I got an interesting request from a charity organisation this week. They asked if they could speak with one of the Board of Directors of our organisation. I smiled as I answered that we didn’t have a board but thanks for asking. We then discussed a charity that my team have been supporting for some time and I explained that I didn’t want to change from that for now.
Even a simple phone call can lift your spirits. I felt like I’d been elevated another notch in my business!
Saw a post on a forum where someone posted about VAs developing a niche and he sent a post with the subject heading above and included the following line:
A Virtual Assistant who doesn’t have a clearly defined niche is a poor virtual assistant.
I don’t know about you but I really take exception to that comment.
Perhaps he meant well but he was promoting a 4 week teleseries he provides which is free. I haven’t gone exploring to see what else might be on offer to make it worth his while to get the attention. I expect he’ll have add-on services for people to purchase.
It was a good 3 or more years before I began to even work out what work I really enjoyed doing the most and what type of clients I naturally attracted. Prior to that I tried out several things and gradually culled what I didn’t want to keep doing and built up on what I did want to – always refining and defining.
For those who do know their niche straight away – that’s great, you’re well on the way to getting your business established and firmly grounded but for the rest who don’t yet know their niche, I certainly wouldn’t say they are a poor virtual assistant. They could be good at all the things they do (I felt I was and still am) but just haven’t worked out what they want to concentrate on yet.
I want to encourage all who visit here, particularly those who are new, to know that a line like that may have been said with good intentions, but I don’t believe it to be true and certainly wouldn’t want it to make you feel inadequate.
In the past I have written a series of posts on this blog about developing a niche for your VA business and you can see them here.
What are your thoughts?
I forget that new people coming along all the time won’t have the knowledge or experience I have and so, sometimes I need to repeat the same information because there is a new audience.
A new VA contacted me recently because she was concerned that a client wasn’t responding to her emails and work had been regular and now she wasn’t receiving any. She wanted to know if she should keep sending emails or perhaps phone him – she was worried about making a nuisance of herself.
I advised her, without hesitation, to pick up the phone and call him.
A few years ago I had two clients who were trying to contact me via email. For whatever reason I wasn’t receiving them, although I was receiving email from others. At any rate one of them chose to pick up the phone and ask me if I was ignoring him (tongue in cheek) and I told him ‘of course not!’ We discussed his needs and I was able to get the work done in the timeframe he needed.
The other I didn’t find out about till many months later. She thought I was ignoring her or too busy and she went and contacted someone else to do the work for her. She had been a regular client and I was most disappointed and upset at this outcome. It was partly my fault – I’d been busy so hadn’t realised I’d not heard from her for awhile so didn’t make contact. But she should have picked up the phone. Email is not 100% failproof so when there is doubt, call them!
There’s been a recent promotion here in Melbourne on the radio about ‘what do you see?’ and a description is given of needy children. This is about sponsoring a child. My husband, Graham and I, have been sponsoring children through World Vision since around 1993 or 1994. We currently sponsor 3 girls – it’s always been girls as we have 5 daughters of our own so we feel a real connection for the needs of daughters. One of the girls we have sponsored in the past could have almost passed for a daughter of our’s – she was so much like our youngest daughter to look at.
Anyway, “A Clayton’s Secretary” is partnering with World Vision in a time of need.
Two weeks ago I was approached by World Vision Australia with a request to support their current Child Sponsorship campaign by mentioning this extremely worthy cause in my newsletter through my business but this is such a worthy cause that I’m also putting it on some of my blogs for more to see.
In light of the tough economic conditions that all Australians are facing right now, World Vision staff explained that it is becoming more challenging than ever for them to find sponsors for children in desperate need.
Children whose families are struggling to survive chronic food shortages and skyrocketing global food prices.
That is why I can’t think of a better use of this space than to ask you all to consider sponsoring a child right now.
For less than the cost of your daily café latte, you can not only change the life of a child, but of their entire community.
Would you like to join us and sponsor a child?
Please follow this link to learn more about child sponsorship.
All Virtual Assistants are invited to the next Forum on Virtual Assistance (FoVA) next June in Canada. Even more exciting because I am going too! I was thrilled to be asked recently to present a workshop and facilitate a forum at the event and I accepted. But to give you the details direct from the organiser, please read on!
Extraordinary plans are being made for FoVA ’09 and I can tell you that we have an incredible program shaping up for you!
Mark your calendars!
FoVA ’09 will take place June 4 – 7, 2009 in Niagara Falls, Ontario Canada. http://www.niagarafallstourism.com/
To our U.S. colleagues, you can fly in to Buffalo, NY and just cross the bridge!! No need for inflated “international” airfare rates! (You’ll still need a passport though so if you don’t have one, be sure to get one before next spring.)
Come see one of the 7 Wonders of the World!!
In addition to our newly expanded 2009 Forum program, we also have 4 amazing Full Day One-of-a Kind Workshops being offered Pre-Conference on Wednesday June 3rd! You may never get the chance to participate in these Workshops in person at any other event!
I don’t want to spoil any surprises but I can tell you that we already have commitments from some unbelievably huge VA industry leaders!!
Check out these names:
Michelle Jamison of MJVA and Associates - Author and Multi VA Business Guru!
Erin Blaskie of Business Services, ETC – VA Coach and Expert on Passive Income Extraordinaire! … and
Kathie Thomas of Award-winning “A Clayton’s Secretary”® VA Coach, Speaker and Author of the very popular “Worth More Than Rubies” coming all the way from Australia!!! Outstanding!!
(I have 1 other very special guest lined up but I’ll tell you about that next time. J I can’t let you in on ALL of my secrets now can I?)
To top things off, we will be offering a mini French FoVA Forum for our bilingual colleagues. Imagine a whole day of French Workshops designed and delivered “en français” just for bilingual VA’s!!
FoVA started as a dream for Canadian VAs. It blossomed into a North American event and is turning into a Global Forum!
If you are serious about your VA business, our industry as a whole and want to meet, network and collaborate with some of the most important and influential VA’s in our industry, be sure to mark June 3 – 7, 2009 on your calendar.
We are working feverishly on the FoVA ’09 website which will provide you with all of the necessary details. We will let you know when that is available in the next several weeks.
We look forward to seeing old friends and meeting new ones in June 2009!!
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