home working

File your emails Similarly, have a filing system for emails that have been dealt with. When you have replied to or dealt with each email, file it or delete it.

Sort your emails Do you have an inbox with more than 10 emails in it? If you have, it can be a huge waste of time trying to find what you are looking for, and the clutter can be overwhelming. Have files for incoming email, and set up rules for all mail that can be … Read more

Schedule your email Although you may be regularly monitoring and collecting your clients’ emails during the day, collect your own business email just twice a day and deal with all enquiries in batches.

When you are a virtual assistant, especially when your practice is becoming full, you spend a lot of time juggling your schedule to fit in all the needs and requirements of your various clients. As you become busier with client work, it is often easy to forget to schedule time for the work associated with … Read more

Don’t forget to show gratitude. If you have found an outsourcing partner that is more interested in getting it right than just getting it done, you’ll want to hang on to them. These people will foresee obstacles and devise solutions before they even occur. When they do have challenges, they present them with potential solutions … Read more

Manage your virtual team effectively. Once you decided who you want to work with on a regular basis, make sure there is a system in place to effectively manage your team. Staying in regular contact with your virtual team is vital, especially because you’ll rarely, if ever, see each other. It is important not only … Read more

Be clear and concise in your delegation. Something you will learn from outsourcing your test projects is how to delegate effectively. If you don’t ask for exactly what you want, chances are you won’t get it. Good outsourcing companies will have a format for gathering this information, or will ask very specific questions in order … Read more

Look for outstanding communicators. The secret to a successful virtual relationship is excellent communication. If the company is in a different time zone, or takes days to respond to your messages, you may have problems. If you’re outsourcing a test project, do they ask sensible questions for more clarity, or guess and get it wrong? … Read more

Look for professionals. Look for companies that have been around for a while and that have a proven track record. Is there a portfolio on their web site, are there genuine customer testimonials. Whilst start ups can be equally good, if the business is established, they have obviously established a solid business model and are … Read more

Invest in your outsourcing education. If you’ve never outsourced before, or you’re not sure what you can offload to someone else, experiment. Invest a small amount of cash in outsourcing something small. If you don’t have anything small, make something up. If it’s admin, get someone to put all your business cards into a spreadsheet … Read more

Whether you run a business from the comfort of your own home office, or you have a ‘real’ office and operate with a team of outsourcers, subcontractors, home based or office based employees, chances are you will be working virtually with some of your team members. Outsourcing to an experienced professional makes perfect business sense. … Read more

You should allot a certain portion of your day to email and to regular mail. For example, allot one hour in the morning and one hour in the afternoon to handling all your written communications. Unless you dedicate specific time slots to the handling of email and post, you will soon find yourself on the … Read more

Don’t permit your friends and extended family to put on you. Many people are under the misapprehension that if someone works from home then they are not actually working. They may believe that you are fair game for a social call during the day or that you may be able to run errands that would … Read more

When you are dealing with family in the course of your workday, it is important to schedule your activities as much as possible. With small children, you must take time when you need to, but you should also work hard to make sure you dedicate a specific number of hours to your workday. With older … Read more

Remember that owning your own business is not the same as being employed in a job. Some people go to work and coast along, playing games or enjoying online social networking (Facebook and the like), some socialise over the kettle or printer, and others, most often those who are paid in a commission or tip … Read more

As the owner of a Virtual Assistant business, you will find that hundreds of distractions that vie for your time, energy and focus. Common distractions can include children, family and friends, neighbours, pets, constant telephone calls, post and deliveries, household chores, television (Lorraine Kelly or Loose Women anyone?) and so many more. As the owner … Read more

Do What You Say, When You Say You Will It sounds obvious, but make sure you follow up. If you promise to send a contact’s details, do it! If you arrange to send more information by the end of the day, make sure you do! Nothing will kill a relationship faster than not following up … Read more

What Else Can You Add of Value? When you are meeting a prospect, or attending a networking event, you will, understandably, be focused on what you can get out of the experience. But be prepared to give a little, too. This could simply involve making an introduction to another of your contacts, who may be … Read more

Make Yourself Clear Make sure you are prepared for the specific situation. If you are attending a networking group, make sure you have perfected your one-minute presentation, are prepared to speak to prospects on a one-to-one basis, and have a ready answer to the inevitable question, ‘what do you do?’. If meeting a prospect who … Read more

Are You Interested? As well as having the opportunity to speak about yourself and your business, it is equally important to show interest in your prospect and their business activities. You will create a great first impression if you listen carefully and ask questions. By doing this, you will be able to find common points … Read more

Oozing Confidence? Now you’re sure you look the part, you can walk into any room with your head held high and your confidence intact. Arrive in plenty of time for any appointment, as you don’t want to be rushed. Stand up straight and tall, look the other person in the eye when introducing yourself, and … Read more

As the old saying goes, ‘you only get one chance to create a good first impression’. When you are running your own business, it is imperative that, within the first few seconds, anyone meeting you, or being introduced to your business, gets a great first impression. In this article, we will give you some simple … Read more

Better Than Advertising As you can see, creating your brand or the ‘image’ for your company isn’t about expensive graphic designers or advertising experts. It’s about identifying what’s great about your business and communicating that in a clear and consistent way. If you can turn your clients into raving fans, they’ll not only stick with … Read more

How Can You ‘Delight the Customer?’ Years ago I used to work for a holiday company who used the line ‘delight the customer’. The idea was that you don’t want the customer just to be satisfied with what you have produced for them. In order to get them singing your praises you really need to … Read more

What Weaknesses Can You See? Some of these may be related to the industry as a whole, for example it may be that as you work remotely you cant make the coffee ;o) However, be aware if things crop up that you can do something about. Perhaps you have missed deadlines or you are not … Read more

What Do They Like? When you have identified the similarities, have a close look at what your clients and prospects love about you and your service. These are the positive aspects or your brand and are what you need to be communicating in all your marketing information.

We all hear about branding and how important it is to your business. But branding is not just about your web site or logo, it’s also about the associations your clients hold with you and your company name. The more positive that association, the more likely they may be to remain loyal to you when … Read more

Build a blog so you can regularly and informally keep in touch with your readers. Post tips, links to related online articles and information. Build your newsletter or Ezine subscriber list by offering something for free in exchange for their email address, perhaps an article or report for example.

Syndicate your articles online to article directories to attract new visitors to your web site and Ezine subscriber list. Write regular press releases and send them to publications aimed at your target market. Even if your particular story is not run, you will be seen as the expert in your field and may be approached … Read more

Give your website a revamp. Is all the information up do date? Does it show a good photograph of you?. This is your virtual shop window and the first impression most potential clients will see. Write articles useful to your target market then add them to your web site. You can also include them in … Read more

Set up a newsletter or Ezine to keep in touch with both clients, prospects and visitors to your website. Start by sending out simple tips that are useful to your target market. Build your newsletter or Ezine subscriber list, put a sign up box on your web site, include a link to your sign up … Read more

Join at least one online networking site, which can be a strictly business site like LinkedIn or Ecademy, or more social site (but often equally effective) such as Facebook and Twitter. Don’t forget as a ‘virtual’ worker you can work with anyone, anywhere. Send your existing clients a questionnaire. Ask them what they like about … Read more

You know how it is, you’ve been in business for a few years, you’ve got a few clients on your books, but things are feeling a bit stale. Do you feel that your business needs a Gok Wan style make over for the new year, but where do you start? The following is a series … Read more

A website that is “me” focused. While back in part 1 of this series we talked about personalising your website, don’t spend all of it talking about yourself and how wonderful you are? Although your visi­tors need to know a bit about you, what holds their interest is the knowledge that you understand their problems … Read more

No testimonials or case studies to demonstrate your expertise. One of the easiest ways you can create customer confidence in you and your business is to post testimo­nials on your web site. Don’t even think of writing these yourself (I’m sure you wouldn’t) but ask your clients to write something that clearly states what you … Read more

Lack of additional resources and links. One way to gauge the usefulness and helpfulness of a business is to have a look at their websites resources and links section. For example, the Resources and Links section of the UKAVA website lists a whole range of resources to help new and established virtual assistants and they … Read more

Copying every other virtual assistant web site. As part of vetting the websites that we list on the UKAVA Directory, I have the job of personally checking every potential members website before it is added. It is quite obvious in a lot of cases that virtual assistants have simply visited the websites of their competition … Read more

Not mentioning what makes you different, your USP. When I’m doing online research for a particular product or service, I want to know right away what makes any company unique or different from their competition. Most virtual assistant websites just display a whole list of services they provide. While I agree that you do need … Read more

Missing or hidden contact information. Have you ever visited a web site that you think offers the ideal solution to your problem, but you’ve got one question to ask before mak­ing your purchasing decision? You go to the Contact Us page to look for the phone number or an email address, and all you find … Read more

Not Turning Your Website Visitors Into Prospects. Lots of virtual assistants complain that they get a lot of visitors to their website, but few of them convert into customers. Most marketing texts will tell you that it takes approximately 7 ‘touches’ for a prospect to decide to buy something from you. A visit to your … Read more

Nothing to demonstrates your expertise. Virtual Assistant websites often boast about how profi­cient they are at solving their clients problems and I’m sure that they do, but where’s the proof? If you’ve been in business for awhile, you’ve got a good idea of the many problems your customers face, so providing relevant content that addresses … Read more

A Lack of a clear call to action on each website page. Have you ever been to a web site and been completely overwhelmed with all the directions you can go from the home page? There’s navigation buttons left and right and so many options you don’t know where to go next? Then in frustration … Read more