If not, then you could be missing out on a potential client base. I've had a Twitter account for sometime now and it really took me sometime to understand what it is about. But now I'm hooked! I couldn't understand what people were doing or going on about and there are some mundane things there. But amongst all that is some really useful information and people willing to lend a hand. You can literally tweet events such as blogradio, podcasts, teleseminars, webinars, or you can tweet for … [Read more...]
Putting a timestamp on your business
A forum I belong to (non-VA) was discussing whether or not members pay attention to the timestamp on emails sent to them. What they were actually talking about is the fact that many people today send emails at all times of day and night and because of how instant emails are, tend to expect instant replies. But what does that do to the recipient, the service provider? Does that now mean they have to be available 24/7? I mentioned that I've had to make a ruling for myself with respect to the … [Read more...]
Start With What You Know
I was speaking to a prospective VA on the phone the other day. She had been researching the Virtual Assistant industry and my name kept popping up everywhere she looked. She is also an avid reader of my blog (hi Helen!). During the course of the conversation she said the same thing I often hear 'newbies' say and that is, they want to learn a number of things before they start their businesses. I decided to explore this further with her. Whilst it is true that VAs need to have a certain … [Read more...]
Protecting your Virtual Assistant business
Recently on a VA forum a member commented about her computer woes. There were some things that stood out to me as possible concerns and I responded as below. She's since been in contact with me and filled in with a bit more detail so not everything I wrote was relevant to her situation but I thought the information is important for all to see. So, here it is: First - were you not doing backups before? If you're running a computer based business then backups are absolutely essential - they are … [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...]
What program should I use for a website?
Many VAs on forums are found to be asking about what programs they should be using to develop websites. As beginners they frequently don't have the funding to pay someone to do it for them, but also they feel that they should be learning about things like that themselves so they can advise clients about what's available, even if they don't end up providing that service. I often recommend Wordpress these days. It provides a great CMS (Content Management System) type website with static pages … [Read more...]
Taking Your Business To New Places
As your Virtual Assistant business grows and develops a routine you will begin to wonder where else to take it. You will be feeling confident in what you are doing and looking for opportunities to add to it. I have done this over the years. They might not always look like opportunities at the time, and occasionally had the appearance of nuisance value. But because I wanted to please the clients I had, because I enjoyed the majority of their work, I would take on the extra duties they gave me … [Read more...]
Experimenting with Software
In a recent discussion with my business coach, we talked about the possibility of creating a Powerpoint presentation of my recent book "Worth More Than Rubies" and turning it into a movie clip, perhaps with music. We talked about screensavers too. Whenever Stuart sets me a challenge I always come away from our coaching sessions enthused and eager to explore and get something happening. Having achieved (as you'll see below) this is now something I could probably do for clients too. Many of my … [Read more...]
Keep your bookkeeping up to date!
I try to make it a rule to do my bookkeeping on a weekly basis. By that I mean statement reconciliations, filing of papers, etc - I do the data entry daily as I complete jobs for clients. However, sometimes I get behind with the busy-ness of life, and wouldn't you know it, there are sometimes debits on my statement and I don't recall the business name or what it was for. I used to have to write 'miscellaneous' for the time being until I could remember what it was the amount was or what … [Read more...]