Resources
I’m often asked by clients and colleagues to recommend resources that I love and use in my own business. Below you’ll find some of my favorites. I have personal experience with ALL of them and feel confident in sharing them with you. In the spirit of transparency, some of the links listed are are my affiliate links. If you use them, I will make a few bucks. Using these links does not increase the cost you pay for any product or service. If you’d rather not use my affiliate links, no worries … just Google the resource for a direct URL.
BUSINESS COACHING
Cindy Hillsey, Virtual Partnering
Cindy offers mentoring and business coaching for Virtual Assistants. As my own mentor/coach, I can tell you from personal experience that she is wise, savvy, inspiring and supportive in so many ways. She recently launched a new venture — ChatsOnDemand.com — offering 30-minute laser coaching sessions without a commitment. Perfect for when you have a burning question or dilemma you need a little coaching around without committing to a multi-session coaching package … though she does offer some great 1:1 coaching packages, too!
BOOKS
Take Time for Your Life by Cheryl Richardson
This book was required reading during my virtual training program at AssistU. I think it should be required reading for every woman … entrepreneur or not! Cheryl Richardson is wise and compassionate — one of my all-time favorite authors. This book will help you re-frame the idea of “selfish.” The most important person in your life and business is YOU. If you’re not taking care of YOU, you will not be able to care for anyone else or run your business successfully.
Internet Resources for the Busy Entrepreneur by Cindy Hillsey
This amazing e-book provides over 900 useful websites broken down into 10 different categories. It is specifically designed for those who work online. The best thing is that every link in the PDF is clickable — no copying and pasting links into your browser!
INTERNET MARKETING
Ali Brown
You probably know who Ali Brown is … and if you don’t you need to find out! She is one of the top gurus when it comes to online business success and offers a ton of great resources including teleclasses, membership programs, coaching, events and products. If you’re looking to learn from someone who’s made it to the big time on her own, Ali is your girl.
WEB DESIGNERS & DEVELOPERS
Susan Johnson, Partner4Success.com
Just take a look at Susan’s portfolio and you’ll know why she’s my favorite graphic designer. Her gift is in crafting designs that capture the essence of who her clients are and what they do. And, she’s just plain fun to work with!
Amy Taggart, Design Formare
Amy is my go-to-girl for custom Wordpress blogsite design and development. She knows Wordpress inside and out and builds incredible full-custom templates at reasonable prices. I credit her with starting my fascination and love of Wordpress when I took a basic class from her a few years ago. I’ve been known to refer to her as the “Yoda of Wordpress.” 
VIRTUAL ASSISTANTS
AssistU
My alma mater! There is no better place for finding highly-skilled, professional Virtual Assistants. If you’re looking for a fabulous VA, start with The Registry at AssistU.
Janine Harris, Voila! Virtual Assistance
Norma Bowers, Southwest Virtual Assistant, LLC
Mika Howard, MTH Virtual Assistance
MY FAVORITE TOOLS
Professional Cart Solutions (1ShoppingCart)
My favorite shopping cart solution for online business. Several levels of service to choose from based on your specific needs.
Practice Pay Solutions (Merchant Account)
You will need a merchant account to accept payment via credit card — and to integrate with your shopping cart. I use PPS and love them!
Audio Acrobat
My favorite tool for recording and managing audios, with easy access to downloadable content.
FreeConferenceCalling
All of the free conference line services will have issues from time to time, but FCC is one with the fewer problems in my experience. I love their online dashboard for real-time conference managment, free recording and great feature set. I highly recommend it for teleseminars.
Survey Monkey
An easy to use web-based survey tool. I use it for customer feedback, course evaluations, market research and more. And the basic plan is FREE!
Aweber
My favorite tool for email marketing, hands down! Send your ezine, publish a signup form to your website, create autoresponders, manage all your email campaigns and get the stats you need to make your online biz sing. Plus their deliverability is top notch and the free expert customer support is the best around.
BlueHost
Affordable, reliable web hosting solutions starting at just $6.95 per month (including a domain!). Plus they know and love Wordpress … which makes them my top choice for WP hosting.
Glance.net
Looking for a simple, fast, reliable way to share your desktop? Glance is it. Once installed it’s literally a one click start for you. And I love that the participants have nothing to install on their computers — just go to your Glance URL, enter their session key and they’re looking at your desktop. This is my go-to application for simple webinars.
WishList Member
The fastest way to turn Wordpress into a membership site! WishList is a powerful solution for creating a full-featured membership site on your Wordpress platform. Amazing feature-set and excellent support. They offer a 30-day free trial and an incredibly low cost of just $97 for a single-site license.
Central Desktop
This is the collaboration suite I use with all of my clients and my team. The online workspace makes connecting, communicating, managing and collaborating so easy. They offer a 30-day free trial (no credit card required). It’s the best solution I’ve found for my VA practice.
Dropbox
One place for everything! I use Dropbox to sync information between my iMac, Macbook Pro, PC and iPhone as well as supplemental online backup. No matter which computer I’m using, everything I need is there. And it’s a great option for file sharing too.
