Well, as you may know by now, this year marks 20 years in business for me. I've seen a real lot of growth, both in technology and in our industry. So many 'new' things have been developed and become every day activities or items we use regularly. Things like the Internet, mobile phones, digital TV, social media, websites, ipads, tablets, laptops, and the list goes on and on and on. I wonder what will be here in another 20 years' time that we probably haven't thought of today. Who knows? I … [Read more...]
Do you have a website?
Getting a website created, or creating one for yourself, can be a daunting prospect. When you're setting up business there are so many things to think about, plan and pay out for, that often the website gets put aside for 'later on'. The reality is that people need to be able to find you online. The medium for doing business is the Internet so it makes sense that you are available there for people to find you. And all your competitors are already there! When you email people do you use a … [Read more...]
Can your prospective clients contact you?
Have you viewed your business card and website with your prospective clients' eyes lately? Over the past year I've noticed a trend in business cards having minimal details. Websites are often the same. A name, perhaps a business name, an email address (or, on their website a contact form) and a mobile phone number. That's it. Often the email address is not a domain address, i.e. they're using their ISP email, gmail, hotmail or similar. When considering whether I want to do business with … [Read more...]
Professional development for Virtual Assistants
When you are in business and self-employed, you no longer have the luxury of an employer organising professional development and footing the bill. Consequently, many self-employed business owner/operators tend to forgo this very important part of their business ownership. Making sure you keep up with technology and business trends is very important to keep ahead of what is needed for your clients and for your own business. Attending a conference is just one of the ways of getting a lot of … [Read more...]
Celebrating 20 years in business March 2014
It's almost here and I can barely believe it. Where have all those years gone? I do remember the excitement and the nervousness of branching out on my own and leaving the stability and safety of a government job back in 1993. Family and work events had been leading me to this point... where I would decide to be home full-time and develop a business so I could be home for my own children. As it turned out, it was also for my husband. There have been accidents and illnesses where he's needed me … [Read more...]
Become a Virtual Assistant for 2014
It's that time of year again when people take stock of what's transpired for the past almost twelve months and reflect on what could have been versus on what has been. Has it been a good year for you? Did you set goals and achieve them? Did you set goals and not achieve them? Perhaps the job you currently have has you disillusioned and you're looking for something else? Perhaps you've come to realise that the job you have isn't as secure as you once thought. I know those feelings although the … [Read more...]
Yahoo has taken over my Firefox search
If you have searched and found this post, then it may well be that you're looking for the answer to this annoying problem. My favourite search engine is Google. That's the one I want to use. But for some reason, some software programs have included yahoo search in their installation files. That's all well and good but what if I don't want to switch to yahoo? I use Mozilla Firefox as my web browser of choice. I like how it works and to me is more robust than others I've tried. So imagine my … [Read more...]
Christmas cards for your clients
Do you send out cards for your clients? Or even to your clients. Things get busy this time of year and Christmas card sending can be quite a time hungry exercise. Over the past 3 or 4 years I've been using Send Out Cards, which definitely saves me time and I don't have to leave my office in order to organise beautifully printed cards of my choice and design and posted to my database. How does it work? Simple. Open up an account, go to the card catalogue, or Create a Card, and then set the … [Read more...]
Why VAs don’t work fulltime for their clients
With the industry expanding quickly, many coming on board as VAs, and new clients now looking for a VA or VAs to support them, I thought it might be a good time to explain why VAs don't work full time for one client. There are several reasons and here are some of them: If a VA works entirely for one client that client could become viewed as an employer, depending on the tax system of the country involved. For example, here in Australia, if there is one main source of income the Australian … [Read more...]
