I wrote a series of articles a few years ago on Email Etiquette and they've been published all over the web and in a number of printed publications in different countries. I received the following email this week and I reprint it here with permission from the sender and intend to use this as an introduction to the series here. So I'll be republishing the entire set via this blog for others to view, read and comment as they see fit. Hi Kathie, I enjoyed reading your articles about email … [Read more...]
Free Teleconferencing Service
I trialed a service with a client and a contact of her's yesterday. We held a 3 way conversation via a US number and were able to log into the web and see that each of us were on that call. It has moderating facilities and allows you to mute other callers on the line, boot people if you need to, record the conversation which is apparently available online an hour later and so on. My client's contact mentioned to me she thought it might be useful for VAs who do digital transcription. … [Read more...]
Updating Business Cards
When you're starting out in business it's exciting to plan and design your business card so that it reflects what you want it to show. But don't despair if you don't get it right the first time. Opt to get only 250 or 500 made at first and see how they go and then get more made further down the track. If you're regularly attending networking events, meeting people, or even including your card whenever you send any correspondence or pay bills by post, you will soon go through them. The cards … [Read more...]
My client said to me today…
He rang up late in the afternoon, 5.20pm to be exact. He was in his car and heading out away from some meeting when he said to me, 'do you know what I like about having a virtual assistant compared to a personal assistant?' He didn't wait for my answer. 'Because I know that the VA is still there when I suddenly realise I need something urgently for tomorrow. Do you mind? Can you manage this if I swung by in an hour to pick it up?' He told me what he needed and I was able to confirm I could … [Read more...]
Don’t Blow Yourself Out Of The Water!
When a new VA is starting out, there is the temptation to accept any job that comes along, just for the sake of having a client and work to do. But things can go awry very, very quickly, if you have no experience in that type of work, and if you don't know what you're doing. Some jobs may appear to be easy at the outset, but unless you truly have some idea of what's involved, probably best to let it pass to someone more experienced. Some of these will include: transcriptions (audio & … [Read more...]
Working Virtually – What Does That Mean?
I have on my VA website a Job Request form for prospective clients to fill out, asking them the questions that we need answers to, to know what kind of support they require. Two of those questions ask if they need local support and where the job is located if local support is required. However, not all answer those two questions and we end up with some interesting exercises to ensure that the right VA contacts them for their needs. For example: If a client is based in the US and indicates … [Read more...]
Taking Your Business Seriously
When setting up a business at home, I find that people tend to sort themselves into one of two different groups. One group takes their business seriously, putting in the groundwork to get it established, do the research, learn about their chosen industry, mix with the people who are already doing it and basically performing a 'monkey see, monkey do' type scenario. The second group put in the mouth work, i.e. they tell people they're setting up a business, but apart from having the equipment at … [Read more...]
Case Study #5
Cheryl is an artist, mainly oils and water paints, but does silks scarves and other items too. Her passion is cats and most of her paintings has a cat somewhere in the picture, and often she is too, depicted as a little girl with long blonde hair. Her father is the second case study I did and he introduced me to Cheryl years ago. Periodically I do mail lists and mailouts for her, presentations on her artwork, media releases, brochures for her art shows, and so on. In these latter years she's … [Read more...]
Networking – a life skill
I wrote recently about Robyn and networking - a client I really enjoyed working with. Tonight I had the privilege of meeting another great networker, and that is Ivan Misner, Founder of Business Network International (BNI). I was attending a "Meet the Founder" function in Melbourne, Australia, along with many other leaders of BNI here. It was a great evening, filled with information because we had a Q&A session where we could just fire questions at Ivan and he answered them. I took lots of … [Read more...]
