This was a question asked on a VA forum. The new VA had suggested she might go cold calling and wanted suggestions on what to do. This is my answer to her. I would recommend, that rather go out and doing cold calling, you actually spend time meeting people and getting to know them. Networking is what you want to do, rather than recruiting. Networking is about meeting people, getting to know them and their needs, developing relationships. If you don't already know a number of business people you … [Read more...]
Making the customer wait
I posted a new job lead to my team of VAs and one of the responses I got both surprised me but also made me realise that perhaps some VAs (particularly newer ones) probably thought it was ok to do this. Make the client wait. The response was: Could you kindly forward on his details to me and I will contact him within 24 hours. My reply to her was: I strongly suggest you reply to him today, sooner rather than later. Clients will rarely wait 24 hours before hearing back from someone - … [Read more...]
Agency VA or Self-Employed VA?
Saw a comment recently on a well-known blog post about the use of Virtual Assistants. Perhaps the biggest problem with them was that after putting in my dues to get acquainted with the VA and 'training' them appropriately, they got promoted or reallocated and I had to start from scratch. This happened at least 3 times in a less than 3 months. Unfortunately, I can see that happening at other firms as well. It might be tough, but see if you can ask your VA company to commit to the same VA for some … [Read more...]
The Importance of Self-Education
Recent posts at a VA forum has made me wonder just how much do Virtual Assistants (and other self-employed) value the importance of their own self education. It is oh-so-easy just to quit and give up and move on to something else if it doesn't work out. When in reality, if people were just prepared to take the time to learn and listen from others who are more experienced, they may well succeed. To quote one long-term VA from the forum: A lot of VAs have started and quit early because they … [Read more...]
Email – it is an advert for your business
Email, for Virtual Assistants, is often our first point of contact with potential clients. It works like an amabassador for our businesses. Many experienced VAs, like myself, get a lot of emails from would-be VAs wanting to get work outsourced to them, or wanting to find out if they can work with us as a sub-contractor or similar. We are, in effect, a potential client for them. So it concerns me considerably when they don't take care to read their emails properly before hitting send, … [Read more...]
When should you stop?
I had a client of one of my VA team members contact me recently. He wanted to know how much contact I had with them and if I could check into something for him. A VA had been providing him with phone services and he said he'd emailed, SMS'd and left a phone message for her and she'd not responded. He was concerned as he'd had reports his phone calls weren't being answered - a job that she was doing for him. I immediately looked up her phone number and called her to find out what was … [Read more...]
Training for a Virtual Assistant
When should a Virtual Assistant get training to be a VA? This is a question often on the mind of those who are either looking at joining the industry or have been in it for awhile and perhaps are wondering how they can get up to speed with others. As with anything there are always a series of things to be considered as there is no clear yes or no answer. Think about these things: Do you have experience running any type of business? Are you good at finding things out and solving … [Read more...]
Start up costs for a Virtual Assistant
Periodically I see discussions at VA forums that are really good topics for this blog. In particular these questions are often asked: How much was your start-up cost? How long before you started with your 1st client? My answer is this: How long is a piece of string? Kind of depends on a number of things for both questions. Re start up costs, if you already have the computer and printer you need, and the software you want to use for providing services, then additional things would be … [Read more...]
New Year Message to my Virtual Assistant readers
I sent this message to the two forums I manage but thought I'd share it here too - in case you don't belong to one of the forums! Hi everyone, well, it's the end of the year of 2009. For my family the year started off badly but has ended up quite well (if you ignore my computer challenges). A new home in the country, a new grandson (our first) and a trip overseas which meant I met many VAs from the US and Canada face-to-face for the first time at the Forum on Virtual Assistance. I was so … [Read more...]
