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Archives for May 2008

Experimenting with Software

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In a recent discussion with my business coach, we talked about the possibility of creating a Powerpoint presentation of my recent book “Worth More Than Rubies” and turning it into a movie clip, perhaps with music. We talked about screensavers too.

Whenever Stuart sets me a challenge I always come away from our coaching sessions enthused and eager to explore and get something happening.

Having achieved (as you’ll see below) this is now something I could probably do for clients too. Many of my experiments and explorations turn into services (much like blogging began over 3 years ago for me).

Over the past three weekends, that is since the Mother’s Day weekend, I was able to create the presentation, turn it into a movie clip, add music and upload it to Youtube. I’ve had three goes at it and think it’s about right now. I had to lengthen the timing for a couple of slides towards the end so that people can read what’s written there – that hadn’t been my full intention to start with, just to give people a glimpse, but it seems that many actually wanted to read the poem and the credits.

The images I’ve used are royalty free and came from istockphoto.com – I’ve had an account there for several years.

Likewise, the music is also royalty free from Freeplay Music.

I had been researching software for turning the Powerpoint presentation into a movie clip when someone on one of the forums (can’t remember which one as I belong to quite a few) mentioned that Windows XP had MovieMaker included. I had to do a search on my computer as it wasn’t listed in the Program Files but I did find it, and it’s relatively simple to use.

I still have to do the screensaver – I’ve found a possible program for that and have a trial copy but will need to pay for it I believe, before I can actually save the file I want to use.

So, after a bit of tweaking, replaying several times, trying different transitions and effects, working on the timeline, and stretching out some of the slides to longer viewing, I finally have what I wanted. I’ve now sent it out via email in the hope that it will become one of those emails that get passed on, and on, and on. I want it to be a message that will bless mothers the world wide.

For all those mothers out there. Do you know your true worth to your family?

wmtryt

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Kathie Thomas

Kathie is the owner of VA Directory and is former past President of the Australian VA Association. She founded the Virtual Assistant industry in Australia in the mid 90s, having already been operating a home-based secretarial service. Today the VA industry covers a multitude of office-based services for clients worldwide.

When The Service Just Isn’t There…

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I had the most frustrating day this week. It happened on Tuesday. I prepared 70 nametags for an event for a community bank about 40 mins drive away from me. I elected to book a courier to save me time and money in driving up there and back again. My mistake…

Those nametags were ready that morning by 9.30am for pick up.

I booked a courier at 9.15am – a service I have used other times – and was told that the pickup and delivery would be between 3-4 hours. When the courier hadn’t arrived by 12.40pm I rang them to find out where the courier was and they checked and told me that he was on his way and would be there soon. I rang again around 1.10pm and then at 1.25pm and was told he was less than 20 mins away. I told them I was going out to an appointment and the parcel would be on the front verandah for pick up.

When I returned home at 3.35pm the package was still there and I rang them yet again only to be told the courier had been there 7 mins earlier but couldn’t find my house so went away again. I demanded for him to return and he did 2 mins later while I was still on the phone to his boss. I told the courier my package had to be at my client’s premises by 5pm and no later and he told me he could do that. I rang my client to apologise for the delay and that the name badges had left my office and were on their way – they should be there before 5pm. I had to go out again and when I got back I found an email from my client timed 5.09pm to say they hadn’t yet arrived. I couldn’t believe it!

I’d spoken to the boss at least 6 or 7 times that day and each time he got on the phone to the courier to find out where he was and what he was doing. Not good.

I decided I won’t be charging my client for my time because obviously they didn’t get what they needed before the event and I know that wouldn’t have looked good for them. I’ve told the courier company that they’ve succeeded in making me look unprofessional and I am very unhappy about that and I don’t expect them to be charging me for their service, as there wasn’t any – at least not in the timeframe I was told to expect.

I’m still yet to decide what else I might do but I do believe I might have a reason for making a small claim with the small claims court as I can’t invoice my client for something they didn’t get in time and I spent over 5 hours (including the time for phone calls) in preparing the work, printing the nametags and sorting the nametags and producing the list of attendees for the event. Thank goodness I did emailed that list!

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Kathie Thomas

Kathie is the owner of VA Directory and is former past President of the Australian VA Association. She founded the Virtual Assistant industry in Australia in the mid 90s, having already been operating a home-based secretarial service. Today the VA industry covers a multitude of office-based services for clients worldwide.

Looking at Payment Options for Clients

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Many new VAs today have been told about retainer agreements and that they should be seeking them when securing new clients.

Well, I’m here to tell you that isn’t always necessary, and in fact, in all the years I’ve been running my business, I’ve only ever had one retainer client.  He paid me once, didn’t give me any work to do, disappeared and I never heard from him again.  But you don’t get many clients like that.

Because I started prior to the Internet I began with clients who paid on delivery (COD) and then advanced to a monthly account once I was confident in their payment ability.  I still have clients from those very early days on the same system, with one paying me on a weekly basis as that suits them and it works well for me too.

No one payment system suits all and it’s good to explore what options are possible and then seek to use what works well for you. For some, retainers work well, it’s an incentive to get clients to pay up front for a set number of hours and you know what’s happening in advance, to some degree.

For a few years I used to wonder about what work was going to come in the following week and was constantly seeking to make contact with prospective clients to ensure work comes in.

These days I don’t worry about what’s happening next week too much (I do use a diary and that helps keep track) but rather concentrate on the work I have on hand today.  I am always networking, always connecting, and always following up.  This brings a steady stream of client contact for my team of VAs and periodically I might take on a new client if there is need on my part.

Apart from my regular weekly and monthly clients, I do get one-offs from time to time too, or people who turn up now and then every few months. These always bring in a bit extra and because it’s unexpected, it is also income that’s not anticipated (and therefore budgeted for) and is always welcome.

I used to do work for not-for-profit groups for over 10 years and those usually worked on a 12 month contract, renewable each year.  Like retainer agreements, these helped guarantee how much income was coming in monthly and how many hours I would be doing each month. 

Don’t feel you have to do it any particular way but explore what options are possible and what would work for you.  Then stick to it.  A client likes to know where they are with the services they engage and if the boundaries or guidelines are clear, then they’ll be happy with whatever takes place, because that is how you conduct your business.

 

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Kathie Thomas

Kathie is the owner of VA Directory and is former past President of the Australian VA Association. She founded the Virtual Assistant industry in Australia in the mid 90s, having already been operating a home-based secretarial service. Today the VA industry covers a multitude of office-based services for clients worldwide.

What Can a Client Expect in a Virtual Working Relationship?

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I had a prospective client contact me recently as she was seeking someone local she could meet face-to-face to do her work. She’d been using a VA but struggled with the remote aspect of working together and asked for some tips.  This is what I told her:

Communication is the key. I have a client who’s been with me for over 11 years. Every Monday we have a phone meeting, but sometimes we use Skype, and we discuss the task list she’s sent me for that week. I do around 15 hours a week of work for her, maintaining her database, her website, sending out broadcast emails, managing surveys, responding to client enquiries (via email), article submissions, research, Powerpoint presentations and so on.
All entirely online.  We do meet face to face occasionally – when we attend the same networking events but it hasn’t been necessary for us to meet face-to-face for me to do work for her for the main part.

Another client of mine is an Opera Singer and Business Coach in the US – we’ve never met. But I maintain her blog, do research for her, update her website and give her advice on things of the web.  We’ve never spoken on the phone either.  I have other clients in my state, some of whom I’ve never met or may have had initial discussions via phone.

Most of my client contact is entirely via email with the occasional phone call or fax – fax is good for marked up changes when something can be printed off and sent to me.

I gave her the option of speaking to someone local whom I didn’t have much knowledge of or someone from my team. She chose the former but did admit that the information I gave her was useful and that she is working with a VA on another project.

As VAs it is important for us to continue to educate prospective clients. We might not always win them over the first time but if we continue to furnish them with useful information, when the time is right, they will come back – even if it’s just to ask more questions before taking that step of using our services.

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Kathie Thomas

Kathie is the owner of VA Directory and is former past President of the Australian VA Association. She founded the Virtual Assistant industry in Australia in the mid 90s, having already been operating a home-based secretarial service. Today the VA industry covers a multitude of office-based services for clients worldwide.

Don’t forget to introduce yourself!

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I recently participated in an email promotion for a new book launch which was interesting to do – I have plans for a similar process for my book when it gets into Amazon in a month or so.

Yesterday I received an email from someone I’ve never heard of to promote a book written by someone else I’ve never heard of and when I emailed them to find out how I got on their list, they advised I’d participated in the launch I mentioned above and they thought I’d like to participate in their’s too.

I promptly wrote back and suggested they should have introduced themselves and explained how I came to be on their list – rather than just launch into their promotional spiel without so much as a ‘hi, I’m xxx and I found you…’

When you build lists of email addresses it is really important that you don’t add people to your list unless they’ve given permission. The fact that I’d participated in someone else’s launch along with several other people I don’t believe qualified me to be added to the lists of all the other participants, but even if it did, it would be nice for them to actually explain how and why I came to be on their list. Heavens, I’d not thought to go and add all those people to my list – perhaps I should have!

Maybe it’s old school thinking but I like people to introduce themselves before they push their wares – otherwise I’m inclined to ignore them or block them at my spam filter – which is what I nearly did with these people. What do you think?

By the way – if you’re interested in participating in my Amazon book launch, then I’d love to hear from you – you will be put on a list specifically for that purpose and given full details once I have them.

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Kathie Thomas

Kathie is the owner of VA Directory and is former past President of the Australian VA Association. She founded the Virtual Assistant industry in Australia in the mid 90s, having already been operating a home-based secretarial service. Today the VA industry covers a multitude of office-based services for clients worldwide.

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