While some people achieve great things at the last minute, the majority fail because of lack of preparation. I watch and participate in a lot of discussions in the VA industry and periodically see people posting their particular predicament and why it's urgent that they have to get a client... now! Trouble is, they're asking their peers to help them find a client. Which really isn't the right place to find one :-) And often it's because not a lot of the right things have been done up to that … [Read more...]
Home alone
Sounds like a movie title, doesn't it? :-) When you're working as a Virtual Assistant the reality is that you are working home alone, day in and day out. If you've been in a corporate office for some years you will be used to the social interaction of chatting to others, or just knowing that there are other people nearby. But when you're working for yourself, the reality is, there isn't usually anyone else around, unless you have children in the house or others you might be caring for. I've … [Read more...]
How to get started as a Virtual Assistant
If you've been a Virtual Assistant for awhile, you're probably like me, and get many approaches from those who want to be a VA but have no idea where to start. Often they will ask if you have work you can pass on to them. I had someone recently contact me after seeing me on LinkedIn, to find out if I had a friend or someone who would like a Virtual Assistant. This was my response to her: I am a Virtual Assistant and if I’m going to refer any of my clients to a VA, it would have to be a VA I’m … [Read more...]
Finding your target market
This is a topic that applies to everyone in business. Some businesses have it easy. They have a service or product that people are seeking out every single day of the week. And so it would appear they don't have to do a lot to be found. The reality is they need to look at their 'real estate', i.e. where they are located physically for the foot traffic to pass by, or where they are located virtually, i.e. their domain name, keywords, etc to allow searches to find them. So there are costs … [Read more...]
Starting out as a VA
On one of the LinkedIn groups for VAs a new VA asked about getting started and landing her first client. Some had been giving her advice about her LinkedIn profile. Below is my (edited) response to her. At LinkedIn people prefer to see photos rather than an illustration. So you might want to consider changing your profile pic. Your LinkedIn profile definitely needs adding to. Have you tried Googling your name? If people knew about you and were looking for you, the results that come up should … [Read more...]
Start the year off as you intend to carry on
Happy New Year everyone! I hope you had a great Christmas and New Year period, whether it be peaceful and relaxing, or exciting and adventurous! Whatever suits your style. My husband and I went on a cruise to New Zealand and had opportunity to just relax and sleep in, if we wanted, but some days were spent on going on tours onshore and exploring parts of New Zealand we'd not seen before. I think, for us, the highlight was visiting the Hobbiton Movie Set, which was a new tour made available … [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...]
Building relationships at LinkedIn
I was participating in a discussion at the Women in Photography group at LinkedIn recently as many of us are connecting to each other. We had a discussion about the importance of letting people know where they came from, rather than just send the standard invitation that LinkedIn provides. Here is my commentary on that subject: Checking the box does show up on the invite when received via email but isn't that obvious - the message that is sent says: I'd like to add you to my professional … [Read more...]