Operating a VA Business | VA Directory

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...]

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...]

Interview at Virtual Assistants Forum

Periodically I get asked for an interview with a VA forum and I'd like to share with you one from early this year. Virtual Assistant Forums has over 1700 members from all around the world and is a lively board forum for those who want to know more about being a Virtual Assistant. Tess was the interviewer and I asked her if I could share this here as there is information that many new VAs would like to read. I encourage to you check out various VA forums - belonging to more than one is … [Read more...]

Do You Have Enough Clients?

Saw a post on a forum where someone posted about VAs developing a niche and he sent a post with the subject heading above and included the following line: A Virtual Assistant who doesn't have a clearly defined niche is a poor virtual assistant. I don't know about you but I really take exception to that comment. Perhaps he meant well but he was promoting a 4 week teleseries he provides which is free. I haven't gone exploring to see what else might be on offer to make it worth his while to get … [Read more...]

Pick up the phone!

I forget that new people coming along all the time won't have the knowledge or experience I have and so, sometimes I need to repeat the same information because there is a new audience. A new VA contacted me recently because she was concerned that a client wasn't responding to her emails and work had been regular and now she wasn't receiving any. She wanted to know if she should keep sending emails or perhaps phone him - she was worried about making a nuisance of herself. I advised her, … [Read more...]

Seek a professional when you need them

I can't emphasise it enough. So many VAs come seeking advice at the VA forums that really should be taken to their Accountants, Solicitors or others. I agree it is good to learn about what others are doing and how they're set up but each has different situations relating to experience, their financial commitments and so on. It's really, really important that you take the information you have relating to your situation and take it to the professionals who can advise you correctly. Anything … [Read more...]

What You Think About…

... you are drawn towards. I had this told to me by a doctor in Psychosomatic medicine many years ago, prior to starting my own business. Peter told me that this can work for both good and bad. It's also known as the RAS, or the reticular activation system. Your mind works like a magnet or radar and you are automatically drawn towards things that are on your mind - and it doesn't have to be foremost, it could be in the back of your mind. Late in 1993 I won Secretary of the Year for my state … [Read more...]