I’m amazed at how many people apply to join my Virtual Assistant network and then can’t follow simple written guidelines to ensure they get the most out of their membership.

As with joining any forum or network, there are some guidelines and rules – it’s important to read them and then work your membership accordingly. It’s easy to get into hot water otherwise, or go away disillusioned. I know I’ve had my knuckles rapped on a couple of occasions at online forums if I’ve posted a link or done something I shouldn’t have done – because I wasn’ t aware of the rules therein.

Recently I had a (new) member decide to leave our network because she got nothing out of it. She’d only been a member for 3 months and her monthly payments had been dishonoured from the start. That should have been a red flag to me immediately.

I don’t believe she read any of the information I sent to her to help her settle into the membership and get to know other members. She did nothing to join in discussions and in fact, never even joined the discussion group. How are other members going to know she exists let alone get to know her to pass on referrals for work.

She never set up her page profile so clients could find her.

There were other things she didn’t do. Basically she followed none of the instructions sent to her on the very day she joined. So why did she join? I have no idea.

I expect some people join things and expect things to happen magically for them.

• – The weight is going to fall off if they join Weight Watchers but don’t follow the guidelines.
• – They’re going to get really fit by joining a fitness club or gym, but not participate.
• – They’re going to magically make a lot of money by joining some wealth creation program but do nothing that’s required to build the wealth.
• – And they’re going to get lots of work by joining a VA Network without making the effort for members or clients to get to know they exist.

If you join a VA network or forum (or any other business network or forum) it is most important you follow the guidelines, read and learn about the group and then participate and allow other members to get to know you. How are you going to learn what they already know if you don’t read what they have to say, ask questions or participate in discussions?

When you set up business you cannot just decide to be in business and then do nothing to build it. It just won’t happen.

I should add – not all applicants are like this and most are very proactive in their business building.  But it seems that over the past year or two there have been a few who have been like the outline above and it has to make one wonder how they get on in life.