We love saving entrepreneurs and small business owners as much of their valuable time as possible. At Virtalent, we take care of those tiresome tasks that crop up in the day-to-day running of your business, so that you can focus on the tasks that you either enjoy or are better at handling than most people (or both!). But what about outside of your business? We’ve made this handy A-Z guide for UK-based entrepreneurs on how to save you time. Don’t worry, we aren’t on commission, we just think these little gems would really save you a lot of time and hassle!
A: Amazon
Ok, we get it, Amazon is the big bad wolf, but can you honestly admit that it doesn’t work brilliantly? Order pretty much anything imaginable (everything from groceries to books!) in a couple of clicks. As much as we love to support small business owners, Amazon certainly saves us a lot of time and hassle.
B: Basecamp
Looking to project manage the creation of a new website? Or simply want a better way to manage the projects that your team are working on? Basecamp is one of the most popular collaborate working platforms out there.
C: Codeacademy
Codeacademy is a fantastic way to learn the basics of some of the most popular computer coding languages in the world and a great start to learn to code. Each module is broken down into very manageable chunks and you can come back to the platform whenever you like. Codeacademy teaches the basics of HTML, CSS, Javascript, jQuery, Python, Ruby, PHP and working with APIs.
D: Duolingo
Learning a new language is fun, a great way to take your mind off of your busy schedule and a skill that any is useful for conducting business internationally (for obvious reasons!). Of course, learning languages takes a lot of time and commitment too, but Duolingo is a great way to get started using the odd few minutes you have here and there. Download their free app and next time you’re waiting for a client to arrive, on the train or waiting for a flight, whip out your phone and spend a few minutes getting to the next level!
E: Evernote
One of the best ways to take notes that sync with all of your devices, as well as allowing you to quickly search for phrases, not only within the notes themselves but most of their attachments (including PDFs). If you’re an O2 customer you can even get a free year of Evernote Premium!
F: CTRL + F (or CMD + F for mac users)
Ok, we may have cheated with this one a little… but learning keyboard shortcuts is one of the best uses of your time, trust me! The “find” function saves you trawling through your documents looking for words, and the “replace” function allows you to replace these words with another. Simple!
G: GirlMeetsDress
Sorry guys, this one’s more for the ladies. This great website allows you to rent a dress from a selection of more than 150 designer brands. They even take care of the dry cleaning afterwards! This will save you hours of shopping around for dresses every time you have a night out with your friends or a fancy dinner to attend.
H: Hailo
Hailing a taxi has never been easier! Simply use the app to hail a taxi within a few minutes and then automatically pay via debit/credit card. No more searching for a taxi rank or waiting on the minicab you called twenty minutes ago.
I: IFTT
“If This Then That” does what it says on the tin. Create rules (“recipes”) that trigger certain events when an action occurs. Want your Instagram photos automatically saved to Dropbox? Or would you like your phone to automatically send a text to your wife when you leave the office (using GPS)? IFTT have it covered.
J: Just Eat
Chances are that (if you’re a foodie like me!) you’ve probably heard of this website before but, if not, this website is a lifesaver if you don’t fancy cooking tonight! Order from a wide selection of takeaways, pay online and then wait for a knock on the door!
K: Khan Academy
Like ALISON and Coursera, Khan Academy is a great resource for developing your skill set and it’s free! Although most of the courses tend to be related to STEM subjects (science, technology and maths), they also offer a few other subjects to choose from. It’s well worth a browse!
L: Lifehacker
Lifehacker’s UK sister site is absolutely packed with work, life and business tips and tricks. Just be careful as it’s just as easy to waste a lot of time flicking through some of the more bizarre articles on there!
M: Mopp
Looking to book a cleaner for your office or house, but struggling to find one? Mopp lets you book a local cleaner online in a matter of minutes. Now you can look forward to getting home and not having to clean the bathroom!
N: Not on the high street
We absolutely love this site here at Virtalent. It’s a great place to find handmade, unique gifts for your friends and family, which can be a bit of a mean feat at times. It’s much better than trawling through the same old High Street shops!
O: Oyster card
We may be based in Birmingham, but we can still vouch for the convenience of using Oyster. It’s a no-brainer, really!
P: Pact Coffee
I don’t know about you, but the Virtalent staff LOVE good coffee. Pact send you great coffee by subscription, to your home or office. Pick from a variety of blends, then just pick how you would like it to be ground (if at all!).
Q: Quora
Think Yahoo Answers, but with a good few IQ points added to the respondents’ answers, and you have Quora. This Q&A site is popular with Silicon Valley types, but can also be a great resource for business advice, life hacks or to simply find the answer to your most burning questions.
R: Rightmove
Again, you probably know this one, but it will save you a lot of time hunting for houses or flats (to rent or buy) compared to looking through letting agents’ websites or the local newspaper. Also try doubling your price bracket on there and get some instant motivation to push you through Monday morning!
S: Skyscanner
There are a number of flight comparison websites out there, but we personally prefer Skyscanner for its simplicity and for the amount of options it gives you when comparing flights. Check it out when you’re next looking to book a flight!
T: Trello
Ditch those scrappy bits of paper and the endless emails you send yourself, so that you don’t forget to do something. Trello will supercharge your ability to be self-organised and save you a lot of time. You can add in colleagues to the “boards” (otherwise known as “to-do lists” to you and I) and also save any useful links or files to each task, so that you can see exactly what you really meant when you woke up and added something to your list at 3 in the morning.
U: Udemy
Udemy is the home of inexpensive video courses, on a huge range of topics. If you’re more of a visual learner, then you will most likely prefer Udemy to simply reading a book or flicking through countless websites in search of a good explanation. All courses are rated by participants. Watch out for the countless money-off vouchers they’ll send you if you sign up for their newsletter.
V: Virtalent
Are you looking for someone you can really trust to take care of your to-do list? Give us a call today. (Sorry, shameless plug!).
W: Whisk
A great way to save the ingredients for a recipe you spotted online and have them added to your online supermarket shopping basket.
X: Xero
It might sound obvious, but a lot of small business owners we know use Xero as their accounting software and absolutely love it! Forget about Excel spreadsheets and manually calculating your key business stats – a cloud-based solution such as Xero (or KashFlow) is the answer you have been waiting for!
Y: Youtube
Say goodbye to trawling through “how-to” sites. It’s a lot quicker to find a short video on Youtube!
Z: Zipcar
Last, but not least, is Zipcar (or City Car Club!). If you don’t have a car and can’t always rely on public transport, a car club is well worth the expense of a membership.
We hope you’ve found this list on saving you time as useful as possible. Don’t forget, for more ways to save time, why not use one of our talented UK Virtual Assistants?
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