kO′ch VA adj. 1. a highly specialized and niched virtual
assistant who is in tune with their coaching clients and customizes solutions based upon their individual needs and goals 2. differs from a general virtual assistant as they only partner with members of the coaching industry [syn: 
Outsourcing Your Own Things to Free Up Your Time
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Who says that outsourcing is strictly for “work”? As you grow your business, you still have other responsibilities that need to be taken care of. Check to see if these duties can be passed on to someone else.
When work and home collide, it can become insane. You will be folding laundry in your home office between emails and researching articles. Or, you’ll be going over reports in your head while you cook dinner. This is not what you had in mind when you decided to go into business for yourself.
Get Some Help…Again
You’ve already turned a big corner by outsourcing your virtual assisting work to other VAs with the right stuff. Now, turn your attention to your home. Those activities can also be outsourced to others with the right skills to do the job.
1. Childcare – Part of owning a home business is that you can spend more time with the kids. You may have even worked out your business day around keeping the children at home. As the business becomes more demanding, you’ll want to rethink that scenario. Hiring someone to look after your kids, even on a part-time basis can make a huge difference. You have options: a nanny in the home, a part-time babysitter from the neighborhood or a childcare center.
2. Housecleaning – Hardly anyone wants to clean even if they have the time. You might be sitting at your computer working but don’t let that fool your family. You can become mentally tired just like you can become physically tired. After a day of managing clients, you won’t want to pick up one more thing whether its clothing or a dirty dish. Budget in to hire a maid service. You don’t have to be the Rockefeller’s to afford it. If you do a thorough cleaning of your home, a service can come in just to touch things up once a week or twice a month. It will make a big difference.
3. Bookkeeping – You’ll need to balance the books if you own a business. All those numbers may start running together after a while. Waiting until tax time to handle them is an accident waiting to happen. Hire a freelance professional or another VA who specializes in bookkeeping to help you keep the business finances straight all along instead of at the last minute.
4. Your Business Needs – While you are building your business, administrative tasks seem to fall by the wayside. You’ll feel more at ease when you can find someone to do these things for you. Tasks like the following are perfect for someone else to handle for you.
• Updating your website
• Writing content
• Answering emails
• Sending out newsletters
What’s that? It’s the sigh of relief you’ll breathe when you outsource your needs so you can spend more time growing your business and doing the things in life you enjoy (yes, I mean more than working).
Keeping Track of Your Virtual Assistant Team
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Many successful virtual assistants will need to assemble a team at some time in their career. A team increases your business possibilities and opportunities. But, handling all those people will take more than just a little brain power.
Putting the Pieces Together
Make a list. Whose skills will you use for what jobs? There are several ways you can do this. Let’s say that you want to hire someone to do article writing. You can use that same person for all your article needs across all projects, if they have the right qualifications. Or, you can use a different VA for each specialty that you handle, i.e. someone who is experienced with financial matters works with those clients and someone else who is experienced with website development can work with online businesses.
What you want to do is spread out the work so that deadlines are getting met. Even with one other person, burnout can come quick. Take inventory of how many people you will likely need to cover your overflow.
Getting your Mind Right
What’s this all about? Well, it involves how you will manage your team. Micromanaging is not what you want or need. That is just a fancy and roundabout way of doing all the work yourself. It is exhausting and not cost effective. You’ll have to let your team of professionals operate on their own with minimal guidance ONCE you are comfortable with their skills.
You already know that each person will have a different way of working. The important thing is that they can deliver for you. You can give each person a probationary period to evaluate their work. That’s another reason to implement your team approach while the overflow is light. You don’t want to test them under fire.
Tracking Projects
A project management system lets you keep track of not only the projects but the subcontractors as well. You can have them upload their work at various stages so you can see how they are doing and report to your client. Any documents that are needed by you and them can be uploaded to the project.
This system works well for asking questions, posting new information and hosting discussions with your team. There are options for you. ClientSpot is a system that allows you to create client lists, post projects and add users. Each contractor can have their own username and password for the system and limited access to only their projects.
A similar system is ManyMoom. Here, each client can have access to certain projects and it seemlessly integrates with Google products as well as many social networking platforms.
Tracking your team is a matter of project management. To ease your mind, know who is doing what, when and how.
Sharon Williams Stops By on the OIVAC Blog Hopping Tour
By · CommentsSharon I am so glad to have you here today and I appreciate you coming. If there is one thing that I am passionate about, it’s virtual assistants. They totally rock don’t they? The educational opportunities available to them this year at OIVAC are mind blowing. If they don’t have their tickets yet, they need to get them right now at www.OIVAC.com!
Now onto Sharon!
_________________
Hello Becki,
Lady, I’m glad to be able to stop by and chat. My train ran out of fuel, and I had to make a pit stop and recharge the engines. But, I’m back on track and ready to go full steam ahead. Pump your questions into my engine and let’s chug along the virtual assistant education and information track. Whatcha got?
What are some of the little known target markets a VA can focus on?
Becki, I’m asked this question often, and have created a short list for your readers:
• financial planners
• architects
• nonprofits
• churches
• artists
• chiropractors
• appraisers
• bookkeepers
• accountants
• associations
• building contractors
• import/exporters
• market research companies
There are literally hundreds of “little known” target markets VA can focus on to build their practices. These markets may not have much information about or even be aware of virtual assisting. Because of this lack of awareness, approaching these industries provides an excellent opportunity for a VA to penetrate these groups and become the “go-to”, resourceful VA.
To accomplish this, identify the market/profile that best matches your idea of a “dream customer”, conduct research and survey the particular industry, become knowledgeable about the group’s issues/problems, communicate with members and eventually be able to offer solutions. In other words, first identify their pain, let them know you are aware of it, possess the solution and provide the soothing balm.
How can a VA find the right client for them?
Who you work with is your choice and has a huge impact on your happiness, productivity, quality, and the future of your business. Working with the right clients is absolutely critical. The wrong client can kill your morale and cost you big opportunities. Working with the right client isn’t work at all — it’s a pleasure.
However, there are several factors to consider during your evaluation:
Feeling Trust!
Working closely with someone is a rather personal experience and you want very much to positively present this person in a way that represents the business in an exceptional manner. However, if a person bombards you with a million questions and wants to know why you can do a better job than someone else, you’re probably heading in the wrong direction fast!
Consciousness of Success
The person you work with has to be willing to control their own destiny. I mean, they cannot place their success in your hands – and should not hold YOU responsible if they do not achieve it. Each business owner is responsible for their own success, and once an individual recognizes (and projects it), they have developed the consciousness of success I refer to.
Conduct a Thorough Interview
As part of our interview process, drilled down into the potential client’s business model and financial objectives. Ask lots of questions to see if you can contribute significantly to a company’s success and to see if they meet your criteria for the right fit.
See the Opportunity and Weigh the Risks
Clients are an important and valuable asset and a major investment of time, processes, brain power, etc. Complete this brief exercise to help determine your dream client.
1) Get a piece of paper and draw 3 columns.
2) In the first column list your clients in order their profitability – most profitable at the top, least profitable at the bottom.
3) In the second column, write the annual revenue the client brings to your company.
4) Use the third column to apply adjectives to each client (ex: pleasant, fun, easygoing, motivated, distrustful, draining, etc.)
5) Now go back and circle all of the clients that have negative adjectives.
Usually, the most PROFITABLE (don’t confuse this with gross sales!) are also the ones with the most positive associations (pleasant, easy, friendly, respectful, loyal). The least profitable usually have the most negative associations (high maintenance, untrusting, hagglers, etc).
Bottom line, carefully define your dream customer. Write down as many things about them as possible – their annual revenue, personality, industry, business approach, and the amount of money they spend with your company. In most cases, this description will align with your clients who are at the top. Now, commit to using the criteria you just defined as your new rulebook for accepting new clients. If a prospect doesn’t fit, then respectfully decline the engagement. Only take on new work that is a match. Pretend your business is an exclusive nightclub and you only let a select few past that velvet rope. And yes, your company is that special!
*Exercise provided by: www.kinesisinc.com
What kind of technical education opportunities are available at OIVAC?
OIVAC 2010 has quite a bit of technical education opportunities planned this year. They include:
• Landing Business Success with a Facebook Fan Page (FBML)
• Shopping Carts for VAs
• 1Shopping Cart Mastery: Marketable Skills to Make You a Star
• Digital Security Salad
• How to Incorporate Camtasia Screencasts into Your VA Practice
• Creating a Membership Site to Use with Your Clients
• Incorporating Video into Your VA Marketing
• How to Add Website SEO Services to Your VA Practice
• Basic PC Maintenance – Tools to Keep Your PC Functioning
• Turbocharge Your Wordpress Blog
• How to Get Out of Second Gear and Get Your Wordpress Site Moving
But don’t despair! We also have excellent business and marketing sessions scheduled, too. Stop over to the seminar schedule to check out dates/times and registration packages.
Becki, it was great to stop over today. I particularly enjoyed discussing finding “the right client” and hope the information will open some eyes and help struggling VAs reevaluate how they decide who to partner with.
Next stop, Amy Blesser’s Virtual Services 4 U, where I’m sure Amy will ask very interesting questions.
Sharon Williams is President of The 24 Hour Secretary and chair of the Online International Virtual Assistants Convention. Don’t forget to stop by OIVAC and checkout our lineup of savvy business owners. Visit the schedule and register for the Technology or Business/Marketing Tracks to propel your business to its next plateau.
How to Choose a List Provider
By · CommentsIn the world of Internet marketing, building a list is absolutely essential. Most marketers don’t have the expertise or the time to set up a list management system on their own server. Instead, most use a list provider. A list provider will allow you to collect e-mail addresses from buyers and visitors to your websites.
List management is an essential part of any Internet marketing business. Capturing a person’s name and e-mail address when they visit your site allows you to send them helpful information, build your relationship with
them and offer new products. It’s absolutely essential that your list provider be easy to use and have the capabilities to deliver professional messages.
Look for the following features to find the B.E.S.T. L.I.S.T.
BAD address protection.
Your list system should remove bad e-mail addresses automatically so you don’t have to deal with them manually. Clearing out bad addresses from your list can save you a lot of time.
EASY opt in creation.
Your list can’t exist unless you have an opt in form on your website. The opt in forms should be easy to create within the list provider’s system. You should be able to feel secure in putting the opt in form on your website and trusting that it will work.
SUBSCRIBE/unsubscribe system.
Subscriptions and unsubscriptions from your list shouldn’t require any input on your part. Your list members should be added automatically and removed just as easily.
TRACKING capabilities.
E-mail marketing isn’t effective unless you can tell how your messages are being received. A robust list provider program will allow you test and track your messages. You can see how many are being opened by your list members and how many are clicking through on your links. This can be a great way to learn how to market more effectively so you can reach your audience.
LIST management.
Your list provider should give you the ability to manage several different lists at once. You should be able to send a message to a few lists at once, filtering out people who are on a third list. You should also have the ability to send messages to people who subscribed after a certain date. All of these capabilities will help you market to your list more effectively.
INTERNET connection.
You shouldn’t have to wait for your messages to go out due to a server outage on your list provider’s side. Your list provider should be professional enough to keep an active Internet connection to your list management tools at all times. The better the connection, the faster you can work with your list.
SECURITY features.
Your list provider should make it clear in their terms of service that your personal information and the information of your clients will be secure and protected from hackers. Since people are giving you their personal information, you deserve to know that the list provider will keep their information secure.
TECHNICAL support.
If your list provider isn’t there to help you work through the technical issues to use their system, they aren’t worth your time. You’re using a list provider in order to make your life easier. You shouldn’t have to be hassled with technical details. Look for a provider that offers phone and IM support.
By looking for these features in your list provider, you can be sure that you’re finding a true ally in your business and not just creating another hassle.
Transparency is Important for Virtual Assistants
By · CommentsAs a business owner, you already know how important it is to communicate effectively. Your relationship with your clients depends on it. But, as an employer, you will need to be even more transparent to get the job done.
Your business brand is probably built on quality and timeliness. Your clients depend on a high caliber of work from you as well as meeting their hectic deadlines with time to spare.
None of that is going to change when you enlist the aid of subcontractors. If you want these VAs to provide the same high level of work, they need to know exactly what you expect from them and the system you want followed.
Being transparent is not about laying your soul bare. It’s more about leaving no stone unturned in the pursuit of client satisfaction. That sounds very technical doesn’t it? Here’s what it essentially means.
Stating Your Case Up Front
Let’s begin at the beginning. There are tons of virtual assistants out there, but not all are created equal. You will work better with someone who has a personality and working style similar to yours. It’s not just experience that you are interested in here.
Let any prospects know about how you like to work. Let them know from day one (or interview one) how you handle work with your client. If you provide periodic updates for big projects then any subcontracting VAs need to know that their work will have more than one deadline.
What are you going to outsource to others?
Know what skills you are looking for and ask for those particular skills from your assistants. For example, articles can be written on an variety of subjects. If one of your clients is a real estate broker, you don’t want to hire someone with experience writing only gardening articles. Just the ability to write is not enough.
You have set the bar for your clients. They receive information from you in a format that has been mutually agreed upon. To receive the same from your subcontractors, they will need instructions. Writing detailed documents seems tedious, but in the grand scheme of things, this will ensure there will be no mistakes or misunderstandings. Not to mention, it makes it easier should the initial person you hire not work out for any reason. You’ll already have the instructions ready to send to the one who takes their place.
Here’s what can happen if you don’t. First, you will receive the completed work. When you look over it, you find several things wrong. Either you send it back to your subcontractor or you fix it yourself. If the time it takes to rework the work is over what has been agreed with the client, then you have to suck it up and lose money. If it puts you over your deadline, you have to explain to your client why it is not ready. Nothing about that is going to sit right with you, or, and most importantly, your client.
Transparency is good when you want need to outsource to other professionals. The work gets done right the first time and your clients remain happy. That’s the cornerstone of a successful service business.
Sometimes your workload as a virtual assistant can get quite heavy. One of the best ways to handle it is to outsource some of your work to other virtual assistants. But, where do you start with that? Let’s dig a bit deeper to get your mind wheels spinning. If we can get you out from under some of that heavy load of working all the time, life will be a whole lot sweeter, right?
What Tasks to Outsource
When you work with clients, there is a measure of confidentiality going on. Companies trust you with their databases, email correspondence, meeting schedules and legal documents. These can’t fall into the wrong hands. So, as the person who won the client and is responsible for keeping their information safe, you have a decision to make about what you will allow others to do for you.
The first important decision that you made was to work with someone someone else who can provide the same service that you have for your clients (more about that in a moment). Congratulations on letting go of the reins just a little bit. Now, what will you give them to do?
The jobs that you will probably be looking to outsource at first are those that don’t involve a lot of contact with confidential information. And, the jobs will be small at first so that you can get an idea of your new helper’s work style and ethic. Here’s a short list of tasks to help get the juices flowing:
• Article submissions
• Article writing
• Creating reports and presentations
• Creating newsletters
• Internet research
Article writing can be used for website content or article submissions. Clients with websites like to keep it up-to-date with fresh, pertinent information and if you find someone who can help you whip out that content in a timely and top-quality manner, you’re in business.
Companies use reports to send to their clients and also for internal use. Creating reports involves knowledge of tools such as spreadsheets and databases as well as how to pull information together for presentations using PowerPoint. Depending on the information contained in the reports, this may be the perfect job to let go of and pass on to someone else.
Internet research is used for many things: writing manuscripts, articles, preparing reports and more. It is a unique skill to be able to entice search engines to give up their treasures. If you have someone helping you who doesn’t mind digging into research and possesses the skills to find what you need quickly, you’re on the right track.
Even if you don’t outsource any job that involves confidential material, it is wise to get any subcontracting virtual assistant to sign a confidentiality agreement. This way, as you get more confident and need more in-depth help, you don’t have to worry about anyone selling trade secrets. On that same note, you may want to consider having all your assistants sign and Non-Disclosure Agreement (NDA) depending on the nature of your work. While we won’t go into detail about NDAs, this can help protect you should you and your assistant part ways.
Choosing the Right Person
Who you work with all depends on your personality and their level of proficiency with the task. First of all, no two people will do the same job exactly alike. Let’s get rid of that preconceived notion right now. If not, you will drive yourself crazy and nitpick over everything they do. What you are looking for is someone who knows what they are doing and can demonstrate the skills needed to get the job done correctly and on time.
Outsourcing is the perfect way to get the help you need from other competent virtual assisting professionals. Start with small jobs and progress to more delicate assignments as you see fit.
You Don’t Have to Do It All Yourself
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Virtual assisting is an industry that has partially grown out of the need for getting important jobs done but with less overhead. To that end, virtual assistants take on a number of roles for the online business owner as well as large corporate companies. But, as you strive to achieve business success, beware of burnout.
A virtual assistant has to wear many hats. He or she is not a secretary but a fellow business professional that has developed a skillset that is in demand by other business professionals. You may start off with a few services that you offer: database creation, newsletters, word processing, creating reports. But, depending on your background you will add other services to stay competitive and also to utilize what you know: website design, Internet research, article writing and submission, event planning and etcetera.
While you are building a client base, you are going to be quite busy. As most virtual assistants work out of their home, that means many hours spent in your home office getting the job done. You make your money based on the number of hours you bill and the quality of your work. Burnout can severely impact that quality. No one wants that.
So, if you have to start turning down work because there are not enough hours in the day, it’s time to take a different tack.
Stop Turning Down Money!
The only way to keep growing is to take on more clients, but you don’t have to do it all alone. Many VAs, especially women, find it hard to ask for help. After all, you are the consummate assistant who provides all the needs of your clients.
Why does the assistant need an assistant?
An assistant with an assistant is not redundant. One person can’t manage their family life and business life by themselves once the business side experiences a growth spurt. You want the best balance you can get between both worlds and that won’t happen without help.
Take a Page from Your Clients’ Books – Consider Outsourcing
As a virtual assistant you know all about that. You are an outsourcing professional. Tasks that don’t necessarily have to be done in-house are farmed out to you. This lowers the cost of employees for the company and also frees them up to do other things. The same goes for you and your VA business.
Outsourcing can relieve the pressure of missing deadlines. With even one other person you can do double the work in the same amount of time. With less to manage, your business can continue to grow. Think about it, wouldn’t it be nice to profit more without working yourself to the bone?
How to Set Up An RSS Feed
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RSS feeds are a useful tool for people who want to keep tabs on websites, blogs and membership sites without having to surf and visit the websites individually. RSS feeds essentially send information to the visitor.
As a business owner they’re almost an essential tool to provide to your visitors, because they help you stay in connection with them on a regular basis. In fact, many people have readers that aggregate all the feeds they subscribe to and organize them so they’re easy to read and access.
On that note, here’s how to set up effective RSS Feeds.
1. Determine what content you want to make available to your visitors. What content do you want them to be able to subscribe to? For example, if you have an information-based website, you may want them to be able to subscribe to categories or to all new articles or to give them the choice.
2. Create your feed. You can use an RSS channel editor to create your RSS feed; if you’re not comfortable coding then this is an easy step. There are a number of channel editors and you can do a quick search online to find one that meets your needs. My personal favorite is Feedburner. It’s a snap to set up and all the work is done for you.
You can also create your feed yourself. It’ll look something like this:
<?xml version=”1.0″ ?>
<rss version=”2.0″>
<channel>
<item>
<title>Your Article Title Here</title>
<description>Your article summary/description here.</description>
<link>http://linktoyourwebpagehere.com</link>
</item>
</channel>
</rss>
3. If you choose to do it yourself, upload your RSS file. You’ll cut and paste the code into your website code. Or if you’re using FTP, you’ll upload the file into your server.
4. Validate the feed. There are a number of free validation programs available online. This is an important step because errors can be present if you’ve created the feed yourself or if you’ve tweaked it.
5. Your next step is to let people know they can subscribe to your feed. Advertise. Place a button on your web page(s) and promote it. Many internet users love RSS feeds and take full advantage of them.
Make sure you update your feed as needed and stay on top of RSS technology. It has changed over the years; there are actually three types of RSS feeds and you want to ensure you’re giving your visitors the best you have to offer.
Do You Earn What You Are Worth?
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In today’s economy, everyone is looking to make more money. I have talked to some business owners who feel that they need to cut prices to get business. But the question remains, are you making what you should be making?
To find out what you’re worth, you can start by shopping around to other people who do the same things. There are lots of sites that people can use to hire businesses, and often they let you see competitor’s prices. You may also speak to potential clients and ask for what they normally pay, though many will be tempted to give you a lower rate to get a better price.
Remember, just because someone does the same job as you, doesn’t mean you should charge the same as them. A writer who is a native English speaker is generally much more valuable than one who isn’t. Someone with twenty years experience often makes more than someone with two (but not always), and someone with proven results can make more than someone who is just starting out.
Just because you know what you’re worth doesn’t mean you can necessarily make that. When it comes to making what you’re worth, good marketing is key. There will always be people who can charge lower rates than you so it’s important that you don’t compete on price alone.
Let potential clients know what makes you different and why you’re worth more. The key is letting people know how good you are and convincing them that paying more for your services is going to help them make more money in the end.
Here are a few things to help you make your case:
Samples. Samples of your work will help potential clients know that you’re good at what you do.
Client testimonials. This is one of the best ways to let potential clients know that your services are worth what you’re charging. If other previous clients have good things to say about you and your services, it will really vouch for you.
Charging what you’re worth can be scary, particularly during difficult times. However, with a little thought and planning there’s no reason why you can’t stand out from the competition – even with higher rates.
Time Management 101
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Time management can be interpreted in several ways. But it is commonly understood as proper allocation of time in terms of maximizing it by accomplishing more tasks. It could be applied to a lot of situations, whether in business, school, home and basically everywhere that requires something to get done within a certain period of time.
Time Management In Focus
With a lot of things to do in a span of 24 hours, most people have a difficult time setting their priorities and recognizing the things that must be done first. There are a lot of distractions in life that can take our attention away from far more important things. Eventually, most of us fail to maximize our use of time that we end up accomplishing nothing for the day. Hence, the big question is: how do you manage your time?
Time management works very much like economics. It is an allocation of scarce resources, which in this case is time, in order to reap maximum efficiency at the end of the day. However, we don’t need to become good economists in order to efficiently manage our time. All we need is common sense and good sense of judgment in order to maximize everything we do.
Some Things To Consider When Managing Time
In order to properly manage your time, there are a few things that you have to consider. You have to condition yourself to do the most important or most urgent tasks first. This is what sets responsible people apart from those who aren’t. Knowing what things to prioritize first will help you to overcome all those distractions along the way.
However, recognizing your priorities is just mainly your first step. As the cliché goes, it is easier said than done. It is best recommended to write down the things you have to do for the day. When you already have the checklist or to-do list for the day, you have to create a mindset wherein you must fulfill them.
Knowing what your priorities are is just the first step. Relaxation is also an important factor in our everyday activities. The best thing to do is to initiate periodic rest times ideally 10 minutes every 2 hours in order to relax your mind and muscles from the stress. Relaxing once in a while also improves your concentration in what we are doing and increases our productivity.
Advantages Of Time Management
There are a lot of advantages to properly managing our time but we will just discuss a few and most important ones.
It eliminates cramming – When you have properly set your priorities, you are able to finish your task early. This cuts time and you’d be more likely to accomplish things in advance. When you do your work earlier than usual it allows you to achieve better results because you could allocate more time to focus on your task.
Eliminates stress – Proper Time management helps you eliminate the stress because you properly allocate your time for work and rest.
Proper allocation of your time is a hard task, but once you get used to it, you are sure to become more productive.
