Avoid a Monthly Charge For Your Landline Phone. Learn How!

I’ve always been on the lookout for great deals and tech gadgets that make it easier to accomplish things at work and make me more efficient. I work out of my home office and have recently expanded. For clients I know and have an established a rapport with, I provide my cell phone number … but never really liked the idea of sharing my cell on the web. Several weeks ago, I went on a hunt to find cheaper phone service and/or an alternative to purchasing a business line. That’s when I stumbled across Google Voice.

Google Voice is a great tool. It allows you to choose a phone number and tweak the settings to ring through to your computer, cell or both of them. You can also send and receive text messaging, receive voicemails, and are e-mailed transcripts of voicemails left for you at your Google Voice number. This was a great alternative and what I was looking for, but I still wanted a phone that could sit on my desk and be primarily used for business calls with new prospects.

My husband did some research and found that Google Voice paired with an Obihai Adapter is a nearly free way to have a dedicated landline. The Adapter allows you to use your Google voice number on most landlines or VOIP phones. We decided to give it a try and purchased the Obi200 Adapter for around $40 (Black Friday Deal) and an AT&T CL2940 corded phone for $20.

The setup process was a piece of cake. We were both pretty impressed with it. The phone plugs into the adapter and the adapter plugs into a power outlet and router. From there, you jot down the unique number from the Obi device and register it at ObiTalk.com. We clicked on the option to ‘sign in with Google’ during the registration process and that was it. It didn’t require any personal info or credit card information. It could not have been any easier.

My husband and I performed several test calls, left voicemails, and sent text messages. The AT&T phone doesn’t have texting capability, but you can still send and receive texts when logging into Google Voice on your computer. The sound quality was great. It’s comparable to my iPhone, if not even a little bit better. It even has Caller ID functionality!

Though Google Voice paired with an Obi adapter is a great alternative and exactly what I’m looking for, it doesn’t have all the capabilities of a landline. It doesn’t offer 911 service or international calling (US & Canada only); however, there are other organizations that provide those services for a small fee. In my opinion, the pros definitely outweigh the cons, especially if you’re using it for a similar purpose as me. I’ll continue to use my cell for personal or business calls with current clients and utilize my Google Voice/AT&T phone for prospects and other business communications. The Obi200 Adapter is a great investment at an affordable price. It doesn’t get better paying for unlimited calling in the U.S. and Canada for a one-time fee. It’s definitely a great alternative to having a dedicated business landline and paying for it monthly. You won’t be disappointed!

 

A-Drive: Online Cloud Storage and Backup Platform

Online cloud storage and backup is essential when running a business. Through SSL encryption, A-Drive offers just that. If you are a current user, A-Drive recently announced that their free service (50GB) is no longer available as of 1/1/16 and encourage users to upgrade.

If you need to upgrade or don’t know what A-Drive is all about and are interested in online storage, read more to find out about the key  features and low pricing that A-Drive offers. http://www.thevirtualadmin.com/blog-1/2015/11/25/adrive-to-discontinue-free-cloud-storage

Can’t Keep Up? 3 Easy and Inexpensive Ways for Freelancers to Draw Up Contracts

Has anyone ever told you to use your time wisely? The mandates in today’s world consist of quick turnarounds, staying current in your field, and having that edge over your competition. You’ve taken the time to research and interview for a project and, as a result, turned your prospect into a client. Your time is important, as it is to your new client. That’s why they’ve hired you to do a job. You’ve now settled on a verbal agreement of expectations, but what happens if those expectations become unclear down the road?

You don’t want to make a client wait while you draw up a contract. They may even initiate in asking you for one before performing any work. Having a contract that outlines an agreement with your client is essential. Not only does it protect both parties, but it outlines many important business elements. Some examples include:

Engagement

Term

Place of Work

Time

Confidentiality and Privacy Policy

Covenant Not to Compete

Payment

There are a lot of resources available to freelancers and small business owners. Some of the platforms I’ve recently come across include:

Bonsai: https://www.hellobonsai.com/ (Free)

Bidsketch: https://www.bidsketch.com/plan-pricing/ (as low as $23)

Legalzoom: http://www.legalzoom.com/ (pricing depends on what you need)

Business Templates: http://www.sessions.edu/for-students/career-center/tools-quizzes/business-templates (Free download)

The benefit of having something in writing demonstrates professionalism and can help streamline your schedule and workload from the start. Contracts do not eliminate problems, but they can certainly help protect you and your client.  It doesn’t take a lot of time to draw up a contract, whether you use a personalized template or hire an attorney. It may even save you an extensive amount of time down the road should a negative situation arise. You owe that to yourself, your business and your client.

Tips for Using the Concatenate Function in Excel

If you need to merge the data from two cells into one cell, consider using the concatenate function in Excel. Click on the following link to watch my tutorial video. http://www.thevirtualadmin.com/tutorials/2015/11/10/how-to-use-the-concatenate-function-in-excel

What Business Owners Should Know About The Yahoo Name Change

If you are a Yahoo small business customer, you’ve probably received a notification announcing that Yahoo will be changing its name to Luminate, effective November 8th, 2015. They are trying to make the change as seamless as possible for their customers. If you have a Domain or have purchased any other services through Yahoo, you may want to reference their checklist to determine if there is anything you need to do to prevent a disruption of service.

Links:

Checklist: https://help.yahoo.com/kb/SLN26784.html

Q&A: https://help.yahoo.com/kb/yahoo-small-business/SLN26667.html?impressions=true

**********Update 11/7/15:

I received an automatic e-mail from Yahoo today. Their system update is taking place from 11/14 at 6:00pm PT until 11/15 at 6:00pm PT. They’ve indicated that business websites shouldn’t experience downtime, but the control panel will be inaccessible. In addition, they’ve decided to change their name to Aabaco Small Business, instead of Luminate. See partial excerpt from Yahoo below.

“On November 15th, we will officially change our name to Aabaco Small Business. Yes, we did tell you that our new name was going to be Luminate. We think Luminate is a great name, but we think it’s an even better idea to have a name that’s better aligned with our soon-to-be parent company, Aabaco Holdings.”

Nifty Facebook Functions

I have to admit – I’ve never really been a frequent visitor to Facebook, or social media platforms in general. Being self-employed, I knew I had to ‘keep up with the times’ and engage. Networking and creating a web presence is vital in today’s working world. Though I still consider myself a ‘newbie’, I’m making some headway by diligently taking some time each week to research various platforms. Tonight, I’ve found some nifty tools, for either business or personal use, that I wanted to share.

Tip 1: See how your profile looks to others: – To do this, go to your profile, select the far right button on your cover photo titled ‘View as’. You’ll be able to see your public profile and the version that your friends can see.

Tip 2: Get the code for public content to embed in your website – If content was shared on Facebook and was made publicly available, Facebook allows you access to the code so you can embed it into your website. To do this, hover over the arrow next to the post and select ‘embed’.

Tip 3: Don’t have time to read an interesting link now? Save it for later – If you don’t have time to immediately read info from a link that was shared, click the arrow next to the link and select ‘save for later’. It will store the link in your saved folder, which can be found in your favorites bar on the left. Note: The saved feature option won’t be available until you have something saved in it.

Tip 4: Check and control what photo content of you has been shared – If a friend tags you in a photo and their privacy settings are different than yours, that photo will appear based on their settings and not your own. To see what photos have been shared and the settings attached to them, go to your Activity Log and select ‘Photos’ on the left and change the ‘shared with’ and ‘On timeline’ options to change the settings of each photo shared.

Tip 5: Facebook activity for you and your significant other – if you want to see a combined timeline or a detailed history of you and your significant other’s Facebook activity, go to www.facebook.com/us. In order for this to work, both you and your significant other would need to list each other as being involved.

Tip 6: Download your Data – Need to download the info in your account? You can download messages, posts shared, photos and other items not accessible by logging into your account. This data includes IP addresses, activity log, a list of topics used for ads to target you, deleted friends, people who have liked your page, and ads you have clicked on, etc. To download your data, go to Settings, General Account Settings, Download a Copy of your Facebook data.

Tip 7: Choose a Legacy Contact – You can choose a person to manage your account after you pass away. To do this, go to Setting, Security, and choose Legacy Contact.

Tip 8: Facebook E-mail Address – Did you know that you have a facebook e-mail address? Go to your Profile, About Page, and you’ll see the e-mail address assigned. E-mails sent to that address will be delivered to the inbox of the external e-mail used to sign up for Facebook

Tip 9: Need to schedule messages? – Try Sendible free for 30 days. It allos you to manage your social network and schedule messages

Tip 10: Schedule a post for a futute date – Go the ‘What’s on your mind’ section of your profile to write a post. Instead of hitting enter, choose the clock icon. Follow the prompts to enter the date you’d like your post to go live.

Tip 11: Change your font – Begin typing a post in Facebook, navigate to the link below and select copy next to the font you like. Go back to your post and select paste and your font will change. URL: http://www.symbols-n-emoticons.com/p/stylish-fonts-for-facebook.html

Tip 12: Want to remove Ads? To avoid seeing ads on the left hand side when logged into Facebook, download the Facebook AdBlock in Chrome.

Tip 13: Need to organize your contacts? If you use Facebook and only have one page for your business and personal information, consider creating lists to organize your contacts and assign while people will see certain posts. To do this, go to your friends list and select ‘create list’. Examples of a list would be to enter all of your friends in one list and your business associates in another.

Thanks for reading! If you have any tips and tricks not mentioned here, please share!

Free Mentoring Program for New and Existing Business Owners

Are you just starting a business? Perhaps your business isn’t yet evolved and you have an idea? Maybe you have a business that is already established, but need some help in a specific category? Consider getting free advice from a mentor. If you fit into any of these categories, please visit the blog on my website to read more: http://www.thevirtualadmin.com/blog-1/2015/5/3/ogmfsqr6lzi2s27m67212s8iteihtm.

Not Sure If Your Business Can Benefit From A Virtual Assistant?

Virtual Administrators can often help businesses thrive in many different ways and can tailor their services to fit the individual needs of their clients. If you are unsure if your business can benefit by using a virtual assistant, consider reading this article: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/m-shannon-hernandez/partner-with-a-virtual-as_b_4397910.html.

If you are in need of a Virtual Admin, I welcome the opportunity to work with you. I provide an array of different services ranging from administrative, website design, and search engine optimization (SEO). I offer free consultations and have uploaded examples of past projects on my website. Please visit my services page at: http://www.thevirtualadmin.com/virtual-administration-seo-services/For various methods of contacting me, please navigate here: http://www.thevirtualadmin.com/contact-us/.

I look forward to working with you!

Jen Ammons

Accessing Your Client’s Data Remotely – For Free

Technology has always been fascinating to me. When I’m not working or spending time with family, I am usually on the hunt for the latest tech news regarding the functionality of new software recently released. Alternatively, I’m often found researching existing programs in efforts to make my life as an Administrative Professional just a little bit easier.

My husband is very similar and recently taught me of a handy tool by Google called Chrome Remote Desktop. It allows you to remotely access other computers via Chrome. This functionality isn’t new. In fact, it was released in beta in October 2011 and the stable release on April 8^th, 2015, but I’d never heard of it until now. Learning about this tool reconfirmed a common mindset that we try to instill with our son: learning is a continuous journey that lasts a lifetime.

Chrome Remote Desktop is secure, with each session being protected using AES encryption over a secure SSL connection. The PIN and Access Code combination allows for an additional layer of security.  It is a fully functional platform that I actually like better than other remote programs, such as GoToMyPC, ShowMyPC, LogMeIn or Webex. Some of the key features are:

• It’s user-friendly, very easy to implement
• Attended mode: the person’s computer you are logging into will need to give you a unique ID code to gain access for one session (this works well if providing technical support)
• Unattended mode: this can be set up if you have multiple devices and want to be able to access data on each device
• The remote user can copy and paste interchangeably between the host computer and the computer being accessed

We get the most out of Chrome Remote Desktop when we are troubleshooting computer or software issues such as outlook setup, printer difficulties, or driver problems. It’s made our lives a lot easier allowing us to avoid travel to the office or home where the troubled computer is located. I only wish I had known about this handy tool several years ago. If you use a remote desktop tool that has worked well for you and your business, please share with the rest of us!

How SECURE are YOUR passwords?

People typically take extra precautions safeguarding valuable items – maybe items that have a sentimental value or perhaps tangible, monetary possessions that have been accumulated throughout the years. While safeguarding personal effects is important, it’s also essential to protect your online presence in effort to keep your login credentials, passwords, security questions, and overall identity safe.

A recent discussion with my son about utilizing safe practices while navigating the internet got me thinking about a topic that is often overlooked – How secure are your passwords…really? If you conduct a Google search using the term ‘common passwords’ or similar verbiage, you’ll find that many people set passwords that can be guessed or are easy to crack.  The theft of passwords, credentials and other data is not uncommon. Though this study was conducted in 2013, the statistics are still frightening. See: https://www.trustwave.com/Resources/SpiderLabs-Blog/Look-What-I-Found—Moar-Pony!/. To help protect yourself and your data, what precautions can you take?

I’d recommend using a password manager like Dashlane. This program has a free version and a paid version priced at $39.99 annually.  The free version is fully functional, but you are limited to only using it on one device, meaning your information won’t sync throughout multiple devices. For the paid version you can choose to have your data be local-only or synced to other devices. All data is encrypted using AES-256 encryption. For more about the security measures and precautions used, refer to this link: https://www.dashlane.com/security

The purpose of Dashlane is to protect your information and keep all your passwords in one place, but also has other functions which I briefly discuss below. If you update your password on one device and choose to sync numerous devices, your password will automatically update anywhere else that you have Dashlane installed. It utilizes a strong password generator using secure methods that allow the option to select the length of a password, as well as incorporating characters, numbers or symbols. You can also tell the program to make up a word that doesn’t exist, but a word that is pronounceable.

Upon downloading the program for the first time, Dashlane will scan saved passwords from bookmarks on your computer and ask if you’d like to import the existing data. It tells how weak current passwords are and will automatically replace those with stronger ones if desired. If you tell it to ‘replace now’, Dashlane will automatically log you into your account, replace your password, close the program, and store it for future use.

Other features include a wallet, which will store paypal or other financial transactions. If you have receipts that you need to key in manually, it will keep track of your expenses. Another function of Dashlane is remembering data frequently typed and will auto-fill the same information at a later time to avoid user errors and typos.

If you currently do not have a password manager and are interested in checking into Dashlane, the following code will allow you to try the paid version for free for six months: https://www.dashlane.com/en/cs/3bb70698

To check out PCMag’s review on Dashlane, refer to this link: http://www.pcworld.com/article/2043301/review-dashlane-is-a-robust-password-manager-with-a-gorgeous-interface.html **Please note: the pricing of $29.99 referred in this article for the premium version has since increased to $39.99/year for new users.

I’ve always tried to utilize good practices in keeping my data safe, but it’s especially important now because I’m self-employed. It’s no longer just my data that needs to be protected – it’s also my client’s data. If you use a password manager or other method to safeguard your login credentials, please share!