Entries Tagged '2008' ↓

A little shameless promotion as we head into a snowy weekend…..I’ve been profiled in a new book recently released by the Women’s Enterprise Centre titled “New Pioneers” Stories of 100 BC Entrepreneurs!!!

I’m very honoured to be included in the book  (although I won’t comment on the Pioneer reference but I’m really not that old) and congratulations to all  the other fabulous female entrepreneurs of BC also profiled in this book.

The stories in this book showcase the successes and challenges which BC women entrepreneurs have faced. The book also highlights the support these women have received from friends, family members, women’s business networks and business service providers. Check it out! 

We also had 15 seconds of fame in the Globe & Mail in an article about how great Virtual Assistants are.

Have a great weekend!

To subscribe to our “Virtually Working” newsletter issued January, April and September, email tana@virtualofficeservices.ca  or click on the newsletter icon at www.virtualofficeservices.ca

Has your inbox become a chore all on its own?  In the “old” days, I could end my day with an empty inbox except for the items I needed to deal with in the next few days.  My “Send” box was always emptied each week and filed in the the appropriate folders. Somewhere along the line, these mailboxes became overwhelming. 

Some ideas that have worked for me…..

• Only keep those emails in your Inbox that you absolutely need to respond to in the upcoming week. 
• Unsubscribe to any advertising or newletters you don’t really need to know about. It’s like getting rid of clothes you haven’t worn in the last year.
• Instead of marking these items as “Junk Mail”, get rid of them entirely. 
• If you’ve had back and forth correspondence with someone and the entire conversation is still in the body of the latest email, delete all the previous versions.
• Categorize the emails in your inbox with colours to signify business, personal, “to read”, etc. Then you can sort by Category and deal with all in that Category at the same time.
• I would suggest moving all your “to read” emails into a Reading folder but there lies the danger of “out of sight, out of mind”, but this method may work for you.
• Emails with subjects that need to be dealt with in the near future but not immediately: drag them over to your Calender and set a BF date. You’ll have the body of the email right there in that day’s schedule. Then move the email itself to an appropriate Subject folder.
• When deleting or moving emails in your Sent folder, try sorting them first by Subject and clearing them, then by To or From. You’ll find it easier to delete in batches, particularly when you’re deleting emails to and from personal contacts.

To subscribe to our “Virtually Working” newsletter issued January, April and September, email tana@virtualofficeservices.ca  or click on the newsletter icon at www.virtualofficeservices.ca

To stay in touch with what’s new in your profession and the virtual business world, subscribing to e-newsletters is a great idea!  I subscribe to several that appear regularly in my inbox each morning.

I know it’s a challenge to find time to read all these newsletters but I do encourage you to do so. Narrow down your subsciption list to those newsletters that frequently provide you with useful information, aren’t too lengthy and get straight to the point.  Even so, not every issue will have information that’s relative to your business, but every now and then you’ll come across a “nugget” that proves extremely valuable. 

“Skimming” has become a talent of mine, quickly scanning a newsletter for items of interest.  Newsletters that are delivered in the morning are great because you can ease into your workday by scanning them first thing.

Or, if you’re too busy, you can “categorize” them to be read later and set aside an hour each week to catch up on your reading.

To subscribe to our “Virtually Working” newsletter issued January, April and September, email tana@virtualofficeservices.ca  or click on the newsletter icon at www.virtualofficeservices.ca

With another long weekend approaching here in Canada, let’s take a moment to discuss the importance of “taking a break” away from your business.  Taking time off, even for a short period such as a long weekend is well worth it in order to re-energize and balance your lifestyle. 

Particularly for those business owners who are home-based, the temptation to wander into your office on that stat holiday and just finish up “a few little things” (which ends hours later) is too much.  Granted you may make a small dent in your tasks, but in the big picture you haven’t given your mind a well-deserved rest from the biz. 

I’ve found that my best ideas come sitting in my car as I’m travelling far away from home.  That change of scene allows me to take a more objective look “from the outside-in” while not being bogged down with work. It’s not necessary to actually take a trip to achieve a change of scene. Using your time off to complete some household and personal tasks will be a refreshing change and you’ll feel a sense of accomplishment in those other areas of your life. 

So when those stat holidays come around once a month or so, take advantage of them to give yourself a break. You deserve it!!  One exception, if it’s a really cold, miserable day that’s not good for much else….well, okay….maybe spent a short time at your computer……but be sure to give yourself a full day off at another time during the week.

As we discussed, marketing activities to promote your business can be time-consuming. However, I recommend  taking the time to create a newsletter for your business.

This form of contact allows you to stay in touch with your previous clients, your current clients and it’s a tool for educating future clients about your business and if you design it this way, should offer some useful business tips which are helpful to the reader and illustrates your expertise.

On the subject of time-consuming, you want to take into consideration your readers’ time and your own time spent creating a regular newsletter. A short, concise newsletter with great information would be most welcome. Consider how often you wish to go to press, taking into account how much time you’re able to spend designing, gathering information and creating a newsletter, i.e. weekly, monthly. You may wish to hire a Virtual Assistant (VA) to create a newsletter for you on a regular basis, by simply emailing to your Virtual Assistant content throughout the month with a regular issue date. 

For my own business, I’ve decided to email a two-page newsletter every four months (September, January and April) which will keep me in touch with my network and offer some great business tips, while not overwhelming my subscribers. 

Subscribe now by clicking on the newsletter icon at www.virtualofficeservices.ca or email tana@virtualofficeservices.ca

I’m sure this is a common concern among my readers. Lately,  my days absolutely fly by. Why is that?  Am I getting (dare I say it) old?  Or, am I spending my time ineffectively?

I often run out of day before I run out of tasks to complete.  Being a stickler for efficiency, it’s always been my goal to finish today’s work today, which is a great philosophy and has worked brilliantly in the past. However,  in an effort to maintain a regular marketing strategy and test the assorted marketing techniques recommended by the experts, it seems there isn’t time to do it all.

In my quest to identify which are effective marketing strategies and what is just a plain waste of my time, I ask you, my fellow VA’s and other online entrepreneurs:  a. Have you been able to maintain a regular blogging shedule? and b.  If yes, has it been an effective marketing tool for you?

Looking forward to your feedback!

Kudos to those amazing entrepreneurs out there who seem to juggle 3 blogs, 2 newsletters, upteen list groups, regular marketing events and still get any sleep. I bet you’ve hired a Virtual Assistant to help you.

Expanding a bit on the topic of my last blog regarding the role of a Virtual Assistant, and what  the difference is between a Virtual Assistant and someone who provides ”virtual assistance”.  There seems to be very strong opinions around this question.  A Virtual Assistant is generally defined as an “online administrative/executive assistant” who is an entrepreneur and who “partners” with their clients to ensure the client’s business is successful. As an entrepreneur, a Virtual Assistant is able to offer helpful suggestions from their own experience to help ensure the client’s success. And, with years of administrative background, a VA can handle a variety of tasks as would an on-site executive assistant, but with cost-saving benefits to the client. 

“Virtual assistance” can be interpreted as being provided either by a Virtual Assistant….or by someone who has chosen to provide a more specialized service such as internet marketing, web design, or bookkeeping, but delivers their services online. It should be noted as well that although Virtual Assistants are usually generalists, there are some more experienced at specific tasks such as shopping carts or writing press releases and it’s this situation where a client may choose to work with several different VA’s for their expertise.

Those providing administrative assistance “virtually” can choose to be personal assistants available all day (or the hours they choose). Or, they can choose to work specifically with projects, i.e. newsletters, large Word projects, PowerPoint presentations, etc. so their working hours can be scheduled at irregular hours that fit deadlines and lifestyle. Or, the business model that we here at Tana Woodward & Associates - Virtual Office Services have adopted, which is to enjoy the best of both worlds.

In closing, I would re-iterate that whether calling oneself a Virtual Assistant, or someone who provides “virtual assistance”, the key is to provide services that meet the clients’ needs and ensures the happiness and success  of the service provider as well.

Great Virtual Tip for today: www.sendthisfile.com - Send large files free via the Internet

*To receive this blog in your inbox, please email tana@virtualofficeservices.ca

Had an interesting in-person discussion with a fellow Virtual Assistant today whose latest client uses 3 other VA’s, each with specific capabilities and specialities.

Coincidentally on another blog saw an entry about using multiple VA’s and commented on it, which prompted a comment from another VA on the definition of a true VA, i.e. she felt a Virtual Assistant is a generalist and anyone providing only one service is not a Virtual Assistant.

I’ve seen this discussion on list groups before and to be honest I can’t remember the outcome or the general consensus but to my way of thinking, no one person can be good at everything. Therefore, a client truly gets their money’s worth by working with several different VA’s as they can rest easy with the knowledge that their tasks are being completed by a knowledgeable person who isn’t wasting the client’s or their own time trying to figure out how to do something.

It really doesn’t matter what one’s title is, efficient services that make the client happy and more productive in their own businesses is what’s important.

Great Virtual Tip for today: When you receive those forwarded emails with all the funny little marks - Go to Edit/Replace, type ^p (=return) and type ^t (=tab) in “replace”. This will convert every return to a tab.

*To receive this blog in your inbox, please email tana@virtualofficeservices.ca

Summer is literally around the corner and it can be an interesting time for a Virtual Assistant. It can be extremely slow, or on the flip side, extremely busy, depending on one’s clientele.

This is the time many clients take a vacation from their own businesses or projects so the VA life can be a bit slow at this time of year.

On the plus side, by nature of having a home-based business, is the ability to schedule your day to  enjoy the sun (hoping it will be sunny!) and to work after hours. 

But…. it’s also a great time for clients to use this quieter time of year to start up new projects, finish old ones that have sat on the back-burner or hand off projects to a Virtual Assistant that regular staff can’t complete because they’re on vacation, or the office is too shorthanded.

If you’re a VA, or any other online entrepreneur, and business is a bit slow at this time of year, look at it as the perfect time to get a marketing routine started up and try out new approaches.  And, it’s a good idea to start a summer marketing campaign back in the spring in anticipation of the upcoming quieter months.

Great Virtual Tip for today: www.gotomypc.com - Access your own or a client’s PC.

*To receive this blog in your inbox, please email tana@virtualofficeservices.ca

As I mentioned in my last blog, the best laid plans can go awry, but often for the best. A service for which you thought there would be a spectacular demand just isn’t, but ”out of the blue” a client may ask for a service that you hadn’t given any thought to providing. By viewing this request as an opportunity, one can stumble onto a whole new path with exciting results. Such was the case for me when a company asked me to provide personalized computer training for its employees.

Not being a “stand up in the front of a class and teach” type of person, I was initially tempted to decline, however I re-thought the idea and this has evolved into an opportunity to provide one-on-one personalized computer training, teaching 1-3 people at a time, based on each person’s needs, beginning with the basic basics of how a computer works. 

This is an ideal service as I’m able to share my knowledge of computers and Microsoft software programs that I’ve gained during my years in the Virtual Assistant profession, and personalize it to the student’s abilities. The shortcuts and tips I share are particularly well received. One-on-one tutoring has proven particularly effective as the student tends to feel more comfortable asking questions in this setting. More effective learning is accomplished in a single session than in a classroom full of students with varying levels of skill because students don’t feel too intimated to ask questions.

Great Virtual Tip for today: www.ccleaner.com - A free optimization and privacy tool that removes unused files from your system.

*To receive this blog in your inbox, please email tana@virtualofficeservices.ca