email service provider right now, and thankfully is easy to use than other services such as MailChimp. Obviously the more providers you can use, the better it is for your clients, as you can offer them different options, however, ConvertKit will be a great one to steer new clients to as it has all the functionality you need, but without being overly complicated. This is perfect for those who sell courses or are bloggers – anyone trying to grow their audience and mailing list. Check it out and see how it works, but it won’t take long to master and then you can add it to your services. 

Teachable or Podia

If you are able to use Teachable and/or Podia to create online courses, you will open up your client list to a huge niche of people who do just that. There are other platforms, such as Udemy, but these two allow a lot more freedom and customisation. There are so many people who make a living from selling courses online, or offering online coaching, that if you are able to save them time by setting up the courses for them on one of these platforms, you will be opening yourself up to a huge number of potential clients. 

Notion/Asana

There are several different project management services that your future clients might use to keep track of projects and tasks, and so it will be useful if you know your way around them, even just on a basic level. With both Notion and Asana, projects can be set up as boards, with individual tasks allocated to different people. It allows you and your client (and anyone else involved in the projects) to see exactly where things are up to, as well as giving you space to paste links to finished work, or for your client to share with you inspiration or examples. Every client works differently, but if they are already using something like this, they will expect you to fit in, and so it’s useful to know how to navigate it. 

Tweetdeck/Planoly/Buffer

If you’re going to be offering social media management, or content queuing, you will want to get to grips with the main sites that offer this ability. Not only to be able to queue up posts for the best times for their business but also to use the analytics tools in order to be able to feedback and offer useful insights. There are pros and cons to using each service, and your client might already have a preferred option, so if you are already proficient in a range of them, you’ll be able to adapt to your client’s needs. 

We can’t learn everything or offer every service, but if you are able to offer something a little different to other VAs, you put yourself forward as a good option to hire. So while you’re waiting to get more clients, take the time to play around and learn some different tech services so you can really offer a robust and impressive list of services.