I've been hankering for a new desk and shelves for quite sometime. For a couple of years I'd been collecting photos of the types of desks I was interested in and had them sitting on my document holder. I'd look in Officeworks whenever they had specials but just couldn't find what I was looking for, with respect to length and depth. Sometimes I thought perhaps I'd just buy a hutch and mount it on my old solid desk but again, I'd never find anything exactly the right width. Just prior to … [Read more...]
Responding to Requests from Clients
When you respond to Job Requests or Requests for Proposals via the different VA networks do you send your CV? Because VAs are business owners and not employees, the general consensus is 'no' - we're not applying for a job with an employer, we're responding to a request for help with a client's business. So, just how much information should you provide when responding to one of these requests? On one of the VA forums I belong to there has been discussion about whether or not to send CVs to … [Read more...]
Professional Virtual Assistants?
I had an interesting email conversation with a colleague recently about the promotion of admin support (virtual assistants) via Elance. I wanted to know why he wasn't promoting the use of Virtual Assistants instead through other sources? This is also a follow on from my post "What Do You Think Of When You Hear...?" His response to me was rather interesting - it is always good to see things from the other side of the fence at times to help keep us on track. Comments he made were that he'd had … [Read more...]
Australian of the Year Award 2008 Nominee
I got a big surprise when I received my mail yesterday morning. A letter from the National Australia Day Council congratulating me on my nomination for an award this year and a certificate to mark the occasion. What an honour. I had no idea I'd been nominated and I spent the day re-reading the letter to make sure I'd read it right. I don't know who it was (or perhaps a few people) but I am really grateful and thankful and want you to know this. You can read the press release here and my … [Read more...]
What do you think of when you hear….?
Virtual Assistant or VA? What does that term conjour up for you? I ask this because my team and I were discussing the recent posts by a couple of business operators who had been promoting the use of admin and secretarial support through sites such as elance. Both these particular people know our industry and also know several VAs personally but they still promote getting a VA through elance via their websites and blogs. So it makes me wonder what it is they think of when they hear the term … [Read more...]
Advice on becoming a VA
I recently received an email from a woman who is thinking about become a Virtual Assistant. She'd tried her hand at a couple of businesses and had found it hard going and then was offered a good job and took it. Much later she discovered the VA industry and wished she'd known about it before. She has since been offered fulltime work by a man who wants her to become his VA and she wrote to me for advice. I had concerns about this possibility for her and below is my response which I hope will … [Read more...]
College Graduate or Experienced PA?
Saw a post at WebsitePublisher.net about someone who is seeking to use a VA. But the guy has got it wrong - he's seeking college graduates who just don't have the required experience he requires. I followed through to his blog and found a post there where his VA has written to him asking if they can take on other work whilst they wait for him to provide them with more work. Come again??? Is his VA an employee or an independent business operator? Why would they have to ask permission to take … [Read more...]
Announcing a new service for the Virtual Assistant Community
A new resource for the Virtual Assistant industry. I’m putting together something along the lines of SpeakerNetNews. If you’ve ever seen it, it is a newsletter sent out weekly to the public speaking community worldwide and speakers get to suggest items, tips, products, services that they’ve found useful in their business and want to share what they’ve found with others. The newsletter is not meant for promotional activities, i.e. big-noting the speakers and telling of their success … [Read more...]
New Year’s Resolutions or Goals?
Do you set New Year's Resolutions? I found that often the resolution wouldn't have enough meaning for me and would get forgotten in the busy-ness of life. But some years ago I got the idea to start setting goals for the year - part of ensuring my business plan would get reviewed and actioned. I probably read about it somewhere and started to do this each January. Last January (2007) I set aside a whole day to think about what I wanted to do and to set goals that met both personal and … [Read more...]
