I became aware of discussion about an article regarding Moonlighting as a VA.  I haven’t seen the original article but did see the comments and hope that the writers will see my post as I’m unable to leave a comment on the site where I saw them.

I’ve been running a Virtual Assistant practice for over 18 years now.  It wasn’t called that when I started, we were known as home-based secretaries in those days. The challenges in those days may have been more difficult as we didn’t have the Internet to let people know about our services and we had to depend very much on word-of-mouth marketing and paid advertising.  While the ‘competition’ may be greater today I do believe that people starting up new businesses really do have it much easier in many, many ways.  Why? Because so many have trodden the path before them and have laid the tracks and written about what is required to run a VA business.  Me, included, I have many posts at this blog alone (almost 800) as well as published articles elsewhere.

When people start a business, whether it’s ‘on the side’ or straight out, there is homework to be done and preparations to put into place. It is important you know what kind of services you are going to offer so you can confidently talk about them to anyone you meet but you also need to have some idea of what you’ll charge, and even the type of client you would like to service. Knowing the type of client will often give you a clue where to go find them.

The first writer indicated she spent more money than was coming in to set up her business, but the reality is that it takes a good 2-3 years of being in business before you actually begin to make a profit.  You are going to have to spend money setting up your business with business cards, a website, flyers if you wish to use them, and if you choose a business name you might also want a logo.  Neither are necessary but many prefer to do this to develop their identity or ‘brand’ as a business operator.  Not to mention registering a business, securing a tax accountant and if you live in an area that requires it, a business licence.  Plus insurances and so it goes on. This is not something to enter into blindly or lightly.

She also mentioned she marketed heavily but doesn’t actually say what methods she used. It’s possible she was doing things that really weren’t going to help her in business but I really can’t tell.

The second writer reads like she has got access to good information and is learning from those who can help educate her to run a business.

The last writer mentioned a newspaper article that talked about outsourcing to VAs in developing countries at a very cheap rate. This can indeed be discouraging news to read if you aren’t confident in your own abilities, including setting up a business.

I do believe it’s important to believe in yourself and have confidence in your own abilities. There will always be clients who shop on price only but then there will be others who prefer to work with those they’ve met personally, or those they feel the connect with, or those who are in the location of where they wish to do business. Or perhaps they’ve been referred to the VA. It is worrying when someone reads an article and then doesn’t go do some research for themselves to check the facts.  Google searches for ‘Virtual Assistant’ bring up over 13million results. And on that first page of Google is one of the industry’s most prominent NFP organisations, IVAA.org. Other organisations show up as well as links to very well read articles about the industry.

It seems to me that if you want to become a Virtual Assistant, getting advice from those who are already successfully doing it is the way to go.  Learn from them via VA chat forums, mix and mingle with those who have been operating as a VA for several years, get some VA training if you feel you need it, even get an accreditation.  Finding clients is always a challenge but once you’re learned where and how to find them, it gets much easier and after that it’s up to you, to keep them.

You can also get training from many sources to provide a number of services. In celebration of VAClassroom turning 4 years old they are throwing an Anniversary Special – save 25% on their course selection.

A couple of days ago I shared how much I love working at home and that I don’t miss the traffic out there at all.  However, there are days (very occasional) when working at home can prove to be a challenge. Today was one of them.

We got a letter a week ago to say the power would be off between 8.30am and 3.30pm for one day and we needed to ensure that all electrical appliances were switched off and unplugged, especially computers.  What was I going to do?

I started to put out feelers to see whose place I could go to, along with my laptop and my mobile phone (with the land-line diverted).  There was room at our church office.  Our eldest daughter’s place was a possibility but I doubt I would get much work done as my grandson would be wanting my attention.  I sent out a message to clients advising I might not be able to get much work done because of the power being out and a client offered me his office as he was going to be at two workshops.  And then one of my BNI colleagues was visiting for a one-on-one meeting and asked if I could come and teach her to use LinkedIn.  I looked at my diary and realised that I had time on the day of ‘no power’. I laughed and said to her, ‘why didn’t I think of that before?  Just make appointments to be out visiting.’ She responded she does that all the time.

I’d gotten so entrenched with being home full-time working that I’d forgotten it was OK to be out for a whole day if I wanted to. So I did.  I booked 3 appointments and visited the local ‘maccas’ which had wifi available so I could catch up with emails while having something to eat and a cuppa.  Not as productive a day as I’d like but at least it meant I got some things done and the time wasn’t wasted.  After all, if I’m going to have a day off, I want it to be on my terms.

You know, in the busy-ness of our lives, even in running our own businesses, it’s sometimes easy to lose sight of our blessings. In this case, just being able to work at home.

I had to be up at 5am today. That’s not much earlier than a normal morning for me.  I’m often awake at 5.30 as I take my husband to the train station some mornings but other mornings I get to sleep in till 7am because he is working at home too

Today I was taking the son of a Canadian friend to the airport. He’d been living with a family here since January, doing student teaching, but it wasn’t working out for him and the host family were pretty much ignoring him. He was feeling lonely and homesick and wanted to go home. The host family was going to take him to the airport and then changed their minds, for whatever reason. So I said I would and left my home office yesterday afternoon to go pick him up and then got up early this morning to leave at 5.30am so he could be at the airport at 6.30, 3 hours before his international flight.  I could go back to bed if I want – I am a bit tired, but I won’t. I might have a mid afternoon nap.  After all, I am a nanna and nanna naps go well these days…

However, it was the trip back home, going in the opposite direction of the bulk of the traffic that made me so glad I was on my way home to work, rather than on my way to work after leaving home. The traffic on the Monash Freeway was several lanes deep and almost bumper to bumper. Even worse on Wellington Road. There’s no way they were travelling the speeds that I could travel in the opposite direction.  Lots of huge trucks in all the lanes.  And light rain.

I got home at 7.45am – somewhat earlier than I thought I might and felt pleased to be walking into the house just as my husband was emerging from our bedroom.

There is nothing like working at home.  Love it!

Over the past month I’ve been setting up a new board forum for Virtual Assistants. While it has been primarily built with ACS members in mind, there is a portion of the forum that is open to any and all VAs.  It is the VA Directory Forum and you are invited to come and check it out.  While the membership and number of posts are low there currently, I expect it will grow quite quickly once the word is out.

We have an active forum at yahoogroups (with over 1400 members) but there are some who prefer the board style of forum and with social media gaining an ever increasing hold on the web, this board forum is closer to that style, providing the opportunity for you to load your photo so other members of the forum can get to know you face-to-face, share your social media links in your board profile and follow the thread of each discussion in its entirety, rather than through a mix of emails like the email style of forums.

For those who are members of “A Clayton’s Secretary” (ACS) there is a section that is specifically for them and their membership of the forum is marked accordingly.  We also have a section for VA Trainer students and past students who can discuss the course.  Why not drop in for a visit?  VirtualAssistantsGroup

Some of you will be aware that I’m a member of a local BNI chapter as their Virtual Assistant representative.  One of the members there, who is the resident website designer came up with a brilliant idea some months ago called eziStart.  The idea is that a number of services is provided by a small select group of service providers to help people get set up and started in their businesses.

These services include:  web design, logo design, copy-writing for the website, video and social media. I’m looking after the social media for business component. This is me with the guys below.

We’d love you to come and like our Facebook page and also check out the social media for business services I offer on the website to see what it’s all about.  If you know anyone who needs an eziStart to getting their online presence sorted then please contact us via the eziStart website or contact me direct.

I should add that these services are offered at a special price to help attract those who need all or most of these services but thought they couldn’t afford it all at once. It’s a one-stop shop basically!

I get asked this question often and thought I’d share some hints and tips on things you can do if you would like to pursue this career.

First you must have good computer skills but not only that, a good knowledge of how to do things online as well.  They’re not difficult things but if you don’t know how to do them, then they can complicate your working day. Things like knowing how to upload or download files, attach files to email, send a large file to a client when it’s too large to send via email or even how to use an FTP (File Transfer Protocol) program for uploading/downloading files to and from a website.  Of course, these things can be learnt relatively quickly, compared to the skillset you should already have in place, depending on the services you plan to provide.  Contrary to many blogposts and articles out there that say ‘anyone can do it’, the reality is that not anyone can do it.  Here are some tips that might assist you.

1. You need to be prepared to work on your own in your own home office for long periods of time. If you’re used to connecting with other people every single day, face-to-face, this can be a difficult thing to do. Not everyone is comfortable with being in their own company day in and day out. But there are things you can do such as joining online networks to chat to others in your field, or join business networking groups that exist locally close to you.  It’s a good thing to get out of the house regularly and mix and mingle with other people.
2. If you have no business experience at all, you might want to consider doing a Virtual Assistant training course or get a VA mentor to help guide you along the way.  However, it is not essential and many learn on the job – some pick up much quicker than others.
3. There is no hard and fast way that you must operate your business. You can choose any or all of these options: operate on your own, join a VA forum, join a VA Network, join a VA Agency, become a member of a multi-VA team or sub-contract to an existing VA.  And as you become famliar with the industry online you’ll find that there are several forums, networks and agencies to choose from and there is no reason why you only have to choose one.
4. How to get clients?  Speak to people, network with people, have business cards to give out, develop a signature block for your email and for discussion forums.  You can’t afford to be a wallflower and shy. This is your business and you need to let people know about it, otherwise you won’t be in business for very long.  Again, mixing and mingling with other business people, both online and offline at local business networking groups, will gain you much knowledge and experience in this regard.  Spend time listening to others and learning about their challenges and needs and before long, you’ll hear about someone who needs your help.  Step forward and make yourself known.

I can only speak from my own experience however I do feel I have a good knowledge of this industry, having seen it birth and grow since the mid 1990s.  If you go it alone and not have contact with anyone else in your industry, you stand to miss out on things that will help you grow in your chosen profession. So, it makes sense to join VA forums and networks where you can mix and mingle with others, some new just like you, and others with varying degrees of experience in this field.  Being mentored by an experienced VA or getting training, joining a class group and connecting with others who are working from their homes, just as you plan to, is a great way to learn on the job, learn quickly, make less mistakes and move forward faster.  In fact, you don’t have to be operating as a VA to join some of the chat forums and it will give you an insight on how it works for others before you even begin.  Have fun!

I often get new VAs, or those planning to become a VA, contacting me to find out whether they should be joining my VA Network, or for advice about another group they are thinking of joining.  I don’t mind people contacting me to ask these questions and I’m always happy to help and give guidance. Ultimately the decision is their’s but I like to give them things to think about, to help them with their decision-making.

Let’s look first at some definitions of these two words.  On thefreedictionary.com a network is described as: An extended group of people with similar interests or concerns who interact and remain in informal contact for mutual assistance or support.

On the same site Agency is described as: A business or service authorized to act for others.

Based on the above I’d like to give you my definitions of a Virtual Assistant Network and a Virtual Assistant Agency.

A network is a membership based group of like-minded people, learning and sharing together while mutually benefitting from their collaboration.  At a VA Network it is common for clients to make contact seeking work to be done and many of the VA members will also outsource work to fellow members. Further than that, each VA contributes something of their own knowledge and experience to help fellow VAs learn more about their industry and grow their skills. This is commonly done via a chat forum of some nature, either by email, or board based forum generally.  Each member is a self-employed business professional and while they will pay a regular membership fee (monthly or annual) to belong to that network they don’t pay the network for work, nor do they have to pay a portion of what they earn from clients they gained through the network.  The network will generally have a number of member benefits available to all its members to enhance the enjoyment of being a member of that network.

An agency is a business that is authorised to act on behalf of others. In other words they engage people who can provide the services and support the client of the agency. When the work has been done the Agency generally bills the client and then pays the service provider (VA) a portion of what has been earnt.  In other words, the VA is actually working for the agency and is sub-contracted to the client.  In some agencies the VA might bill the client direct but is required to pay the agency a portion of the fees they’ve earned from the client gained through the agency.  Often there are contracts involved and requirements on how the VA conducts their business. In this situation the VA could technically be classed as an employee via the tax department and it is most important that VAs who are registered with agencies check what the legal onus is on them with respect to that working relationship.  Should the agency be paying their taxes and providing them with sick leave and annual leave?  Are there tax forms that need to be filled out? Are there other requirements?  I suggest it would be wise to check with your accountant, legal advisor or someone else who has the relevant knowledge to be able to advise you in this situation.

So these are just two ways you can be operating as a VA but it is important that you take the onus on yourself to check what your legal requirements are and seek advice from the right people.  In the first you are responsible for your own taxes, insurance and leave arrangements being a self-employed owner-operator, and for the second you need to find out who is responsible for those things and ensure everything is in place. The second generally means you are an employee and not self-employed.

This is the last week of celebrations for my business anniversary of 18 years, which was two days ago.  So, what can I give to any VA that they would really appreciate and value. I don’t want to disadvantage existing VAs and want to open it to all VAs, new and experienced.

I thought about it long and hard and decided that a place at the Australian VA Conference being held on 4-5 May would be ideal. This event is suitable for all VAs and will help you move your business onto the next step, no matter where you are in business.  Valued at $299.00 per ticket, I will offer one ticket to a lucky VA who leaves a message in the comments below, in no more than 25 words, why he or she would like to attend AVAC 2012.  And if you’ve already bought a ticket, you can still go in the draw – why not sell it to another VA or gift it to another VA, splitting the costs you’ve already paid?

I look forward to your comments.

By now you will have gotten the idea that a few lucky VAs have gone into the draw for various prizes (gifts) to help me celebrate my 18 years in business.

What have I got in store this week?  Jan King has been kind enough to offer a complimentary copy of her course “Virtual Assistant Speakers Course“, teaching you how to become an assistant for one or more professional speakers.  This is something I have been doing personally for many years and have been fortunate to work with some of the country’s top professional speakers.  It’s work I have really enjoyed, and you can too.  Normally $498USD Jan is happy to give a complimentary copy for my anniversary celebrations. All you have to do is leave a comment below, outlining in no more than 25 words, why you would like to do this course.

Week two of my anniversary celebrations.  What will I give away to a lucky new VA this week?

You may be aware that I provide a 10 week coaching course guiding those who want to be a VA and don’t know where to start, or simply filling in the gaps for those who have been a VA for awhile but feel there’s still some information missing.

Enter VATrainer.com.  I wrote this program several years ago and it is updated from time to time. It covers things such as starting your business, what to expect, how to find clients, developing a web presence, looking at social media and coping with family and work.

So, what is the prize specifically? The course at 50% off the normal price of $675.00.  So that’s $337.50 for one luck VA.  All you have to do is leave a comment below and fill out the registration form at the training course site (linked above). I will get in touch before the month’s end to let you know if you are the winner.