How To Get Involved With Social Media – Twitter

Twitter has become increasing popular over the past year or so with everyone who’s anyone Tweeting their little hearts out. Twitter is a micro-blogging site which limits the length of the comments you can post to 280 characters. It’s no go for posting large chunks of content but ideal for posting links to interesting information.

Twitter is highly interactive and users re-post other peoples comments (Tweets) if they are useful and also respond. You choose who you ‘follow’, i.e.: whose Tweets you read, so it is a great platform for making contacts and establishing relationships.

Virtual Assistant Tips – Getting Those First Clients

When you have decided on your target market, or niche, think about how you can reach them. Do they belong to particular organisations, read certain publications or as is the case with one of my niches, do they all drink on a Thursday afternoon in bars within a square mile of a certain point in London?

When you know where to find them, consider how you can get your message to them. While advertising in general is expensive and often pointless unless you can afford to take out a run, perhaps you could write an article for a trade publication, or give a presentation at an event your ‘suspects’ will attend. Think outside of the box for some interesting and inexpensive ideas that will have impact on your particular target market and keep you stimulated and motivated.

 

Virtual Assistant Tips – Getting Those First Clients

Next in our serries of Getting Those First Clients – take stock of all the skills you have and the industries you have worked in or that interest you. Consider what services can you offer and to whom? If you have been a book keeper with an IT firm for many years, you are going to find it far easier to offer your virtual book keeping services to other IT firms as you know something about their market and their ‘language’. If you target an industry or sector you have experience of, you will be seen as the virtual assistant who is an expert in this field and have an advantage over any other VA.

 

Virtual Assistant Website Mistake 1

The business appears as a nameless, faceless corporate entity.
People do business with people, not websites. This is particularly true when working virtually as your potential client may never meet you in person but will always benefit from ‘putting a face to a name’. Before doing business with you a prospect will want know, like, respect, and trust you in order to let you lose within their business.

I become very frustrated when I can’t find any information on the virtual assistant behind a company name, and it often leaves me wondering what they have to hide. Are they actually a full time VA or are they hiding behind a website so their employer won’t find them? I realise many VA firms employ this strategy to appear bigger than they actually are, but don’t you prefer being able to pick up the phone or drop an email to someone you can identify within a company, rather than trying to penetrate a faceless corporate facade. Guess what, so do your prospects.

Put a photograph and a bio about yourself on the website and if you still want to maintain the illusion of size, put yourself as the Founder or Managing Director of the company and use ‘we’ instead of ‘I’ in your text.

How to Avoid Fatal Virtual Assistant Website Mistakes

As part of running the UK Association of Virtual Assistants I spend a lot of time researching online and checking other virtual assistant’s website. Occasionally I see an outstanding website, but what I usually see is a whole range of similar sites, each one fairly indistinguishable from anther.

When a potential client is shopping around online to find a virtual assistant they want to work with, the last thing you want is for that person to be bored in their search from continually reading the same thing over and over again and leafing through the same old format as virtual assistant’s ‘borrow’ from each others websites! If you want to get more clients from your web site, what follows in this series are 10 common mistakes to avoid.

Investigate insurance and make sure you’re covered

Does you have sufficient insurance cover you for your business activities? It’s important to consider if your household insurance covers you for public liability, particularly if you allow clients to visit your home.

In addition you should look at profession indemnity insurance to protect yourself and your business in the event that a client should have cause to take you to court.

Plan your time around your body clock and lifestyle

Are you a morning person? Some people work better in the mornings and some are more effective later in the day. What’s your best time?

Also consider your household. What’s the normal routine? Does the postman always knock the door around 10am or do the kids come home mid afternoon?

Working for yourself means that you can be flexible enough to schedule your day around your most effective times. If your concentration is better in the mornings, use that time to work on projects that require concentration. If you know you will be interrupted at certain times, use those times to complete low concentration or quick tasks.

Schedule your household chores so they don’t interfere with your work schedule

When you work from home make sure you don’t get drawn in to doing all the household chores when you should be working. Now I’m not saying leave a pile of dirty dishes in the sink, or damp washing in the machine but fit it in around your working day.

Going to put the kettle on for a cup of tea? While it’s boiling do the dishes. Stopping for lunch? While it’s on the cooker or in the microwave, hand out the laundry.

If you start each working day running through the chores before you start work, it’s very easy to become sidetracked and not get any work done before lunchtime!

Set up Specific work times and create boundaries

Although one of the joys of working from home in your own business is that you can work whenever you choose, unless you set specific work times, one of two things will happen. You’ll either spend all day dipping in and out of work and end up achieving very little, or, you’ll find yourself working all the time.

Set specific hours of work and concentrate on work only during that time. Make sure your family and friends know you’re working during those times so that you are not disturbed. Also make sure that your clients know your hours of work so that they contact you when appropriate. If you have different working hours to the standard 9-5 that’s fine, just make sure your clients are aware so you are not constantly interrupted outside of your work time, or they are frustrated if they cant get hold of you.

Additional Equipment You Will Need

Consider an all in one printer, scanner and copier as it saves space. You can also get one with an integral fax machine, although you can also use an online fax services from your 0844 number provider or Efax if required.

You will also need a shredder for confidential documents and you may need a transcription pedal if you offer the service and are asked for it and potentially a binder, laminator and guillotine again only if you need them for a specific job or your own use for marketing materials.

Research and purchase your Computer

When deciding which type of computer to buy, consider how you will be working and which option would be best for you. If you are going to be working away from the office from time to time, you might choose a laptop. Make sure when you are using if for extended periods at your desk that it is on a stand with the screen at eye level and use a proper keyboard and mouse.

Consider a large external hard drive for making mirror back ups and storing large files and make sure you also have an online back system such as Carbonite.

Set up your telephone system

Firstly you need to consider if you will use your home telephone number, set up a new line just for business use, perhaps use Skype (providing you have excellent broadband) or register a non geographic or 0844 number that will divert to your home number during office hours.

There are benefits to all options so consider each one carefully before making your choice. Don’t use more than one or they WILL all ring together!

Just a note about using a mobile telephone number, don’t use one for your main business number as it will destroy your credibility. It screams ‘one-man-band’. If you want to use a mobile, divert your landline to it using BT Call Divert.

Create a permanent, comfortable and healthy desk space.

When choosing a desk make sure it is large enough area to accommodate the work you will be completing. It is tempting, particularly when using a small space, to go for a small desk or one of those cupboard work stations. Just make sure you have enough room to spread out.

Make sure the chair you choose is fully adjustable and comfortable. You will be spending a lot of time at your desk so ensuring a healthy sitting posture is essential.

Tips For Setting Up Your Home Based Office

One of the fun parts of setting up your home business is setting up your home office. Here are some hot tips to make sure you invest wisely in everything you will need.

Create a dedicated space that is your ‘office’.

Ideally this should be a dedicated space, an entire room if possible or at least a sizable portion of one. You will need a clear space to work that has sufficient power sockets and a phone line connection nearby. Make sure your work space is clear from noise and distractions like a t.v. or washing machine.

Also think about the additional room you will need for other furniture you will need including a filing cabinet, stationery storage etc.

Advertising Your Virtual Assistant Business on a Budget – Lesson Six Test Everything

As much as is possible, you should always test your advertising and marketing efforts. You might want to jump in and try a range of different ideas and formats and that’s great, but try and keep tabs on where each enquiry comes from, and which enquiries go on to convert into paying customers.

With this data to hand you can then look at has been cost effective and what has not. For example if you paid £500 to join a networking group and attended 50 breakfast meetings costing £10 each over the course of a year, and as a result you got one new client, that client would have cost you £1000 to source. If you put an advert in the UKAVA Directory for £49.95 and over a year that advert resulted in 5 new clients, each client has cost you less than £10 to source. In this scenario you may decide to drop the networking group and advertise more widely in the Directory.

The important point is that you can’t improve on what you don’t measure so if you don’t know what is working for you, and what is not, how can you expect to improve your results next time around?

Sometimes you may find that the lower cost advertising and marketing strategies are the ones that bring you the most business.

For a listing in the UKAVA Directory visit: https://www.ukava.co.uk/html/join_the_uk_association_of_vir.html

Advertising Your Virtual Assistant Business on a Budget – Lesson Five – Online Presence

It goes without saying that as a virtual assistant you need a website. But have you really thought about the best way to use it? Some visitors will arrive at your website as result of you telling them about it or seeing the URL on your business card or marketing material.

What you really want though is the visitors who have arrived at your website because they are actually searching for a virtual pa. These are not just visitors these are prospects. They have actually gone to the trouble of going to a search engine and entering a relevant term into the search bar and are busy looking through the results to find someone they want to work with. So how do you make sure your website ends up in front of them?

Well search engine optimisation (SEO) companies charge a small fortune for ‘optimising’ your website in an attempt to make is appear at the top of that search engines results. And with good reason. The search engines constantly change their indexing criteria to keep out the spammers so the SEO companies have to consistently keep one step ahead. If you don’t have the budget to compete with the big players the best thing you can do is get listed on their websites. Visitors to their websites will then see your information and click through to your website.

There are several directories advertising virtual assistants and their services in the UK. Ours consistently appears on the first page of Google and can be found at www.ukava.co.uk

Advertising Your Virtual Assistant Business on a Budget – Lesson Four Press Releases

Press Releases are useful for generating a buzz about your virtual assistant business. The business editor at your local newspaper will always be on the lookout for a good business story to fill the business news section of the newspaper.

Of course, the business editor understands the economics of running a paper and is more inclined to run your story if you buy advertising in his/her publication, but will still print stories for special events and openings. Think of an angle, could you offer a competition prize, could you help a local charity.

The important thing to remember about Press Releases is that it must be constructed in the form of a news story. Even if you are a sole proprietorship, quotes from you should be written in a third person format: John Doe said, “Your quote here.”

A Press Release should pack the most important information at the beginning of the copy, and leave extra details towards the end.

You should always provide the reporter who gets the task a simple and easy way for him/her to contact you directly. Often the reporter will want to contact you to get details that will enhance their take on your story.

Advertising Your Virtual Assistant Business on a Budget – Lesson Three – Networking

If up until now you’ve been an employee, you might never have been to a networking event before. The whole idea is that everyone who goes along is a business owner or key decision maker in their business and is there, like everyone else, to promote their product or service. The beauty of networking is that if you attend groups regularly, people get to know and trust you and are happy to work with you if they need a virtual assistant or refer business your way.

Now I could write a whole series on the subject of networking alone but these are the basics. If it is your first time networking I would initially go to an informal group as this will help you get your confidence and see how they work. Do an Internet search on networking and you town and you should find a whole range of groups in your area. Have a look for one that takes your fancy and book on. Most groups will let you attend one or two meetings before asking you to take out a membership so make full use of all the free trails until you find a group that you like. Some groups are free but you will find that those that charge a membership fee are often more formal business networking groups and produce more clients and referrals.

Again don’t forget that anyone you speak to may know someone who needs a virtual assistant so don’t dismiss anyone on first impressions and also remember that networking is two way so if you can put those you meet in touch with anyone they would be interested in, do it. You will be remembered for it and that’s the first step in getting referrals.

Advertising Your Virtual Assistant Business on a Budget – Lesson Two – Referrals

Sometimes it’s not about whom you know, but about who they know. We’ve all heard the theory about the six degrees of separation, that you are only six people away from anyone you want to get to know. Well the same applies to business. The person you are talking to may not have any requirement for a virtual assistant but who do they know that might?

If you make an impression on the person you are talking to they will remember you and possibly refer on to you anyone who may need your services. This is particularly true at networking events, which we’ll cover next time. But how can you make sure that they will remember you and refer you when appropriate. How about offering a referral fee?

A referral fee can be a gift or cash and is usually related to the amount a referred new customer spends. You only pay out on the referral if the potential new client signs up so you have nothing to lose. You may want to offer a free bottle of champagne or gift vouchers for each new referral or perhaps 10% of the first invoice total. It’s up to you but it can be a very effective way of getting your contacts to refer their contacts to you.

Advertising Your Virtual Assistant Business on a Budget – Lesson One – Word Of Mouth

If you’ve just started out and you’ve done a piece of work for a client who is pleased with the results, they will talk about it. My advice in the early days is to under promise and over deliver. Think about how you can ‘delight’ your customer. What can you add or improve that would really ‘wow’ them? Could you deliver the work early, could you suggest some ideas that might improve it, could you put them into contact with a potential new client that you know? Anything that is seen as going the extra mile and helping your client within their business will be appreciated. When they thank you for it, ask them if they know anyone else who might need your services. Put it in their mind that you are looking for new clients in this way and they may send you referrals. More on referrals next time!

Tips For Advertising Your Virtual Assistant Business on a Budget

When you are starting out as a Virtual Assistant and no one knows who you are or what you do, one of the biggest challenges you will face is how to drum up new business.

You probably have already done some research and already know that there are people who need your services or you would not have started your business in the first place. But once you have spoken to those you already know who may need you, your next task is to find others who will help you make your business a success.

At this point most people turn to advertising. If I had a pound for every VA that has said to me, ‘There’s a little local magazine that comes through my door each month. Should I advertise in it?’ I wouldn’t have to run a VA business myself; I could retire on the proceeds. The answer, by the way, for many reasons is no. There are many better ways to spend your limited advertising and marketing budget.

It is a misconception that you have to spend lots of money to advertise your Virtual Assistant business. Unless you have some sort of financial backing, it is unlikely that you will have a huge budget so it’s better to get a little bit creative and use what you have wisely.

In the rest of this series, I will be letting you in on a few tips and some of the lessons I’ve learned on how to advertise your virtual assistant business on a budget.

Expanding Your Virtual Assistant Business with Associates

Your can work with Associates in one of two ways, or indeed, a combination of both.

Firstly you can retain all the client contact so that he/she never knows that the work they are sending you has been completed by a third party.

The plus side here is that you will never have to worry about unscruplious associates who may attempt to take the client from you, or underhand clients who think they may save a pound or two if they cut you out of the equasion and work directly with your associate.

The downside is there will be inevitable delays as you send work back and forth, and you will have to be not only very aware of every peace of work as you will have to discuss it with the client where necessary, you will have to double check everything that goes out. All this additional admin can become very time consuming.

The second way to work with an associate is to effectively pass the client over to them and allow direct communication.

This frees up much more of your time as all discussions about the tasks performed are direct between the client and the associate. However, do make sure that you have very solid contracts in place with both your associate and your client to prevent them working directly together.

Also bear in mind that associates will not be with you forever so make sure you keep yourself up to speed with the clients account information, that you have access to all their files and the work completed by the associate, and that you maintain a relationship wit them have contacting them regularly to check in and see how things are going.

For access to a number of experienced administrators who are waiting to work as an associate for your business, join the UKAVA today. Go to: https://www.ukava.co.uk

Expanding Your Virtual Assistant Business with Associates

When you have filled your virtual assistant business with clients, you will soon run out of time that you can sell to new prospects. After all, you only have so many hours in the day that you can work. So how can you expand and take on more business without the overheads of getting an office and taking on staff?

It’s time to introduce you to the Virtual Assistant Associate.

Working with associates is a very popular business model in several industries as it works in much the same way as working with a virtual assistant. When there is work you don’t have the time to complete, your clients outsource it to you. When you have an excess of client work you don’t have time to complete, you outsource it to an associate.

Associates work at a reduced hourly rate to that you have charged your client, as they have been handed the work ‘on a plate’ without having to do all the marketing and relationship building associated with bringing that client on board.

You also continue to manage the client relationship and invoicing and the client remains a customer of your business, rather than becoming a direct customer of your associate.

It’s imperative to have an Associate Agreement in pace so that everyone understand the boundaries of the relationship. For more information and a selection of templates you can download and adapt for your own business go to: http://vasuccessgroup.co.uk/virtual-assistant-document-templates/

How to Get Involved With Social Media – Linked In

LinkedIn is more of a business networking tool than strictly a social one. It is structured in such a way that your occupation and education are featured more than hobbies and interests for example. However, it works in much the same way as Facebook in that you can invite people to connect with you and join common interest groups. It also has a feature where you can recommend people so it’s great for asking for testimonials.

To promote your professional virtual assistant business, join us at: https://www.ukava.co.uk

How to Get Involved With Social Media – Facebook

Many of us have used Facebook for personal networking for many years. But did you know you can also use if for business? Again it’s a great way to connect with people with similar interests and it’s easy to build relationships by interacting with other people in your network.

You can also create fan pages for your business and post events to advertise particular product launches.

To promote your professional virtual assistant business, join us at: https://www.ukava.co.uk

How To Get Involved With Social Media – Twitter

Twitter has become increasing popular over the past year or so with everyone who’s anyone Tweeting their little hearts out. Twitter is a micro-blogging site which limits the length of the comments you can post to 140 characters. It’s no go for posting large chunks of content but ideal for posting links to interesting information.

Twitter is highly interactive and users re-post other peoples comments (Tweets) if they are useful and also respond. You choose who you ‘follow’, i.e.: whose Tweets you read, so it is a great platform for making contacts and establishing relationships.

To promote your professional virtual assistant business, join us at: https://www.ukava.co.uk

How To Get Involved With Social Media – Blogging

With a blog you can post content in the form of text and pictures and it is possible to have a two way dialogue by way of people commenting on your posts. You can have control over what comments actually appear on your pages if you manage your comments using your preferred blogging software so you can approve, delete or mark them as spam.

Blogs can be written in many styles from the very informal personal right through to a professional corporate blog. It’s important as a small business to inject some personality into your blog as your followers are trying to get to know you as well as read your material.

To promote your professional virtual assistant business, join us at: https://www.ukava.co.uk

Why Is Social Media Important?

Social Media has provided everyone with a platform to air their opinions, views and grievances with anyone around the world. People who use Social Media often become highly influential and are seen as experts in their own sphere and can develop large audiences around their area of interest.

Communities of like-minded people are forming around common interests over the Web regardless of where they are based in the world because the regular restrictions of geographical locations do not apply.

To promote your professional virtual assistant business, join us at: https://www.ukava.co.uk

Using Social Media in your Virtual Assistant Business

We’ve all heard the phrase social media, but what actually is social media and how can you use it to help your business?

In short, social media is a term that encapsulates a number of online communication platforms which make it easy for people to not only publish their own news and views but also comment on that posted by others.

To promote your professional virtual assistant business, join us at: https://www.ukava.co.uk

Top Email Newsletter Housekeeping Rules

Make Unsubscribing Easy
If someone wants to leave your mailing list, there is no point trying to hold on to them; they have already made the decision not to buy from you. To give one last professional impression of your business, you can at least make unsubscribing from your list easy and straightforward. It is ethical to include an unsubscribe link in all your ezines, and this should link to an automated system that will remove them quickly and painlessly. Wish them farewell and get on with providing quality content to those who do want to receive it.

To promote your professional virtual assistant business, join us at: https://www.ukava.co.uk

Top Email Newsletter Housekeeping Rules

Tell Your Readers What To Do
If you go to the effort of writing an ezine, do not forget to tell you readers what you want them to do next. You are writing in order to build a relationship. So, do you want them to go to your website to read the rest of the articles, or download something for free? Do you want them to purchase a product or service? If so, give them a reason to do it now rather than later, and provide a link to click, so they can buy it now. If you do not tell them what to do next, they will not do anything apart from read your ezine and delete it. Tell them what to do, and, provided that they are interested, they will do it.

To promote your professional virtual assistant business, join us at: https://www.ukava.co.uk

Top Email Newsletter Housekeeping Rules

Invite Interaction
Do not forget to ask your readers for their comments, questions or future topics they would like to see covered. The whole point of writing an ezine or newsletter is to build a relationship with your prospects and invite further interaction. You want them to take the next step by picking up the telephone or sending you an email. Make it clear that not only is this an acceptable way of contacting you, but the best way.

To promote your professional virtual assistant business, join us at: https://www.ukava.co.uk

Top Email Newsletter Housekeeping Rules

Send Useful Information
One of marketing’s basic rules is to know your target market well. Know their interests and things about which they like to be kept informed. If you come across information that you feel would be useful to your target audience, add it to your ezine (crediting the author or source, of course). The more useful the information you provide, the more likely your readers are to stay subscribed.

To promote your professional virtual assistant business, join us at: https://www.ukava.co.uk

Top Email Newsletter Housekeeping Rules

Get The Balance Right
It can be very tempting to fill each of your ezines with information about your latest service or product, and, indeed, your readers will be expecting to hear a certain amount of that. But, do not forget also to include some free tips or an advice spot. Giving a measured amount of free information marks you as an expert in your field, and a generous one at that.

To promote your professional virtual assistant business, join us at: https://www.ukava.co.uk

Top Email Newsletter Housekeeping Rules

Send Messages At Reasonable Intervals
Do not use your ezine in the same way as you would Twitter or a blog. Your subscribers have given you permission to send them information, but, if you abuse it, they will soon be sorry they did. The result will be that they will leave your list just as quickly as they subscribed to it. Send updates once or twice a month and leave it at that.

To promote your professional virtual assistant business, join us at: https://www.ukava.co.uk

Top Email Newsletter Housekeeping Rules

Use A Proper Email Delivery System
When you first start sending out email newsletters, it is very tempting to send them using your normal email delivery service, such as Outlook. After all, it is free and already there on your desktop. However, internet service providers frown upon mass mailing, and you will find very quickly that your email address will be blacklisted and you may be banned from sending any email. There are many legitimate ezine delivery services available whose costs are minimal; use one to manage your mailing list.

To promote your professional virtual assistant business, join us at: https://www.ukava.co.uk

Top Email Newsletter Housekeeping Rules

A ‘Double Opt-in’ System
If you use a proper ezine delivery service such as Constant Contact, Aweber or Vertical Response, your subscribers will go through what is known as a ‘double opt-in’. This means that, after submitting their email address through your website form or other link asking them to sign up for your newsletter, they will receive an email asking them to confirm their subscription by clicking on a link within it. This is key, as it stops third parties from adding subscribers without their knowledge.

To promote your professional virtual assistant business, join us at: https://www.ukava.co.uk

Top Email Newsletter Housekeeping Rules

The following series will look at some housekeeping rules, which will ensure that you follow the strict etiquette of internet marketing, while presenting yourself and your business in a professional and ethical way.

Make sure your subscribers actually subscribed
There is nothing more annoying than being inundated with unsolicited sales emails. We all hate it. If you are boosting your subscriber list by adding email addresses from business cards you have picked up, trawling the yellow pages or your local Chamber of Commerce’s mailing list, your messages risk not only going straight to the junk mail folder, but also alienating people with whom you might have established good working relationships. Make sure the owner of the email address has requested that you send them information, or, at the very least, has agreed to receive it.

To promote your professional virtual assistant business, join us at: https://www.ukava.co.uk

15 Tips to Build Your Newsletter Subscriber List – 6

It’s simple but very effective, include an opt in form on every page of your web site. It’s also worth checking your web statistics to see where people leave your web site. Check the last page they view before they leave and make sure there is a note asking them to sign up for your newsletter at the bottom of this page.

15 Tips to Build Your Newsletter Subscriber List – 5

Run a joint venture with a complimentary business. Chose a business that provides services to a similar target market, for example small businesses. Include a link in your newsletter for readers to opt into the other businesses list, in exchange for their running an opt in for your newsletter on theirs.