“I can’t afford to go to work!”

How often are you hearing the growing anxiety from families and people trying to cope with the ever increasing cost in petrol prices?

With petrol costs looking to go up and wage packets not budging, the balancing act of juggling the home budget is becoming more concerning with a frightening spiral of more people using their credit cards when money runs out midway before their next wage hits their bank account.

As thousands of people drive to work or use public transport an increased feeling of irritation before they start their days work is on the up.  If a large chunk of your wage goes on travelling costs and you work in a job that doesn’t pay too well, surrounded by fellow workers equally fed up, it creates a difficult environment to work in.  Yes you might say they’re all in the same boat but not a nice boat long term to be in!

Along with the shortfall in free nursery places and the high cost of childcare on top, the miserable acceptable of not being able to afford to go to work is shattering for a lot of people.  There is a huge population of people who want to set a good example to their family and children by going to work to earn their crust but frankly can’t afford to do so.

As this picture paints a growing number of people being forced into a position of staying at home, stuck with living in the same area because they can’t sell their house, so unable to move to where the work is, begs the question of why virtual working hasn’t grown faster.

Business owners are extremely aware of the difficulties faced by their employees but still struggle to see a different way of working that will benefit both parties.

Not all tasks or jobs can be done from the home environment; it would not be practical along with the health and safety issues but a lot can.

The investment of allowing an employee to work more flexibly from home would create so many benefits to the employee and the business owner/manager.

As working conditions and legislation continues to change, the old adage of a ‘job for life’ no longer exists so learning to adapt to change is a must these days to get on in life. 

It is seen amongst many small businesses that the increase in taking on associates (freelancers) instead of employing people as the preferred option.  It gives the business the option not to pay all the necessary additions that come with employment like NI contributions, holiday and sick pay.  It makes perfect sense!

While this is more beneficial for the business owner/manager it creates an unsettling fluctuation and no guarantee of work/money to the associate.

Is this just a shift in how business is more likely to operate?

Will more and more people be forced to change their perception of a guaranteed wage each week or month as being lucky rather than a definite?

Will people have to be more adaptable to change and get used to managing their home budget differently.  The knock on effects look to be very challenging.

The Value of a Smile in Business

After reading a recent article in the Britain 2012 magazine I was pleased to see a write up on what a genuine smile can do and how it can make us feel.  Have a think how often do you smile or laugh during the day!  What kind of person do you present as when seeing other people?

Following this week’s events which have presented a whole heap of tough challenges, listening to Mr Osborne and Mr King’s forecast of the economy, optimism and positive feelings seem to have diluted most of us like a weak glass of orange cordial.  The feeling that no one in authority appears to have a solid answer to a positive solution to make the country better is a sober thought.  But at the same time we have a responsibility to continue in our daily lives and do the best possible.

Back to the importance of that smile – we’ve all heard the old adage it takes 20 muscles to smile and 100 muscles to frown.  I read that researchers at Bangor University found that a smile can make a huge influence on person’s decision making.  So can this make a difference on changing the financial value of a choice – like when you’re out networking or selling your services and products on a face to face basis?

So often you can walk into a room of business people at an event and pick up an instant vibe of negativity with the glimpse of someone in the room with a huge great big smile – which direction will you go to speak to someone – the happy smiley person or the grumpy frowning one?  Or does it depend on the day and how you feel?

In some ways thank goodness for social media where business can be done online in a virtual fashion.  But it doesn’t satisfy and tick every box as part of your marketing strategy – you still need to be seen!

It was interesting to hear the BBC talking about government running a wellbeing campaign to measure happiness. The Office for National Statistics are looking to see how happy and content we are in the UK – should be interesting to see how this data collected is channelled into health related targets.     

As always my philosophy is to surround yourself with like minded positive, cheerful, and encouraging people that understand and are capable of turning difficult challenging situations into opportunities rather than stark raving, tearing your hair out problems.  It really is important that we all look back and see what achievements, walloping great mistakes we’ve made over time and see them all as learning experiences.

Keep on smiling!

Great tools to use for your business

DropBox – sharing documents

A perfect tool for sharing documents within your company - allowing team members to see, update and save information, instead of sending everything via email.
Ideal for storing heavy duty PowerPoint presentations, large images and graphs Plus this software is FREE

EchoSign – e signature for important documents

This wonder tool allows you to send a document that requires a signature, for example your terms and conditions or a confidentiality agreement.
Instead of asking the recipient to sign, scan and email the document back this enables you to send the document by email which creates a link for the recipient to download and type in their name as the signature and send back to you.

Posterous – the easy way to share your updates on Twitter, Facebook…

Fabulous tool for linking all your social media to one spot so you don’t have to update each place every time you have news.

The Secret of being a professional Virtual Assistant

You have to ask is working with a Virtual PA a ‘nice to have’ or an absolute must?

Surely it depends on the nature of the business and what support the person wants.

If you spoke with one of our clients a private health specialists who spends 90% of their time on the road seeing patients at home and in schools she would definitely tell you without the support of our immediate response admin support they would struggle to do all the jobs associated with running a busy practice with a growing team of associates.

Being a member of their team on a virtual basis works wonders as they can tap into our admin support as and when required without having to pay all the expenses involved in providing office accommodation, computer equipment and paying an expensive monthly wage.

Having a clear understanding of what your client wants is massively important. Finding out what keeps them awake at night is the key to discovering how you can help them feel better, more in control and happier to go about their daily business.

For instance, they have an appointment and their previous meeting with a case manager has overrun - having a Virtual PA on hand to phone and explain their reason for being late is essential. It creates a more professional image for the business and allows the client to concentrate on getting to the appointment.

Another good example is the client finishing a meeting and wants to write up a report from the findings while they’re still fresh in the mind. A perfect opportunity to contact your Virtual PA and give the report information on their mobile, which can be typed while speaking, relayed back to confirm all the correct details and emailed over to the appropriate Case Manager or Solicitor. Takes away the pressure on the client to remember all the details of the meeting and gives the responsibility to the Virtual PA to send the report off to the right person that day. This definitely shows off the client’s business as efficient and well organised.

There will always be instances when a client desperately needs a piece of work for tomorrow morning, something like a PowerPoint presentation with all the bells and whistles. This is where a Virtual PA becomes a ‘must have’ as we’re able to say yes and work to fit around the client even it means working late into the evening to produce the necessary goods.

The secret to being a good Virtual PA is the ability to respond to tasks immediately where necessary and building a solid communication relationship that builds trust. Having the confidence to show initiative when required, acquiring a better understanding of their needs and to be in a position to react to requirements and deal with issues automatically without seeking clarification will always score points. This is how trust and reliability is built which leads to a continuous growing business relationship without the client having to think about hiring the traditional secretary and provide the traditional office accommodation.

WHAT’S THE BEST WAY TO MARKET YOUR VA SERVICES

How often do you go to a network event to be bombarded by desperate people whose immediate reaction is to sell at you before respectfully introducing themselves and giving the time and space to listen to what you might have to say?

With the high cost of attending networking events, money for petrol and parking, with a despondent feeling at the end of the session that very little business has taken place, it definitely paints an unhappy picture. This was the feedback I received after holding our local VA Get Together session in March.

The art of introducing yourself to another person at an event appears to be so aggressive and desperate with very little room left for listening to what the other person has to say. Care, consideration and respect for the other person seems to have disappeared off the planet. The human survival tactic has strongly come into play whether receiving a phone call from a desperate sales person selling telecoms and advertising space through to door to door sales people flogging utilities for the eighteenth time.

More and more people are asking what’s the best way to market your business.

Sheer persistence and patience, which unfortunately isn’t a good enough answer to those who always ask how long does it take to get your first client on board and then build up regular work.

There are no hard and fast rules set in stone when it comes to marketing a business. You do have to plan (that almost annoying dirty word that makes people sigh) – having a strategy that incorporates a large mix of marketing tools and applications as a continuous ongoing role is an absolute must.

Another question – how many times do you go to a network event and receive an email from someone you met to say - it was really nice to meet you?

Do you send a follow up email to all those people you meet and chat with, just a short note to say it was a pleasure to meet and speak with you and hope to see you again?

It might sound really corny and simple plus an extra job to do but having good manners and making the time to contact them afterwards is very important – not enough people do this.

And do you add all these people you’ve met with their business cards to your spreadsheet of contacts ready to send them a follow up on your new services and products. How else are you going to build your database of potential customers?

The biggest learning curve in our 5 years in business is always to treat people with respect, use your ears (we have 2 of them) to listen to people and always be kind. You are there to do business and build relationships – long lasting ones hopefully.

Going back to the marketing strategy you need to look at what other people are doing in your industry too. Take a look at what others are promoting on their websites, make note of their clients by reading their testimonials, this will give you insight into what industries they’re tapping into. Get yourself set up with Google Alerts and put in key words so you’re always up to date with new research via the internet. A good mix of online marketing using LinkedIn, sending out personalised emails, writing articles and news updates and attending network events is something you need to concentrate on as well as wearing all the other hats in your business.

What’s your working journey in 2011?

I’ve thoroughly enjoyed and found fascinating the current TV series ‘Britain at Work’ hosted by Kirsty Young.

It has raised a huge amount of questions prompting many conversations with my Mum looking back over the years studying people’s attitude towards work over different generations.

One question raised this week with my Mum was why I couldn’t remember very much the 80’s miner’s strikes and the terrible times families suffered in the hands of industries being wiped out causing extreme unemployment with over 3 million out of the work. During this period when I was growing up as a teenager I remember well the scenario of Dad intensely watching the evening news when you dare not say a word or else you would be glared at and told to be quiet (which I wonder now how often this typical picture plays out in family homes). It occurred to me that because my parents were self employed and ran their own business what was happening around me, didn’t directly affect me as none of our family members worked down the mines either.

My parents were lucky to be in a position where financial independence was possible, certainly didn’t earn pots of money but they didn’t have to rely on an employer to provide the work and wage packet. Yes I do remember things being tough with not a lot of money floating around but we certainly didn’t go without.

This made me realise and ask the question about attitude to life and work and what impression parents and family make on you as you grow up. Definitely having a family that ran their own business made a mark on me, helped create my outlook and influences on life – having to stand on your own two feet and not solely rely on other people. My parents were very much about being an individual and not being a ‘sheep’, following the crowd. They knew life was going to get even tougher and having a certain amount of independence and self reliability was very important.

Over the last few months I’ve had an increased amount of people contact me interested in finding out how to become a home working virtual assistant – which has been fantastic.

As always I paint a realistic picture of what it’s like to start up your own new venture, all the excitement and buzz, opportunities of being your own boss and setting up your own virtual assistance business. What I always point out is the two sides of being self employed and what the real crux of running a business involves. You can be the greatest provider of your service in the world but if you can’t sell it then you’re going to have a hard time. When you say to someone that business falls into the 80/20 rule – 80% is running the business getting clients on board and 20% is doing the actual work, for some the idea of going self employed suddenly loses its appeal. Going self employed doesn’t automatically suite everyone!

Going back to the TV series ‘Britain at Work’ – a large percentage of people are brought up with the ideals of getting a job with the strong reliance of large companies and authorities to provide the work and the wage packet every month. A large percentage of people will be looking for something different, wanting to be their own boss, choosing not to be reliant on a company to provide the work but want to be financially independent and generate their own work.

But what is guaranteed these days – very little. So are we at a tipping point in society where people are being forced into rethinking their working life journey?

After watching the tragic aftermath of the peaceful demonstrations in Hyde Park this weekend followed by the violent disruption at Trafalgar Square with the small percentage of people intent on causing violent chaos – are we walking into a worrying period of repeated demonstrations with the rise of unemployment on the up.

Will we start to see a huge rise in more people taking up the self employment route – is it a survival strategy out of this mess?

Having the confidence to go it alone when you’ve always been in work where the responsibility of finding the clients/customers/sales has been the manager/owner/executive’s role is like tipping a working role scenario on its head. All of a sudden it’s your responsibility to find the clients that want the services/products that you’re selling – you’re forced into the driving seat of being the sales person – it can be an overwhelming place to be. All of a sudden you’ve got to wear the hats of about 10 different roles usually held by different people made up in a company. Having the ability, energy, enthusiasm, drive and sometimes the courage to try something new doesn’t automatically exist in everyone.

So who is going to provide the jobs for all these people who don’t fancy self employment?

Is it up to you, individually to create your own work, take a look at what skills you already have and think hard about what you could provide as a service or a product to sell?

What is the survival strategy – does anyone have the answer that’s likely to fit all the differing scenarios to look after all those millions of people out of work.

Whose responsibility is it?

Looking at the growing Virtual Assistance Industry – what’s happening in the US and what’s happening in my area?

Obama signed the Telework Enhancement Bill in December last year allowing federal employees to work from home 2-3 days per week – I’ve been looking to see what impact this is having on US federal workers and how this new way of working is about to be rolled out.

My family lives in Doncaster, South Yorkshire and suffer the horrendous traffic congestion on route causing absolute chaos and continuous stressful journeys for those travelling into the centre due to bus lanes being incorporated into the already congested 2 lane road into the bottle neck area of the town. I wonder how many of those driving into work, dropping kids off at school and child care facilities would relish the chance of working from home even if only 2 to 3 days per week.

There is more evidence of businesses and organisations seeing the benefit of virtual working and the huge impact this can have on driving to and from office premises. Apart from the environmental factors with councils desperate to get more cars off the roads especially those leading into city centres, there’s the cost of petrol and parking charges for workers.

When will more organisations and businesses see the huge impact and benefits of allowing employees to work from home along with using virtual assistants to take care of their day to day admin tasks – it makes such absolute sense!

The BBC has caught onto the fact and did a report on ‘Doing business in your pyjamas’.

Taken from the Loudon Times in the US, Congressman Frank Wolf (R-Va.), one of the authors of the bill and a longtime advocate for telecommuting opportunities for federal workers, applauded the bill. In advocating for the bill’s passage, Auten’s group pointed to research showing that a three-day-per-week teleworker can save almost $5,900 each year on commuting costs and prevent more than 9,000 pounds of pollutants from damaging the environment.

I loved Congressman Frank Wolf’s description found on a previous article he said there was no magic in strapping yourself into a vehicle and joining a queue of traffic every day when you can easily do the same job from your home office.

So what are we waiting for, if it makes so much sense to work from your home office why aren’t more people and businesses doing this?

I would love to do a survey and ask every driver that parks their car in the centre of cities and large towns like Doncaster on a Monday morning, just to see what their reaction was if they had the chance to work from home.

Watch this space!