On the weekend just gone there was an article published in a couple of major Australian newspapers in the My Career section about our industry and based on an interview I had with the journalist. A comment was made on one of the forums I moderate that 'it will take a long time and hard work to make money, if any at all' and I want to address that comment here. I agree that to establish a good VA business (or any business for that matter) it takes a lot of hard work and it does take time - the … [Read more...]
Help is in good hands
That's the title in today's My Career page 3 article about the Virtual Assistant industry. I was called by the journalist about 3 weeks ago and interviewed about the industry here in Australia. We talked about various influences on the industry and how Tim Ferriss helped highlight the industry to the public at large, particularly those who wanted to travel and still maintain their businesses. It also covered the different type of virtual assistants globally and looked at forums here in … [Read more...]
When someone wants to become a Virtual Assistant
I received an email via my contact form during the week from a lady who wants to become a virtual assistant. Rather than fill out the application form, she wrote to me first as she wasn't sure if she had what it took. Her email was badly typed with misspellings, caps missing, and so on. However, I recognised that she probably didn't see this in the same way as she might writing a letter of application to an employer. This was my response to her: To be truthful, if the typing you sent below is … [Read more...]
Listed in 100 More Women Bloggers To Watch
WE Magazine for Women's has a new list of 100 More Women Bloggers to Watch and I'm thrilled to announce that my photo blog is on that list. I encourage you to visit that list - you'll see some familiar names but also some blogs you didn't know about and will find well worth visiting. Why not go get yourself a cuppa right now, then click on the link below to start viewing 100 blogs written by women? … [Read more...]
Where do I find a Virtual Assistant (VA)?
I see this request on the web in many places with discussions on forums and articles written on blogs by people who have little knowledge of our industry. They've heard the term or read about it in books but have no idea where to look. I don't know about you but I always think 'Google' whenever I want to look something up. A search on "Virtual Assistants" at Google will bring up several VA networks and forums, as well as individual VA sites. But I know it's hard to weed through and know the … [Read more...]
Reading Minds is not one of my service offerings
Sometimes you have to laugh. I love working with my clients and for the most part, things go along smoothly. But just every now and then a hiccup happens and it is usually because I didn't know the background of something taking place in my client's life at the time. That's when we have to take some time to discuss things. We'll be in a pattern of getting regular activities taking place, we'll be setting up the next thing, whether it be a newsletter, new seminar listed on the website or … [Read more...]
Interview with Jan King
Many Virtual Assistants are seeing a relationship between the services they offer and the needs that authors have. There's a direct connection or perfect marriage between the two industries. I am privileged to share with you an interview with Jan King on this topic. 1. What gave you the idea to teach VAs to work with authors? I ran a mid-sized publishing company in Santa Monica, California in the US until we sold the company in 1998. We did 200 titles a year and were quite well known for … [Read more...]
Time Management In An Instant: 60 Ways to Make the Most of Your Day
In today’s hurly-burly work environment many business people find it challenging to avoid distraction, stay focused, use their time and energy to maximum benefit, and gain ground on important goals and outcomes. One study by the Families and Work Institute found that one-third of Americans are overworked and more than 50 percent of those surveyed say they are either doing too many tasks at the same time or are frequently interrupted during the workday – or both. In short, we are … [Read more...]
You get what you pay for
Just been having a conversation with a client. I'm going through several worksheets of a spreadsheet of information they were given for a new mailing list. When I looked at the spreadsheet, whole addresses had been put into one column, not split up into street, suburb, state, postcode, country and on the last worksheet it had been spread over 4 rows, not columns, so I couldn't copy and paste the information into a new worksheet row by row. I had to print it off and retype it. I explained to … [Read more...]
