As the owner/manager of a well established Virtual Assistant Network I get many requests from people who want to join my team of VAs. I would love to help them all but there are some who really disqualify themselves very early in the process, which is a shame. I know they're anxious to get work and anxious to establish their businesses but it's important they pay attention to detail. One of the most common mistakes a potential VA makes is they fill out the wrong form. They fill out the form … [Read more...]
My turn for the OIVAC Blog Hopping Tour!
Hi Kathie, Glad to be back in the Land of Oz and stopping by and chatting about issues facing the VA industry. I look forward to sharing my thoughts about the questions you’ve asked and reading comments from your readers. I’ll come back and respond, if anyone has additional thoughts on these insightful topics. So, what’s first -- Why should I attend the Online International Virtual Assistance Convention (OIVAC)? There are so many reasons to attend; and this year’s lineup of timely, relevant, … [Read more...]
Forum membership etiquette
My regular readers will know I participate in several forums - not just Virtual Assistant forums, but also other forums relating to business and/or other topics I have an interest in. My business has grown with the internet, i.e. I began in business 18 months before it entered the business arena here in Australia, so I have grown in business as the internet has grown also. I've seen a lot of trends come and go and things develop and change over the years. Prior to networking online, I did all … [Read more...]
Get a Virtual Assistant to help you
Do you get overwhelmed by tracking information and contact details of everyone you meet or have contact with? Does this describe you and your business? Pieces of paper with names and addresses, phone numbers and/or email addresses written on them. Business cards in piles, or with rubber bands wrapped around them, or thrown in a drawer or box. Some entries in a spreadsheet or a database started but not maintained. Perhaps you have them all in your cell phone but they need to go onto your … [Read more...]
How many clients do you need?
A chance comment at a VA forum made me realise that a new VA was using the scatter gun approach to finding new clients and was, therefore, trying to prevent travelling all over the countryside and use cold calling instead. Except she was unsure how to go about it. She'd obtained (legally) a directory for her target market and wanted to approach them all to introduce her business and was seeking advise about this. I'd made comment that face-to-face was more personal and why didn't she just go … [Read more...]
Forum Etiquette
One of the VA groups I belong to was discussing limiting sales pitches to seminars or webinars and how did members feel about it? My response was: I think that people who come along to promote/sell something at a list that doesn't belong to them are being presumptous. I have a problem with it personally. You spend time building a list and then they come along and think it's their right to pitch to that list - without having anything to do with building it in the first place. My own opinion and … [Read more...]
McAfee not in my good books!
Imagine my dismay this morning when I checked my computer just before 6.30am to find that it had two error messages and the Start button was missing. Little did I know what was ahead of me for the next 10+ hours. Frustration, tears and wasted time and I nearly wiped my computer to start all over again! I did some research on the two error messages I had and it seemed to indicate it was a Windows error but it was a Dell file that wasn't operating in the gs_agentfolder. I tried to run the Dell … [Read more...]
Don’t give up!
Recent discussions at a VA forum were about how overwhelmed one member was feeling, trying to keep up with everyone else, but knowing she didn't excel in a lot of the things that others do. End result was she felt like she was beginning to burn out. Starting up a business is no simple thing. There is a lot to do and as the business owner you are now suddenly responsible for marketing, setting systems in place, making sure the bookkeeping is done, and working out what services to provide and … [Read more...]
Operating a VA business – Adding to the equasion
When we first start building our Virtual Assistant businesses we tend to concentrate on what we know best and it nearly always relates to word-processing, data entry, transcription work, book-keeping or similar. As we become more confident we start to find things we really enjoy doing and that often we can teach our clients about those things. For me in the past it has meant adding blogging to my list of services, websites and eventually setting up social media profiles for Twitter, Facebook, … [Read more...]
