I get concerned when I learn that VAs are seeking work in areas that might not really be the right source for them. What am I talking about? One of my forum members advised that a new VA was contacting senior VAs from the forum canvassing for work. I suppose I can understand their mindset - that some VAs are probably so busy they have work to spare to hand over to someone else. But their thinking is all wrong and I'll tell you why. 1. Other VAs are not your prospective clients - they're … [Read more...]
Supporting the Client
Through my years as a VA I've had lots of wonderful opportunities and have learnt lots of new skills in the process. Often a client asking me to investigate something can lead to a new service I start providing - it's expanded my horizons. But there are times when we (VAs) need to know when we can't do something for a client and that they must do it themselves. Networking for the client is one of those things. I know that some clients are so busy that they just want to hand everything over to … [Read more...]
Shifting Your Mindset
On so many of the forums I see new VAs wanting to get their businesses up and running as quickly as possible. And on these same forums I see promotions for this course, or that event, or lists to sign up with and so on. When we are in the corporate world we are so used to being told what we need to do, which courses we should attend, the events that would benefit the business the most and we're just automatically put on mailing lists for staff. But what about when we work for ourselves? How … [Read more...]
Who Are You Learning From?
I saw an article in the EzineQueen's newsletter today which I want to share here because it's something that has concerned me too. In my case it's about Virtual Assistant Coaching & Training. I see many offering coaching and training and they've only been in the industry themselves for 5 mins - or so it would seem. They don't have the years of experience behind them and many are not aligned with a coaching or training organisation. I've always been open and up front about my experience … [Read more...]
Free Training To Become a Virtual Assistant…
... were the words that greeted me in one of my web stats. I frequently check my stats to see where people are coming from and how they find me. That includes searches made on search engines. Are we truly in an age where people think they can get everything free or as much as possible? I know there is a lot of 'stuff' on the web that you can get free but often it comes with other items that cost, or limited use till a full copy is paid for, or advertising that someone has paid for (like those … [Read more...]
Looking For Work Online – A Message For New VAs
I received a poorly written email a couple of days ago from a young person seeking to join my team. I wrote back to them saying I did not believe they had read my website and that their email demonstrated a lack of ability in being able to type properly and that our clients would require that. They wrote back and said I was unfairly assessing their written English and that their skills were good and I shouldn't base it on just an email. I wrote back again and explained that their email was … [Read more...]
Be Careful What You Offer On Your Site
A VA posted a question over the weekend about a service (web design) a client asked her to provide. She wasn't sure how to go about doing it and asked at the forum. This is my response to her: It is important we only take on work we are equipped for and in that regard, also equally important we portray that on our websites as well. With the publicity around about our industry I guess it's easy for prospective clients to get confused and think that we (VAs) can do anything and everything. And … [Read more...]
Assumption Proves Professionalism Required
I received an email last week from a gentleman who was enquiring what a VA could do? I made the assumption that he was looking for someone to provide him support and told him the following: Basically we're like a Personal Assistant, except we operate Virtually - so instead of in your office, we work in our own. Work is handled mainly via email, phone, fax, courier, web upload and download. Rates vary considerably depending on who is doing it, what their rates are, where they live (cost of … [Read more...]
Benefit of Belonging to a Virtual Assistant Network
Some of the VA Networks have Requests for Proposal or Job Leads sent in by clients or other VAs. On a recent forum discussion a new VA was asking about getting jobs that paid higher than $10 an hour. She knew that it was possible but all the jobs she looked at was paying $10 or less an hour and she wanted to know what she was doing wrong. I gave the following advice: You're looking in the wrong places. You don't want to be searching job listings at all. What you want to be doing is listing … [Read more...]
