Today, on our forum at 'Virtual Assistants International Group', a member shared some challenges she was having in getting her business off the ground. This wasn't a rare comment, we've had others say similar before; they've come to seek help. What was really special, and important, is the way the community rallied round to support and encourage this new VA during her time of feeling fragile and unsure. That's what I love about our industry. The way everyone gets together to encourage, … [Read more...]
Archives for September 2008
VA Saves the Day!
I'm usually up early checking for messages that have come in overnight via email, whilst having my breakfast and first coffee for the day. However, it's rare I answer client emails early, preferring to keep them within business hours, so I can spend time networking with forums and friends during my reading time instead. However this morning proved an exception as I received a 'help' message from a client at 6.46am. He's a business coach and speaker and he'd left home without his memory … [Read more...]
Help, I’ve got the wrong VA!
I was attending a meeting one evening and it was brought to the attention of the audience from the stage that I run a VA network. I was thrilled and got a number of people asking for my business card afterward and wanting to know more about the services we (VAs) offer. Then one lady sought me out before I left the room to tell me she had three VAs but it wasn't working for her and she wondered if she just had the wrong VAs supporting her. Her concern was that all claim they can do everything … [Read more...]
Building email lists for your clients
We had an interesting conversation at our VA forum a couple of days ago. A man who had placed a job request with our team, seeking Aussie based VAs a couple of weeks ago, then proceeded to email all those who responded, plus others from our team, with a promotion for a new product coming into our country. The 'meeting' date online was the following night. It took a while before we realised that it was this guy - we wondered who was spamming us but knew the name seemed familiar to some of us. … [Read more...]
Are you a Virtual Assistant who wants to blog?
Blogs are a great way for sharing information and encouraging interactive discussion with your audience but many new VAs find the concept daunting and see it as just one extra thing in a long list of things they need to learn and get up to speed with. I've recently written a book called "Blogging Basics" and it is exactly that - the basics of how to blog and why you would want to blog. I've made it available at my SOHO-Life blog for all subscribers. If you pop over there you can read the … [Read more...]
I must be mad!
Have you noticed that when you plan to make changes to something, and I mean big changes, that suddenly everyone else (read clients) have projects on the boil too? For months I've been planning a shift from the shoppingcart service I was using to another one, for a variety of reasons. One of those being the affiliate program which I wasn't convinced was working the way it should be. Turns out it was dependent on tracking cookies and if people switch them off, then the affiliate who referred … [Read more...]
Marketing Your Virtual Assistant Practice
Have you thought about all the ways you market your business? I was recently chatting with a group of women in a mastermind group I belong to and we were building a list of the ways we promote our individual businesses. I was quite surprised when I saw my own list. I thought I'd share it with you all. Newsletter - I've been publishing one since 1995, originally in print form, but now by email. It is often being passed on to others and it brings me new contacts. Yellow Pages - the nature of … [Read more...]
When a new client doesn’t respond
Recently one of my VAs asked me what to do when she'd responded to a job request and hadn't heard back from the client. This is something I get asked periodically. They don't want to make a nuisance of themselves but don't want to lose a potential client either. I was asked if that is a normal occurrence and I had to answer yes, unfortunately for two reasons: Sometimes the client is so overwhelmed with stuff to do that they lose sight of where they're up to next - which is why they need … [Read more...]
My First Business Card
Alister Cameron did a post about his first business card which took me down memory lane. My first card came out of a MyCard machine at our local shopping centre. Pop in 4 x $2 coins, punch in the details and out popped 40 business cards - black print on white card. Expensive way to get cards I guess but that was in 1994 and I was just starting out, not even sure what I was going to call my business nor had I really defined what I was going to do. So I just had cards with my name and my … [Read more...]