NFPs or Not-for-Profits are usually run by a group of volunteers who take on the role of committee members with an executive: President, Vice President, Treasurer and Secretary as well as a number of general committee members. Last time I looked at an Association Directory there were over 800,000 such groups here in Australia alone. There comes a time when some of these NFPs feel that managing the association gets too much for the volunteer committee and they have to bite the bullet and employ … [Read more...]
VA Story: Glynis Moland
Another in our series on VA Stories. My name is Glynis Moland and I’ve been a VA for the past 8 years. My businesses are Secretarial Service of WA and Diamond Planning. I do not work from home but I have an office in a beautiful old mall called London Court based in the heart of Perth’s beautiful CBD. Whilst in Perth on holiday around 1998 I visited London Court and was very surprised to see a Secretarial Service in the heart of the City – in a very unusual setting based on an old London … [Read more...]
Facebook – profile or page?
Is your Facebook profile set up in your personal name or your business name? I want to give a warning as two people I know here in Melbourne, Australia, in the past week had their Facebook accounts suspended and they had to prove who they were. One was using a nickname coupled with his real name and the other was using a business name, instead of their personal name. Both had to change their profiles back to their personal names only and had the inconvenience of their accounts inactive for a few … [Read more...]
Getting a job or getting clients
I see the word 'job' mentioned at so many VA forums and also blog posts about the VA industry. And also those who have used VAs to support their businesses the talk is very similar. There seems to be confusion about the role of where the Virtual Assistant sits. And often the new VAs are looking for work in the wrong places. My thoughts are: You want to be registered with a VA network - something that specialises in VA work only. Not only do you get introduced to clients, you'll learn about … [Read more...]
VA Story: Frances Lowe
This is the second of our series. Frances has been a long term member of our VA network - since 2002. My name is Frances Lowe and I have been a VA for the best part of 15 years. Started as a VA in 1998/99 and was working in recruitment. I was working freelance for an international procurement consultancy. I had previously worked in recruitment and had run my own agency back in the eighties. I started with Clayton's in or around 2002 and am still a proud member. I suppose the main reasons … [Read more...]
Do you suffer from Admin Overwhelm?
'Admin Overwhelm': So many business owners are overwhelmed with the amount of admin and paperwork that needs to be done to keep their businesses running. I regularly chat with other business owners via phone, email, online forums and also face-to-face networking who tell me they are drowning in paperwork and struggling to develop systems to manage the overload of administrative work that arises through the day-to-day activities of running a business. It seems to creep up on them and suddenly … [Read more...]
VA Story: Melissa Williscroft
I'm starting a series on VA stories - those VAs who have been around for awhile and how and why they got into the industry. The first is a long-term member of ACS and that is Melissa Williscroft. Melissa has been a member of the ACS Network since 2009. Below she shares her story. Starting my virtual administration business was the best decision that I ever made. My son was 18 months old and the pressure was on for me to return to work. I was staring down the barrel of having to return to … [Read more...]
What is a typical client for a VA?
A question that was asked at a forum I participate in recently. Good question and one that is important for both VAs and clients alike. The answer is, there is no typical client profile. It really depends on what the VA does and offer as to what a typical client might be for that one particular VA. And it can be based on service offerings or industry niches. For example, a VA may decide to specialise in one or more of the following services: digital transcription bookkeeping phone … [Read more...]
How do you know when a client is genuine?
I got asked this today, but admittedly, I've been asked other times too. While our industry attracts mainly good clients, we do get the occasional one that thinks they can use a VA for their own evil purposes - namely to launder money or trick someone into doing the wrong thing and therefore losing money. In the instance of today, there were many things in the emails sent to the VA that waved a red flag for me and I'll share them with you. This is a portion of my reply to her. The client had … [Read more...]
