Virtual Assistant – THE Blog About Our Industry

About the Virtual Assistant industry for VAs and for clients

Monthly Archives: February 2010

Join an active VA community

The Virtual Assistants International Group (VAIG) has been an active VA community forum since 1998.  It was shifted around a bit to find the right place to host the group and we eventually settled at yahoogroups in 2003.

The group is like one big family – many of the core or regular contributors treat each other like sisters and brothers, or perhaps really close friends.  Yes, we occasionally have heated discussions but for the most part we’re about sharing information, sharing ideas and sharing resources.  The more experienced VAs are about helping those others who are newer to the industry and looking for advice.  Sometimes we just need a shoulder or someone who will listen to us when we need to vent.

The forum is for those who are active Virtual Assistants or looking to become a Virtual Assistant.  We currently have a membership of just under 1300 but are looking to grow this and invite you to join us, if you’re not already a participant there.

If you’re looking for an active, lively and friendly community of Virtual Assistants to join then I encourage you to come visit us at VAIG.

Using networking tools for VAs

At one of the VA forums I belong to a member asked if someone could explain how a small home transcription business can grow their business using Facebook, Linked-in or Twitter or is it more for the merchant business?

My answer was brief – there’s a lot to cover for each of these tools, but hopefully this will help answer it for others thinking the same thing.

Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter work quite differently but often with similar results.  I’ll try to explain briefly here:

Facebook helps give a ‘face’ to those you connect with, you can create Fan Pages for people to follow what you have to say and if you’re promoting a product, service or event, Facebook is a great way to be able to send out invitations to people to get involved and it’s permission based.  That means they’ve already connected to you so they’ve given you permission to send things to them via Facebook.

LinkedIn is probably the most professional of business networks I’ve seen – more business than ‘social’ although it is often lumped into the social networking category.  Strictly speaking you should only send invitations to people you know personally to join you, but once you’re involved with it you’ll often get invitations from others you don’t know. This is because they’re trying to build up their numbers.  There is a Q&A section there called Answers which is the best place to go – to ask questions and/or to answer them and get people to notice you exist. Their recommendations section is excellent for building up testimonials from peers and clients.

Twitter – Both Facebook and LinkedIn have adopted the small 140 character type set up – what are you doing now? function that works so well for Twitter (although Facebook allows you to have a lot more characters).
Twitter is about following people – anyone who interests you and having people follow you.  There’s no need to know them personally.  It’s a good way to ask questions, get answers and promoted products, services and events.

What is most important and many people forget this.  It’s more important to give than to get.  The more you give of yourself (information, assistance, just for the sake of helping someone) the more others will take an interest in you and what you do.

So with all three, and with any other networking type tool (even this forum for example) it’s important to build relationships and the best way to do that is be involved, be engaged, take notice of other people and when you are able, offer assistance.

Hope this helps.

VA Project – Who have you helped this week?

This week the recipient of my help was not a VA but rather a professor from a university in India.  He’d approached me to write some articles for their publication on the topic of Virtual Assistance for their students.  I felt honoured to be asked.

However, I did find his initial email to me rather confusing and I had to read it several times to really understand his request, or rather it seemed like a demand.  Instead of ignoring it or getting annoyed by the email, as I sometimes might do, I decided to help this man improve his written English.

So, I wrote back saying I would like to do the article and then proceeded to give him suggestions on how he could have worded his email in a better way.  He’d used words that technically may have been correct, however are never used in the way he used them and it made the sentences seem rather convoluted.    He went the long way around to explain something instead of much shorter, clearer phrases or sentences.

We emailed back and forth a few times and each time he thanked me for showing him the correct way for wording something. I also reminded him that acronyms or terminologies he might use in Uni in India might not necessarily be common language where I live and he needed to remember that when making contact with people (this is something we all need to be mindful of).

He was gracious in his responses to me and I hope I have helped him improve his approach style when contacting someone in a language that isn’t his own.

When you are cold calling…

I know that many decide to cold call to get extra business, or even just to start out.  Personally I’ve found that a very disheartening way to do things but I know that some really do excel at this type of communication and successfully achieve their objectives.

So, if you’re considering using cold calling as a form of drumming up business, may I suggest you learn from the following?

I just had a phone call from a guy (whose accent was difficult to understand and he spoke way too fast) wanting to know if I had a website for my business?  I suspect he’s trying to drum up business.

My response to him was ‘how did you find me?‘ as I know all forms of advertising I do always includes my web address.

He answered ‘the Yellow Pages‘.

I told him our website is listed in the Yellow Pages with our advert.  I hope he could hear the smile in my voice.

He said he was sorry for bothering me and hung up very quickly.  mmm, think he might have been a bit embarrassed.

I think if people are going to do cold calling for business they really need to think it through and do a little bit of research first, don’t they?  Hopefully he’ll be more observant for the next person he calls :-)

Starting out as a Virtual Assistant

It was several years ago I began this journey of developing a business at home.  16, in fact, next month.  That time has flown by.  My daughters are all now adults and no longer needed a mum at home but I must admit I have no inclination to go back out into the traditional workforce. I love my surroundings, my comfortable office and the line of work I do for my clients.

However, I know many feel totally overwhelmed when they join the Virtual Assistant industry and have no idea how to start first or where to go for help.  Should they have a website? Should they be joining VA networks?  Which sites should you pay to join without being scammed?

These and a million other questions surface when people are faced with starting their own business – it’s not just in the Virtual Assistant Industry.

Let’s face it. There’s nothing like being supported and encouraged by someone who has already trodden the path you are choosing. There’s value in learning from someone else’s mistakes rather than making your own.  And why should you re-invent the wheel if someone else can share their knowledge and experience?

Enter the VA Coaching Club.  With a monthly call session and teleseminar, including periodic guest speakers, the opportunity to tap into the wealth and knowledge of experienced VAs and access to materials and services designed for the VA industry, it makes good sense to join.  There is a monthly fee but it’s not high and you’re not locked into a time period.  We’re also establishing a forum just for members of the coaching club and also the VATrainer course students.

If you’re new to the industry, either just starting, or been around for awhile but need some help, then why not explore the VA Coaching Club for more information?  Make sure you check out the webinar lineup of speakers – we have some great topics being covered.