I raised this topic on my Facebook page and we've had some great discussion over it. Thought I would bring it here and encourage you to comment on my blog below. Has working at home blurred your boundaries when it comes to working on week days or weekends? I have noticed a number of seminars, conferences, webinars now being held on Saturdays and Sundays. While I know that AVAC is held on a Friday/Saturday, I wouldn't dream of encroaching on an entire weekend for a work related event. After … [Read more...]
Working at home alone
With many joining our industry daily, I thought I'd touch on this topic once again. Working at home can be wonderful and it certainly has been for me, and many other Virtual Assistants. However, it's important to understand that you will be home alone, day after day, and you might not have much face-to-face interaction with others. We do have online forums for VAs to chat with each other, learn how to do things, seek assurance in what they're doing, perhaps even share ideas and resources. But … [Read more...]
Word confusion
I own and run Australia's oldest Virtual Assistant Network. My own business "A Clayton's Secretary" was started in 1994, pre-internet, so I could be home for our 5 daughters, and then the internet began just 18months later. Not long after I placed my first webpage online I had women contacting me to ask how they could be doing what I was doing. Australia's first VA network was started and we were on our way. There are now other VA networks in the country, and it's good to see the industry … [Read more...]
Where have the secretaries gone?
They've become Virtual Assistants. There is an article recently published by BloombergBusinessWeek exploring where secretaries have gone. Corporate recruiter, Pat Cook, says that far fewer people have secretaries or assistants now and the article said it's largely due to changes in technology and cost-cutting exercises. However, she also goes on to say that everyone agrees they would be far more effective if they had an assistant. Enter the Virtual Assistant. Many Virtual Assistants have … [Read more...]
Building takes more than one night
A chance comment at a VA forum made me think about building in general. When you're building a house, there's a lot of planning and preparation put into place. The piece of land is checked by a survey engineer to ensure the land is sound and that the building planned will be structurally sound on that land. The architect goes to great lengths to ensure his plans are suitable for the owner's needs. The builder reads the plans, works out what materials are needed and costs involved, who he needs … [Read more...]
Finding your target market
This is a topic that applies to everyone in business. Some businesses have it easy. They have a service or product that people are seeking out every single day of the week. And so it would appear they don't have to do a lot to be found. The reality is they need to look at their 'real estate', i.e. where they are located physically for the foot traffic to pass by, or where they are located virtually, i.e. their domain name, keywords, etc to allow searches to find them. So there are costs … [Read more...]
How do you know what a VA is?
As many of you know, I belong to quite a few VA forums. And there is one at Linkedin where a very talented graphic designer/VA participates and he decided to create this awesome info-graphic about what a VA is. I think it's wonderful, wish I had his talent! I always have to pay someone to do my graphics :-) Oh, and that's a caricature of him with the beard. Posted with permission Patrick Slattery, WorkingMatterVA … [Read more...]
Beware the fake LinkedIn connection emails
I've begun receiving a spate of fake LinkedIn Connection requests and 'Learn about your new connection' emails. They look pretty authentic but with an image missing here and there. What clued me in was I never remembered sending an invitation to the names that have been coming. I rarely, if ever, invite someone I don't know personally. When you hold your mouse over the hyperlink you get addresses like http://radio-roadrunner.de.vu/linkedwith.html and there have been many others. They always … [Read more...]
Growing your connection list at LinkedIn
LinkedIn is a very popular networking tool for people in business these days, but there are still so many who do not seem to know how to use it, or perhaps haven't thought about it a great deal. There was an article published today about how to protect your account at LinkedIn and prevent your account from being restricted. The article was aimed at job-seekers but it very much applies to us all. Basically the writer gives 4 tips for using LinkedIn: Personalise your invitations Go outside … [Read more...]
