I had an epiphany recently. Here I am, a VA of many years standing and I own and run a network of VAs. But I still try to do everything myself!

A few nights ago I had dinner with a possible new client. I say ‘possible’ because I actually had tried to pass her on to my team members but she kept coming back saying she wanted me - she’d been referred to me and the person who referred her spoke very highly of my abilities. That’s good, most of the time, but when you’re stretched to the limit, you really just want to be able to pass clients on, as I’ve been doing for years.

And then she said to me, after I’d told her for probably the 3rd or 4th time in a week that I just don’t have the time, ‘can’t you just manage it all and then get some of your team to do what you can’t?’. It kind of hit me between the eyes and I thought perhaps I could and when I got home I responded to her original job request email with a list of what I could do and what I won’t do.

I started going through emails I hadn’t caught up with and the previous night came a message that only really could have come from God. I receive daily devotionals from MarketPlace Leaders* (I get Volume 2) and this one is on Time Management. I’ll let you read it for yourself:

David accomplished a great deal in his lifetime. However, he also understood life had an end to it and he wanted to make the most of it. He learned to use his time wisely. And so should we.

Peter Drucker was a renown management consultant to major corporations and authored many bestselling business books. He suggested three activities that might help busy executives better manage their time.

“First, do not start with the task. Start with your time. Determine where your time is going. Then, attempt to manage that time and cut back unproductive demands on your time. Consolidate your ‘discretionary’ time into the largest possible continuing time units.

Drucker refers to the second step as time management. After listing the activities to which we devote our time, he suggests that we ask three questions about each of these activities to help us minimize the amount of time we waste: “What would happen if this were not done at all?” And if the answer is, ‘Nothing would happen,’ then obviously the conclusion is to stop doing it. Next, which of the activities on my time log could be done by somebody else just as well, if not better? What do I do that wastes my time without contributing to my effectiveness?*

Drucker closes by saying ‘Know Thyself,’ this old prescription for wisdom is impossibly difficult for mortal men. But everyone can follow the injunction ‘Know Thy Time’ if you want to, and be well on the road toward contribution and effectiveness.”

Why not evaluate how you are spending your time and ask God how to better use your time.

I think I’m being told to hand some things over and I suddenly realised that I don’t have to do all of what I’m doing and yes, I can outsource it. I have the team to do it! duh!

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*TGIF Today God Is First Volume 2 daily devotional emails from Marketplace Leaders Minstries at www.TodayGodIsFirst.com

Filed under: Healthcare, Operating a VA Business | No Comments »

Part 3 in our Client Case Study Series. Melisssa Khalinsky is supported by one of my Virtual Assistant team members, Kylie. Melissa is in Victoria, Australia and Kylie in New South Wales, Australia.

Q. Please tell my readers a bit about who you are and what you do.

I am Melissa Khalinsky, founder of Business Mums Network. We provide support, information and resources for Mums starting and running a business.

Q. When did you realise you needed admin support for your business?

There have been a number of times I realised this, however in the last two years, my attitude to new projects has been “how can I get someone else to work on this”? This decreased my workload dramatically and the results are much better than I could have done.

Q. What type of support did you originally obtain?

The first type of support was editing our magazine, then administering our conference, then I got up the courage to let go of things such as my email newsletter.

Q. Is the support you receive today the same as then or has that changed and if so, how?

It is different and the same. The same VA puts together the magazine, and has done for the last 2 years, however that is about to change. One VA started with just my email newsletter, and now does so much more including transcribing workshop recordings for us.

Q. Do you have more than one VA supporting you, and if so, perhaps you’d like to give a brief idea what the difference is?

Yes, I have more than one VA, and each does different tasks. One administers the conference, as that is an area they specialise in. One edits our magazine, and another does our enewletter. I originally split these between 2 VAs as the newsletter job came up the same time as magazine deadlines!

Q. How did you find out about this type of support?

I use members of my network, though I first heard about it from the US before I started my business, although I don’t think the industry was called “Virtual Assistance” then.

Q. How long have you had your current VA? (Feel free to name who they are)

I have been working with Donna-Marie Coggins of Jacaranda Business Support Services for nearly 2 years editing the Business Mums Magazine.

I have been working with Kylie Short of Tilda Virtual Services since last September working on our email newsletter, transcribing audio recordings and other tasks.

I have been working with Glenys and Richard of Stockdale ACS for about 2 years administering the Business Mums Conference.

Q. Anything else you’d like to share?

I love having a VA work with me. It’s cheaper than hiring a staff member, or in my case, multiple staff members for the various tasks I outsource. Each of my VAs are experts in what they do, which is why I’ve chosen them. They also produce amazing results that help my business grow.

Filed under: Client Ed & Case Studies | No Comments »

Over the past few years we’ve seen many articles in leading newspapers around Australia, promoting the use of Virtual Assistants and also about outsourcing. But it is disappointing to see that their focus is nearly always on what’s happening in other countries and they give just a short para or two to what is happening here in Australia, almost like it’s an after thought.

Perhaps we’re not visible enough, which is a shame and it means we need to do something about that. The industry first birthed here in the mid 1990s and we’ve been growing ever since. There are VAs in every state of the country and some of us have long-term clients who have been with us for much more than ten years. My longest-term client has been with me for over 12 years now.

Or, perhaps the focus of the media is more on what’s happening overseas to help educate their readers and they don’t want to focus at all on our own country, assuming their readers already have the required knowledge?

I’d be interested in knowing and I’m sure many other VAs in Australia would too.

Filed under: VA Industry | 1 Comment »

Readers will remember my post in May about an unfortunate experience I had with a courier company that lost me a client and money in the process. Their lack of service was apalling and I have complained to their manager, and to the trade service that I got them through. I may take it further yet, especially after what I found out today.

One of my clients contacted me this morning to advise she was couriering a box to me (yes, oh oh!) and that it should get to me soon. I didn’t give it another thought until after 5.30 tonight when I realised the courier hadn’t been yet. People had been coming and going all day but no courier.

So, I emailed my client to advise the courier hadn’t arrived yet and I’d just had a thought, was it xxx providing the service? She responded shortly thereafter to advise that it was and that the package had been on her doorstep since 9.15am this morning and she had rung them twice to find out where they were, with promises that they were on their way.

Similar scenario to mine and I advised her to contact the trade service that had provided them to make a complaint - they need to see this isn’t a once-only event.

I proceeded to re-email the manager advising him I was not going to let this go and I will take it further if I don’t get a response from him.

I’d love to tell you who it is but I don’t want to get myself into trouble for doing so. Needless to say I’ll be looking for referrals for a new courier service - I’m not going to use one from a business directory again without someone vouching for them. So, if you’re in Melbourne and have someone reliable, with same day service (and doesn’t cost you the earth), then please let me know. I wasn’t paying the cheapest price and I was paying for 4 hour turnaround - which I didn’t get.

Filed under: Bad business | No Comments »

I love Google Alerts. It keeps me informed of all sorts of things - sometimes well before someone contacts me to let me know what they’ve been doing.

One such find is the 100 Awesome Webmaster Blogs by and for Women put together by Jimmy Atkinson (Jimmy did contact me but I’d already seen it hours before!). I’ve been listed in the Women in Business category (number 81) and I had to laugh at his comment regarding my About page. I need to update it! It was good to see a few other names I knew on the list too. If you’re a woman blogger and listed there, how about letting us know?

Another great find is a post by Blogging Sueblimely about free image editing tools online. Many VAs are always seeking good software tools and if the price is right they’ll make use of them pretty quickly.

Do you have leave comments on some blogs but they don’t appear? Have you wondered if it’s just you, or is something wrong? Jennifer was having the same problem with her comments too, so you’re not alone. She discovered that Akismet was tossing her out as spam.

The LinkedIn blog often has some interesting tidbits - not always about how LinkedIn works, but about other things too. Readers will know I’m very active at LinkedIn but if you have challenges understanding how to make the most of your membership, perhaps you need to read my posts at SOHO-Life about it.

Filed under: Blogging | 1 Comment »

Many of you are aware I wrote a book last year called “Worth More Than Rubies: The Value of a Work at Home Mom”. It was released in Australia late last year and has recently become available at Amazon.com.

For a 24 hour period, to celebrate the release, I have available over $1500 worth of giveaways for anyone who purchases a copy of the book at Amazon.com.

All you have to do is rock up to http://www.worth-more-than-rubies.com/amazon-campaign-entry.htm,
enter your name, email address and your Amazon receipt number and you’ll get access to the gifts. Simple!

The only condition is that it needs to be in a 24 hour period - the giveaways won’t be available before or after that time.

The official date/time in Australia is from 12am Friday 27th June. Which is equivalent to US EDT 10am Thursday 26th June. If you are in another location, you’ll need to look it up, I’m sorry. The World Clock is very useful.

Filed under: Author's musings | No Comments »