There still seems to be confusion, at least amongst the newer entries into the VA industry, that they are looking for 'jobs' online as opposed to seeking 'clients'. The confusion of not knowing what your target market is in getting established as a Virtual Assistant will cause considerable delay in getting things happening. You can get jobs where you are an employee and are operating from your own home, but that is not what a Virtual Assistant is about. VAs are usually business owners, not … [Read more...]
I Am Woman!
Over the past couple of months I've had a business directory company from another country constantly contact me to list with their website. They list all the benefits and are quite persistent. Normally I would register - it's always good to have my website listed with another service. However, they insist on addressing me as 'Mr' and Dear 'Sir' and I've told them time and again that I am NOT a man. This leads me to think two things: 1. They don't read their email and/or comprehend it. 2. … [Read more...]
Discovering Your Niche!
As the virtual assistant industry grows and develops VAs are beginning to discover that they either have a passion for a particular area, or they need to find an area to get passionate about. Whilst many do run 'generalised' businesses and offer services to a wide range of clients, many are finding more satisfaction in specialising in a particular service or industry type to provide a service to. My own interests have related to Association Management and servicing Public Speakers and Business … [Read more...]
Clothing Change
I love working with Wordpress. So many templates available with options for 1, 2 and 3 columns and a whole lot of extras. Makes changing the look of your blog almost as easy as changing your clothes - you could do it daily if you wish(the blog I mean)! And so, my new look blog - for a while at least. On my 'to do list' when I have nothing else to do :-) I might actually spend sometime learning php and then create my own template from scratch. But for now there are enough choices out there … [Read more...]
A Great Looking Website Isn’t Everything….
I saw a post tonight regarding websites and their designers. Demetria emphasised the importance of doing your research and making sure you not only get someone who can do your site but make sure they also include your meta tags (keywords and description) and make your site search engine friendly - otherwise no-one is going to find you! Today I was at a planning coaching day and met a photographer who mentioned she was seeking more work but didn't seem to have much happening with her website. … [Read more...]
Remember, You’re On Show
I read a lot of blogs, especially those relating to my industry as a Virtual Assistant. I am constantly amazed by the bad grammar, spelling and incorrect typing on blogs that are attached to business websites, some of which belong to VAs, or those who are talking about becoming a VA. I saw such a blog just recently, through a Technorati link on Virtual Assistants. This particular person was talking about work at home opportunities and she thought that becoming a VA would be the ideal choice … [Read more...]
Boy, am I slow!
So good to see all the links to my post about how starting a Virtual Assistant business is not for the 'cash poor', but what I didn't tell you about are some things I have available to help you become a Virtual Assistant if you are planning to do so. Of course, they are linked to the left side of this blog, but to make them more blatantly obvious, here they are. I have a coaching program which runs for 10 weeks and covers the following topics: Weeks 1 & 2 - Setting up your business Week 3 - … [Read more...]
You Gotta Laugh!
It almost reads like a comedy with a phishing story included. But it's not, it is, or was, reality. A client of mine has been registered with a free teleconferencing company that has a web based control panel which we'd been using for teleseminars. Late last year she got an email saying that she needed to renew her registration and they'd changed their number. She sent it to me and I said, ok, we'll need to update the web promotion - which we did for this year. We logged in yesterday after … [Read more...]
Not Cash Poor Nor Skills Poor
This time of year invariably brings up a couple of regular items for comment in news articles and blogs: New Year's Resolutions, and ideas for changing jobs or starting a business and so on. These days it seems that starting up a Virtual Assistant business is ideal for the 'cash poor' as I saw it promoted on more than one website, and these are usually written by those who do not work in the industry at all. So, I want to touch on this for all those who are interested in working at home and … [Read more...]
