Kirmada were a sponsor of the UK VA Conference 2024 and I have invited Adam and Rik to write guest blog posts for the wider VA community to share about their product, the productivity tool Kirmada. This is the first in that series from Adam.
Working closely with virtual assistants means we hear the issues which plague them. Cash flows, overwhelming to-do lists, missed time recording, team management, and more, are all at the forefront of their responsibilities. And this is before they’ve actually done any client work.
And while VA’s pride themselves in being able to reduce their clients’ workloads and stress, the VA themselves often end up feeling overwhelmed.
So, it’s not surprising that when learning a new software package is suggested as being a potential answer to the over-burdened VA’s problems, the rejection often comes quickly:
“I’ve already got too much to do.”
“I’m overwhelmed, I can’t take on anything else right now.”
“I just don’t need the hassle”
“I don’t have the headspace to deal with this right now.”
“Now’s not the right time.”
Sound familiar?
If so, well, it’s hardly surprising.
Dreading Change – The Learning Curve
Productivity software usually comes supplied with far-fetched promises of business-transforming abilities, and yet after significant effort to learn how to use it on the part of the buyer, it often disappoints.
Of course, if you don’t like it you can simply ditch it, but it takes time to get to that conclusion.
Time, being the most valuable commodity you have as a VA and not something you can afford to waste, is therefore consumed by a dead-end project that promised to give you more of it. The only slightly amusing part of that is the irony.
Kirmada is different – the learning curve before you discover whether it’s the bee’s knees that can turn your word right-side-up and make your work easier and more enjoyable, takes less than ten minutes.
But we’ll come back to that.
First, let’s take a quick look at the root of all evil when it comes to productivity – the web browser.
Unproductivity Software – The Web Browser
Drowning in a sea of tabs
Have you noticed that the web browser is the most important piece of software in your business?
It sits there right at the centre of nearly everything you do. All the apps and accounts you use, all the online resources you rely on, are all accessed through a web browser.
Which is amazing. It’s amazing because web browsers are utterly, completely, mind-bogglingly bad at being the most important thing in your business, yet there they are, eating your productivity, losing you money and making you feel overwhelmed, confused and unhappy.
The main issue is that for every app you have open and logged in, you need a tab. And if you have several clients who rely on these apps, they probably need their own tabs open too.
Canva, Xero, Toggl, Trello, Asana, Slack – the list goes on, and so do the tabs.
And then you have the tabs kept open as reminders of things you need to look at one day, the tabs you found important once but have since forgotten why they’re there and the tabs you know are important, but don’t have the time for today.
Or any day, probably.
This is an unproductivity powerhouse. Traditional web browsers sap your time, serve useless distractions, keep you in a constant state of not-quite-doing-things-easily, and eat your billable time too.
Fortunately, and you may have guessed this was coming, there is a solution.
Productivity Software – Kirmada
Right-ho, let’s solve all this miserable misery by introducing you to Kirmada.
Designed for virtual assistants, Kirmada reorganises your online world around the only thing that matters – your clients.
Crucially, the learning curve is almost non-existent. If you use a web browser, you’ll intuitively know how to use Kirmada. All you need is about 30 seconds to see how it organises things differently to be up and running.
The reason for this is that at the heart of Kirmada are client Workspaces, each Workspace takes around 5 seconds to create (that’s the learning curve done with) and you now have a separate web browser for each client.
A dedicated web browser for each client means all your tabs and bookmarks are now super-relevant. Clicking between Workspaces is instant, so changing your focus from one client to another is just as instant and allows you to resume work after an interruption much more effectively.
Workspaces mean that you can place all the tools you need for a client in one place. Kirmada not only provides the embedded web browser, but also includes online file storage, a calendar, social media scheduling tools and automatic timesheets.
By embedding timesheets right into the Workspaces, Kirmada knows the moment you start working for a client and when you stop, so your billing accuracy becomes almost perfect (without you having to remember to start and stop timers) and this accuracy quickly reveals all work you’ve been doing for free – which you can now bill for.
What’s in a Kirmada Workspace?
Kirmada’s Workspaces are built around putting all the resources you need for a client in one place, so when you enter a Workspace you get:
- A dedicated web browser
All the tabs, logged in accounts, web resources and bookmarks in one place, and everything is 100% focused. - Automatic timesheets
Kirmada knows which Workspace you’re in, so it knows which client you’re billing and your timesheets are created automatically. - Calendars
A Workspace Calendar not only lets you create tasks and a to-do list, but also let’s you connect to social media and schedule posts for you and your clients. - Cloud file storage
Keep your client critical files all in one place… in your clients Workspace. Always to hand and easy to find. - Share it all with your team
Work with associates or creatives like copywriters and web designers? Share the Workspace and give them access to as much, or as little, as they need. Instant onboarding and all their work goes into your timesheet.
Take the Three Workspace Challenge
So which bit do you like best? Dedicated Workspaces or accurate timesheets?
Or both?
You’ll see the benefits of using Kirmada almost as soon as you install it. Most VA’s have an “Aha” moment when they create their third Workspace (total time to get there? About 20 seconds) which is when they see how easy it is to swap between clients and not lose their train of thought.
So why not take the Three Workspace Challenge and see if Kirmada is a good fit for your business?
To make it easier, Kirmada offer a free live 1-1 onboarding session, so if you want someone to guide you through it and get you up and running, they’re there to help. And they will do it in 10 minutes!
Download Kirmada for Free
You can try Kirmada for free here: https://kirmada.com/for-virtual-assistants, and book your onboarding here https://kirmada.com/book-onboarding-call
“I don’t understand how I used to work before Kirmada” said Michelle Caulton of My Assistant Can, and Emma Baker of The VA Workroom says “Kirmada has been an absolute life saver for me and my team! It’s super easy to use”.
So, if the promise of an almost non-existent learning curve combined with truly transformative productivity boost to your business appeals, why not try Kirmada today?
Adam Engberg
Adam Engberg is the visionary co-founder behind Kirmada, a game-changing productivity tool designed to revolutionise the way virtual assistants and small businesses manage multiple clients and projects.
With a keen understanding of the challenges faced by modern professionals, Adam created Kirmada to address common pain points such as browser tab overload, disorganised client management, and missed billable hours. With Kirmada, Adam and the team are not just solving problems – they are redefining the way we approach digital organisation and client management in today's fast-paced business world.
