Some time ago I announced the coaching and training program I was developing for the industry. The program is now in place and we have our first set of students undergoing the course, currently in week 5. Lessons are delivered weekly via email over a 10 week period, and the students return their homework via email. We have fortnightly online classroom sessions where students can chat with each other, and ask questions of the past couple of weeks' lessons, etc. We also have a student forum … [Read more...]
I love being a VA!
The team and I were discussing the benefits of being a VA recently and one of my team members posted her response with a list and she gave me permission to put it here. I thought it would be great to hear from others too - if they'd like to add their comments! Might even be fun to try and develop a list that is 50 points, perhaps 100 long! My post read: When I began it was typing and data entry. But my interest in databases led me to read a lot about them and learn things, and offer a basic … [Read more...]
Are You a VA in Singapore?
We've started to get enquiries for VAs in the Singapore region. We did have one member there but she's shifted and now we're left with no-one. I've made a few enquiries and did locate one person but she did not have the 'secretarial' skills required by the company asking. The company rang me again this morning to see if we'd had any further luck. As knowledge of the VA industry increases, along with the need for companies to do business in other countries, access to the support provided by VAs … [Read more...]
Email Etiquette II
First published April 2003. I had great feedback from my last article, and was asked to write further on the subject; hence my title. This month I'll share on Email Etiquette in discussion groups. For those who are not yet aware, on the Internet there are hundreds of thousands of discussion groups available in any topic imaginable. The most popular group systems used are YahooGroups.com, Topica.com and SmartGroups.com but there are others. Some web owners set up their own private groups too, … [Read more...]
The bain of all broadcast emailers…
...the bounced address! I send out a monthly newsletter to people who are self-subscribed. So, I never understand why their mailboxes are full everytime I send out a newsletter! I end up deleting them from the list - in disgust. Many of them are VA email addresses - ones I recognise, some I don't, but I can tell from the address that they are a VA. Others are people I know who are actively marketing their businesses - and yet their email fails. I get messages like the one below: This … [Read more...]
Email Etiquette I
First published March 2003. I thought it might be worth visiting some email etiquette for all as the majority of the readers of this newsletter are now on email. It is important to consider that when emailing people you are on show, whether you like it or not, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. This is one of my ‘pet’ subjects on which I speak when giving a public presentation about the Internet. I am constantly amazed at the number of people who have never thought about it, including … [Read more...]
Email Etiquette
I wrote a series of articles a few years ago on Email Etiquette and they've been published all over the web and in a number of printed publications in different countries. I received the following email this week and I reprint it here with permission from the sender and intend to use this as an introduction to the series here. So I'll be republishing the entire set via this blog for others to view, read and comment as they see fit. Hi Kathie, I enjoyed reading your articles about email … [Read more...]
Free Teleconferencing Service
I trialed a service with a client and a contact of her's yesterday. We held a 3 way conversation via a US number and were able to log into the web and see that each of us were on that call. It has moderating facilities and allows you to mute other callers on the line, boot people if you need to, record the conversation which is apparently available online an hour later and so on. My client's contact mentioned to me she thought it might be useful for VAs who do digital transcription. … [Read more...]
Updating Business Cards
When you're starting out in business it's exciting to plan and design your business card so that it reflects what you want it to show. But don't despair if you don't get it right the first time. Opt to get only 250 or 500 made at first and see how they go and then get more made further down the track. If you're regularly attending networking events, meeting people, or even including your card whenever you send any correspondence or pay bills by post, you will soon go through them. The cards … [Read more...]
