I don't know about you, but I'm a homebody - I love being home and I am reluctant to go out. Many who know me will probably wonder if I'm speaking about the same 'Kathie Thomas' as I'm known to be sociable, outgoing, happy and good company (so I believe). But I assure you I am - speaking about the same person, that is. When I make the decision to go out and actually push myself to do it, I do enjoy myself and love meeting new people, but it is really easy to feel comfortable in my chair, and … [Read more...]
Planning to start your VA business in the New Year?
At this time of year it's traditional for people to start thinking about their plans for the New Year and the changes they want to make in their lives, and in particular, with the type of work or job they want. If you're one of those thinking about becoming a Virtual Assistant, or perhaps you already are but feel there is information you are missing and need/want to get up to speed for the New Year, then my 10 week coaching course may be exactly what you need! I have a Christmas special for … [Read more...]
Getting closer to that 1,000th member!
Remember that post I made a couple of weeks ago? Well, we're getting much closer to the goal! And I promised that some lucky people would win prizes along the way. If the following people would like to get in touch saying they've seen this post, they will be forwarded their choice of book from my VA shop. Debie Brockhoff Sharyn Munro Emina Redzic Jan Bowdery Kerrie Anderson Stay tuned for more lucky prizewinners and that lucky 1,000th member! … [Read more...]
Friday Finds
My favourite RSS feed reader is Google Reader and I have it saved as one of my home pages in my browser. It allows me to read blog updates at times that suit me (like over breakfast for example) although I never fully keep up with them these days. I've subscribed to a lot and some have more than a few updates weekly - some several a day. The RSS feed is also useful for some of the chat forums I belong to as I can see what's been discussed without logging in and then I can choose to respond to … [Read more...]
Being a Virtual Assistant in these economic times
You would have had to have your head underground or off the planet, not to know what's been happening in recent times. And everyone's thoughts are about tightening their belts and wondering about their jobs or their businesses. In the VA forums discussions have turned to whether business is increasing or decreasing? Many have reported the former and it's been good to see this response. Why is this? A recent article at Farifax's SMH site talks about how support staff are usually the first … [Read more...]
Watch your language – you never know who might see it!
I got the most astounding and rude email this week. I sent out a follow up email to a number of people who had filled out the application form to join my Virtual Assistant team but never took it any further. Basically I was just making sure they had realised there were more steps - I wasn't sure if they'd seen the autoresponder messages (only 2 of them from a new service) after they'd filled out the form. One response came back very quickly with two very loud and bolded words telling me where … [Read more...]
Will you be our 1,000th member?
In April 1996 I began the southern hemisphere's first online network of its kind, originally as homebased secretaries and then we adopted the term 'Virtual Assistant' as we saw it take hold worldwide and recognised that what we were doing was exactly that - providing virtual assistance to clients all over the world. Being based in Australia meant we weren't originally visible to the northern hemisphere but that has changed over the years and today we have a membership that spreads to 15 … [Read more...]
My heartfelt thanks to the Virtual Assistant Community
It's kind of ironic that my previous post is about the support VA communities provide. Because only one day later our darling Miriam, aged 24, died whilst her father and I were away in the country. We rushed back home as soon as we heard. I'm not yet ready to resurface to all the forums. Her funeral will take place next Monday here in Melbourne, Australia. We have family with us from around the country and they'll stay on for a few more days thereafter. But I did want to let everyone know … [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...]
