Like with any business, it’s important to manage expectations and have clear boundaries. This is even more important with a virtual business so make sure that you have clear, measurable goals in place and that your processes and vision are communicated effectively. Your team always needs to feel supported.
A virtual assistant schedule can be frantic. Finding time to spend with family and to recharge is important in between working at the office, traveling to conferences and meeting with potential clients. Not much time is left for writing, though, but you must do it nonetheless. For the best return on the time you invest, try to write deliberately – think about what and how of your writing. Don’t just write to teach others or to boost your business, write to become an improved leader. The rest – authority, clients, business – will come naturally.
When you’re ready to begin interviewing for a virtual assistant, use these six criteria to make sure you’re bringing in the right person to your team.
Take a look at your to-do list, are there tasks on there that are taking away the time you should be using on your business? If so, it’s probably time to start looking for a virtual assistant. A virtual assistant (also called a VA) can free you from the administrative tasks that aren’t an effective use of your entrepreneurial time. One advantage of a virtual assistant is that they work remotely and as needed so you don’t have to spend as much as you would for an employee that works on site, all the time .. you know, the clock punchers. So .. ready to contract a VA for your business? If you are, here are some tips on finding one and working with one successfully.
A common dilemma that many who are starting out on their entrepreneurial journey as a virtual assistant face is: What should I charge for my rate? They look at their competitors and set their price on the lower end of the price range that they observed .. or worse, compare to those rates on bid-to-hire sites, which are notoriously low. The reasoning behind this seems to make sense, they want to compete and they don’t want the price tag to be the reason they didn’t get that customer. So let me be clear: This is NOT a good strategy. Period.
Considering entering the virtual assistant industry? There are a lot of attractive benefits: no commute, no office dramas, and possible the freedom to make your own hours. If you’re new to being a VA, here are some tips to help get you started.
Networking isn’t something that everyone feels comfortable doing, especially when it’s intended as a client seeking strategy, but it’s important to always utilize it. When making relationships, research and preparation for any conversation is essential. You should have a concise answer for every question. Networking is about communication and you need to be able to engage in interesting, beneficial conversation. Here are some tips to get you started.
Training your virtual assistant requires the use of certain tools to better equip them to function in the capacity that a client requires. While video is an option, sometimes screen sharing is a faster and easier option than producing a video. While there are many choices, here are three options to get you started.
Many people believe that “delegating” is just a way of getting rid of work – that delegation is simply the selfish act of giving your work to other people, so you can have less of it. Au contraire! Delegation is about work productivity .. and that’s why a client chooses to partner with a virtual assistant. If you adjust your perspective, delegation is actually a way to gain personal productivity while helping others to develop new skill sets. You win and they win .. everybody wins!
Random acts of kindness pull at the heartstrings of all of us, sometimes even making us a bit jealous that “it” didn’t happen to us. I suppose that little green monster is in all of humanity, even in its smallest…