On the VA forums I often see new VAs asking about whether they should design their own logo or pay someone else to do it, design their own website or pay someone else to do it, and so on. I know they are new and probably not earning much yet but what price is your business worth to you? If something looks home made or unprofessional that is going to reflect on your business - people will view your abilities by what they can see and assume that the rest of your abilities are as mediocre. But … [Read more...]
Are you making it complicated?
You may be aware I run a Virtual Assistant training course and in the process, students are required to send me their homework from each week's lesson. One thing that has really stood out to me is that sometimes they try to complicate things when in fact it should be kept simple. What do I mean? Well, for example just creating client files. Some have thought of some security measure, others have used different filing systems other than alphabetized, some use codes and so on. What they are … [Read more...]
Mail delivery failed: returning message to sender
550 Mailbox quota exceeded Is this something you're in danger of sending to prospective clients and others who email you? This is a message I periodically get faced with when emailing people and it makes me wonder how they run their business online if people cannot contact them because their mailbox is full. If you have had this challenge then it's time to look at increasing your mailbox or changing the mail service you use for something else. Or, look at how you're set up. Do you have your … [Read more...]
What Type of Logo Should You Have for Your Business?
I have guest poster Ben Johnson sharing on the importance of the type of logo for your business. Your logo really is the proverbial "calling card" for your business. A potential customer or client will make that all important first impression many times based on the appearance, style and design of your business logo. Understanding the importance of your business logo, you may be wondering what you actually should have, what you should include within the design of that logo. Through this … [Read more...]
Email etiquette and autoresponders
As a Virtual Assistant I manage a number of autoresponders, both for my own business and that of my clients, mainly through shoppingcart services such as 1shoppingcart.com. What amazes me is the number of recipients of these emails who don't realise that they can update their email address or remove their addresses simply by clicking on one of the two links at the bottom of the emails they receive. I receive numerous requests, almost on a daily basis, for me to update this person's email … [Read more...]
Networking is not ‘set and forget’
A recent conversation with a client set me thinking. In fact I'd had a similar discussion with another client not much earlier. They both wanted accounts set up at various social networking tools such as LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, etc and have everything automated (rss feed from blogs, automatic responses, etc) so that they could literally 'set and forget' the very tools they needed for networking. This isn't the first time this subject has been raised - I've had others ask too, thinking … [Read more...]
Everyone wants to be a transcriptionist!
Over the past few months we've seen an increasing number of new virtual assistants coming to join our chat forum and many of them start asking about transcription work - they want to know about the software to use, how much to charge, and how can they get experience? I wonder what the fascination is for doing transcription? Perhaps they enjoy typing and see it as an easy way to get work - just sitting in their home office, headphones on their head and typing merrily away. Unfortunately it … [Read more...]
Has the spammer done me a favour?
I noticed this afternoon that someone has chosen to use my old email address to spam people. I got the first hint when a bounce back came to me saying it was stuck in a loop - it was addressed to my old address. Checking my spam filter shows there are heaps of returned messages there. Such a pain because it wasn't me sending them and I hate people thinking I'm responsible for them. I was checking my stats for the day and noticed a big spike in hits today - I wondered what brought that on? I … [Read more...]
Number 6 Mistake VAs Make
Staying in our comfort zone. We need to be flexible and stretch and bend if we want our businesses to grow. Technology - where would this industry be without it? And yet we all get comfortable and set in out ways and get to a point where we feel we don't want to learn anything new. It's all happening too fast and we're comfortable where we are... for a time. I remember I felt like that before learning about blogging. I only investigated it because a client asked me too but I really did … [Read more...]