Comments on: Are You Alone In Your Tower?

By: Business Accountant Melbourne

Business Accountant Melbourne — Thu, 22 Sep 2011 10:05:46 +0000

Great guidance for owner responsibility and thinking. This will surely provide an innovated idea in the mind to the business owner. Keep it up!!

By: hire seo services

hire seo services — Wed, 22 Jun 2011 08:08:58 +0000

The interview for any virtual assistant isn’t situated within an office, but can also be situated virtually, and therefore the best way to discover the there’s help different.

By: Steve

Steve — Wed, 03 Nov 2010 22:16:15 +0000

It is worth mentioning again, that as helpful as virtual assistants can be, it is very important to be very careful when selecting one — gather/interview a few, select the best, then test him/her for a short period to see if he/she truly is a good fit and is someone who can fulfill what you need from an assistant. On the flipside, don’t expect the assistant to instantly know your business, don’t flood him/her with work — train your assistant at a steady/gradual pace and you will eventually make him/her into ‘the’ perfect assistant..

By: Offshoreally

Offshoreally — Fri, 03 Sep 2010 07:57:19 +0000

Nice share..I think Virtual Assistance is especially advisable for the starting businessman since they donâ€™t need to hire many employees to keep their business going.

By: Dave London

Dave London — Wed, 04 Mar 2009 10:31:21 +0000

It would be nice to have a virtual assistant to do my work, but like most people in business we like to know personally who we are employing. There is also the problem of trust, if you employ a person to work for your company then you expect that person to have your best interests at heart. Cost cutting in my opinion is not the right way to go. Respond.

By: Sam V

Sam V — Sun, 01 Feb 2009 16:32:09 +0000

Hi,

Great Article. I love your thoughts. I have an outsourcing business which I am trying to promote but dont understand how to promote it. It deals with outsourced accounting and outsourced bookkeeping services http://www.businessvein.com. Please give give your guidance.

Thanks

By: Charlotte IT Outsourcing

Charlotte IT Outsourcing — Thu, 30 Oct 2008 15:23:56 +0000

It is hard being a small business and in the tower by yourself! IT outsourcing has really helped us to grow, and compete with larger companies!

By: Dawud Miracle

Dawud Miracle — Thu, 12 Jun 2008 11:19:07 +0000

Roll,
Here’s a thought, for two weeks, track where you spend all your work time. Track it to the minute if you can. Then, sit down and look at where all your time went. Now, consider how your work life – and productivity levels – could change if you could give some of that work to someone else to do. Can you see yourself making more money when you have more time to lead and be creative?

By: Roll top desk

Roll top desk — Wed, 11 Jun 2008 18:50:17 +0000

Sometimes it is all about the money. You do everything yourself because in many cases you can not afford to hire somebody to do some ‘minor” things for you. You hire in the core of your business but not for assisting. Even if I know you are right because I get overwhelmed myself sometimes…

By: Kathie Thomas, A Clayton's Secretary

Kathie Thomas, A Clayton's Secretary — Wed, 21 May 2008 00:53:29 +0000

Thank you Colleen, like Danielle we also have a process for accepting new members into our global membership.

By: Colleen Johnson

Colleen Johnson — Tue, 20 May 2008 21:48:26 +0000

Kathie,

The VACOC has a membership that is worldwide. Every member has passed stringent screenings to even qualify for membership. There are members from Australia. Danielle gave excellent resources.

By: Outsource Secrets Revealed

Outsource Secrets Revealed — Fri, 18 Apr 2008 10:26:51 +0000

Hey Dawud, cheers for the post fellaâ€¦
Have you guys heard of Jeff Mills Outsource Secrets Revealed? I got myself the free Outsource compendium Ebook and heck I cant believe his just giving away so much great info for freeâ€¦ Itâ€™s crazy.

Nowadays if you want to make a success you need to outsource, there simply isnâ€™t enough hours in a day to do everything yourself, especially when it comes to new ventures and ideas!

By: Kathie Thomas, A Clayton's Secretary

Kathie Thomas, A Clayton's Secretary — Thu, 17 Apr 2008 04:47:31 +0000

The clients that come to our main website come because they know they need a VA and are looking for one. But with respect to the blog, I hadn’t really thought about doing that – perhaps I need to explore it. I do have testimonials up there and a direct link to our main site and of course background information about my own experience and credentials.

By: Dawud Miracle

Dawud Miracle — Thu, 17 Apr 2008 04:32:52 +0000

Kathie,
Yes, yet you might focus more on problem-solution so that potential clients could see themselves more clearly needing a VA, right?

And on your blog, there’s nothing wrong with having a few ‘static’ pages where you can focus more on your marketing message.

Just some thoughts…

By: Kathie Thomas, A Clayton's Secretary

Kathie Thomas, A Clayton's Secretary — Thu, 17 Apr 2008 04:29:51 +0000

Do you mean my website or my blog Dawud?

My website is for a Virtual Assistant network so we promote a number of things our team do and get a lot of clients coming via the site. And many of the team specialise in lots of different areas so I wouldn’t want to focus on just one niche area.

My blog was designed to educate people about the industry so I talk about all sorts of things, including problem-solving and different niches from time to time.

By: Dawud Miracle

Dawud Miracle — Thu, 17 Apr 2008 04:18:34 +0000

Cola, True. I think the right time to begin outsourcing is just before you get too busy to do tasks yourself. That way, you can learn AND continue to grow. Kathie, I wonder how your marketing would go if your website focused more toward problem-solution and specified a specific niche? Positioning yourself is key to grow your business. Love to chat about your marketing sometime, if you're interested.

By: Kathie Thomas, A Clayton's Secretary

Kathie Thomas, A Clayton's Secretary — Wed, 16 Apr 2008 22:51:22 +0000

I don’t know that I have barriers Dawud, other than perhaps people who don’t know the industry, giving out the wrong message about the industry on the web. I find myself working at educating the public about what a VA truly is. My VA blog was set up for that purpose over 3 years ago.

Your post above has been good, as it also helps educate the public about our industry.

I’ve been on the web since January 1996 and I find that developing a web presence is important but so is networking locally, face-to-face to meet prospective clients. Everywhere I go I meet prospective clients and have put processes in place to keep things happening. There are many new VAs online these days that seem to think they can only get a ‘virtual’ client and they forget that their neighbour, the guy down the road, the business around the corner, and so on, could all be clients. They don’t have to be in their office space to do work for them. My longest-term client lives 5 mins away from me and we work almost entirely via email. And yet I have other clients who are interstate and overseas. I find what I do for one works just as well for all the others.

By: Cola Tax & Solutions

Cola Tax & Solutions — Wed, 16 Apr 2008 16:50:29 +0000

I am doing most of it all by my self as well. SEO, web promotion, web design, blogging, and the core of my business – tax preparation, bookkeeping, and consulting. I enjoy learning the different trades. Hiring assistants and outsourcing have outstanding benefits, however, it is very important to know how to do the basics if for some reason your assistant happens to quit.

By: Dawud Miracle

Dawud Miracle — Wed, 16 Apr 2008 14:44:14 +0000

Pam,
Couldn’t something go wrong just as easily right there in your office as it could working with someone thousands of miles away? It’s maybe even more likely.

Kathie,
Really good example, thanks. What’s been your biggest barrier in finding clients?

By: Kathie Thomas, A Clayton's Secretary

Kathie Thomas, A Clayton's Secretary — Mon, 14 Apr 2008 22:05:43 +0000

Yes Pam, it does work for medical billing and there are lots of VAs who do that kind of work. VAs can specialise in various industries based on their own corporate backgrounds so some work in the medical billing arena, some medical transcriptions, some legal, some focus on Real Estate, others conference/event management and so on.

How often is a ‘boss’ physically present when their PA is doing work for them? It’s really not that much different having a VA do the work for them instead. We’re really as close to you as your computer.