RingCentral offers you the power of a sophisticated phone system but with no hardware to buy and nothing to maintain.

Click here to check out the different RingCentral Plans

When you sign up for RingCentral UK, you will immediately get your own 0800, 0845 or local phone number to use as your business’ main number. In addition, you will also receive a dedicated fax number.

Once you have got your phone number you can answer calls on your existing mobile, home and office phones, or even on your PC.

With your dedicated fax number you will be able to send and receive faxes.

Benefits of RingCentral

• There are no contracts.

• You can have an 0800 number that enables clients to reach you free of charge.

• It will give new clients the impression that your business is a larger professional company.

• If you select the 0845 number option you will have that number for life and there is no charge if you answer your calls on a landline or through the RingCentral Call Controller.

• You can send and receive faxes by email and online.

• RingCentral is completely integrated with Microsoft Outlook® allowing you to send faxes using your Outlook contacts. It also allows you to make/receive calls and you will be advised who the caller is before you accept the call.

• 30 Day Risk Free Trial on the Plus Plan and RingCentral Office (US)

Cons of RingCentral

• The Professional plan charges £4.99/mo for the dial-by-name directory.

• The Professional plan charges £4.99/mo for additional call queues.

Our Verdict of RingCentral

We have no reservations in recommending RingCentral as a virtual phone system for either your own business or to offer a call answering service to your clients.

Check out what other Virtual Assistants are saying about RingCentral here.

Here are just some of the awards that RingCentral have received over the years.

This is definitely one company to check out if you are looking for a virtual phone system.

RingCentral Discounts

Get 30% Off RingCentral Fax – First 3 Months

RingCentral Office 12% Off Monthly

RingCentral Mobile 40% OFF – First 3 Months

1. Free Trial Offer

Intuit are currently offering a free trial of QuickBooks for Mac 2012. Why not try it before you buy by clicking the link below?

QuickBooks 2012 for Macs – Free trial

2. QuickBooks for Mac is Easy to Use

You don’t need to have any accounting experience to use this accounting software for the Mac. There is a guide me feature that will guide you through processes until you are familiar with the software.

If you actually go on to purchase QuickBooks they offer you a free 60 minute phone session to help you get started.

3. Create Invoices and Sales Receipts

You can easily create invoices and sales receipt.

4. Easy Tracking of Expenses and Payments

It is easy to track who has paid you and who hasn’t. You can even securely download your bank and credit card transactions directly from your financial institution, and enter them in batches into QuickBooks.

The analysing tools within QuickBooks for Mac will help you to easily see where you are spending money, your top customers and your yearly income.

It comes with over 115 reports to analyze your business and show the data you need.

5. More Professional with the ability to brand

QuickBooks will help your business to look more professional. You can customize your invoices and estimates with your logo, and your choice of colors and fonts.

QuickBooks are currently offering the QuickBooks for Mac 2012 at a 20% discount. Click below for more features:

QuickBooks Organizes your Files and Makes Tax Time Easy – Save up to 20% Now + Free Shipping

Me too. I did an online search to find a solution to this problem. I came across it at http://www.techtamasha.com/how-to-remove-active-desktop-recovery-screen/109

1.Go to Run and type in regedit

2.Click this path – HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Desktop\SafeMode\Components

3.Locate the key named DeskHtmlVersion

4.Right click the key and select Modify

5.Under the label Base, select the radio button Decimal

6.Change Value data to 0

7.Click OK

The final step is to press F5 on the desktop and the active desktop recovery screen disappears before your eyes!

Try AWeber’s Email Marketing Tool Risk-Free

This Aweber review will highlight how it can help your business keep in touch with your clients.

Aweber Newsletters

A regular newsletter will help you to keep in contact with your clients. You can provide them with helpful tips and let them know that you are an expert in your field.

It also gives you the opportunity to let them know what you have been up to and what services you offer. They may not be aware of all your abilities. The newsletter should provide value to your clients. They will unsubscribe if you are always pushing your services and not giving them great content.

If can be difficult to commit to doing a regular newsletter but if you don’t have the time you can always outsource the writing. There are many sites you can use including http://www.elance.com or http://www.freelancer.com to find writers.

There are over 150 easy to customize templates included. You also have the option to create a text version. There is an ongoing debate as to whether a text version or a html template is best. If you do opt for the html template I would also copy it into the text version just in case someone can’t view the html version.

Aweber Unsubscribing

It is imperative that you give your clients/subscribers the option to unsubscribe from your list.

Aweber handles all this for you. There is an unsubscribe message on the bottom of each email that is sent out. If someone clicks on the unsubscribe button then a tick will appear in the stop column and they will no longer receive emails. They can stay on your list or you can decide to delete them.

Aweber Signup Forms

Your newsletter could potentially turn website visitors into clients.

Aweber makes it extremely simple to add a signup form on your website for your newsletter. You don’t need to learn HTML or any technical stuff. Aweber will produce the code and all you need to do is copy and paste it onto your site.

Aweber is a double opt-in autoresponder. This means that once a subscriber signs up for your newsletter/free ebook then they must confirm their subscription.

You obviously don’t need to have a website to be able to use Aweber.

You can add your contacts straight into Aweber and Aweber will send out a confirmation email to your subscribers.

Some view this as a restrictive feature but Aweber wants to ensure that the people you are adding want to receive your emails. This does ensure that you are not sending out unsolicited emails.

If you think this is a feature that you would not like then check out GetResponse which has a more lenient way of importing subscribers.

Aweber Reporting

Aweber makes it extremely easy to track subscriber activity. You can segment out who opened one of your emails and send an email just to those who opened it.

It also shows you who has clicked on your links within each email. This makes it extremely easy to see who is interested in your content and what content they are interested in.

Aweber Prices

You can send emails as frequently as you like. Some email marketing services charge per email sent which can get expensive fast.

Aweber charges you a monthly fee depending on the amount of subscribers you have.

I hope this Aweber review has highlighted the importance of staying in contact with your clients. I believe that Aweber is the best autoresponder around.

Get Started Today For Only $1! – AWeber Communications

Visit the Aweber site now to learn more …

It was here that I found out all I know about software that a Virtual Assistant uses. I have devised a software bible which is available as part of my From a PA to a VA course.

About a year into my membership Tawyna decided to introduce a paid membership the VA Insider. She gave all members a low first year rate. I decided to join and was not disappointed.

Tawyna had added a lot of valuable information including forms and tips. Only VA Insiders had access to the RFPs (Request for Proposal). This gave VA Insiders a greater chance of acquiring a VA position.

When I was a member the majority of the RFP’s were from people based in the US. As you know a VA can work with anyone, anywhere in the world but it is surprising how many people want to work with VAs that live close to them!

Saying that I have clients in Bermuda and I worked with an Internet Marketer in Indianapolis!

I found the VAs on this forum to be extremely helpful, supportive and knowledgeable. I had a problem with my website and posted it on the forum. An html expert, who is now a moderator on the forum, checked out my code and told me the solution within 2 hours of me posting the problem.

If you have been or are a member of VA Networking and would like to share your experience please leave a comment below.