You know, it is worth shopping locally - not just online. Yesterday I went down to our local fruit & veg because I knew today was going to be very hot. I go there weekly so the staff are getting to know my face. The owner recently had a birthday so I asked him if he had a good birthday? I saw it on their Facebook page. Then I commented on their new website and how lovely it is. They started asking questions about me, where I live, what do I do? I explained about being a Virtual Assistant and … [Read more...]
Benefits of outsourcing locally
Couldn't have put it better myself. Great article here published with smallbusiness yahoo November last year. It is very true that businesses do struggle to get everything done, and if they spend their funds on employing staff and having to put in place all the things that go with that, office space, equipment, furniture, and the employee overheads of sick and holiday leave, superannuation, taxes, etc, it's no wonder they get strapped for cash. But it does make sense to outsource your needs. … [Read more...]
How did you get your first client?
A question I'm often asked in different places. Usually by new VAs who are dead set keen to get their first client and not sure how to go about it. I thought I'd share how my first clients came about and encourage readers to add theirs as well. For me it was 1994. I was telling everyone I knew what I was planning to do... leave my job and start up my own secretarial business at home. A man at my church came and asked if I could do some typing for him and that was my first job. Only a few … [Read more...]
Where does all your business come from?
This is a question asked at VA Forum recently and the person posting the question specifically wanted to know if everyone was getting all of their business via LinkedIn (where the forum is). There were a variety of answers that responded with some saying yes and others saying no. I believe the answer is that it would be unusual for ALL your business to come from the one avenue, even if people are using it as a networking tool. Why? Because they should be doing a variety of networking, rather … [Read more...]