H.Y.V.A. and Save Time™

Welcome to the Recommended Resources page of the H.Y.V.A.™ blog where “Entrepreneurship + Outsourcing + Virtual Assistants + Automation = The Ideal Lifestyle You Design & Desire”

I have a firm understanding of how each of the tools and services listed on this page work, as well as the benefits that you’re going to get once you use them. With all honesty, they work for me and my clients; this is why I have decided to become their affiliate and promote them so that members of my community can also take advantage of the benefits that these tools and services have to offer.

Again, there’s nothing on this page that I haven’t personally used or recommended to my clients.

Also, if you happen to know a tool or service that I don’t have listed and you know would benefit all of us here in the community; kindly let me know so that I can include it.

Self Development

1. Public Speaking & Presentation Workshop – Today’s marketplace is tilting towards multimedia (video and audio) marketing, rather than static sales pages; by attending this workshop you’ll be able to convince people into buying or subscribing to the products or services that you offer.

2. Media Workshop -If you’re seriously thinking of doing interviews with the news media and you need to prepare in advance so that you are awesome on TV or the Radio, then this workshop is for you.

I personally interviewed Mr. TJ Walker, dubbed as the leading expert by Bloomberg TV, “The Daily Show” and Fox News, on how his training can benefit entrepreneurs. Click on this link to watch my Interview With TJ Walker.

Audio Podcasting Tools

1.) Audio Podcasting Equipment – The package includes quality audio hardware. It also includes Camtasia and Sony Sound Forge Audio studio Software for top-class video and audio editing. A must have for your videos, podcasts and audio recordings.

Video Podcasting Tools

1.) Wistia Video Hosting Platform – Offers a small business friendly Video Hosting platform that lets you see how people watch your videos. It goes beyond the view count and shows you analytics that really matters. This is the one I use to host all of my videos here on the H.Y.V.A. blog.

I personally interviewed Chris Savage the CEO of Wistia and he explained the benefits of video marketing and how Entrepreneurs can use videos to promote their businesses. Click on this link to watch my Interview With Chris Savage.

2.) Record Skype Videos with Vodburber – Use Vodburner to record your Skype Videos! It is the tool I use for recording my video interviews with Entrepreneurs. Sign up now to get a Free 14 Day Trial!

Outsourcing and Automation Resources

1.) Outsourcing Course – By enrolling in this online course, Tyrone Shum will teach you the basics of Outsourcing and Automating your current systems to rid you of work that are too time consuming. This way you can focus on the more important aspects of your business. Click on this link for my Interview With Tyrone Shum.

2.) Outsourcing the development of Mobile Apps – This is a step-by-step guide on how to find Mobile App developers, install and test your app, how to submit and get approved by the Apple development team, and how to market your Moble App. Click on this link for my Interview With Quoc Bui; on how he outsourced the development process of his over 25 iPhone Apps.

3.) Virtual Staff Finder’s Chris C. Ducker will coach you on how to find, hire, train and deal with your Virtual Assistants. Chris has trained hundreds of outsourced workers, and now has a team of over 200 employees in the Philippines.

I interviewed Chris Ducker who is responsible for the V.A. search-and-match service on how he became a Virtual CEO. Click on this link to watch my Interview With Chris Ducker.

4.) Contractors / Providers, Virtual Team Marketplace – Build a Team of virtual providers on Odesk to help you with your projects. Choose from thousands of providers who offer various skill sets that meet your exact needs.

Business Essentials Tools for becoming a Virtual CEO

1.) Shoeboxed gets rid of all your paper clutter. They digitize your paper documents so you can organize everything in a secure online account.

2.) Freshbooks Invoicing Tool – Helps you send and manage invoices online. Send invoices sooner to clients using this.

3.) Grasshopper the Virtual Phone System – Offers a virtual phone service which offers toll free numbers, call forwarding, custom main greeting, unlimited extensions, name directories and so much more.

4.) DocuSign, EchoSign, and RightSignature – Offers you the means to send out digital versions of your contracts in order for the recipients to append their signatures and initials digitally. No need to wait on signed Contracts anymore, it all can be done virtually now.

Brainstorming and Planning Tools

1.) MindMeister Mind Mapping Tool – This browser-based software innovates the way you take notes, brainstorm and plan your projects with your team. I personally use this for brainstorming ideas.

Online Payment Tools for Businesses

1.) Paypal for Business – Paypal is by-far the most popular online payment service. Accept online payment easily and quickly; safe and securely with Paypal.

2.) E-Junkie Shopping Cart – This provides shopping cart and buy now buttons that let you sell downloads and tangible goods on your website, ebay, MySpace, Google base, Craiglist and others using all the popular internet payment processing  service providers.

Website Tools

1.) Mouseflow’s Realtime Website Analytics & Video Playback – Allows you to record and playback how your visitors used your website. You can also see mouse movements, clicks, scroll events, key strokes and dozens of other features that allow you to know which facets of your websites you need to improve on.

2.) ProvideSupport Live Chat Tool – Is a live chat software which is a cost effective tool that helps your product online. Your website visitors can easily contact your live assistance team via this live chat system.

3.) Unbounce Landing Page Platform – This is a self-serve hosted service that allows you to create, publish & test specific landing pages without contacting IT service providers.

I interviewed the Co-Founder of Unbounce on how to build Landing Pages. Click this link for my Interview With Rick Perreault.

4.) Max Foundry’s Simple & Easy to use Landing Page Plugin for WordPress – If you have a WordPress site and your need a simple and easy to use Landing Page Plugin then Max Foundry is the way to go. I use it and love it!

Marketing and Promotion Tools

1.) How To Make Money with Interviews – This will guide you on how to generate “money making” content and “income producing” interviews for your website.

2.) Mobile Marketing – This teaches you the basics on how to sell your own products via a mobile enable site. It also teaches how to fast-build a mobile buyers list and how to drive targeted traffic to your mobile site at a very low cost.

3.) EZ Texting – This tool is awesome! It provides you with a simple to use online platform to use to send out mass SMS text messages to promote your products and services.

4.) Purlem – This tool enables you to create Personalized URLs that you can use in your Direct Mail Campaigns to increase conversions.

I interviewed the CEO of Purlem on how to Increase the Rate of Conversation of your Direct Mail Campaigns by using PURLs. Click this link for my Interview With Marty Thomas

Affiliate Promotion Tools

1.) Zferral Affiliate Management Tool – This allows you to easily create, tack & manage your custom referral program. Create campaigns, upload banners and marketing materials and send them to your network instantly and then tracked your networks’ progress

Cheers!

Owen McGab Enaohwo

Community Engagement Officer (CEO)

Non-Performing Notes, What are they?

Non-Performing notes (NPNs) are accounts of borrowers which have been classified as distressed assets by banks. A perfect example is an overdue mortgage loan that is not producing income because the borrower no longer makes monthly payments. As a result of this, banks through their asset managers sell these notes in bulk to Note Buyers.

The hard to find Asset Managers

Most banks employ tons of gate-keepers that note buyers have to try really hard to get through to the right asset managers. Also, asset managers are often very busy and at times not available immediately to take calls from note buyers, hence regular follow-up is necessary, which in itself can be a time consuming and painstaking process.

Bad Note Brokers and their daisy chains!

Asset managers sometimes give their NPNs to Note Brokers to market them to note buyers. Well that’s an ideal situation; the reality is that most note brokers claim to have access to NPNs but really don’t and they are usually part of a long line of other note brokers making the same claims. A bad note broker is a real time waster because note buyers will spend time dealing with all parties involved in the transaction only to find out at the last minute that the note broker never really had access to any NPNs or a real asset manager in the first place.

Click to Continue reading 'How Virtual Assistants can...'

Most successful Real Estate Agents know that creating systems for every process in their businesses allows them to be more effective and efficient at delivering the necessary solutions that their clients desire. Systems once created free up time for you to concentrate on income producing tasks; hence the need for you to hire a Virtual Assistant (VA) to help simplify your life. Here are 7 ways a VA can help with your daily time consuming tasks.

1.      Administrative work

VAs will assist you in your day-to-day administrative tasks such as sending faxes, setting up and confirming appointments and much more. Once a system is created to handle an administrative task, it can then be handed over to the VA.

2.      Telemarketing

Most agents dread making cold calls to leads; you can have your VA use specific scripts and make the initial calls. You can then take over the conversation with leads once they have been converted to warm prospects.

3.      Internet marketing

VAs are able to perform several internet marketing tasks such as; posting to your real estate blogs, maintaining your online social media profiles, creating viral videos, writing articles and so on.

Click to Continue reading '7 ways a Real...'

Hiring a Virtual Assistant can add value and save you time and money. There are a lot of them on the internet, but only a few can deliver effective and efficient results. Getting the right Virtual Assistant can be a challenge, so listed below are some of tips on how to search for a reliable Virtual Assistant to outsource your business tasks to.

Look for a Virtual Assistant with multiple skill sets

Aside from the basic skills, try to find a Virtual Assistant that has other useful skills. Determine their ability to proofread, type fast, compose articles, use necessary business software such as Excel, engage in Social Media marketing and so on. The aim here is to discover what other hidden assets the Virtual Assistant might have that can be applied to improve your overall business.

Look for a Virtual Assistant that can communicate fluently in English

Conduct several interviews over the phone and correspond a few times by email to test their ability to speak English fluently and write with little or no grammatical errors. Your ability to communicate effectively with a Virtual Assistant makes it easier to work together, so ensure you have good communication.

Click to Continue reading 'How to find an...'

Virtual Assistants are Independent Contractors and do not go through the same employment procedures that a full-time employee would have to undergo; rather you just pay them for services rendered.  Certain formalities are still necessary to engage a Virtual Assistant, such as; a contract has to be signed by both parties which lists in detail each party’s responsibilities and expectations, also a reliable means of communication has to be established from the onset. Beyond these formalities, hiring a virtual assistant is much easier than hiring an employee.

Virtual Assistants pay their own taxes and benefits

The primary advantage is that you don’t need to pay taxes or create a benefits package for the Virtual Assistant. Since they are independent contractors, they are solely responsible for their own taxes and benefits. You don’t have to worry about payrolls, pensions, or other benefits such as medical insurance etc. It’s more cost effective than hiring a full time employee.

Click to Continue reading 'What are the advantages...'