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Sometimes, all the details you have to keep straight to organize your virtual assistant business make my head spin:
- Log-in details to dozens of systems
- Social media strategies
- Podcast guests and air dates
- Launch plans and due dates
- Customer service issues for multiple businesses
- …and SO much more
On top of all of this, I’m trying to remember when my doctor appointments are and when to process invoices in my business. In other words, I need to be a ninja to keep it all straight. But I learned quickly that organizing your virtual assistant business before you get too many clients is one of the smartest things you’ll do.
I also discovered the tools you use when organizing your virtual assistant business are the same skills I learned the hard way when I got sick.
For example, one of the first things I learned when my health fell apart was to religiously track my symptoms. I wrote down the shooting pains, every time I fell down, and my many (many) panic attacks. Soon, I began writing everything in my life down on sticky notes. I could never be sure when brain fog was going to come and leave me staring at my computer blankly wondering what I was supposed to be doing.
But then I couldn’t remember where I put the notes I took were. So I found two virtual tools to help organize your virtual assistant business (for FREE):
1. Trello
Trello is the best thing since sliced bread. I even jokingly call it “my brain”. Basically, Trello is a free project management system that looks like virtual sticky notes.
There endless ways to set up your boards. Personally, I set up a board for each of my clients that organizes all of their projects when I’m onboarding. There we manage weekly to-do lists and break down larger projects into manageable tasks. I love that we can jointly assign due dates, attach relevant documents and mark things off a checklist.
I also have a personal board that breaks down things each week to help me when organizing my virtual assistant business. Every morning, I pick the top 3 tasks (both personal and professional) that need to be completed and I’ll add them to the day’s list. I also pop doctor appointments, reminders, and things I don’t want to forget here too. There’s an app as well so I can pull it up quickly if I want to write something down to remember while I’m on the go (or lying in bed trying to sleep) which I use frequently.
Learn more about Trello here.
2. Slack
Use Slack to keep communication in one (searchable) place. If I’m communicating with clients in too many places (email, Trello, text, etc.), chances are I’ll forget something important. Slack is the modern version of AOL Instant Messenger.
Organized by channel, Slack allows you to ask your clients all of those quick questions that pop up throughout the day. If you’re working with a team, you can seamlessly communicate progress or questions. Plus, you can integrate your Slack with your Trello account to create cards from conversations as you need.
While Slack has an app you can use to text on your phone, I delete it from my phone unless I’ll be away from my desk for long periods of time during the workday. (In other words, when I’m sitting in waiting rooms at the doctor’s office most of the day.) Even though you can set yourself as “away” or shut off notifications, having constant access to conversations that take place outside of my working hours was really draining my energy.
…
Whether you use Trello or a notebook or another system when organizing your virtual assistant business, I encourage you to spend time really figuring out how you can organize your life BEFORE you take on too much client work. If you’re scrambling to organize it all AND client work AND your health AND all the other things on your plate, you’ll only increase your stress…and probably increase your symptoms.
(And if you’ve got it all figured out, pop your favorite organizational hacks in the comments!)