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Quick – I Need You! How to Handle Emergencies When You Are A VA

Last week we had a family medical emergency to tend to. I felt fortunate to be working from home, and I was able to go and assist at the moment I was needed. All it took was a quick email to each of my clients to let them know what was going on. I also let them know what was done for the day’s work and what was still not done – and whether I could take care of the unfinished work or not. How do you plan to handle emergencies in your business? That inevitable moment when someone calls you and says, ‘Quick, I need you to…’ (whatever that may be). It will happen, and you should be prepared.… Read More »Quick – I Need You! How to Handle Emergencies When You Are A VA

Did You Get Any New VA Clients This Month?

Did you sign on any new clients this month? If you didn’t, you should reassess what you are doing to find clients. When you are operating a thriving business that means you will constantly be building and growing, and that means that you should be bringing on at least one new client each month. It would be even better if you could bring on a lot more than that, but we’ll just talk about one today! When you are nurturing your business, you will still have to be sure to continually market it, and network with new prospective clients. It’s important to keep your potential client pipeline full so that as your business grows and changes you have a pool of… Read More »Did You Get Any New VA Clients This Month?

How Do You Act Around Your VA Clients?

When we talk about supporting our clients, there are two ways we can be: reactive and proactive. Being reactive means that you wait for situations to happen, and then you base your next ‘actions’ on what just took place. You act, after the fact. Being proactive means that you look ahead in the road, to see what might come up, and you plan to ‘act’ on what you see coming in the distance, before it happens, instead of afterwards. We often act proactively in our own businesses, with our planning and strategy, but many virtual professionals I talk to don’t realize that it’s beneficial to be proactive with our clients as well. How do we do this? Here are a… Read More »How Do You Act Around Your VA Clients?

Do you know what you are doing?

Business planning gets me jazzed up. It’s exciting to flesh out ideas and make plans to bring new and exciting programs to my network. In short, it helps me know what I am doing to bring revenue (and more!) into my business. Do you know what you are doing? If you don’t have a clear picture of your purpose, keep reading! So as I was doing some reading over the holidays, I came upon a course I had taken late last year about marketing. One of the pieces of the program was to develop my Mission Statement. I didn’t remember writing it, but it rang very true when I re-read my homework. (Imagine not remembering something so important!) Here is… Read More »Do you know what you are doing?

Slow Down! You’ll Get More Done

Many small business owners I meet respond to the question ‘how are things?’ with an all-encompassing, chest-thumping ‘busy!’ Of course we are all busy. We all have things to get done, and things to schedule around those other things too. It can get out of hand. My advice? Slow down! When we stop moving at such a ferocious pace, we can slow down and actually be aware of what is going on around us. The holidays is a time when we seem to have even less time, as there is much to do personally as well as in our business. I notice the urgency in the emails I receive at this time of year – last minute holiday sales, and… Read More »Slow Down! You’ll Get More Done

Favourite Tools for Virtual Assistants: Express Scribe

Express Scribe is a transcription software that I have been using for many years. It’s a free software that operates like a transcription machine. You load the audio you want to transcribe, and then you can stop it and start it as you type. You can also control the speed at which you listen, so you can slow the audio down and keep up with it more easily. I highly recommend Express Scribe as a tool to manage any kind of transcription you need to do.  The basic software is free. You can purchase a foot pedal to go with it, or you can use keyboard shortcut/hot keys (that’s what I do!).  There is a professional version and other add… Read More »Favourite Tools for Virtual Assistants: Express Scribe

10 Content Ideas for Your Virtual Assistant Blog

I was recently working with a VA who was trying to get some content up on her blog and website, as she was starting to network with potential clients. I suggested that she populate her new blog with a few posts so that when people showed up to check her out, she wouldn’t look quite so brand new. She was stuck because she said she didn’t know what to write about. This is a common stopping place for VAs – not knowing what to write on your blog. We often don’t see our own value and we think, ‘What could I possibly write about that would interest anyone?’ So I decided to put together a quick list of some content… Read More »10 Content Ideas for Your Virtual Assistant Blog

Favourite Tools for Virtual Assistants: Coffee Cup Software

Coffee Cup Software is one of my favourite things I use in my business. They have an entire suite of website design products developed to make your website look amazing and have fantastic functionality. The two products I use every day are their HTML Editor and the FTP Client. I also have a number of other products of theirs as well, but I really think I could not do my job as a VA without the two items above. The HTML Editor is easy to use and really helps me to build great looking pages for myself and my clients. The FTP client is invaluable to upload and keep track of server files, again, for myself or for my clients.… Read More »Favourite Tools for Virtual Assistants: Coffee Cup Software