FabulousHelp

Archive for the ‘Business Support’ Category

* Do you want an afternoon to go golfing rather than answering email?

* Or four hours to spend with your family?

* Or five hours you can spend doing whatever you want?

And no:

– Payroll Tax

– Vacation Pay

– Sick Leave

– Health Insurance

– Office Space or Equipment

You only pay for the time you use.

You can have more time and continue to build your business – hire a Virtual Assistant.

When I started my own business, I knew I couldn’t do it all myself. The best use of my time is on sales and the sales strategy consulting that I do. That is my Brilliance — the things I’m best at and love to do. I aim to do my Brilliance activities 85% of the time.

I couldn’t have done all I’ve done without a team of Virtual Assistants. I’ve worked with Virtual Assistants (VAs) for a long time. I’ve written three ebooks, many articles, given teleseminars and produced audio CDs. I’ve also developed consulting, marketing materials and presentations to show my clients how to do this for their own businesses – so their income is not solely based on their time. They can sell information products online even when they’re not working with clients and bundle products with services for additional income.

Virtual Team members are valuable and make a huge difference in my business. It means that I don’t work all the time, even as my business continues to grow. I can focus on doing the things I do best and know my Virtual Team members are there to take care of the detail work and things that are not my expertise.

What is a Virtual Assistant?

“A Virtual Assistant (VA) is an independent entrepreneur providing administrative, creative and/or technical services. Utilizing advanced technological modes of communication and data delivery, a professional VA assists clients in his/her area of expertise from his/her own office on a contractual basis.” (http://www.ivaa.org)

They do the work for entrepreneurs that a corporate assistant would do in a corporation.

What Can a VA Do for Your Business?

To give you an idea of what’s possible, here are some of the things that a VA can do for you. Review the list and mark the ones that you could have someone do for you:

~ Power Point presentations

~ Prepare proposals

~ Vendor coordination

~ Shopping cart

~ Send out your ezine or newsletter

~ Event Planning

~ Customer Service

~ Handle client needs

~ Project Management

~ Scheduling

~ Billing

~ Proofreading, Editing

~ Transcription

~ Spreadsheet development

~ Handle CD production

~ Develop forms

~ Research

~ Organization

~ Web design and maintenance

~ Put workbooks together

~ Graphic design

~ Compile, maintain databases

~ Keep you on track, help you meet deadlines

~ Set up and manage autoresponders for e-mail marketing

~ Automate systems for your business

~ Compile and maintain lists and databases

~ Submit articles to online directories

~ Take care of all the details – coordinate with others, make sure it all gets done

~ Keep things going when you travel: check and respond to voicemails, e-mails, phone calls

~ And many more . . .

I’ve chosen to work with a team of Virtual Assistants because I want to have each team member do what they do best and love it. Productivity, satisfaction and quality of work are higher. And, with the Internet, I’m not limited by geography. I can work with the people who are the best in their areas of expertise, no matter where they live.

How Do You Find a VA?

The best way to find a VA is to ask other people who use a VA who they use. Tell them what you want a VA to do for you, and ask them what their VA does, so you’ll find someone with the skills you’re looking for. If you are a member of a forum or professional organization, post a request on the board outlining what you’re looking for in a VA. List the types of things you want them to do for you, and some of the skills you’re looking for.

I call this “Jan’s 10-Foot Rule” – Ask everyone within 10 feet of you what you’re looking for, and someone will come through. Try it! It works.

There are also organizations where you can look for a VA or you can do a Google search. I’ve always found my team members by referral, so I have no experience with the organizations. There are certifications that a VA can get. My experience is that there are good VAs with and without the certifications. The certifications add credibility and professionalism. Certification is not a criteria that I require a VA to have, though I do take it into consideration.

* AssistU — http://www.assistu.com/

* International Virtual Assistant Association — http://www.ivaa.org/

* Elance – http://www.elance.com. This is good for project work. You post a description of the work you want done, and people bid on it.

Interviewing a Virtual Team Member:

Interview at least 3 to 5 people before you decide. Interview them the same way you would for a permanent hire for your business. Get their name, phone number, e-mail address, and website. Check out the website before the interview.

The following questions have paid off tremendously for me in hiring the right people:

* How did you decide to start your VA business (Web design business etc.)?

* How long have you been in business?

* What do you like best about your work?

* Tell me about one of your favorite projects for a favorite client – what you did, how you approached it, how you worked together.

* Here’s an example of the work I want you to do for me. (Describe your project with details, outcome, deadlines, etc.). How would you approach it?

* Who are your best clients?

How Do They Work? What Do You Pay Them?

A VA works in several ways. You can hire them on an hourly basis, project basis, and on retainer. Retainer fees are usually lower than straight hourly fees, depending on how many hours you pay them on retainer.

Have a good idea of what you want them to do and a time budget for your work. If you don’t know, describe the project and ask them how much time they anticipate it will take.

They will most likely have a welcome package and an agreement for you to sign before you start working with them. Review it as you would any agreement. If there’s something you don’t agree with, ask about it. If there’s something missing that you want in the way you work together, tell them. For example, I ask my team members to sign a non-disclosure agreement. And I want them to itemize the time they spend in a way that I can analyze my business from the operations perspective.

Off to a Great Start: Working With Your New Team

Working with Virtual Team members is similar to working with a local person. It’s critical that you communicate clearly. Be sure your first conversation and project are off to a great start:

1. Assure a smooth transition, and minimize the time you spend on it yourself. Outline for yourself exactly what your project involves: the purpose, audience, desired outcomes, and exactly what you’re looking for them to provide.

2. Set up a weekly coordination call. Always have an agenda. Give them specifics about the work you want them to do – purpose, timelines, time estimates. Tell them what’s planned and coming up in the next few weeks. No surprises. They can often meet tight deadlines if they can plan ahead.

3. Tell your team members what you expect in working with them. For example, that you want close communication and no surprises. If they have questions, let you know before they proceed with something.

4. Manage them as you would a local person. Let them know what they’re doing well, what could be improved. Always ask them for their input on the way the work is done. Ask them if they see a way to simplify or streamline processes.

5. Pay them promptly.

6. Know their work schedule. What day/time will they do your work? Plan accordingly. Arrange a day for them to do your work. Get things to them quickly.

7. Let them know their value to you, the work and your business. Praise them for good work. Refer other people to them.

Hiring a VA gives you time and helps you build your business so you don’t have to work all the time. Decide what work you really want to do, and outsource the rest to a Virtual Assistant. You have all the benefits of an assistant on a flexible basis that fits your business and your budget. I could never do without a Virtual Team.

Many companies consider paid advertising with google and yahoo these days. For many companies paying five dollars a click is just not affordable anymore. There is another way: you could setup a web marketing campaign. Many web design companies offer SEO and web marketing services. Instead of spending all your marketing money on Pay-per-Click advertisement these companies concentrate on distributing small ads web classifieds along with articles to blogs and include links to your website. These ads not only attract actual readers they also attract search engines that register the link going to your website. This way your website gets higher ranking and as a result more qualified traffic through organic search results.

The leading search engines, Google, Yahoo! and Microsoft, use crawlers to find pages for their algorithmic search results. Pages that are linked from other search engine indexed pages do not need to be submitted because they are found automatically. Some search engines, notably Yahoo!, operate a paid submission service that guarantee crawling for either a set fee or cost per click.

Search engine crawlers may look at a number of different factors when crawling a site. Not every page is indexed by the search engines. Distance of pages from the root directory of a site may also be a factor in whether or not pages get crawled.

Another thing that will help your ranking is constantly changing content on your site. High-End web deign companies offer content management systems for your site. Using the system you can update your site content on the fly and is is as easy as editing a word document.

If you have a knack for writing and if people love what you write about but you can’t find a publisher that wants to publish what you write, you can try out the internet. You have to consider the fact that writing can make you famous. If you think that you are good enough, then you should try writing blogs. Ever since blogging craze began, there were a lot of people who began opening up their own blog sites and a few of them have become famous. So, how does blogging bring fame?

First of all, because you will be posting what you write on blogging websites, it can be easily accessed by a lot of people. This is the internet. With millions of people logging in each day, there is a great chance that someone will come across your blogs.

If you are seeking fame and be known as a great writer, then positing what you write on blogging websites is the cheapest way to do so. It is also one of the easiest ways to become famous in the internet.

To start writing blogs, you first need to create a blogging website. Today, there are quite a lot of websites that hosts blogging for free. Sign up with one of these websites and begin posting your blogs. If you want a more sofisticated blogging site, please contact us for help.

Basically, blogs are known to be journals. Think of it as writing your day to day activities and experiences and letting people know about it. However, you can absolutely write about anything in blogs. It can be facts or you can also write fictional short stories. Or, you can do a mix of both.

The great thing about blogging is that you absolutely have complete freedom on whatever you want to write about. However, you have to take care in avoiding offending someone. Racial discrimination and other hate messages is prohibited as well as pornographic content.

Now that you posted your very first blog, the next thing to do is sit back and wait for readers to come across your blog and begin reading it. You don’t actually need to advertise as the people who read it will be the ones that will advertise for you. If you are good enough, then they will leave a comment on what they think about your blogs and they will also recommend it to their family and friends as a good read.

The secret in becoming successful and famous in blogs is the content of what you write. It should be interesting and easy to read. Try catching people’s attention on the very first sentence. Once you catch their attention, they will become interested enough to read the entire blog.

This is the secret to becoming famous in blogging and gain a lot of loyal readers.

Try to update your blogging website on a daily basis.

If you really don’t have something to write about and you have a normal, routine life, try giving someone else’s blog some credit by adding a short paragraph about their article and then include their url into your blog…

These are some of the tips that you might want to remember when writing blogs. With these tips, you can be sure that your blogging website will bring you fame.

Ever notice how when people give you a list of reason to hire a Virtual Assistant they are typically all the same; back office management, transcribing, RE assistance, cost savings, etc.  We admit it, we also have a pretty typical list of reasons ourselves.  But what about all the non-traditional reason to hire a VA?  Last night it came to me that we always tell our clients that if they don’t see what they need on our list of services that they should email us.  But I am sure there are plenty of you out there who just don’t want to have to do that, or maybe think what you need is not a worthy reason to hire a VA.  So with that in mind I put together a short list of some unconventional uses of a VA.  Of course we are not experts in everything but we are always here to lend a helping hand.  Are any of these reasons near and dear to you?  Do you have some ideas that we have missed?  We want to hear from you…..

• You are not a business owner but you are thinking about becoming one – we can help you do the research. 
• You are a business owner and are thinking of starting another business – we can help you run your existing business while you work on starting your new one.
• You are a non-profit organization and you need an extra hand but you just don’t have it in the budget to hire another full time employee – call us, we work only when you need us and you wont have to worry about benefits or permanent overhead!
• You’re a writer or blogger or reporter, you write and post your own articles but you just need a second set of eyes to look your stuff over and your friends are not always available – we can help!  We can look at your writing with an open and unbiased mind.  And if you do need someone to post for you then we can do that too!
• You’re a Realtor and you have been using the administrative help in your office but need someone that is more focused on your needs – we can help!  I bet you spend a lot of time investing in your marketing materials and searching for new promotional items and networking arenas.  We can print, design and even mail out marketing materials for you.  We can help you maintain your website and upload your listings.  We can even put together special items and house warming gifts for your best clients.    
• You are getting married and you just have so much to do.  Call us – we can stuff envelopes, return calls, work with your bridal consultant when you cant, make appointments, we can even help you send out the thank you cards later - you just have to walk down the aisle!