Vaspect

Posted by Mica Harvey / India Virtual Assistants, Virtual Assistant Companies

Vaspect is an India-based virtual assistant company. The company was founded in 2018, they specialize in providing a wide range of virtual assistant services and have grown to a team of 50+.

About Vaspect

VASPECT ReviewVaspect is a young company in the VA space, but with a team experienced in the virtual assistant and outsourcing industry, they have gathered some momentum pretty quickly.

When talking about the services they offer, Vaspect says, “Vaspect team members treat our clients to an extraordinary experience.”

It’s quite the claim, and coupled with very competitive rates make for an attractive proposition Vaspect can back this up.

They say their target customers and entrepreneurs and small businesses and they focus on the US, Europe, and Australian markets.

How Vaspect Works

To get started working with one of Vaspect’s virtual assistants you can either contact them directly to discuss your requirements or choose one of their plans and follow their sign-up process.

A member of their team will put you in contact with the assistant you’ll be working with and you can start communicating with them directly to get your tasks completed.

You can use the hours you’ve purchased within the next 30 days.

Services

They group their services into the following three categories:

  • Virtual Assistants
  • SEO
  • Web Development

As far as I can tell, essentially all of these services come from the same team and the same pricing plans. They are just highlighting SEO and web development as areas they have specialize in.

They also offer some one-off plans for building websites and can create the following types of sites:

  • Basic Website
  • Custom Website
  • E-Commerce
  • Blog

Plans and Pricing

Vaspect has six different hourly pricing plans for their VAs, and some one-off plans for custom website builds. Their pricing is very competitive, even for an Indian-based virtual assistant company.

A full-time assistant will cost you $4 per hour, or you can get started with their 10-hour plan that works out at $10 per hour.

A complete list of their plans at the time of publishing is as follows:

  • 10 Hours – $100 per month ($10 per hour)
  • 25 Hours – $200 per month ($8 per hour)
  • 50 Hours – $400 per month ($8 per hour)
  • 75 Hours – $525 per month ($7 per hour)
  • 100 Hours – $600 per month ($6 per hour)
  • Full-Time VA – $800 per month ($4.5 per hour)

Vaspect Pricing

All of their plans are valid for a 30-day period, they provide 24/7 support by using a team of assistants, and you can cancel at any time.

Vaspect Alternatives

The good news is that there is no shortage of highly rated virtual assistant companies in India to choose from. I recommend checking out My Tasker and VA Talks for two of the more well-established companies. Both offer a wide range of services and cater to English-speaking businesses.

However, Vaspect’s prices are tough to beat.

Your Turn

Have you worked with Vaspect? If so, please leave a brief review of your experience below to help others.

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IdeasUnlimited

Posted by Mica Harvey / Philippines Virtual Assistants, Virtual Assistant Companies, Virtual Receptionist Services

IdeasUnlimited is a unique virtual assistant company headquartered in Texas (USA), with multiple call center locations in the Philippines and remote workers all around the world.

The business was founded in 2010 and has grown to more than 350 active workers.

About IdeasUnlimited

ideasunlimited reviewThe IdeasUnlimited call centers are mostly used for larger projects, where focus is to provide trained workers managed through their proven process, resulting in high productivity and success rate on the projects.

The IdeasUnlimited remote workforce teams are experienced in taking care of multilingual as well as more complex projects like research, product management, ecommerce management, operations management and so on.

The company prides itself on delivering customized support solutions, 24/7 connectivity through all time zones, professional/trained staff, a proven management process and integrity in their commitment.

In the US, the business is run by founder Shahzad Yaqoob (aka Nick), who I had a chance to catch up with some time ago. He explained that they target primarily North American and European clients and are currently serving a lot of customers in all the major industries including telecommunications, medical and healthcare, real estate, technology, retail and construction, among others.

His team uses various digital technologies to provide the promised services in a productive and efficient manner. Nick cited integrity, productivity, security and confidentiality as strong selling points of the IdeasUnlimited service.

Ideas Unlimited Intro Video

Services

IdeasUnlimited is successfully proving its mettle in the following service areas:

  1. Call Center Support
  2. Virtual Assistant Support
  3. Multilingual Support
  4. Healthcare Call Center Support
  5. Ecommerce Support
  6. Backend Support
  7. Operational Support

Their call center staff can handle inbound as well as outbound customer interactions on your behalf; and work round the clock (even during holidays) as necessary.

IdeasUnlimited provides omnichannel support, covering all avenues of communication with your stakeholders.

Their virtual assistants can provide varied support services such as administrative support, omnichannel customer support, receptionist service, ecommerce support, backend support, and multilingual support and/or take care of your ongoing business process tasks through technical support and operational support services.

Contact IdeasUnlimited with your business requirements and they will find you virtual assistants that suit your needs.

Plans and Pricing

If you’ve been digging around the IdeasUnlimited site looking for pricing information, don’t worry; it’s just not there. However, I was able to chat with Nick to get the inside scoop.

IdeasUnlimited’s rates are around 41% less than those charged by larger call centers. Philippines-based workers are available at a flat hourly rate and they ask that you hire for a minimum of 20 hours per week.

He explained that most customers start with one dedicated VA at 20-40 hours per week.

They have a variety of different pricing packages available for clients looking for 24/7 services, fixed rates, pay per inquiry-based services and discounts on large/multiple hire projects.

IdeasUnlimited also helps clients source and manage VAs in the US and Europe, with reasonable rates depending on the skills required.

Ideas Unlimited Alternatives

IdeasUnlimited has created a reputation for reliable, high-quality and very responsive virtual assistant services with minimal downtime. Their three-tier management and stringent recruitment procedure has clients sticking with them for many years and referring IdeasUnlimited to their friends and family members.

There are other virtual receptionist services to consider, of course, and competing services in the Filipino virtual assistant space as well. IdeasUnlimited’s combination of the two is somewhat unique though, and makes a compelling value proposition.

IdeasUnlimited works actively on Upwork, where they have generated quite a bit of business and largely positive feedback ratings.

Your Turn

Have you worked with Ideas Unlimited? If so, please share a quick review of your experience and help others with their search.

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Pixels-VA

Posted by Mica Harvey / Dedicated Virtual Assistants, Virtual Assistant Companies

Pixels-VA is a well-established virtual assistant company that provides virtual support to companies, business professionals, entrepreneurs, and anyone who requires additional help that can be performed virtually. The company was founded in 2014, and operates its primary location in Ghana, with sales offices in the UK and the US.

About Pixels-VA

pixels-va reviewEmployees work out of the modern Ghana office, making Pixels one of the few African outsourcing companies in an industry I’m sure will see a ton of growth in the next decade.

They aim to hire only the most qualified graduates who are fluent in English, and then train them by American and European team members in business processes, customs, and software programs.

The team of Pixels virtual assistants is available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week to ensure all customers have access to the assistance they need, when they need it. Pixels-VA is proud to provide the highest quality virtual support available, while ensuring all services are rendered quickly, efficiently, and professionally.

In fact, this is a highly sought-after position, and the company receives more than 100 new applications every month!

Services

PixelsVA services include general administrative work and data entry, customer support, article writing, and more. They also have specialized skilled workers on hand to tackle more demanding projects like web and graphic design, software development, IT support, accounting, and call center functions.

The IT services seems to be an area of focus and specialization.

Their primary customer base is made up of entrepreneurs and small business owners, professional firms and larger corporations, hospitals, churches, and universities. Like others, they appear to have gotten their start on Elance.

Plans and Pricing

Pixels-VA offers a variety of services, including:

  • Data Entry
  • General VA
  • Virtual Secretary
  • Article Writers
  • Administrative/ Managerial VA
  • Customer Support VA

Pixels has 1, 5, 20, 40, 80, and 160-hours per month packages starting at $15 per month. The top-end full-time VA plan is just $1120 per month, or roughly $7 an hour.

Pixels-VA Pricing

These rates are quite attractive on a global comparison, and perhaps even lower than what you might find with certain VA companies in India or the Philippines.

Each plan comes with a dedicated virtual assistant, supervisor support, and back-up assistance in case your VA is unavailable for any reason. One cool feature is that your unused hours rollover month-to-month.

If you’re looking to build up a large virtual team, the Pixels rates become even more attractive, dropping to $4.99 per hour for a full-time team of 5 or $3.99 per hour for a full-time team of 20.

There is no free trial available, but customers can pay for the VA service with a credit card. (Always nice to rack up those miles!)

Pixels-VA Alternatives

While the company is a unique entry geographically speaking, they are certainly not the only outsourcing option out there. Their closest competition may be in overseas firms like Uassist.ME, My Tasker, or 24/7 Virtual Assistant.

Unlike many alternatives, Pixels-VA does not hire staff members who are simply looking for extra work they can perform from the comfort of home. Pixels-VA employees are employed on a full-time basis and work only from their secure offices to ensure the strictest level of professionalism is maintained.

Have you worked with Pixels VA? If so, please leave a review of your experience below to help others with their decision.

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Physician Focused

Posted by Mica Harvey / Virtual Assistant Companies

Physician Focused is a US-based virtual assistant company that was started by a group of busy physicians. The service aims to help other physicians free up some time by having a VA available to send requests too.

The company was founded in 2016 and their headquarters are in Omaha, Nebraska.

About Physician Focused

physician focused reviewThe company was founded by five physicians; Sydni, Erin, Caleb, Kristen, and Jake.

Working as busy doctors, they shared the pain of not having enough time to balance their work and personal lives. Worse, they couldn’t find an assistant service they felt catered for physicians in particular.

So, they decided to start Physician Focused.

Their model works like a typical virtual assistant relationship. With their plans you buy a number of hours’ worth of time per month, then email or text your requests to your assistant to be completed.

The interesting thing about their service is that all the examples they give are personal assistant-types of tasks. I was a little surprised by that, expecting them to offer more doctor-specific tasks.

How Physician Focused Works

Once you’ve signed up for one of their plans you can start sending requests to your assistant.

There is a simple 3-step process:

  1. Send your task requests by SMS, phone call, email, or chat box.
  2. Your personal assistant will respond within 24 hours (or 12 hours with the premium plan) letting you know they are working on your request.
  3. Once your request is fulfilled, you’ll get a message back with all the details.

Services

Physician Focused is geared toward personal tasks rather than business tasks. There is some crossover with arranging travel plans, booking conferences, and so on, but the core of their service is freeing up more of your personal time.

Some of the examples Physician Focused give as typical requests include:

  • Making travel or dinner reservations
  • Arranging for a baby sitter
  • Taking care of a speeding ticket
  • Purchasing gifts, groceries, and more.

You’re not limited to these kinds of requests, however.

As long as you’re requesting something that can be done remotely, I’m sure your assistant will be more than happy to help.

Plans and Pricing

Physician Focused currently have three different pricing plans to choose from. Their plans start at $99 per month for 10 hours of tasks per month and scale upwards from there.

Their plans are:

  • Personal Assistant – $99 per month for 10 hours of tasks.
  • Personal Assistant Pro – $199 per month for 25 hours of tasks.
  • Personal Assistant Premium – $399 per month for unlimited hours of tasks.

Physician Focused Pricing

With the Personal Assistant Premium plan, requests are replied to within 12 hours, as opposed to 24 hours with the other plans. You also work with a dedicated assistant.

It’s worth mentioning that although the plan states you have unlimited hours’ worth of tasks per month, this is bottlenecked by only being able to request one task at a time.

If you’re interested in their service but aren’t sure if it’s for you, they do offer a 5-hour free trial.

Physician Focused also say that if you’re not happy with their service for any reason they’ll refund your first month and you can walk away.

Physician Focused Alternatives

A company operating with a similar business model of sending requests via SMS is Magic. They are quite a bit more expensive, but they’ve been operating a lot longer so it’s worth comparing their services.

If you’re looking for a more traditional VA-client relationship to help handle some of your day-to-day business tasks, then I recommend getting a quote from Time ETC or Boldly for US-based assistants.

For task-based support from a dedicated assistant, you might also consider OkayRelax.

Your Turn

Have you worked with Physician Focused? If so, please leave a brief review of your experience below to help others with their decision.

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33Vincent

Posted by Mica Harvey / US Virtual Assistants, Virtual Assistant Companies

33Vincent is a US-based virtual assistant company that provides support primarily for high-performing business owners and executives.

Their “Executive Assistants” specialize in handling those day-to-day tasks that take up your time and keep you from focusing on the more important aspects of your role and business.

The company’s headquarters is in Austin, Texas, and all of their executive assistants work remotely across the US.

About 33Vincent

The company is headed up by Managing Partners Casey Putschoegl and Paige McPheely. Casey and Paige started 33Vincent to solve a pain point after needing more flexible working options for themselves, and the need to recruit high-quality remote workers for their own businesses.

They started the business in 2013, and says it’s grown organically, largely through referrals from happy clients.

33Vincent offer a more bespoke and selective service than we may expect from a virtual assistant provider, stating that they only take on a limited number of new clients every month to keep their level of service high.

When you start working with 33Vincent they will assign you a dedicated assistant. That gives you a consistent point of contact with whom you can develop a strong working relationship with over time.

How 33Vincent Works

After filling out a form with some details about you and your business, a member of their team will contact you to arrange a call so they can discuss in detail what you require from an assistant and how they can help.

You will then be introduced to the best-suited executive assistant that marries up with the skill sets and experience needed to carry out your tasks.

From this point, you can communicate directly with your assistant.

Services

Looking at the types of tasks 33Vincent’s executive assistants specialize in, their service is directed more towards busy business leaders in need of assistance managing their own workload, rather than the types of day-to-day business operational tasks most virtual assistant providers offer.

Their core services are grouped into the following areas:

  • Email Management
  • CRM Support
  • Travel Planning
  • Project and Event Management
  • Process Management
  • Calendar Management

They also list the most commonly requested tasks that their executive assistants cannot help with. These include direct sales support, fundraising ventures, design work, and any type of accounting or financial advice.

Plans and Pricing

33Vincent does not currently have any set plans or hourly rates. They evaluate each client on an individual basis and will work out a custom quote after discussing your requirements.

For the sake of comparison, other US-based virtual assistant providers typically charge $25-45 an hour.

33Vincent Alternatives

Boldly and Time ETC are two highly rated US-based virtual assistant companies that operate on a similar model. Both provide assistants that can carry out the same tasks as 33Vincent.

I recommend getting a quote from at least one of these companies and seeing how they compare before making a decision.

Your Turn

Have you worked with 33Vincent? If so, please leave a brief review below to help others with their decision.

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Looka (formerly Logojoy)

Posted by Mica Harvey / Graphic and Web Design Services

Looka (formerly Logojoy) is an AI-powered online logo design tool.

Instead of having a designer make a logo to your specifications, Looka uses artificial intelligence and complex algorithms to generate several logo designs based on your specifications.

The company’s website went live in November, 2016, and Their team are located in Toronto, ON, Canada.

About Looka

looka reviewThe company was founded and is headed up by Dawson Whitfield. With experience in graphic design and freelance work, Dawson realized that most entrepreneurs just wanted simple, high-quality logos, at the lowest possible price.

This gave Dawson the idea to replace himself with artificial intelligence capable of designing high-quality logos. Dawson spent several months on the algorithm behind the logo generating software and starting the company.

The site launched in November 2016 on Product Hunt. Although they have only been in business for less than a month at the time of writing this Dawson says the response from customers, “has been overwhelmingly positive and we hope to establish ourselves as the go-to online application for logo design.”

Services

Looka uses artificial intelligence instead of graphic designers. That allows the service to offer much lower price points and generate several logos in just minutes.

The company’s target customers are entrepreneurs, small business owners, and early-stage startups. Basically, anyone who doesn’t have the budget to work one-on-one with a graphic designer to design their logos and branding material.

How Looka Works

Looka has a well-designed interface to take you through a few quick steps from start to finish. These are:

  1. Choose Inspiration – You choose a few general logo types you like the look and style of. These form the base of the logos the AI will generate.
  2. Choose Color Scheme – Next you choose a block of colors to be used in your logo design.
  3. Company Name and Slogan – Add your company name and a slogan if you have one. This will be used as text on your design.
  4. Pick up to 3 Symbols – Based on keywords of your choice you can choose up to 3 different icons to be used on your logo from a library of over 500,000 unique designs.

Based on your choices in the 4 steps above you will be presented with a few logos. By selecting which logos you like the algorithm will continue to return more logos that meet your specifications until your focus down on the one logo you like best.

There are no graphic designers or assistants to talk to while going through the process. There is however customer support that will get back to you within 24 hours if you have any questions.

I went through the process myself to test it out, and after a little difficulty in creating my account (“Your name is too long or too short”; “Your password is too long or too short” — not helpful!), the app generated a few different options for me:

logojoy-sample-logos

And a few more:

logojoy-sample-logos-2

I think the ones with the headset and the pen (graphics I chose in the process) actually look pretty good. Some of the others don’t make much sense at all.

Plans and Pricing

It’s free to build unlimited logos, which is great because it means you can practice and browse plenty of logo ideas without committing. You only pay when you want to download the logo you have chosen, there are three different pricing plans.

looka pricing

  • Basic – $20, you can download a low-resolution logo on a white background.
  • Premium – $65, you can download a high-resolution logo, ready for use in print, on a transparent background, and with black and white versions.
  • Enterprise – $165, you get all the same features as the Premium package and a one hour design session with one of their designers.

Looka Alternatives

When it comes to graphic design for your business, you’ve got lots of options. Logo Garden operates under a similar model where you kind of do a do-it-yourself design and pay just to download the high resolution files.

Fiverr Penji 99designs Design Pickle Looka
Customer Rating
Established 2010 2016 2008 2015 2016
Minimum Cost $5 $399 per month $299 $399 per month $20
Type of Service A la carte design Unlimited Graphic Design Crowdsourced design Unlimited design AI logo design
Best for Fast, cheap designs On-going design needs Higher profile work Ongoing design needs Affordable DIY
Notes 15-day money back guarantee. 100% money-back guarantee 14-day money back trial; 30% off first month w/ code VA30 Don't pay until you love your logo
Learn more Learn More Learn More Learn More Learn More Learn More

Alternatively you have services like:

  • Fiverr, where there are hundreds of logo designers promising logos starting at just $5
  • Deluxe, where you’ll pay a little more to work with a dedicated designer and usually get several concepts
  • 99designs, where you can “crowdsource” your logo design to several different designers and pick your favorite

Your Turn

Have you created and downloaded any logos from Looka (or Logojoy)? If so, please take a moment to leave a quick review to help others with their decision.

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Moneypenny

Posted by Mica Harvey / Virtual Receptionist Services

Moneypenny is a telecommunications and phone answering business based in the UK. The core of their business is providing virtual receptionists, they also provide live web chat support, switchboard services, and a pocket phone system.

The company has been in business since 2000, and while they have been long established as one of the market leaders in the UK working with more than 13,000 businesses, they recently expanded their service to the US.

About Moneypenny

Moneypenny provides a wide range of virtual telecommunication services such as live web chat, switchboard handling, and phone pocket systems. Their main service, however, is providing virtual receptionists, which basically means there will always be a receptionist available to take the calls you can’t, or don’t want to take.

The main benefits of a virtual receptionist service are that you can forward calls to your receptionist when you’re not in the office, or set calls to redirect if you’re not answering them quick enough. This way there is always someone to answer your calls, so you’ll never miss a sale, important message, and so on.

It’s also a lot more cost-efficient than employing a full-time receptionist as you’ll only be charged for the minutes that your virtual receptionist is on a call. You also have a team of four receptionists covering your calls, so there is always a good chance one of the team will pick up your call quickly.

How Moneypenny Works

When you sign up with Moneypenny, they assign you a dedicated phone number so they can redirect your calls to that number and your receptionist will know they are answering a call on your behalf.

They can then read from a script you’ve provided, or handle the call as per your instructions and forward any messages to you via email or SMS.

To get started, Moneypenny recommends you take a week’s free trial to get a feel for their service and how it fits with your business.

When the trial is coming to an end, they will recommend a pricing plan that’s best-suited for your business so you can carry on working with them if you’re happy with the results.

Services

Moneypenny group their services into the following four core areas:

  1. Telephone Answering – You can have a team of their receptionists answering your call as per your instructions.
  2. Pocket Phone System – Redirect calls via your mobile to a different number or one of their receptionists.
  3. Mobile Answering – Set up times for their receptionists to answer your mobile calls for you.
  4. Switchboard – Centralize switchboards across multiple locations and hand over the handling of call forwarding to their team.

Plans and Pricing

Moneypenny does not have any set pricing plans available on their site for their phone call answering service. They offer a week’s free trial and will recommend a pricing scheme tailored to your usage and business after the trial ends.

Moneypenny Alternatives

If you’re in the US and want to take a trial with a US-based virtual phone answering service I recommend checking out Ruby Receptionists or Gabbyville.

For another UK-based option, Time Etc is one of the largest virtual assistant companies operating in the UK. They don’t specialize in virtual receptionist services, but it does come under their virtual PA services.

Your Turn

Have you worked with Moneypenny? If so, please leave a brief review below to help others with their decision.

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My Cloud Crew

Posted by Mica Harvey / Philippines Virtual Assistants, Virtual Assistant Companies

My Cloud Crew is an Australian owned and managed virtual assistant company. Their virtual assistants are based in Australia, the US, and predominantly the Philippines, allowing them to offer a wide range of services and business hours.

The company was founded in 2017 and specializes in providing cost-effective staffing solutions for small to medium-sized businesses.

About My Cloud Crew

My Cloud Crew ReviewThe company was founded by Tim Reading. Tim has almost a decade of experience in virtual staffing and has hired and trained more than 500 virtual assistants to-date.

My Cloud Crew says they screen dozens of talented candidates each month to add to their crew of virtual assistants, and they are able to offer competitive rates because most of their virtual assistants are based in the Philippines.

Most of their operational staff and the members of staff that are a point of contact for clients are based in the US, so no issues with business hours if you’re based in the US. They also manage their Filipino staff from their US offices.

They say a couple of areas that separates them from their competitors is that they put their crew members through world-class training to keep their skills up-to-date with the latest software and technologies, and they start with packages for just 5 hours per week to meet the requirements of small businesses.

When you sign up for one of their plans and start working with your assistant you can communicate directly with them via Teamwork, Zoom, a phone number, or Skype.

How My Cloud Crew Works

My Cloud Crew say they can take you from signing up to working with one of their assistants in just 4 steps and less than 24 hours:

  1. Discuss your requirements – You can either fill out a form on their site or talk with a member of their team so you’re both on the same page regarding what you need from your assistant and you’ll be assigned an account manager.
  2. Interview candidates – Your account manager will set up video conference interviews with the top 3 candidates that are most suitable for you and your business.
  3. Make a pick – It’s down to you to decide on the candidate you want to start working with.
  4. Integrate – You can start communicating directly with your new assistant and sending them tasks to complete. There will also be scheduled meetings via Zoom that will be recorded.

Services

My Cloud Crew offer a wide range of services and I wouldn’t hesitate to contact them with whatever requirements you have.

To give you a starting point, they group their “crews” into three general categories as follows:

  • Digital Marketing Crew – Blogging, content marketing, SEO, social media management, web developing, and similar tasks.
  • Finance Crew – Bookkeeping and financial tasks.
  • Operations Crew – General virtual assistant and customer service tasks.

Plans and Pricing

My Cloud Crew have a few different pricing plans depending on the role of the assistant you want to hire and where they are based.

To give you a baseline, however, you can hire one of their Filipino general virtual assistants starting at $5.90 per hour, or one of their senior developers for $20 per hour.

My Cloud Crew Pricing

They hire out their assistants in increments of 20, 40, 60, 80, 120, and 180 hours per month. It’s a good idea to contact them directly for a quote based on the skills and number of hours you need per month.

My Cloud Crew Alternatives

If you want to work with an Australian-based virtual assistant company Outsourced.ph also operate on a similar business model using staff in both Australia and the Philippines. So, it’s worth getting a quote and speaking with a member of their staff to see how they compare.

If outsourcing on a budget is your main focus, there are a number of highly rated virtual assistant companies based in the Philippines worth considering. For full-time hires, OnlineJobs is the country’s largest remote job board.

Your Turn

Have you worked with My Cloud Crew? If so, please leave a brief review of your experience below to help others with their decision.

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Toasty

Posted by Mica Harvey / Resources/Tools

Toasty is a virtual meeting software platform designed to help users connect deeper with their meeting participants.

This software is free to use and offers a wide range of features that promote the most interactive experience possible when communicating remotely.

The company is headquartered in Hong Kong and its support staff are also located in Spain, Russia, the Philippines, and Australia.

About Toasty

The company has been in operation since 2019 and is run by Eric Tsang, CEO. Toasty says they already work with more than 16,500 users across 25 countries and are expanding quickly.

This rapid growth is due in part to the global pandemic as more personal and business communications have been forced to take place online.

It’s also a testament to how good this remote conferencing and communication software is.

Toasty says they are the “world’s first and only video meeting platform that is intentionally interactive to incorporate various social capabilities.”

It’s unique, interactive features like Micro Whiteboards, and Figma Design Tools, that separates Toasty from other video conferencing software.

Combined with the fact that Toasty has a generous freemium plan and is incredibly easy to use, and it’s easy to see why this software is so popular.

While anyone can use Toasty, they told me their target audience are trainers, educators, and consultants. This is due to the tools and features Toasty has that helps hosts illustrate and communicate better.

How Toasty Works

If you want to try out Toasty, you can get started for free by signing up for their free plan. Alternatively, if you contact their sales team they will be happy to give you a demo.

Once you have an account, you can set up, pre-plan, and invite people to join you on live sessions.

This may be for work-related meetings, demonstrations, personal calls, essentially anything that involves you communicating with one or more other participants live remotely.

It’s the long list of features that makes Toasty interesting. As a host, you can create agendas for participants to follow along with.

You can include interactive polls, use Miro Boards to illustrate things, set activities, and use other tools to better engage with participants and help add structure to your session.

Toasty Services

The Toasty platform is a self-service interactive platform that connects one or more people virtually.

Some of the main reasons users use Toasty is for:

  • Hosting training
  • Virtual meetings
  • Virtual workshops
  • Focus groups
  • Networking events

Whatever the reason you want to connect with someone or a group of people virtually, Toasty will facilitate it.

Toasty Plans and Pricing

Toasty has three pricing plans to choose from. One of their plans is free and offers enough capacity and features for most organizations to try the platform, if not use it for free.

Their pain plans range from $20-$50/mo and offer increased agendas, attendees, and duration of meetings along with some other benefits.

A complete list of their pricing plans at the time of publishing is:

  1. Free – $0 per month – You can assign 3 unique agendas, host up to 20 attendees per session, and meet for up to 50 minutes per session.
  2. Plus – $20 per month – You can assign 30 unique agendas, host up to 100 attendees per session, and meet for up to 3 hours per session.
  3. Premium – $50 per month – You can assign unlimited agendas, host up to 200 attendees per session, and meet for up to 6 hours per session.

There is a discount for paying annually, and you can cancel or change your plan at any time. In addition to this, if you want a custom plan that will better suit your requirements, the sales staff at Toasty are happy to discuss this.

Toasty Alternatives

For alternatives to Toasty, we recommend checking out other online conferencing tools like Zoom, Butter.us, and Whereby.com.

Zoom is a popular all-purpose conferencing software. While Butter.us is a specialized virtual workshop software, and Whereby.com is a virtual meeting software. These are great options if you’re looking for specialized software options.

Check out our tools and resources page for other helpful software!

Your Turn

Have you used the Toasty platform with your business? If so, please leave a review below to help others with their decision.

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CyberCoders

Posted by Mica Harvey / Freelance Virtual Assistants, Technical Assistants

CyberCoders is an online recruitment service helping job seekers all over the US find the perfect job, and vice versa.

The company was founded in 1999 and their headquarters is in Irvine, CA. They use a combination of their own proprietary technology and team of experienced recruiters to make matching applicants with the right jobs efficient and effective on both sides.

About CyberCoders

CyberCoders ReviewThe company is headed up by CEO Shane Lamb, and Chief Technology Officer Matt Miller. Matt has played a key role in the growth of CyberCoders and was instrumental in their $105 million acquisition by On Assignment Inc. in 2013.

They say that every year, they help thousands of top professionals find the ideal role from more than 350 recruiters using their platform.

Looking at their current listings now I can see almost 10k jobs available, and they say they can reach more than 40 million candidates. There’s no question they have built up huge reach over the 20 years they’ve been in business.

While not exactly a virtual assistant company, CyberCoders can help fill a part-time or full-time remote role in almost any industry.

How CyberCoders Works

As a job seeker, you can browse the job listings they have available, narrowing down your search by keywords or zip code.

The job listings are typically very detailed, you’ll see the required skills and experience, the responsibilities of the role, what the requirements are for the role, and some other information relevant to the role.

If you fit the bill and are interested in applying, you can email the recruiter (member of CyberCoder’s team) managing the applicants and they’ll get back to you to start talking through how suitable you are and what you need to do next.

If you’re an employer looking to advertise a role, you can get started by filling out a form detailing your position on their site.

You’ll then be sent a list of the best matching candidates they have in their database, as well as being contacted by a member of their team to talk you through how they can best help you fill your position.

Services

As a professional recruiting firm, CyberCoders works with both employers and job seekers to help advertise and fill job vacancies in:

  • Tech and IT
  • Engineering
  • Accounting and Finance
  • Healthcare

They do this by working with individuals and businesses on a one-to-one basis and using their technology to match candidates with roles based on the positions and candidates they have on their system.

CyberCoders claim to “Spend more money per recruiter than any other firm in the industry.”

Plans and Pricing

It’s free for job seekers to apply for roles. There is an undisclosed fee payable by the employer when yuo hire a candidate.

You’ll need to contact them for a quote based on the role you are advertising.

CyberCoders Alternatives

CyberCoders specializes in helping businesses find candidates that are willing to work either remotely or based in-house.

If it’s a remote worker you’re looking for, there are plenty of online job boards and marketplaces to check out, like Dynamite Jobs and HireMyMom. Both have thorough vetting processes and will open you up to a large pool of candidates across the nation.

Your Turn

Have you worked with CyberCoders? If so, please leave a review below to help others with their decision.

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