OFFICE 360 & G SUITE

Office 365 and G Suite are a suites of productivity tools that let you perform common business tasks online. Both allow you to create documents, spreadsheets and presentations, and collaborate with others whilst doing so. They also provide email, video calls and cloud file storage.

If you've worked in corporate before, it's likely that you'll already have experience with Microsoft Outlook, Word, Excel, Powerpoint etc - all Microsoft tools that are part of Office 360, but they function online, rather than on your desktop.

G Suite's version of the above includes Google Docs (Word), Sheets (Excel), Slides (Powerpoint). It also includes YouTube and Google Calendar.

The cloud storage systems are called One Drive in Office 360, and Google Drive in G Suite.

Most business owners will use one suite or the other, so it's a good idea to grasp the functions in both suites, so you can confidently share files and collaborate.

MAILCHIMP

Mailchimp is the most affordable and user-friendly email program by far, so no wonder it's a popular tool amongst the small business community.

I recommend learning how to set up newsletter templates, campaigns, autoresponders, and how to integrate sign-up forms with Facebook and WordPress websites.

Watch my Mailchimp step by step tutorial on Skillshare >>

CANVA

In today's virtual world, you don't have to be a graphic designer to create beautiful images and presentations. Canva provides a fantastic, user-friendly solution for creating posters, PDF documents, business cards, presentations, social media images, Facebook covers etc. Plus, it's free!

Watch my Canva step by step tutorial on Skillshare>>

WORDPRESS

I highly recommend gaining foundational knowledge on how to use WordPress as it's one of the most popular website platforms amongst small business owners.

Some of essentials to learn are:

• how to set up a blog post

• create a new webpage

• update plugins and themes

You don't need to learn how to set up a website from scratch or know how to fix technical errors (unless you're super tech savvy and want to offer this as an advanced service). I recommend Virtual Assistants just learn their way around a WordPress dashboard, so you can support clients to upload blog post content, edit website copy, add new images etc.