Posts Tagged ‘virtual assistant’
Time to Upgrade
Well… the computer man came knocking on my door the other day. Not someone you like to see there either!!
As I have been building my business the past two years I have added more and more resources to my business. And as a Virtual Assistant (VA) my business is pretty much my computer and eventually when you keep adding to it, you run out of virtual space.
This happened to me last week. I started getting little errors that there was not enough memory to run my program and to shut some windows. Eeeks! You didn’t have to tell me twice! Even though I have two backup systems, my biggest fear is a ‘computer crash’.
I immediately sent an email to my ‘Tech Department’, a great guy named Chris. I explained what was happening and what I needed all the while looking to the future. He sent me a list of what I should look at buying and the reasons why. I picked up the items, dropped them off and in a few days I had my new computer.
Upgrading is something many people need to think about doing with respect to their professional life as well. I have been taking several courses over the past year to improve my skills. I do this for the same reasons I upgraded my computer. In many cases, as hard as it seems – changing and upgrading may be necessary for growth. Sometimes life can zip by so fast that you cannot imagine taking time out of your day for a class or a seminar. What you really need to remember is what the upgrade can ultimately do for you? How can learning those new skills help you and in turn, help your business.
Is it your Time to Upgrade? Think about what you are really missing by stopping your growth…
Stop Spying on Me!
A friend sent an email the other day, panicking about whether people were getting her emails or not? Her reason for thinking they were not going through? She was not getting the ‘read receipts’ back.
I laughed so hard! I am one of the people she is always sending these read receipts to and every time when it asks me if it’s okay to send a receipt I say No.
Why? I guess I feel it’s an invasion of my privacy. I feel it’s no one else’s business when I read the emails sent to me.
It’s not like I avoid my inbox. It pretty much rules my life as a virtual assistant and without I would have a very hard time working with clients. I have a schedule for that as well as time and work every day.
When she and I spoke about it and she was trying to understand why I always hit no. I realized that it always came back to the privacy issue. Nothing else…
What is your take on read receipts? Do you click yes or no? I’d love to know if I am the only one with this viewpoint.
Why did I hire my Virtual Assistant?
Recently, I met with one of my clients, one who had started working with me back in January. We have had a lull in work lately mostly because she was trying to make everything perfect before handing it over. Finally at this week’s meeting she realized that this was actually holding her back in all areas of her work.
As we talked about a timeline when I would get the work and what the deadline was for some of it, she then mentioned how she was going to block off two days in a few weeks to go through all her files and sort everything out to give to me. She was also talking about how her workshop was coming up and that she had a conference out of town in 3 weeks as well. Very busy time.
So… I casually asked ” Why did you hire me?”
The answer from her was “To help me get this work done and off my plate”.
I said “Right, but look what you are doing now. You are actually thinking of blocking off two entire working days to sort the work for me; and when I get it I will have to do that to most of it anyhow.”
I paused, “Now think, how many client appointments could you book and what income would you earn from those in the two days?”
“Four clients”, she said. “And about $1,000.00.”
“And…. how much money will you pay me to do the work?” I asked.
“Argh!” was her answer. “You are so right. I will box it up right away!”
I think the stress of all she had going on, finally made her see the light.
Working with a Virtual Assistant (VA) shouldn’t be stressful – it should be the absolute opposite. As long as you have good communication and trust, you can easily give your VA what she (or he) needs and the work will get done. A simple system for assigning and handing over the work and it will get done.
You will gain what you wanted by hiring your VA in the first place… your time back to work on more important tasks and the work not requiring your special skills gets done.
Blogging and Proofreading… stress-free
I have come to enjoy blogging lately… it’s a great outlet for many things spinning around in my head, but it was not always the case.
When I first started, as with most people, I struggled to find a topic to write, once I had the blog post written, then I would proofread it and then edit, edit and more editing. It became a task I did not relish, at all.
I queried several other Virtual Assistants (VAs) to find out how they were dealing with this issue – and many had the same frustration. Listening to their advice, and some of it came from top VAs and great bloggers, I made a decision about my blog. Once I accepted this decision my blogging took off.
I found it less stressful and more enjoyable. I got excited about sharing my thoughts, which is primarily what blogging is all about.
So… what ‘decision’ did I make? What could change to improve my outlook and ability to blog and blog even more than I did before? Read the rest of this entry »
Is it the Real You online?
I received one of the best compliments the other day. It came from a friend and fellow Virtual Assistant (VA), Tracey D’Averio, with whom I had originally connected online through the VAnetworking forum and Twitter.
We had the opportunity to meet in person after 8 months when we both attended a conference this past June and roomed together with another VA. In August, my family and I were on vacation in Ontario and Tracey and I got together for a visit. It was here that she passed on the compliment. A simple offhanded statement, but meant a lot to me.
The compliment? She told me that I am “exactly the same person online as I am in person“.
Why am I honoured by her compliment? As someone who works virtually with most clients I know one of the most important aspects of my success is my ability to project my true self to my clients and other colleagues. We rarely get to meet in person so this feeling is vital to having good virtual relationships.
My business is ‘me’ and being real and authentic will ensure others can ‘see’ who I am even if we never meet in person. I try to make it work just as it would if we were working ‘live’.
The fact that Tracey told me she felt I was the ‘real me’ reassured me that indeed the person I project online is me. I hope to keep it this way to continue with my virtual success.
How can you make sure that you remain real? Simple, act exactly as you would if everyone you encounter were standing right there in front of you and could see every action you make along with hearing every word you say. Authenticity and Transparency…that’s all it is.
Brad Paisley (sorry, I’m a country fan) has a song ‘Online‘ – great song and video but don’t follow this example, being better online won’t help you in the end. Be real.
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