One of my all time VA heros, Stacy Brice, posted a terrific rant about how people outside the virtual assistant industry are trying to define virtual assistance. The virtual assistant industry is in a time of transition. People from varied backgrounds hang out their VA shingles. Some have years of administrative experience, others come from a technical background or even (heaven forbid) public relations. No wonder clients are confused about what a VA is and what a VA does. Client education helps, as do services like the AssistU Registry or the Virtual Assistance Chamber of Commerce that strongly carry the message and are clearinghouses for the creme of the VA crop.
On the other hand, not everyone wants or can afford what a high end virtual assistant can offer. I think that it is good that a variety of options are available in the marketplace.
One of the things that clients are asking for more and more is help managing their online business. To give this help, a certain baseline technical knowledge is necessary. I have heard many potential clients complain that they cannot find a VA because the people they talk to, while bright and impressive, just don’t have the technical skills needed to be of help.
Do you have to have brilliant technical skills to be a VA — no. I don’t think that you do, there are clients that don’t need those skills and if you have a deep and strong network, you can find a way to get that work done for your clients either through subcontracting or referrals. Still, in order to refer, you need to know enough to know what tools and expertise is needed.
However, I do think that VAs who can learn the technical basics will find themselves at an advantage because there are clients out there who are really need (and are willing to pay) for those skills.
You are overwhelmed. Your online empire is growing quickly. It is time to find a VA. But, how do you make sure that the person you choose to work with will be the perfect fit. You can’t know for sure until you start working together. But, here are some tips for finding a technically savvy virtual assistant.
1. Compatibility – You will be working very closely with the person. Even if a candidate has all the skills you need, you need to “click” in order for you to get the most out of the partnership.
2. Portfolio - It is one thing for a VA candidate to say that she has experience with web maintenance or organizing teleseminars. Ask her for some specific examples of work she has done. Note though, sometimes VAs sign confidentiality agreements with clients — so they may not be able to provide recent work samples.
3. Commitment to Training and Learning. The best VAs are learning and growing all the time. That learning will help you. Ask the VA what training she has completed. Your needs will change as you grow, you want a VA who will grow with you.
4. Focus. The VAs that can help you the most will have clients that are doing similar things to you. If a VA has a tightly defined niche — and you are part of that niche — that is a very, very good thing. If a VA doesn’t serve your niche, it isn’t a deal-breaker, it just means that learning curve may be steeper in the beginning.
5. Process — You are hiring a VA to help you develop and maintain systems for your business. A good VA will have a set interview and client intake process. If she has a solid system, chances are, she can help you develop good systems for your business too.
Bonus Tip: Price is not the bottom line. A good VA will become a trusted sounding board and support partner in your business. You want to make sure you hire someone that will bring value to your business as well as giving you the time to escape from the day to day details so you can concentrate on your money making, business growing activities.
Mac announced that it finally is coming up with an exchange like server for the rest of us. With MobileMe, you’ll be able to sync your mac with your PC with your iphone — wirelessly. I’m thinking that my ipod touch might just replace my treo as my primary pda if mobile me works right. The ipod could grab the changes and be up to date as I leave the house. I think it also might work well for my virtual assistance clients on PCs who want me to access their outlook accounts remotely and have new appointments show up on their PDA of choice. If the PDA syncs wirelessly with outlook — it could just work. The issue in the blogosphere seems to be price. At $99 a year — moblieme seems to be expensive and there are already products out there that do most of what mobileme promises. But, I ‘ll bet my clients will be happy to pay less than $10 a month for an uncluttered, easy on the eyes interface they can use from anywhere… We’ll see.
Yesterday was my 40th birthday. For some reason, that number seems to be monumental — the official dividing line between youth and “wisdom”.
I have to admit that I did have a tiny “pity party” this weekend and fully expected to wake up with a dozen additional grey hairs and creaky bones. But, slowly as the day progressed, I realized that 40 is something to celebrate. I have a great life and have a ton to be grateful for including:
a fabulous family. The birthday cake in the picture was homemade by my 4 year old daughter and husband. I don’t think a cake has ever tasted better.
a growing business where I get to work with other smart, dynamic and creative women. No, I don’t limit my clientele to women — but all of them are female at the moment..
really good friends and a growing extended “friend” family — most of my real family lives a plane ride a way..
the freedom to spend time with my daughter and watch her grow up.
All in all, I think that I have a very rich life and it is only going to get better. One of my newest clients Meredith Liepelt of Rich Life Marketing posted a mini-movie about the many ways your success in business can make your life better — it really resonated for me– tell me what you think.
I was listening to a very cool webinar where the attendees are working together to write a handbook for Twitter. I love Twitter — it reminds me of an old fashioned water cooler.
The group came up with some great additions to Twitter that I thought I would share:
1. TweetLater This allows you to automatically follow people (and send them a welcome message) and and pre-schedule your tweets. I think this would especially be handy for those “strategic” tweets that we all mean to do but don’t. This might also a useful way for a virtual assistant to help a client.
2. Summizeis a great way to find out what people are talking about at the moment on twitter. I was (big geek alert) following the conversation on Battlestar Galactica — real time — very cool. — Apparently, you can also use Twitbeep.com to alert you when someone tweets about you or your topic.
I can see how both of these tools can make your twittering much more productive.
I have 200 friends on Facebook and another (overlapping) 100 or so people following me on Twitter. I can say that my network has expanded, but has it been a good use of my time? I think so… even if it is just to see what other people are doing with their businesses. Twitter sort of simulates an office water cooler — the nice thing is — you can turn it off when you don’t have time to deal with it. I have found and connected with long lost friends through Facebook — I have also been bought and sold several times (what does it mean when someone owns you on Facebook?
Here are some reasons why twitter and facebook are valuable…
1. They provide a fabulous window into the lives of your target audience. Even fluffy tweets — like "I’m going to the store now" tell you something important about your potential audience You get a sense of the rhythm of their days, what their primary problems are, how you can help them.
2. They give you access to people you might not ordinarily be able to reach. People seem willing to follow and befriend folks on Facebook and Twitter. You can make friends with people who might not answer regular emails.
3. They give you another avenue to get out there and be seen. It never hurts to get your name out there.
The thing is, that using these tools can also be a tremendous time suck. Here are a few hints to make them work for you.
1. Hire a virtual assistant to set up your profile and create conduits between your blog, your facebook profile and twitter. Your VA could also commit to a daily update. You also want to spend time doing these things yourself — you want your personality to show through.
2. Set aside specific social networking time. Don’t leave your twitter reader open all the time.
3. Consider using twitter on your cell phone. It is a great way to kill 10 -15 minutes of time waiting in line, etc.
What results have you gotten with your social networking?
Until recently, I was a teleseminar virgin… I helped plenty of clients set up their teleseminars but I never could really get to the point where I felt comfortable putting on my own event. On the other hand, I felt like I needed to experiment with my own teleseminar so that I could get a feel for what worked and what didn’t so I could pass that information on to my clients. I think that people are afraid to jump into teleseminars for the following reasons:
1. They don’t feel like they have anything to say.
2. They are afraid that something will go wrong on the call (either technically or with a guest).
3. The technology to set up a sign up page and/or set up the call is daunting.
4. They are afraid that nobody will come to the call
5. They don’t know what do with the call once it is finished.
Luckily for me, I found out about Bob Jenkins’ Teleseminar Formula class. Earlier this year, I was lucky enough to be a guest of a client for Alex Mandossian’s Teleseminar Secrets class. That class is jam packed with info — but I thought that Bob’s class was better. Bob is a teacher and literally walks you step-by-step through the entire process of setting up teleseminars. He addresses your fears and shows you how teleseminars can really benefit your business. You put together the teleseminar over the course of two weekends. By the time you graduate, you have done your first, and toughest teleseminar.
My first teleseminar was successful (you can listen at tametheinternetmonster.com), I had 100 people sign up for the call– only a dozen or so came — but I was starting from scratch so overall I’m happy. But, the thing I really got from the class was the chance to network with the other students. I’ve made some great business contacts that will really help me in my business.
I’ve written before about using Gmail as an alternative filing system. I just discovered a new (to me anyway) trick to make it easier to send yourself notes and have them automatically labelled and filed away. The trick is to use a + sign after your name to create a sub-mailbox.
Lifehacker had a great post on how to use all sorts of online tools to track your weight loss efforts - including this trick for using gmail as a diet diary. Here’s how you can set yours up. You can also, of course, use this system for tracking and filing anything — including client notes, to do list items, etc.
1. Go into settings in gmail - click on labels (the very top of the page)
2. On the labels page — create a new label for the item you want to file. In my example, I used fitness.
3. Go to the filters page and create a new filter to your new filter address — for fitness is would be meredith+fitness at gmail dot com. Click next step…
4. For options - check the boxes for — skip inbox and apply label. Apply the label you created in step 2.
I’m going to be in Good Housekeeping as part of an issue on working from home part time. I had my husband take my glamour shots a few days ago. I’m so excited.
Melanie did this really cool promo video for the interview and put it on YouTube. I think this is a very cool idea and an easy way to get a litte more exposure for your podcasts or your products. I might have even gone a step further and pulled out some audio from the actual interview
Here’s how you would put something like this together on a Mac using Keynote:
1. Create your slide show in keynote
2. Add your soundtrack to the slideshow
Click Inspector in the toolbar, and then click the Document Inspector button.
Click the Audio button.
Drag an audio file or playlist from the Media Browser to the Audio well in the Document Inspector. If you change a playlist, the change won’t be reflected in your soundtrack until you add the playlist again.
You can also drag a sound file from the Finder.
To repeat the sound file as long as the presentation is playing, choose Loop from the pop-up menu in the Document Inspector.
Yesterday was my 40th birthday. For some reason, that number seems to be monumental — the official dividing line between youth and “wisdom”. 
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