VACT

How to stop feeling nervous about networking

admin — Wed, 22 May 2013 07:15:56 +0000

Do you want advice on how to stop feeling nervous about presenting?

That feeling of dread just before standing up to give a 60 second presentation is not great is it!

I remember back to the day in 1999 when I attended my very first networking event. I was nervous as anything and couldn’t eat a sausage that morning and not even at the event. Nobody warned me that I had to stand and give a presentation for 60 seconds. I had no idea what to say. All I remember was that what came out of my mouth was a muddle and I just wanted to run for the hills!!

Today I am an accomplished networker. I co-founded a Staffordshire networking group with 7 groups and 20 members in each and I was responsilble for training the members in networking success. I witnessed some amazing opportunities created. A far cry from my first networking event I can tell you. In fact from my networking, I have generated some amazing strategic alliances, created some brilliant connections and boosted my business. In fact I have been called the most connected business woman by a number of highly respected business people.

However, I have to say to you that, if you want to thrive from your own networking then you have to ensure you avoid the 6 common mistakes VAs make. I am going to share these with you over the next three weeks…so enjoy!

Your 60 Seconds

Do you notice that just before your turn to stand up and do your 60-second pitch or your ten minute presentation, your heart starts to beat faster, you feel a churning in your gut, you suddenly forget what you had planned to say.

Then you stand up and notice how you are shaking, you feel conscious of everyone staring at you, you jumble up your words and mumble…oh damn you feel you’ve made a mess of it all and now have to wait until the next meeting to get it right …. but …. next time comes around and all you think about is the terrible experience of the last meeting …. oh what to do!!!!

Here is Tip Number 1 – let’s tackle those nerves of yours first

Actually being a little nervous is a GOOD thing believe it or not as having them allows a peak performance. I speak at a lot of large conferences each year and I am always a little nervous beforehand, yet I find this helps me to give the best presentation.
However, the key is in the control of your nerves and feeling confident. How do you do that? Visualisation.
If all you tell yourself is that you are nervous and then imagine yourself standing there a bag of nerves, then guess what…you will experience that…you are what you think.
By visualising yourself as a confident person, giving a sound presentation, imagining feeling calm and relaxed and even visualising people looking at you with keen interest whilst you are standing there thoroughly enjoying the presentation – then guess what again…you will experience that!!
Remember that much of the nerves (controlled) will be on the inside. I bet people have told you that you appeared very confident and you respond with surprise…well, if you take the first three letters of confidence you have ‘con’, it is easy to con your audience! The visualisation is what will help con your subconscious mind.
Remember that whatever you tell yourself often enough you will become true, change the way you think, act, behave as if you were the person you want to appear to be.

JOIN A FREE LIVE WEBINAR

How to handle the challenges of networking – Register Here

Have a look at the wealth of information I will be sharing with you. Based on 13 years of networking success, both offline and online. I will be sharing some great insights on why some people give up and how some people thrive from networking.

VA in the Spotlight: VA Helen Jacobi of The Inspired PA

admin — Fri, 10 May 2013 07:00:00 +0000

1. What made you decide you wanted to become a VA and when? I felt I’d got pretty much as far as I could go in my career and whilst I was happy, had always yearned to run my own business. So I took the plunge 3 years ago and haven’t looked back.

2. Were you concerned that there were already many VAs already out there and this would be competition? No, not at all. There’s sufficient space in the market for all of us and if you define a niche that can really help. With the economic climate as it is, we provide the flexibility businesses need, without the overheads. I definitely see the VA industry as a community rather than direct competition.

3. What gave you the confidence to give yourself that push to go ahead and do it? Having support from my family and just finding the courage to give it a go.

4. When you decided to get started what made you decide to go for some VA training? I thought it would really help enable the transition from PA to VA, which it did.

5. Why did you decide on The VA Coaching and Training Company and what was your experience of the training? From the research I’d done VACT seemed like the best option. I wanted to learn within a group of people, rather than by distance learning plus the course ran over a weekend, which was really helpful. The training was very specific and helped plug the gaps in my knowledge about starting out as a VA.

6. What have been the highlights of your business so far? Definitely winning the award this year for Outstanding VA of the Year for over 2.5 years in business.

7. What have been some challenges you have experienced and if you were to do things differently next time what would you do? Making sure I wasn’t too isolated was a really important element for me. Consequently I choose to support clients onsite occasionally, particularly at the start of a new business relationship.

8. What was the reason you chose to enter into the VA awards in 2012? It was suggested to me that I enter the awards, which didn’t come naturally I have to be honest. I don’t think we’re very good at putting ourselves out there in the UK! I’m glad I did though.

9. How did you find the whole experience of entering the awards? It was a very straightforward process – perhaps it would be good to include some client testimonials too.

10. Have you had positive experiences since winning your award? Yes, absolutely. I’ve had various pieces of PR coverage and I feel it’s helped raise my profile in attracting new business.

11. What advice would you give to anyone just starting out especially in relation to training? Surround yourself with as much knowledge and support as possible, both on how to run a business and the industries that interest you. Do your research thoroughly into how you want to set up and run your business – and also your potential client markets of course.

12. Where do you see yourself in 10 years from now? I would love to still be running my Virtual PA business with an expanded team and also running other businesses which complement my current one.

Helen has over 20 years of experience across a diverse range of organisations, from Board level in large plcs through to successful entrepreneurs and high net worth individuals. This experience has put her at the forefront and given her a deep understanding of what makes businesses – and people – tick, and what support works best in these different environments.

Helen hold the Diploma in Event Management with PR, accredited by the ICM, and the RSA Higher Diploma in Administrative and Secretarial Procedures.

Is it Luck, a Coincidence or Fate?

admin — Thu, 14 Mar 2013 06:46:11 +0000

Are you attracting luck or is it just a coincidence or indeed it may be in the stars?

Do you ever notice that once you have an idea or decided that you want to do something, strange coincidences seem to happen? The idea may be to start a new venture, sell your house, buy a house, go travelling, get a new job, create a joint venture, start a networking group, to train in a new skill…whatever it may be, it starts from an idea.

The Universe works in mysterious ways!!

Have you ever found yourself thinking about someone and then they call? Perhaps you have asked yourself how you can get ahead in your current role and suddenly you are told of an opportunity at work? Have you ever wondered how you can afford to attend some training and suddenly you get a gift of money?

I strongly believe that you can either attract amazing opportunities in your direction and with the same strength you can push opportunities away from you.

Attend our next VA Taster Session on Friday 22nd March, Covent Garden, London 9.30am to 12.30pm

Have you been lucky?
I very much believe there is no such thing as luck. I do believe that, when you suddenly have an idea or you become really clear about what you want to do, and then suddenly you become faced with the opportunities to make it all happen and lead you towards your dream.

Why does this happen?

Well, when we have an idea about something we want to do and become excited about it, it’s as if, even though the information was there all along, we were not open to it before. Sometimes we may have an idea but we create blocks to prevent us from achieving it because we are either overwhelmed on how it can take over our time, or we can’t see how it will work, or indeed we make receive negativity from people around us we dampens our enthusiasm. We can even block that idea becoming a reality because we don’t have enough confidence and faith in ourselves to pull it off. Sound familiar?

Therefore, when we suddenly become clear about the idea and how we see it happening, we become excited about it and we know, somehow, that it will just work out as we want it to…suddenly…amazingly…we create a clear runway and any blocks to achieving it are removed from our minds. Then it happens and we achieve what we set out to achieve.

This happened at our recent VA Taster Session!!
At our recent VA Taster Session held in London, the conversation I had with them was very much around this. The ladies came from different industries, some were being made redundant and some looking for a career change.

What was VERY evident from what they were saying was, that once they had the idea in their heads that they wanted to be able to work from home, to run their own business and possibly offering PA services on a freelance basis (and bearing in mind at this stage they were not fully aware of the VA industry existing), situations to lead them towards the VA industry started taking place through a sequence of events – serendipity!!

Suddenly, they started to speak to other people who introduced them to the concept of the VA industry, they came across our stand or my presentation at The Office Show, and they came across an article about someone using a VA and more and more coincidental situations.

Sound familiar?
So for these ladies, once they were clear what they wanted AND WHY they wanted it – for example, they didn’t want to have to find another job after redundancy, they felt that they had exceeded their career as a PA and wanted to new challenges, they wanted to do something where they could have greater earning potential and flexibility, they wanted to be around their children more – then everything slowly started to fall into place.

They came across my VA Taster Sessions, in some cases by chance and the process to making it happen, started.

What does this all mean Carmen?
What this means (and I appreciate this is slightly different to what I normally write about) is that, you can go through life wishing your life or situation could be different, you can continue to create excuses why you can’t do something that will enable you to get out of your rut, you can find reasons such as I don’t have enough people in my business community or I can’t afford the training, or I don’t think this business idea will work, etc, etc!

Surprise yourself!!
BUT, let me tell you something really interesting!! It always fascinates me, yet doesn’t surprise me, that when I speak to people who are looking at becoming a VA, the ones that are really excited about it and have the belief that this is definitely what they want to do AND somehow have the confidence that it WILL be successful, make it happen. Yes, they may not always have the money and may still be in a job…BUT…they create the opportunity and pay for the training AND take the time off work. They never allow reasons to stop them, they make reasons to be there and make it happen.

I can tell you now, these are the people who are the lucky ones…they create their own luck by going for what they want from an idea and they take action. They find a way to make it happen.

SO, let’s focus on you!
Start to notice how, whatever thoughts or ideas come to mind, coincidences start to happen or fate as I would like to call it. Notice how you may be introduced to a person that may connect you to your next client, notice how when you start to realise your worth you attract clients who pay you a higher fee, notice when you have an idea for a new venture people come into your life who have the experience to advise you on how you can set it all up.

What are you attracting in your life?
Are you open to letting it happen or are you creating blocks?

Action, confidence and belief will allow you to create the luck you want.

Attend our next VA Taster Session on Friday 22nd March, Covent Garden, London 9.30am to 12.30pm

Everyone is responsible for creating their destiny!

To discuss the VA Mastery Course with Carmen MacDougall, book a complimentary half hour Skype or Telephone session with her or to find out more about the highly acclaimed VA Mastery Course, click here.

Are you getting enough referrals from your branding?

admin — Tue, 12 Feb 2013 11:30:23 +0000

Are you getting enough referrals from your branding?

In the first part of our current ‘Networking to Thrive and Get Results’ series, I invited branding and marketing expert, Simon Jordan, to explain what VAs should be doing to enhance their chances of getting more referrals from their branding…

Creating a personal brand is a sure-fire way to get recognised for what you do and will generate more referrals for your business.

With traditional advertising methods this would have been a costly exercise and very time consuming but with the advent of Social Media and the Internet the world of the small business owner has expanded dramatically and we are able to connect with our target market at a fraction of the cost of what we would have spent.

This is great news for our budgets and our time, but we also need to make sure we communicate effectively and clearly.

We need to make sure we are consistent with our brand.

What is a brand?

A brand is more than just a logo. A brand is the personality of your business.

A brand is lots of things that go to make up your company. It’s the way you engage with your target market, the way you look after your clients. It’s how people feel about your company. Just as your personality is more than just your name so a brand is more than just a logo on a letterhead or business card. This is why it’s important when you go to create your brand that you take into account all of the facets that go to create this very important part of your business.

So how do we create a brand?

The first thing I would ask you is – are you the face of the business?

What I mean by that is are you the person who fronts the business? Are you the person that clients come to work with?

Are you the person that promotes the business and does the selling?

If the answer is yes then my next question is…

Why do people buy from you?

This is something that many small business owners overlook.

It’s important to know why your clients buy from you.

Because a sale is based on emotion and we buy from people we know, like and trust, it’s important when building a personal brand that we know why people buy from us.

Obviously you need to be good at what you do, but before people purchase from you, it’s great to know what it was that attracted them to you and your business:

Was it your passion?

Was it your infectious enthusiasm?

Was it your friendliness and general warmth?

Was it your great source of knowledge?

Was it because you are so helpful?

How do I find answers to these questions?

The simple answer is to ask your clients.

You can do this by providing a simple questionnaire or by phoning them.

If you would like to do it via the internet you can use an online questionnaire by using a company such as SurveyMonkey.com If you decide to use this service I suggest that you make the questionnaire as simple to fill in as possible. You could also offer a gift for each form filled in – if this questionnaire helps you progress your business then a small investment of a gift is worth it.

When you have the answers to these questions you can then look at your current marketing collateral, this includes everything that is used to promote you and your business, from your website to your business card, how you dress to the outgoing message on your answer machine. Yes believe it or not even the message your prospective clients hear on your answer machine all goes to build your brand.

If you are aiming to have a professional brand and then when someone calls you and listens to your answer machine message and it has kids playing in the background or a dog barking this isn’t consistent or professional.

It may sound petty but it’s these little details that matter.

If you truly want to build a strong and memorable personal brand then all of these need to be thought about.

In the next post Simon will be talking to us about how to create the brand values for your business.

If you want to become more successful with your networking, discover how to gain more referrals that can lead to clients, to THRIVE and GET RESULTS…then sign to our popular e-course “The 7 Essential Tools You Need to Thrive and Get Results from Networking Your VA Business” today!

About Simon Jordan

Personal Branding Expert, An Amazon 5 Star Rated International Author, International Speaker, host of Simon Jordan.TV and OnePlanetOnePlace.com.
Father of 2, dog walker and huge coffee fan.

www.GatherMoreClients.com
The New Show www.OnePlanetOnePlace.com

If you want to become more successful with your networking, discover how to gain more referrals that can lead to clients, to THRIVE and GET RESULTS…then sign to our popular e-course “The 7 Essential Tools You Need to Thrive and Get Results from Networking Your VA Business” today!

Carmen

Carmen MacDougall
The VA Coaching and Training Company

Let Your Passion Shine Through

admin — Tue, 22 Jan 2013 09:01:30 +0000

Let your passion shine through! You know this is your business! Love it! Love talking about it!

For some people their lack of confidence comes from feeling embarrassed at talking about themselves and they worry that they are coming across as salesy. You don’t have to be salesy.

Love what you do. The one comment I receive time and time again is: “You have an amazing energy and a passion for what you do”. I say: “I know! I love it! I love what I do. I love supporting VAs to become a success in their business. I love giving them the secrets to marketing their business and how to network effectively. I love it!”.

And that’s the sort of impression you want to make with people. You don’t want to be talking so that you think “I really don’t want to be doing this”.

As part of your confidence let your passion about what you do shine through.

Remember it’s not all about you. There will be other people attending the event who are thinking: “Oh gosh. I don’t know what to say. I’m not feeling very confident. I feel nervous”. How lovely that they have someone like you to approach them and make them feel comfortable.

“It’s not all about you.”

When you walk into a room and it is already full of people you could ask the organiser to introduce you to somebody – explain that this is your first time networking and you would like to get to know people.

Please don’t say that you are feeling very nervous or not very confident because then you are sending out the wrong message and you are reaffirming what has possibly been in your mindset up until now.

Keep that away. Get rid of that gremlin.

What would be the worse case scenario? If I walked up to somebody and said: “Hello my name is Carmen MacDougall and this is my first time at this networking meeting, I would like to get to know you and your business, what do you do?”

You know it doesn’t really matter how you start off that first conversation, it’s the fact that you are going up to someone and starting that conversation.

A great place to go and start a conversation is the table with tea and coffee, especially when you have to help yourself a it is natural to offer: “Would you like me to pour your tea as well?” and then ask “How did you get here today?” or “Did you find the traffic bad today?” or “This seems like a room full of really fantastic people doesn’t it, the energy is just buzzing in here, isn’t it?” or “Is this your first time here?” or “What are you hoping to get out of this networking meeting today?”

Part of your confidence is preparing questions that you can ask people so that you are not blankly starring at someone thinking “Oh my gosh, my mouth has just dried up, I haven’t got a clue what to ask”. You can avoid that just by thinking and practising some questions that show interest in the other person.

Know that:

It is ok if this is your first experience of networking.

It is ok to ask people to be introduced to somebody.

It is ok to approach somebody.

By doing it, time and time again, you will become very confident at it. It will become second nature.

Want to find out more about network and the 7 key tools you need? Pop over to find out more information on our new ecourse.

Your Homework Before Setting Up as a VA

admin — Thu, 17 Jan 2013 16:07:51 +0000

Those thinking about setting up their own business as a Virtual Assistant often make the crucial mistake of thinking that to be a VA all you need is the relevant experience, a computer, a desk and an internet connection. WRONG!

It’s not about simply using your office or assistant experience to provide VA services to a range of clients. You will need to be a business owner too and that requires another set of skills entirely. In fact, the ability to actually run your business will be key to your success.

Running your own Virtual Assistant business does mean you can use your assistant and administrative skills every day, without having the hassle of a regular 9 to 5 job. However you will need to consider the day-to-day practicalities of putting your business together, getting your own administration systems and processes organized, finding and marketing to clients and all the other details that combined will help you build a profitable VA business.
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Here are some key DOs and DON’Ts for anyone thinking about becoming a VA:

DO:

Ask yourself WHY you want to be a VA and run your own business.

Set your boundaries in terms of where your ‘office space’ will be (especially if working from home), how many hours, and what hours, you want to work, and how much money you need and want your new business to provide you with

Get the support of your family and friends

Make a business plan. This should include what services you want to offer, who you want to work with (the types of client or business, i.e. your
niche), what fees you will charge, what your costs are likely to be etc.

Look at the different ways you are going to market your business. (Don’t waste your money on advertising – look at some low cost ways to get your business known. When you have the budget of Coca-Cola or Orange, then you can advertise like they do!)
Join a local networking group.

Get an accountant, preferably one that specialises in small businesses.

Get a business bank account.

Get your systems and processes in place before taking on any clients.

Have a contract of work for all of your clients.

DON’T:

Panic! You are not alone. There are many VA, and small business communities around you, both online and offline. Join one or two. You will see that there are lots of other people exactly like you.

Get scared! Running your own business can be a daunting prospect but if you plan it properly and understand the requirements and challenges involved then you will be well prepared.

Give up! Being a successful business owner means having commitment, motivation and self-belief and above being prepared to keep going, despite one or two set backs.

As someone who is thinking about setting up a VA business you should begin by doing some research on the industry, looking at experts and specialists who help VAs set up their own business and also get in touch with existing VAs who are running a successful business. There are lots of ways to meet other VAs, including joining VA networks and going to VA events. But perhaps one of the most effective and rewarding ways is to undertake VA training alongside other people, so that you can learn with them, hear what they think about being a VA, what their questions are and, most importantly, become part of a network of potential VAs just like yourself.

Want to Join Our Impressive Group of Award Winning VAs?
We are now scheduled to run our next training courses around the UK. Click here for the schedule

9 Strategies to be more productive and increase your profits!

admin — Wed, 16 Jan 2013 00:00:03 +0000

If you are one of the many people out there who feel that there just are never enough hours in the day or feel overwhelmed at the tasks you face..whether for your own VA business or your VA clients?

Want to get away from the feeling of overwhelm and get to calm?

Then this is for you!

1. Clarify goals

Much of the time we feel overwhelmed due to not knowing what we should be doing each day and then find we lose direction.

Therefore:

Be clear about your aims, both long and short term.
Write down why you want to achieve what you want
You can plan accordingly when you know what you want to achieve and within a certain timeframe.

2. Focus on your key priorities

As a VA we tell our clients that in order to achieve their goals, they must focus on their key activities and focus on what is a priority for them…as a VA you must do the same for yourself and your business.
You will be more productive and profitable if you focus on the areas most crucial to your business growth.
Work on the fundamentals first which help build a strong foundation for your business.

3. Schedule your calendar

Use your calendar to make appointments for yourself to block out time to focus on a particular activity which is a priority. You can even use systems such as Basecamp (a project management tool) to help you.
To support your action planning on your goals you can use Milestone Planner (more on this on Monday)
By being able to see your plan will make you feel less anxious and much calmer

4. Start to say “no!”

Jim Rohn “Don’t let your mouth overload your back!”
Before committing to say yes, check your schedule of tasks, unless you know you have an associate to support you with the tasks.
Be careful you avoid letting people to divert your attention from your objectives.
It also comes down to client management…if you are instigating regular updates with your clients and spotting things that need to be done, being proactive, instead of be reactive, this would make a huge difference.

5. Have a support system and delegate

This is where having an associate VA comes in handy. Delegate what you are unable to do or if you have an overload, so that you avoid missing deadlines for clients as well as to avoid diverting your time from your core activities.
Have a system in place to make it easy for you to manage information that comes in and that goes out.
See where you can set up automated communication with tools such as Aweber.

6. Are you avoiding something?

By keeping busy it is sometimes a distraction to avoid doing something else, whether it is something we dislike doing or it could be a task that is very big…break down the larger tasks into bitesize chunks and delegate where you can.

7. Keep doing what is working for you!

Isn’t it amazing that before we go on holiday or when we know we are going to be away from the office a few days, we suddenly become super efficient and get a month’s worth of work completed in a week. If you relate to that, what have you done before, what’s been your strategy to work in that way and get so much done? Whatever it was, apply that same strategy in your daily routine.
If not, imagine you are going on holiday in a week and you have to think about meeting deadlines!

8. Create balance

I ensure that I schedule in personal appointments and things like school holidays into my calendar as well as blocking out time to be with my family…especially as I have a baby as well as a daughter in senior school who has an endless list of homework she needs help with!
It’s about choice…you can make the choice to work yourself to the ground OR take 15 minutes out to go for a walk, meditate or whatever you know allows you to feel calm.

9. The end of each day…

In the past I used to finish working almost abruptly and leave my office as it was, no filing etc…now, I spend at least 20 minutes each day, filing away emails and deleting unwanted ones, filing in my cabinet, actioning post, writing down what needs to be done in the morning.
Applying something like this means you have peace of mind that you have done what you need to do and you can relax.
Provide your clients with a summary of what you have completed that day and what you will do for them the next day, so they too can have a restful mind knowing what has been done…this also creates a visual for you for those tasks you can tick off…this creates a feeling of great satisfaction.

Avoid saying you don’t have enough time. You have exactly the same number of hours per day that others, who have achieved their goals, have.

A great book I would urge you to read is “Take Time for Your Life” by Cheryl Richardson…this helps with life management NOT time management.

Comments: Please tell me what YOU do to create calm in your day and get everything you need done, not just for your clients but for your own business also.

Making the Transition from Employed PA to Self-Employed VA

admin — Thu, 20 Dec 2012 07:55:38 +0000

Making the Transition from Employed PA to Self-Employed VA

What Will Becoming a VA Mean to You?

Before identifying how to actually make the transition, I would like you to think clearly, first of all, what it is that you want and why you perhaps want to become a Virtual Assistant. What will it actually give you? What will happen if you were to now experience being in charge, being independent, and working how you want to work? If you were to stay where you are, in your comfort zone, what will stay the same for you and what will not happen? By starting to think about what you want and what you no longer want helps you to focus on your vision, your ideal situation that can positively affect you, both professionally and personally.

Whilst you are setting up a business, especially when you are still at work, I’m not going to tell you that it‟s all going to be very, very, easy, this is something that you are going to have to make a commitment to, so I’m afraid, it’s not the case of coming home after a long day’s work and thinking I can‟t be bothered to do anything this evening, I’ll wait until the weekend. You are going to have to make some sacrifices, I’d rather tell you the realistic story rather than try to fluff it up, then suddenly you get into it and say “Carmen this is not easy‟. However, it’s amazing how easy it becomes to make those changes when you want something enough and can see the end result.

The actual process or model is simple, if you can follow the simple model, especially the one I provide you, and you’re committing to it, and you’re making sure you get relevant support, well then, there is no reason why you can’t make that transition. I do always advise that, before you make the transition, before you actually leave your employment, make sure that you have saved up enough money that will sustain your living, at least to cover the basics in any case and this is where the sacrifices might have to come into play, to cover you for at least three to four months.

What do You Want?

As I asked you earlier, why do you want to set up as a VA and what do you think it’s going to give you? Now for many people who are successful at their VA business, it gives them flexibility, independency, freedom in many ways, confidence and sense of true accomplishment. How many hours a week you want to work is completely up to yourself, you may wish to work 10 hours a week or 30 hours a week or only 5.

You may be a parent and you have young children, therefore you want flexibility around the nursery or school run. And of course, you may be in the process of even retiring and the reason you want to become a VA is because you still want to keep your mind active and ensure income is still flowing in. We’ve got quite a few people that we’ve trained over the last couple of years who are from the ages of between 45 and 62 and part of the reason is, as I’ve just said, is that they want to keep their minds active, still want to earn a living and some of them are working part time abroad and part time here, so they are still earning an income whilst they have flexibility in where they live.

Some people just want to become a VA because they want more independency, and they want to be in control of their earning potential, in control of how they spend their time and in control of who they work with.

(One thing I really have to slip in here is the fact that the relationship between a client and a Virtual Assistant is very different in a lot of cases to the relationship between a PA and their Manager. I think part of that is because the client is seeing you as a business owner rather than a PA that they are employing – so there is a different element there. The fantastic thing is that when you are working with people that you choose to work with, the dynamics of that relationship is amazing, you always have a great energy.)

If it’s because you want to become more successful, because where you are now you’ve reached the ceiling in your career and without a degree or relevant qualifications and skills you can’t move further up the ladder in your company. The great thing about becoming a Virtual Assistant is that the sky is literally the limit. I’ve been running a VA business and my VA training company for over 10 years now and the one thing, I have to say, is that I never stop going on courses myself. The more I invest in my professional development, the more value I can provide to my clients.

How and When Will You Work??

The next point to consider is how and when will you work on your VA business, because one of the things I mentioned to you earlier is that you may to have to make some sacrifices and commitments with regard to your time; of course, having to make those commitments, I do know what it’s like, I’ve got many clients who have been in this situation, where they have come home from work and sometimes it‟s late because they’ve got the tube, or the train or perhaps got stuck in horrible traffic and the day they wanted to get home early there’s been an accident on the road etc. The last thing you want to do is to arrive home and start doing something for your business or studying of some kind. Really, I think the best thing is to approach it in terms of how you are going to work at this and start exploring the support you have around you.

I know it’s not always possible but this where you have to start looking at things from a completely different angle and to ask yourself the question, “If I could get someone to support me in some way who could that be? Who could I think of right now who could support me in some way?”. If you have a family member that could perhaps help you out with a few tasks at home or maybe you can share a journey home with somebody else in the car, if you are more likely to get home quicker perhaps. Is there someone you can outsource your ironing or house cleaning too? If you have children can you get them to do some tasks, maybe for a bit of pocket money, you might have to bribe them a little bit there or a partner or someone you are living with, can they perhaps help you in a different way? Instead of answering “no there is nobody to help”, there is always a solution, sometimes we just need to be braver in asking for help!

One of my clients came up with a really good idea which worked well for her. She was living with her partner and they took it in turns every night to cook and clean up and the other person wasn‟t going to do anything, they took it in turns to help out with the housework Friday evening and over the weekend. They outsourced the ironing to somebody else which they paid to do that, did their shopping online so they didn’t have to worry about going out shopping. They did have a young child and they asked for support from family and friends to help with some babysitting for 3 evenings a week so that she could focus on doing anything she needed to build the business or to go out to evening networking events.

It‟s very important to start looking at who you can think of now, and I’m sure it will be almost the last person that you’d think of, a bit like trying to find something, it’s always in that last place you look, think about who you can think of now that you can just pass the idea by them, how they can help you in some way or another, just to alleviate some of the responsibilities you have in your personal life. Whether it’s the children, housework, cleaning, whatever, seek some support or barter with friends…in exchange for you doing something for them, explore what they can do for you. Be creative!

Take advantage of our VA Taster Sessions or Book Now onto our forthcoming VA Mastery Courses to help you make the transition and create an award winning business.

Google drives – what’s it all about?

admin — Thu, 06 Dec 2012 07:30:18 +0000

You may have heard the recent talk of Google launching a new cloud storage system, simlar to Dropbox and wondered what it is all about. Well Google have launched their new cloud storage system, Google Drive, but what is all the fuss about?

Well when you sign up to Google Drive, you get 5 gigabytes of online storage for free. Should you need more space than this, you can but extra space at very reasonable prices, $2.49 dollars a month will get you 25 gigabytes of storage, $4.99 a month will get you 100 gigabytes of storage and $49.99 a month will buy you 1 terabyte of storage.

Google Drive is similar to Dropbox as when you download the software, your files will be put into the computer’s file system. Then when you are creating and saving documents into your Drive file, it is sync across all of your devices. This system will work with Windows and Mac devices plus apps are also available for android and iPad and iPhone.

There is a search facility which will enabl you to find any file stored quickly and easily. You can choose to search by keyword and filter and narrow these results by owner, file type or other criteria. Also scanned documents can be searched for thanks to the Optical Character Recognition which has been incorporated into the programme.

Google Docs is integrated within Google Drive enabling you to upload existing Word, Excel and PowerPoint documents to Google Docs, and are then converted to its own format. This does offer you the majority of the most common features of Microsoft Office and many small businesses are using this software as their main software for creating and editing their documents. You can, however, export your documents back to Microsoft Office, so if you decide you need the extra tools you get from Microsoft Office you can re-format your documents to be able to do this.

You can work with others in real time on documents, presentations, and spreadsheets and will be notified through your Gmail email account whenever any changes are made. You can also share comments to add to the discussion of the projects you are working on.

Google Drive is very much like DropBox as you can access your documents via your computer but is also web-based enabling you to access any file in whatever location you are in. It can also means that clients or colleagues can edit these documents via their web browser. Google Docs also provides a chat window to the side of the document you’re editing, great for if two people are working on a document at the same time.

Marketing Without a Strategy?

admin — Mon, 03 Dec 2012 06:15:09 +0000

Why Adopt a Marketing Strategy for Your VA Business?

This may help you to rethink what you are doing to build your business!!

Well, because you have goals that you want to achieve and a specific vision you want to turn into a reality, for example: an income that will allow you to leave your full time job or one that matches what you earned as a PA, profitability, increased number of clients…etc.

Your marketing strategy is part of your overall business plan. Why? Because you need to know where you are going, how you are going to get there, and you will need to know ‘when’ you’ve got there! This is where the vision and goals you set out right at the start will be very important to you – remember those? This is the ACTION that is required to accomplish your goals. Knowing what you are going to do day-to-day, who you want to connect with, where you will be networking, what you blog about and tweet each day or week, the phone calls you will be making, the presentations you will do, the emails you will be sending…is the action!

Having a marketing strategy will make your business work and create the income!! A basic business objective but a crucial one to have.

It is not all selling (although there is some aspects of selling involved). When you don’t make the effort or the time to get to know people, allow people to get to ‘know, like and trust you’, time to allow them to understand what you do and who for as well as the solutions you create, then all your communication becomes selling and you end up pushing and persuading people to acquire your services. People really don’t want to be sold to.

There is an element of sales involved in this process, HOWEVER, that comes when people have built that relationship with you or when they have connected with you…this happens when they email you or phone you to arrange to speak or meet to find out more about how you could help their business. In fact I have to say, through building a relationship with people through Twitter and Facebook, I have attracted quite a few great connections and enquiries which have converted into clients.

The people who connect with you could be people who you have got to know through networking, social networking, or they have been receiving your newsletters, read your blog posts or they have been referred to you by a trusted contact. At this stage you sell back to them what they need, what they are struggling with and you sell them the solution to help them to achieve their ideal outcome.

If you find yourself selling (for instance, you have just met someone or just got chatting online and you try to push them into becoming a client – this is selling!) then are you coming across as desperate or pushy and this is very unattractive and will put people off.

It is about focusing on attracting your niche client who already needs your support and wants what you provide. It is about creating awareness and generating an interest that you are the company that can help. If it is not right for someone just now then that is OK, opportunities will be there as long as you know specifically what it is you they want to achieve. Take time to allow people to get to know you…I cannot stress that enough!!

Time Sensitive Offer: If you want to know how you can create a communication system that will enable you to build relationships with prospects and convert them into clients…with a no bull approach, then look at this by no later than 1pm Tuesday 4th December!!