Let’s face it, we all have a ‘to do’ list. Whether it be a scrap piece of paper, post it notes stuck to our PC or a super organised list integrated with Outlook most of us small business owners will admit to having a list. Do you shuffle things between your lists or misplace the list and know there is something you should have done by now? Well if you have an iPhone the Remember The Milk application is a
fantastic list manager.
The web application is also very handy (and free) but you do need the Pro version to access the iPhone app after the free trial.
Here are some of the things you can do with Remember The Milk:
(Source: Remember The Milk website: http://www.rememberthemilk.com)
Manage tasks quickly and easily.
An intuitive interface makes managing tasks fun. Set due dates easily with next Friday or in 2 weeks. Extensive keyboard shortcuts make task management quicker than ever. |
Get reminded, anywhere.
Receive reminders via email, SMS, and instant messenger (AIM, Gadu-Gadu, Google Talk, ICQ, Jabber, MSN, Skype and Yahoo! are all supported). |
Organise the way you want to.
Are you a list lover? Create as many lists as you need. Into tagging? Use the task cloud to easily see what you have to do. Want to store notes along with your tasks? You can do that too. |
Locate your tasks.
Use the map to see where your tasks are located in the real world. See what’s nearby or on your way, and plan the best way to get things done. |
Work together to get things done.
Share, send and publish tasks and lists with your contacts or the world. Remind your significant other to do their household chores. |
Add tasks wherever you are.
Adding tasks is as simple as firing off an email (even from your phone). See an important date on the web? Add it to your list with Quick Add. |
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Have you heard of Google alerts and do you know how they can help your business? Google Alerts are a free tool offered by Google that send email updates of the latest relevant Google results (web, news, etc.) based on your choice of query or topic.
Some handy uses of Google Alerts for small businesses include:
- monitoring a developing news story
- keeping current on a competitor or industry
- keeping an eye on what is being said on the net about your business or your name
- tracking keywords in blogs so you can add to them with your expertise
You can choose to receive your Google Alerts as they happen, as a daily or weekly digest and there are no limits to how many alerts you can set up. At the very least you should have a Google Alert set up for your business name but if you are serious about marketing your business on the Internet then you should also add alerts for your industry and competitors.
Today sees the launch of our graphic design service provided by Heidi Sinclair.
Heidi gained her experience working mainly for corporate businesses and found her niche in creative design. Offering graphic services which focus on clean, clear designs, Heidi has worked on major advertising campaigns, as well as providing graphic and web design services to small businesses in both the UK and Europe.
Heidi Sinclair, Graphic Designer
Heidi is based in the UK and she is happy to offer her graphic design services to our clients globally.
Through a passion for design, Heidi has successfully worked with all manner of organisations, small and large, including:
- Professional services
- Human resource consultancies
- Research and development organisations
- Financial services companies
Versatile Assistant’s Professional Graphic Design Services include:
- Logo Design
- Brand Guidelines
- Web Design and Build – using Flash and/or Dreamweaver
- Design & build of animated gifs
- Intranet design
- Dynamic presentations & contents for CD-ROM
- Press Ads
- Posters
- Flyers
- Hand Outs
- Invitations
- Business Cards & Stationery
- Brochures
- Newsletters
So if you are a small business in need of some design inspiration why not contact us today and we’ll have Heidi working on your ideas in no time!
I have to admit when I first joined Twitter almost a year ago I wondered what all the fuss was about. Using the web interface is very limiting; it only shows a limited number of tweets and it can be very hard to find those useful tweets you want to see.
TweetDeck is a free application designed to make using Twitter much easier. For quite some time TweetDeck has had integration with Facebook too but this was limited to only personal profiles. The latest version of TweetDeck enables you to also update your Facebook Pages and LinkedIn account, making it an ideal companion for the small business owner that needs to keep their time spent on social media to a minimum! Unfortunately the iPhone app doesn’t have the Facebook Pages or LinkedIn capabilities yet but we can only hope that is on the way.
Another great feature of TweetDeck is the many columns you can set up to follow those people you are truly interested in. You can also set up search columns so you will always see a particular search term when it is tweeted. If you are new to Twitter and are finding it difficult to navigate then download Tweetdeck and give it a try – it will make you see Twitter in a whole new light!
There’s no questioning the power of social networking and the role it can play in business. Using social networking effectively involves good time management skills and setting limits on how it fits into your working day. This is where iPhone applications can play a crucial role; free up your dead time while on the train, waiting for appointments or sitting down for a coffee. This will enable you to focus on your work when you need to without being interrupted by social networking distractions.
Some of our favourite social networking apps for the iPhone include: Facebook, LinkedIn, TweetDeck, Tweet Lite and Twitterific.
Dropbox.com is a fantastic file sharing site which enables you to share files between different computers and mobile devices like the iPhone. Even if you don’t have an iPhone I would recommend setting up a free account with 2GB of storage. It’s incredibly useful when you have more than one computer or need to share files with a colleague. There are also upgrade options for more storage making Dropbox an ideal back-up for your files. The Dropbox iPhone application is free making it a great app for small businesses on a budget!
For something different we have decided to launch a competition this month. If you become a fan of Versatile Assistant on Facebook during February you could win a Facebook Business Page makeover or new page set-up valued at £88!
This package includes up to 4 hours service to create your personalised business page complete with:
- FBML code (this is Facebook’s own HTML language) to create landing page and the unique pages you specify
- graphics/photos from your website
- an integrated newsletter sign up page if you use Aweber or a similar autoresponder service
- a blog feed if you have a blog
- tips on how to maintain and update your Facebook page
We look forward to welcoming you to our Facebook Fan Page and watch this space for the winner announcement early in March!
The iPhone is quickly changing how we use our mobile phones. I must say I wondered what all the fuss was about! Once I looked into it I discovered the capabilities were amazing, you can almost organise your whole life on the iPhone!
After weighing it up I decided to get an iPod touch which can access almost all of the iPhone apps via wifi. Well I haven’t looked back and I have never been so organised! (and being a VA I was pretty organised to begin with)
I am going to write about some of my favourite iPhone apps over coming weeks. Starting off today with the Wordpress app. This new blog and website is run using Wordpress so I am writing this post on my iPod Touch. It is fantasic for when you come up with blog ideas on the spur of the moment and might not be sitting in front of your computer. If you run a wordpress self hosted site you need to select allow RPC publishing in your admin, writing options. The WORDPRESS iPhone app also works for blogs hosted on WORDPRESS.com.
