Blogs are a great way for sharing information and encouraging interactive discussion with your audience but many new VAs find the concept daunting and see it as just one extra thing in a long list of things they need to learn and get up to speed with. I've recently written a book called "Blogging Basics" and it is exactly that - the basics of how to blog and why you would want to blog. I've made it available at my SOHO-Life blog for all subscribers. If you pop over there you can read the … [Read more...]
I must be mad!
Have you noticed that when you plan to make changes to something, and I mean big changes, that suddenly everyone else (read clients) have projects on the boil too? For months I've been planning a shift from the shoppingcart service I was using to another one, for a variety of reasons. One of those being the affiliate program which I wasn't convinced was working the way it should be. Turns out it was dependent on tracking cookies and if people switch them off, then the affiliate who referred … [Read more...]
Marketing Your Virtual Assistant Practice
Have you thought about all the ways you market your business? I was recently chatting with a group of women in a mastermind group I belong to and we were building a list of the ways we promote our individual businesses. I was quite surprised when I saw my own list. I thought I'd share it with you all. Newsletter - I've been publishing one since 1995, originally in print form, but now by email. It is often being passed on to others and it brings me new contacts. Yellow Pages - the nature of … [Read more...]
When a new client doesn’t respond
Recently one of my VAs asked me what to do when she'd responded to a job request and hadn't heard back from the client. This is something I get asked periodically. They don't want to make a nuisance of themselves but don't want to lose a potential client either. I was asked if that is a normal occurrence and I had to answer yes, unfortunately for two reasons: Sometimes the client is so overwhelmed with stuff to do that they lose sight of where they're up to next - which is why they need … [Read more...]
My First Business Card
Alister Cameron did a post about his first business card which took me down memory lane. My first card came out of a MyCard machine at our local shopping centre. Pop in 4 x $2 coins, punch in the details and out popped 40 business cards - black print on white card. Expensive way to get cards I guess but that was in 1994 and I was just starting out, not even sure what I was going to call my business nor had I really defined what I was going to do. So I just had cards with my name and my … [Read more...]
Social networking for VAs
The world of networking is forever being redefined, reshaped and reborn online. And it's easy to form opinions about one particular group or another and then change your mind later down the track. That's what's happening for me. Originally I saw Facebook as a tool for family and friends but not for business, however that is changing a great deal now. There are people like Mari Smith with WhyFacebook? and Jason Alba with I'm on Facebook, now what?, along with many articles about using Facebook … [Read more...]
Interview at Virtual Assistants Forum
Periodically I get asked for an interview with a VA forum and I'd like to share with you one from early this year. Virtual Assistant Forums has over 1700 members from all around the world and is a lively board forum for those who want to know more about being a Virtual Assistant. Tess was the interviewer and I asked her if I could share this here as there is information that many new VAs would like to read. I encourage to you check out various VA forums - belonging to more than one is … [Read more...]
Board of Directors?
I got an interesting request from a charity organisation this week. They asked if they could speak with one of the Board of Directors of our organisation. I smiled as I answered that we didn't have a board but thanks for asking. We then discussed a charity that my team have been supporting for some time and I explained that I didn't want to change from that for now. Even a simple phone call can lift your spirits. I felt like I'd been elevated another notch in my business! … [Read more...]
Do You Have Enough Clients?
Saw a post on a forum where someone posted about VAs developing a niche and he sent a post with the subject heading above and included the following line: A Virtual Assistant who doesn't have a clearly defined niche is a poor virtual assistant. I don't know about you but I really take exception to that comment. Perhaps he meant well but he was promoting a 4 week teleseries he provides which is free. I haven't gone exploring to see what else might be on offer to make it worth his while to get … [Read more...]
