Christmas seems to come and go so quickly. We really start hearing about it September each year, decorations and wrappings on display in the shops, advertising material enticing you to buy everything under the sun as a gift for someone, and life seems to go into full speed as everyone tries to complete impossible projects before the brief Christmas break. It’s almost like things HAVE to be done before Christmas and then suddenly, it’s quiet.

The quiet times used to unnerve me – being new in business I would worry about where the next ‘job’ was coming from, or when my clients were going to need me again. But, over the years, I’ve come to appreciate and look forward to this break from rush, deadlines and daily needs, and actually do some things for myself, or I should say ‘for my business’. It’s become an annual event to revamp my main website and make it look even better than the last one – something that’s becoming a challenge. This year instead of creating a new template, I’ve found one I like from Templatesbox (I bought a 3 month subscription) and am playing around with that – need to make a few changes to the graphic images they’ve used for words, but think I’ll get there.

I had been seriously thinking of getting new photos done for awhile as my hair hasn’t been short for some time, and then a few weeks ago won an executive portrait package from Ikon Images, through Networking World, which prompted me to do something about it. Then, after seeing the photos, I decided it was time to update my speaker’s website and found a template that had colours to match those in the photo – that’s almost complete now, just needs a bit of tweaking here and there. But you’re welcome to go have a look. www.kathiethomas.com.

So, if you’re wondering about how to cope with this quieter time of the year for your business, have a look around you at what you might need to tweak, change, update. I plan for it these days and start to collect ideas, samples, pictures, printouts from around September each year, and put them all in a folder to pull out straight after Christmas. It also means planning your income and budget too – you might still have payments coming in from the previous month in December, but in January it could be quite different, so you do need to be prepared for that.

If you’ve made some changes in your business for the new year, I’d love to hear about it! KMT

virtual assistant, quiet times, New Year

Are things as crazy for you as they have been for me this year? This particular week used to be fairly quiet but it seems that people are working right up to the Christmas weekend and not taking any time off. I noticed this afternoon high school kids in uniform walking in a group – probably from seeing a movie for their Christmas break-up or something – and heading back to school. There was a time when school was already closed by this time of the year.

I’ve elected to go off duty between 23rd December and 1st January inclusive – whilst I’ll be checking on emails and answering the occasional call, it’s usually fairly quiet during that week and so I’m going to spend time with my family, catching up on a pile of reading, and experimenting with a few website changes.  I like using that time to learn, experiment and practice – something I don’t always get the time to do during the year.  My Business Coach tells me that is going to change in the New Year and the thought does excite me!.  The thing is I always have a new project to pursue, something else to try out and I love learning how to do things.

May I encourage you to make sure you also have some family time, time for reflection (always good for New Year planning – or resolutions if you keep them!), catch up on some planned reading and get refreshed for the New Year – it’s sure to be as busy (or as crazy) as this one’s been!

Merry Christmas to all, and may the New Year bring you lots of new and exciting discoveries!  KMT

Whenever you have a plan to do something, it is always good practice to hang around with those who have already succeeded in what you’re planning to do. Something is bound to rub off – you will pick up good habits, successful practices, and positive thinking. There are several Proverbs that touch on this and one of my favourites says: “If you are in the company of those who are wise, you will gain wisdom.”

You will find this principle being taught in many of the direct marketing businesses, and many coaches also talk about this.

This is why there is value in belonging to at least one VA network, if not more. Joining in the forums and sharing and learning with others, is going to put you in good company. The forums are moderated and run by experienced, seasoned Virtual Assistants, and they generally surround themselves with more who have similar experience. Good company keeping good company.

We need to protect ourselves from those who would poison our minds with negative thoughts, bring us down, tell us we can’t succeed at what we want to do, and basically steal our dreams. This includes well-meaning family members and friends, who are trying to save you from heartache, but who also have no experience in the area that they are wanting to give you advice about.  Hanging around those who have already done it, and are doing it, is a good way to diffuse this negativity. And connecting with a VA Coach, Mentor or Trainer is also a good way of making sure you’re in positive company. But do your research – make sure that Coach, Mentor or Trainer has put in the miles and has the type of experience that you would like to rub shoulders with and learn from. KMT

virtual assistant, dream stealer, negativity, good company, VA Coach, positive thinking, successful practice, Proverbs

Working from home as a VA that is. Periodically I get people coming up to me at an event saying they’ve been meaning to speak to me. They’re looking for options to increase their income, or to replace income that is no longer there. They have a computer at home, used to be a secretary 20 or so years ago, and how hard can it be? They’ve heard I manage a team of virtual assistants and they want to join my team – can do they so?

Quick questioning often reveals that they don’t as yet have the skills required to manage the jobs that we have come through. Yes they can type, and yes, they have a computer. But no, they have no idea how to upload or download a file, or even how to attach one to email. They’re not familiar with the current MS Word program but used to use the DOS version many years ago. They haven’t heard of digital transcription and didn’t know it existed. And most of the other programs they have no knowledge of, for example, Excel, Access, Powerpoint or even Outlook, just to name a few. There are heaps of other programs that are regularly used by VAs to carry out the various roles and services they provide.

I usually recommend that they do some courses to get their knowledge up to date and then go out and do some fulltime temping for at least 6 months to practice what they’ve been learning. After that they can come back to me and we’ll discuss where their skillset is at.

On odd ocasions I’ve allowed someone to join the team who has had borderline skills and experience (based on the criteria I use to allow VAs to join our team). Only one or two of those people have been able to excel as a virtual assistant and come up to speed in a short period of time but the others drop out very quickly, not even staying till the end of their 6 months introductory membership. The reason being is that our team members frequently discuss things via our forum that are somewhat above their current knowledgebase. They feel embarrassed and recognise they could not compete with the other VAs out there to service and look after clients, or if they take on a job that they really have not got the experience and abilities for, they lose confidence in themselves very quickly and disappear into oblivion – usually with one of our team members picking up the pieces to appease a disgruntled client.

If you, like others, are looking to see what changes you can make in your life for the New Year, and becoming a Virtual Assistant is something you’ve been contemplating, then it is best you read up as much as you can about the industry in general and check your current skills and abilities to ensure you could fulfil some client needs. Have a look at the sample job leads list I have on my VA site – if you know you can do some of these things, then you could certainly look at becoming a VA. Check out our blogroll and category listed posts for more information on what it takes to be a Virtual Assistant.

virtual assistant, building a VA business, skillset, digital transcription, secretary