You would have had to have your head underground or off the planet, not to know what's been happening in recent times. And everyone's thoughts are about tightening their belts and wondering about their jobs or their businesses. In the VA forums discussions have turned to whether business is increasing or decreasing? Many have reported the former and it's been good to see this response. Why is this? A recent article at Farifax's SMH site talks about how support staff are usually the first … [Read more...]
Update on my Facebook activity
Many of you know that I've been experimenting with Facebook and have set up a business page, separate to a personal profile. I wrote about this previously in September and have also been sharing about it on another blog. I was discussing Facebook with a guy at my husband's mountain bike race on the weekend and he mentioned something I'd not thought of before. He said it was the new way of developing a mailing list and when he said that, it made me realise he was probably right in that … [Read more...]
Watch your language – you never know who might see it!
I got the most astounding and rude email this week. I sent out a follow up email to a number of people who had filled out the application form to join my Virtual Assistant team but never took it any further. Basically I was just making sure they had realised there were more steps - I wasn't sure if they'd seen the autoresponder messages (only 2 of them from a new service) after they'd filled out the form. One response came back very quickly with two very loud and bolded words telling me where … [Read more...]
Time zone vs Cost
I was recently reading a discussion amongst a group of people about their experiences in using a Virtual Assistant company in an Asian country. Some were giving praise and others were vocal about the poor experience they'd had. One of the last commenters said that he was disappointed with the service and that they were closing up shop at 6pm their time just when he was getting into his work for the day. He also made comment that they couldn't be found on Fridays and was thinking he might shift … [Read more...]
Becoming an Online Business Manager Blog Tour
As a virtual assistant myself for several years, I was very interested to see what Tina Forsyth had to bring to the table in her book, Becoming An Online Business Manager. Well, for me, this is the way I have been conducting business, however, didn't realize to assign this title for the several duties I performed for my clients. In Tina's book, it really showcases the different areas to which a virtual assistant can expand their skill set and take it to a higher level -or as Tina calls … [Read more...]
Include your currency when quoting
Recently a team member quoted a client for a job and she secured the work. However only a couple of days later another member advised she'd also quoted for the job but had been told that someone else had given a much lower quote and secured the work. She couldn't work out how someone could do the work for such a low fee. I began asking questions to see what had transpired to ensure that all was in order and it soon became apparent to me that the VA who quoted 'low' was in fact from another … [Read more...]
What does your voice say about you?
I'll probably get a bit of 'hate mail' for this one, but I'm going to say it here anyway. I received a phone call from a lady who had seen my advert in the Yellow Pages and she wanted to know how she could become one of the people on that list and do work from home too. Reasonable request and I often get calls like that. But this call was different. The lady was extremely hesitant on the phone and took quite some time to get out her questions and whilst I felt for her I also thought that if … [Read more...]
Self employed or employed?
Periodically on the Virtual Assistant forums we discuss items that relate to how the tax department would view us if certain scenarios arise. One of those is the number of clients we should have or the how much we're earning from clients. While the figures and percentages may differ from country to country, I believe it would be wise to make sure that you are not receiving the bulk of your income from one client only. In the early stages of your business this may be difficult to achieve but it … [Read more...]
How do I know it’s genuine?
Today Virtual Assistants are often approached by scammers to do things that relate to nothing more than money-laundering or passing on parcels that are illegal in one way or another. It means we need to keep our wits about us as we assess each approach individually. Many of us get the emails offering us 'jobs' whereby we process email or reports, receive payments, keep a portion and then send the rest on - this is a definite 'no no' and should be ignored, not responded to and totally left … [Read more...]
