So here I am, getting into the swing of blogging.

Hope you are continuing to tune in.

One of my favourite commercials on television these days is the one in which the little boy and his Dad share an Oreo cookie ‘virtually’.

The Dad smiles and says, ‘Good night, son,’ and the son says, ‘Good MORNING, Dad’ and then we see that they are on opposite sides of the world, but they still shared a cookie … virtually!

This scenario reminds me of how I work every day as a VA. I can share so many things (including, but not limited to, cookies!) with my clients, and we don’t have to be in the same place, or even in the same time zone.

One of the tools that I use with my clients is project management collaborative software. I have used several different systems lately and I wanted to give you an idea of some of the ones that I like.

If you are a small business owner or a solopreneur, using a VA to handle your administrative tasks is just a smart business move. By using collaborative software applications, you can keep tabs on your projects up-to-the-minute and free up your time to do what you do best … which is to grow and run your business!

I won’t bore you with the bad things about these applications, because, frankly, you will probably come up with your own list of good and bad, but here is my list of favourites, in no particular order!

Google Docs

Love it. ‘Nuff said. It’s such an easy application to use and it’s always there when you need it. You can created documents, spreadsheets, presentations and more that you and your VA can share or send to each other via email. You can even save them to your computer using the export feature, but the key with them being online is that everyone is working with the same document, in the same version, when they access it. Too cool. And it’s free!

Basecamp

Basecamp is great for project management, allowing you to set milestones and deadlines, share files, log time, and all kinds of other good stuff. It’s easy to create projects, and task out the various steps to employees or colleagues, and keep tabs on it all in one place. The ability to reply to messages or a notification by email instead of logging in is a thumbs up feature for me. Plans start at $24/month and go up. Highrise is also a cool contact-info-keeping collaborative unit of Basecamp (no more slips of paper with login details on them, you can keep it securely in one place!)

ActiveCollab

I just recently started using this and I must say it’s a great system. Hadn’t heard of it before my client started using it. Very easy to navigate and use. Milestones, tasks, tickets and time tracking all keep things organized and easy to keep track of. One of my favourite features is the ‘pages’ tab, where collaborative writing can take place. Saves emailing docs back and forth as well.  One time purchase price starting at $199.

Wrike

Wrike is really cool. My favourite feature is that I can reply to an email and it will update the project automatically. No logging in required. It automatically sends a to-do list every morning and outlines deadlines and allows you to reschedule items, all by email. It organizes the tasks and projects, so you don’t have to.  It’s as thought it collaborates with you and for you! Plans start at $4.99/user/month.

There are so many collaborative applications that you and your VA can use (go here to Wikipedia to see a huge list), but these are a few that I have some personal experience using for project management. I hope you find some of them useful in your business!

Now go and share an Oreo with your VA!