1. Make sure you say thank you to those people who work with you – you need to look after these special people and make them feel appreciated.
2. Ask for feedback from your current clients:
a. Don’t be afraid to receive constructive criticism
b. We are all so busy running businesses, desperately looking for new customers and clients, that we forget to find out what improvements we could make to offer our existing clients that are extremely valuable to us
c. You might be nicely surprised in receiving positive feedback as well
3. It’s coming to the New Year – a good time to do a bit of spring cleaning. Time to send out an email to your database of contacts to find out if they still wish to receive your information and newsletter. With so many changes at the current time, people are moving from companies, addresses are changing due to people choosing to work from home instead of office space, so it’s important that you update those email contacts, telephone numbers and business postcodes. If you’re fed up of receiving mountains of bounce back emails after following an email campaign then this is ‘must do job’.
4. Have you got something to ‘shout about’ or a special announcement to make? For example, Virtual Administration will be celebrating its 5th year in business on the 1st January 2011. A perfect opportunity to push a good news story using your Social Media tools like LinkedIn, Twitter and Facebook. You don’t have to hard sell your products and services – tell a good news story instead.
5. Most importantly – enjoy the Christmas holiday season.
2010 has been an extremely tough year for a lot of business owners, directors, managers, employees and sub contractors... we all deserve a good break and a rest to recharge the batteries for 2011.
Wishing you all a very Happy Christmas, good health and a prosperous New Year!
Friday, December 10, 2010
Monday, November 22, 2010
Global Entrepreneurship Week 2010 – what it’s meant to me…
I had a great Friday afternoon catch up with my good friend Liz Yoxall from BESY (Business Education South Yorkshire) and I’m always inspired and ready to get up and go after spending time with Liz – a real ‘infectious enthusiasm person’ to be around.
Liz was telling me about the great and exciting happenings through Global Entrepreneurship Week 2010 - taking place in schools and colleges in South Yorkshire. Lots of different entrepreneurs from different backgrounds and countries going into schools presenting and offering their inspirational talks and adventures to students, creating a buzz about starting your own business and how exciting, challenging and satisfying this life achieving process can be.
After visiting the GEW Global Entrepreneurship Week website http://www.gew.org.uk/makeajob - I spotted on the first page some interesting facts about starting your own business.
What instantly caught my attention was the headline ‘Make a Job, don’t take a job’, on the home page of the website.
I’m going to play devils advocate here - I would like to put to the debate both sides of the discussion around being a company creating the jobs and the person deciding whether to become an entrepreneur or work for someone else.
It stated on the GEW website that:
• 50% of the population wants to start a business but only 5.8% are actually in the process of starting a business.
• A rise in 1% in self-employment in the UK would boost the UK’s GDP by around 1.5% and make up for the effect of the government cuts on GDP over the next two years.
Some very interesting facts! The stark facts gave rise to the suggestion of how highly dependent a large percentage of people in the UK have become, adopting an automatic expectation that it is the responsibility of the bigger or more established companies/organisations (public and private sector) to create and grow and provide the actual physical jobs, instead of people actually sitting down and seriously thinking about what they could actually do for themselves.
The extreme hidden wealth of talent residing in the UK, if only given the encouragement, the right resources and proper back-up to try something new and go it alone would create so much more independence, freedom and flexibility, money earned, morale boosting pride to ordinary people.
The huge responsibility of a business owner/director of a growing company to take their business to the next stage where they’re able to create vacancies for people to work and take a monthly wage and sustain this, is a tall order especially in today’s climate. Only when you try running your own business do you see the all the hurdles, hoops you have to jump through, the pit falls and stresses of growing a business do you understand what it entails. At the same time you need to experience the extreme highs, overwhelming excitement and unbelievable opportunities that come your way that would never happen if you worked for someone else. Then only do you realise the full extent of being in charge of your own person, being financially independent, having the responsibility of making your own important decisions that will take you on many different journeys.
It is also very important to be aware that running your business isn’t automatically for everyone neither does it suit every situation or everyone’s goals and dreams in life. The idea of being your own boss and not having someone telling you what to do is wonderful and it’s well known that once you’ve run your own business the sheer thought of working for someone else and taking orders is earth shatteringly horrid and not likely to happen!
From the GEW website it stated that:
• Young people (aged 18-24) are five times more likely to be unemployed than starting their own business.
This is a sad fact that so much needs to change. Taken from ‘Headlines’, Sheffield Hallam University’s news magazine, Doug Richards (Dragons Den) hosted an entrepreneurial festival event with some of the students. He said that people aged around 22, 23 have far less responsibilities at that age, giving no reason why they shouldn’t try starting a business. A plain fact stated ‘so you start a business and it fails. So what? You can get a job and try something else’.
As mentioned earlier before 50% of the people asked want to start there own business only 5.8% actually do, so what exactly is it that creates this barrier, an absolute no go area to giving it a go?
• Why do we create, allow this attitude of ‘fear of trying something new or being different’ in our young people?
• Surely not all people unemployed have an attitude that it’s easier to stay on benefits than start or try something new? A much larger percentage of people just hope to get on with life, make a living, enjoy and do well. So why not put their existing skills or new skills to the test?
• Are we all so blinkered to thinking that the only way forward is to get a job to earn the money to pay the bills, food on the table, petrol in the car and a roof over our heads?
• Are people not aware that when you take a job you hit a ceiling of how much you can earn? Where as being an entrepreneur you can break through that glass ceiling and earn what you want if you work and strive hard enough?
• Is having a regular job that brings in the monthly wage into your bank account your comfort blanket that allows you to save for the yearly holiday and put money aside for other luxuries? In today’s climate does a regular safe job exist?
• Completely understandable if you have a family to provide for and look after, you need stable regular money coming into the household to keep everything afloat but there are plenty of entrepreneurs that do this very well.
So what’s the secret and how do we change these misconceptions around starting a business?
There is and always will be a certain standard of living that everyone hopes to achieve. Everyone will have their own description of their ideal standard of living which will differ from the next person’s idea. Is money always the main driver? What about the quality of life you hope to have? Does health come into the scenario, where you live, what car you drive, where your kids go to school, how often you get to go out for a beer and a take away meal, the number of times you treat yourself at the hair and beauty salon along with holidays abroad. Are there any of these on the list you’d be prepared to go without over a couple of years to start up your own business?
How hungry and enthusiastic are you to start your own business and get your own ideas and vision into place? If you were given the chance to start your own business instead of facing unemployment and being dependent on state benefits would it make you choose?
As a rough example, if you are of an age between 18 and 24, as mentioned above what’s really stopping you from starting your own business as opposed to being unemployed? Do you really think you’re so absolutely useless that you can’t use your existing skills or learn new skills to create your own start-up?
So do we need an army of young people coming up through the ranks that are more forward thinking, independent, confident and capable of dealing with society in a more informed way and aware of the necessary pit falls and stresses along with the excitement and challenges, instead of a legacy of people who only know the existence of benefit dependency and a lot of lost hope?
We need to create a more adaptable, forward thinking, enthusiastic, flexible set of young people, who are more confident to stand on their own two feet, easily moveable to go where the work takes them, have the insatiable ‘get up and go’ spirit, that don’t necessarily need such dependency.
Taking away the fear of the unknown and allowing young people to try things (without thinking or concentrating on ‘what if it fails’) to my mind is the way forward. We should encourage and celebrate those people who try and want to achieve!
Liz was telling me about the great and exciting happenings through Global Entrepreneurship Week 2010 - taking place in schools and colleges in South Yorkshire. Lots of different entrepreneurs from different backgrounds and countries going into schools presenting and offering their inspirational talks and adventures to students, creating a buzz about starting your own business and how exciting, challenging and satisfying this life achieving process can be.
After visiting the GEW Global Entrepreneurship Week website http://www.gew.org.uk/makeajob - I spotted on the first page some interesting facts about starting your own business.
What instantly caught my attention was the headline ‘Make a Job, don’t take a job’, on the home page of the website.
I’m going to play devils advocate here - I would like to put to the debate both sides of the discussion around being a company creating the jobs and the person deciding whether to become an entrepreneur or work for someone else.
It stated on the GEW website that:
• 50% of the population wants to start a business but only 5.8% are actually in the process of starting a business.
• A rise in 1% in self-employment in the UK would boost the UK’s GDP by around 1.5% and make up for the effect of the government cuts on GDP over the next two years.
Some very interesting facts! The stark facts gave rise to the suggestion of how highly dependent a large percentage of people in the UK have become, adopting an automatic expectation that it is the responsibility of the bigger or more established companies/organisations (public and private sector) to create and grow and provide the actual physical jobs, instead of people actually sitting down and seriously thinking about what they could actually do for themselves.
The extreme hidden wealth of talent residing in the UK, if only given the encouragement, the right resources and proper back-up to try something new and go it alone would create so much more independence, freedom and flexibility, money earned, morale boosting pride to ordinary people.
The huge responsibility of a business owner/director of a growing company to take their business to the next stage where they’re able to create vacancies for people to work and take a monthly wage and sustain this, is a tall order especially in today’s climate. Only when you try running your own business do you see the all the hurdles, hoops you have to jump through, the pit falls and stresses of growing a business do you understand what it entails. At the same time you need to experience the extreme highs, overwhelming excitement and unbelievable opportunities that come your way that would never happen if you worked for someone else. Then only do you realise the full extent of being in charge of your own person, being financially independent, having the responsibility of making your own important decisions that will take you on many different journeys.
It is also very important to be aware that running your business isn’t automatically for everyone neither does it suit every situation or everyone’s goals and dreams in life. The idea of being your own boss and not having someone telling you what to do is wonderful and it’s well known that once you’ve run your own business the sheer thought of working for someone else and taking orders is earth shatteringly horrid and not likely to happen!
From the GEW website it stated that:
• Young people (aged 18-24) are five times more likely to be unemployed than starting their own business.
This is a sad fact that so much needs to change. Taken from ‘Headlines’, Sheffield Hallam University’s news magazine, Doug Richards (Dragons Den) hosted an entrepreneurial festival event with some of the students. He said that people aged around 22, 23 have far less responsibilities at that age, giving no reason why they shouldn’t try starting a business. A plain fact stated ‘so you start a business and it fails. So what? You can get a job and try something else’.
As mentioned earlier before 50% of the people asked want to start there own business only 5.8% actually do, so what exactly is it that creates this barrier, an absolute no go area to giving it a go?
• Why do we create, allow this attitude of ‘fear of trying something new or being different’ in our young people?
• Surely not all people unemployed have an attitude that it’s easier to stay on benefits than start or try something new? A much larger percentage of people just hope to get on with life, make a living, enjoy and do well. So why not put their existing skills or new skills to the test?
• Are we all so blinkered to thinking that the only way forward is to get a job to earn the money to pay the bills, food on the table, petrol in the car and a roof over our heads?
• Are people not aware that when you take a job you hit a ceiling of how much you can earn? Where as being an entrepreneur you can break through that glass ceiling and earn what you want if you work and strive hard enough?
• Is having a regular job that brings in the monthly wage into your bank account your comfort blanket that allows you to save for the yearly holiday and put money aside for other luxuries? In today’s climate does a regular safe job exist?
• Completely understandable if you have a family to provide for and look after, you need stable regular money coming into the household to keep everything afloat but there are plenty of entrepreneurs that do this very well.
So what’s the secret and how do we change these misconceptions around starting a business?
There is and always will be a certain standard of living that everyone hopes to achieve. Everyone will have their own description of their ideal standard of living which will differ from the next person’s idea. Is money always the main driver? What about the quality of life you hope to have? Does health come into the scenario, where you live, what car you drive, where your kids go to school, how often you get to go out for a beer and a take away meal, the number of times you treat yourself at the hair and beauty salon along with holidays abroad. Are there any of these on the list you’d be prepared to go without over a couple of years to start up your own business?
How hungry and enthusiastic are you to start your own business and get your own ideas and vision into place? If you were given the chance to start your own business instead of facing unemployment and being dependent on state benefits would it make you choose?
As a rough example, if you are of an age between 18 and 24, as mentioned above what’s really stopping you from starting your own business as opposed to being unemployed? Do you really think you’re so absolutely useless that you can’t use your existing skills or learn new skills to create your own start-up?
So do we need an army of young people coming up through the ranks that are more forward thinking, independent, confident and capable of dealing with society in a more informed way and aware of the necessary pit falls and stresses along with the excitement and challenges, instead of a legacy of people who only know the existence of benefit dependency and a lot of lost hope?
We need to create a more adaptable, forward thinking, enthusiastic, flexible set of young people, who are more confident to stand on their own two feet, easily moveable to go where the work takes them, have the insatiable ‘get up and go’ spirit, that don’t necessarily need such dependency.
Taking away the fear of the unknown and allowing young people to try things (without thinking or concentrating on ‘what if it fails’) to my mind is the way forward. We should encourage and celebrate those people who try and want to achieve!
Tuesday, October 19, 2010
PRESS RELEASE - Churchill Fellow’s USA Tour on Virtual Assistance
2010 Churchill Fellow Tracey Clarke embarked on her five week journey to the USA at the start of September to research the growing US Virtual Assistance Industry.
Her immediate love of the place and impression was the overwhelming first-class hospitality and incredible friendliness from everyone, an insatiable appetite to learn, succeed and the infectious entrepreneurial vision and spirit of those she met. Drawing a comparison between working cultures in the US and UK was found to be highly intriguing.
Tracey’s visit to Washington, DC during the record high temperatures was a wonderful experience. The opportunity to meet up with two professors at VCU Virginia Commonwealth University in Richmond, Virginia, who were concentrating on developing further teleworking projects was fantastic. An impressive visit to Capital One’s hub of operations in Virginia provided a wealth of new ways and options in which employees are empowered to work in a much more productive, inviting and enjoyable environment.
Meeting with the VADFW group of professional Virtual Assistants offering their expert virtual office services to businesses was a real treat enabling Tracey to make new great friends and gather important VA research in the areas of Dallas and Fort Worth in Texas.
Northern California taking in Sacramento and San Francisco opened up opportunities to visit Sierra College spending time with Professor Cyndi Dunn who created and delivers the Virtual Office Professional Degree Course which constantly fills its online class places of eager learners to become home working Virtual Assistants.
The biggest impact from this fantastic journey was the American attitude to work, a deep desire to strive and do well, a very strong work ethic and such impressive customer service and communication skills wherever visited, providing Tracey with a worthwhile experience and insurmountable wealth of research.
Her immediate love of the place and impression was the overwhelming first-class hospitality and incredible friendliness from everyone, an insatiable appetite to learn, succeed and the infectious entrepreneurial vision and spirit of those she met. Drawing a comparison between working cultures in the US and UK was found to be highly intriguing.
Tracey’s visit to Washington, DC during the record high temperatures was a wonderful experience. The opportunity to meet up with two professors at VCU Virginia Commonwealth University in Richmond, Virginia, who were concentrating on developing further teleworking projects was fantastic. An impressive visit to Capital One’s hub of operations in Virginia provided a wealth of new ways and options in which employees are empowered to work in a much more productive, inviting and enjoyable environment.
Meeting with the VADFW group of professional Virtual Assistants offering their expert virtual office services to businesses was a real treat enabling Tracey to make new great friends and gather important VA research in the areas of Dallas and Fort Worth in Texas.
Northern California taking in Sacramento and San Francisco opened up opportunities to visit Sierra College spending time with Professor Cyndi Dunn who created and delivers the Virtual Office Professional Degree Course which constantly fills its online class places of eager learners to become home working Virtual Assistants.
The biggest impact from this fantastic journey was the American attitude to work, a deep desire to strive and do well, a very strong work ethic and such impressive customer service and communication skills wherever visited, providing Tracey with a worthwhile experience and insurmountable wealth of research.
Tuesday, August 31, 2010
The True Meaning of Being Virtual
This September myself and partner Jamie will be embarking on a life changing journey to the USA for 5 weeks. I was awarded the Winston Churchill Memorial Trust Fellowship earlier this year to study and research the growing Virtual Assistance Industry in 4 different States – Washington DC, Richmond Virginia, Dallas and Fort Worth in Texas along with Sacramento and San Francisco in California.
I am in a fortunate position to be surrounded by a great team of Associates who will be looking after our day to day clients for the full 5 weeks of our trip. Although we will be between 5 and 8 hours behind during our journey across the US we will still be working and in regular contact on a virtual basis having the trusty laptop and the constant communication via Skype.
The experiences we hope to gain from our visit, meeting other VA’s, related business organisations and making lots of new friends, will create a stronger understanding of how the VA Industry works on a much bigger scale.
The US Government has recently passed a new Bill, the Telework Improvements Act of 2010. The purpose is to develop a telework program that allows employees to telework at least 20 percent of the hours worked in every 2 administrative workweeks, and for other purposes. It will help to reduce traffic congestion, parking issues and air pollution, save on petrol, and improve worker productivity and morale.
I really liked this particular quote from one of the House of Representatives, Frank Wolf of Virginia State, "Work is something you do, not someplace you go," he said. "There is no magic about strapping ourselves into a car, driving sometimes up to an hour and a half to our workplaces, and sitting in front of our computers all day.
His quote definitely does sums it up for me…
We will be meeting a team from the Virginia Commonwealth University in Richmond, Virginia, who have been successfully running telework projects. We’re hoping to learn and gain as much key information about these developments with a view to bringing more ideas back to the UK.
Our visit to San Francisco will include a visit to the Bay Area Hub http://bayarea.the-hub.net/public/ to look at the Work/Live Projects, how these have established as fantastic spaces for innovation, entrepreneurs, freelance professionals and creative artists all working and living together under one roof.
Towards the end of our visit I shall be speaking live with Dr Cyndi Dunn from Sierra College in Sacramento, CA as part of the IVAA Summit on 7 October - http://online.vasummit.org/
I shall be helping to promote the Virtual Office Professional Degree Course; talking about some of the key elements the course covers using tools such as Google Calendar, Paypal for creating invoices and how to create audio podcasts.
Please keep a track of our journey by following our blog –
http://traceyclarke-fellowship.blogspot.com/
My fellow VA colleague Denise Shaw will be holding the fort while we’re away dealing with all new enquiries and new work coming in. Please continue to email and phone on the usual contact details.
I will also be available on email at the usual address tracey@virtual-administration.com and hope to keep in contact as much as possible – but expect it may be the following day with any replies.
I am in a fortunate position to be surrounded by a great team of Associates who will be looking after our day to day clients for the full 5 weeks of our trip. Although we will be between 5 and 8 hours behind during our journey across the US we will still be working and in regular contact on a virtual basis having the trusty laptop and the constant communication via Skype.
The experiences we hope to gain from our visit, meeting other VA’s, related business organisations and making lots of new friends, will create a stronger understanding of how the VA Industry works on a much bigger scale.
The US Government has recently passed a new Bill, the Telework Improvements Act of 2010. The purpose is to develop a telework program that allows employees to telework at least 20 percent of the hours worked in every 2 administrative workweeks, and for other purposes. It will help to reduce traffic congestion, parking issues and air pollution, save on petrol, and improve worker productivity and morale.
I really liked this particular quote from one of the House of Representatives, Frank Wolf of Virginia State, "Work is something you do, not someplace you go," he said. "There is no magic about strapping ourselves into a car, driving sometimes up to an hour and a half to our workplaces, and sitting in front of our computers all day.
His quote definitely does sums it up for me…
We will be meeting a team from the Virginia Commonwealth University in Richmond, Virginia, who have been successfully running telework projects. We’re hoping to learn and gain as much key information about these developments with a view to bringing more ideas back to the UK.
Our visit to San Francisco will include a visit to the Bay Area Hub http://bayarea.the-hub.net/public/ to look at the Work/Live Projects, how these have established as fantastic spaces for innovation, entrepreneurs, freelance professionals and creative artists all working and living together under one roof.
Towards the end of our visit I shall be speaking live with Dr Cyndi Dunn from Sierra College in Sacramento, CA as part of the IVAA Summit on 7 October - http://online.vasummit.org/
I shall be helping to promote the Virtual Office Professional Degree Course; talking about some of the key elements the course covers using tools such as Google Calendar, Paypal for creating invoices and how to create audio podcasts.
Please keep a track of our journey by following our blog –
http://traceyclarke-fellowship.blogspot.com/
My fellow VA colleague Denise Shaw will be holding the fort while we’re away dealing with all new enquiries and new work coming in. Please continue to email and phone on the usual contact details.
I will also be available on email at the usual address tracey@virtual-administration.com and hope to keep in contact as much as possible – but expect it may be the following day with any replies.
Sunday, July 4, 2010
Calling all Road Warriors
Are you a ‘Road Warrior’ constantly stuck behind a wheel travelling from one client to the next appointment?
There will always be a demand for people to provide face to face contact until we arrive at the point where every household has live real time visual contact much more advanced than the great webcam and Skype.
A Virtual Assistant can be such a valuable asset if you’re out on the road. Not all reps, consultants, sales people, private health practitioners have the automatic knowledge and skill to work fancy appointment setting gadgets from their iPhone or Blackberry and don’t want the hassle of dragging a laptop around which can be easily mislaid or lost.
Having a Virtual PA on hand to phone with updates and changes to their daily appointments is an essential part of their tool kit.
One good example is a business owner who runs a very busy private physiotherapist company visiting children in schools and family homes. With an already busy family life she requires the essential tool kit of a Virtual PA to act as her safety net to keep her day to day activities running smoothly without any hiccups.
After completing her visit into school to see the patient she’s able to get back into her car and phone her Virtual PA and verbally provide the detail to make up the report/summary from the visit. The Virtual PA types as she talks creating the report which is then emailed over to the Case Manager.
Job done!
This frees up the time for the business owner to go home and spend quality time with her young family instead of frantically writing up reports from her daily visits which are sent to the Case Manager at a much later date.
Certainly makes the business owner look highly efficient!
It’s all about time management and creating that perfect work life balance in business without it costing the earth.
There will always be a demand for people to provide face to face contact until we arrive at the point where every household has live real time visual contact much more advanced than the great webcam and Skype.
A Virtual Assistant can be such a valuable asset if you’re out on the road. Not all reps, consultants, sales people, private health practitioners have the automatic knowledge and skill to work fancy appointment setting gadgets from their iPhone or Blackberry and don’t want the hassle of dragging a laptop around which can be easily mislaid or lost.
Having a Virtual PA on hand to phone with updates and changes to their daily appointments is an essential part of their tool kit.
One good example is a business owner who runs a very busy private physiotherapist company visiting children in schools and family homes. With an already busy family life she requires the essential tool kit of a Virtual PA to act as her safety net to keep her day to day activities running smoothly without any hiccups.
After completing her visit into school to see the patient she’s able to get back into her car and phone her Virtual PA and verbally provide the detail to make up the report/summary from the visit. The Virtual PA types as she talks creating the report which is then emailed over to the Case Manager.
Job done!
This frees up the time for the business owner to go home and spend quality time with her young family instead of frantically writing up reports from her daily visits which are sent to the Case Manager at a much later date.
Certainly makes the business owner look highly efficient!
It’s all about time management and creating that perfect work life balance in business without it costing the earth.
Sunday, June 20, 2010
How do we change the working culture by offering Virtual Services to businesses and organisations?
If it makes financial sense to have people working virtually from their home offices so that ‘employers’ don’t have to supply office space, computer equipment, parking space, training, travel expenses, car allowances and so on, then why are companies not embracing this most obvious change?
It ticks all the boxes and brings countless benefits to ‘employers’ along with the knock on effect of taking more cars off the roads, relieving congestion at busy periods and impacting on a company’s carbon footprint.
Just think about what happens to the traffic on the roads when the schools are shut for half term or the summer holidays. Does it make a difference in travelling to work in a morning? Notice a reduction in the amount of traffic on the roads?
This kind of impact could be achieved and added to be allowing more people to work from home on a virtual basis.
This is what it does for those people who work as VA’s (Virtual Assistants) from their home offices:
• They work as self employed VA’s charging an hourly rate instead of being employed
• Allows parents and carers to work around the family without having to leave the home environment
• Cuts down on the massively expense cost of childcare provision
• Helps create the much needed work life balance
• Allows people with disabilities to work from home – especially those who have had difficulties getting work in a traditional office setting
The most obvious benefit to an employer is the hourly rate VA’s charge.
The employer no longer has to worry about finding a monthly wage, paying all the extras in NI, sick pay, holiday pay, maternity pay and so on…
The employer is completely in control of how much time they want to spend per month on getting their admin tasks done.
Our biggest challenge is getting more businesses to embrace this working change and give Virtual Assistance a go!
It ticks all the boxes and brings countless benefits to ‘employers’ along with the knock on effect of taking more cars off the roads, relieving congestion at busy periods and impacting on a company’s carbon footprint.
Just think about what happens to the traffic on the roads when the schools are shut for half term or the summer holidays. Does it make a difference in travelling to work in a morning? Notice a reduction in the amount of traffic on the roads?
This kind of impact could be achieved and added to be allowing more people to work from home on a virtual basis.
This is what it does for those people who work as VA’s (Virtual Assistants) from their home offices:
• They work as self employed VA’s charging an hourly rate instead of being employed
• Allows parents and carers to work around the family without having to leave the home environment
• Cuts down on the massively expense cost of childcare provision
• Helps create the much needed work life balance
• Allows people with disabilities to work from home – especially those who have had difficulties getting work in a traditional office setting
The most obvious benefit to an employer is the hourly rate VA’s charge.
The employer no longer has to worry about finding a monthly wage, paying all the extras in NI, sick pay, holiday pay, maternity pay and so on…
The employer is completely in control of how much time they want to spend per month on getting their admin tasks done.
Our biggest challenge is getting more businesses to embrace this working change and give Virtual Assistance a go!
Wednesday, May 26, 2010
Businesses scrutinising every penny on invoices received – will this be the trend?
Businesses are quite rightly querying every pound and penny when receiving invoices from other providers for work done. Will this create a difficult time for service providers being required to document and record every minute, half hour spent on services/work provided, keeping rigid and strict records?
Taken from Bytestart.co.uk – The Small Business Portel - research released by Bibby Financial Services, shows that 2.38 million (53%) of UK business owners or managers are stalling payments to other parties in a bid to bridge the late payment gap. With 12 per cent of these businesses spending three days or more per month to recover payments, the potential cost to the economy is huge. Late payments could be causing a ripple effect on over half the businesses in the UK, according to new figures. The total cost of delayed settlement could be costing them up to £2bn per year. Research reveals 52% of UK business owners are spending more time this year chasing late payments than last year, costing vital time and money at a crucial stage for the UK economy.
Recent experience with a client taught us an extremely valuable lesson never to take people/businesses for granted. Always, always keep a good record of work produced with a breakdown of time spent, description of task and cost allocated ready to be invoiced.
If you can show a detailed accurate account of your time taken to complete a piece of work, does the client still have a right to refuse to pay? This is a question which needs to be addressed as this creates a continuous backwards and forwards never ending late payment chasing process which leads to unnecessary stress and time wasting.
Do not under any circumstance become complacent about receiving payments from clients/customers if they go over the agreed payment terms. Why should the money be allowed to sit in their bank making interest when it should be sat in yours? Even a long term client can hit money problems whereby they’re unable to pay their next invoice, even though previous to this time period issues around finance has never risen.
Gut instinct is there for a reason so use it! Should you have any suspicion or reason to think that a client might be facing financial problems then send them a brief run down on the number of hour’s work you’ve done so far. This will give them ample opportunity to speak up and say whether they require any more work to continue as normal or the option to pull back and say no.
A good working practice to adopt when taking on a new client is to provide only 2 hours support at the very beginning. This allows the client to see your work and what can be achieved in that time scale, plus, gives you confirmation that the client can pay when invoiced after those first 2 hours of work within your agreed payment terms.
Building good working relationships with clients is always an important part of running a business, getting paid is massively essential as to whether your continue to trade.
Taken from Bytestart.co.uk – The Small Business Portel - research released by Bibby Financial Services, shows that 2.38 million (53%) of UK business owners or managers are stalling payments to other parties in a bid to bridge the late payment gap. With 12 per cent of these businesses spending three days or more per month to recover payments, the potential cost to the economy is huge. Late payments could be causing a ripple effect on over half the businesses in the UK, according to new figures. The total cost of delayed settlement could be costing them up to £2bn per year. Research reveals 52% of UK business owners are spending more time this year chasing late payments than last year, costing vital time and money at a crucial stage for the UK economy.
Recent experience with a client taught us an extremely valuable lesson never to take people/businesses for granted. Always, always keep a good record of work produced with a breakdown of time spent, description of task and cost allocated ready to be invoiced.
If you can show a detailed accurate account of your time taken to complete a piece of work, does the client still have a right to refuse to pay? This is a question which needs to be addressed as this creates a continuous backwards and forwards never ending late payment chasing process which leads to unnecessary stress and time wasting.
Do not under any circumstance become complacent about receiving payments from clients/customers if they go over the agreed payment terms. Why should the money be allowed to sit in their bank making interest when it should be sat in yours? Even a long term client can hit money problems whereby they’re unable to pay their next invoice, even though previous to this time period issues around finance has never risen.
Gut instinct is there for a reason so use it! Should you have any suspicion or reason to think that a client might be facing financial problems then send them a brief run down on the number of hour’s work you’ve done so far. This will give them ample opportunity to speak up and say whether they require any more work to continue as normal or the option to pull back and say no.
A good working practice to adopt when taking on a new client is to provide only 2 hours support at the very beginning. This allows the client to see your work and what can be achieved in that time scale, plus, gives you confirmation that the client can pay when invoiced after those first 2 hours of work within your agreed payment terms.
Building good working relationships with clients is always an important part of running a business, getting paid is massively essential as to whether your continue to trade.
Tuesday, May 18, 2010
Why women and agency staff will be hit the hardest in Yorkshire and should consider an alternative option
Taken from the Yorkshire Post Newspaper on Saturday May 15, Jack Blanchard reported on a study showing that nearly three quarters of all public sector workers are women.
High numbers of these workers come from teaching, healthcare and most crucially administration. It is strongly believed that these back office staff along with agency workers will take the severest of cuts.
Although a lot of these jobs are part time, the fact is that an amount of 15 hours can be vital to a family relying on this important income.
It stated that more than 80% of all new jobs created for women between 1998 and 2007 were in state or public sector reliant areas.
Our mammoth task is to push the private and public sector into embracing the fast growing Virtual Assistance Industry which needs to be strongly addressed and promoted UK wide. The benefits vastly outweigh any negatives and help businesses and local councils save money, while providing self employment to those people who wish to work from home using their existing professional administration skills.
High numbers of these workers come from teaching, healthcare and most crucially administration. It is strongly believed that these back office staff along with agency workers will take the severest of cuts.
Although a lot of these jobs are part time, the fact is that an amount of 15 hours can be vital to a family relying on this important income.
It stated that more than 80% of all new jobs created for women between 1998 and 2007 were in state or public sector reliant areas.
Our mammoth task is to push the private and public sector into embracing the fast growing Virtual Assistance Industry which needs to be strongly addressed and promoted UK wide. The benefits vastly outweigh any negatives and help businesses and local councils save money, while providing self employment to those people who wish to work from home using their existing professional administration skills.
Volcanic Ash Creates Problems for Businesses
People caught out by the volcanic eruption bringing airports UK wide to a standstill caused immense problems for businesses in April 2010.
Unable to get back home from holidays and business journeys brings home the necessary need to rethink how you operate your business communication, allowing your business to continue automatically without any hiccups or mishaps.
Not everyone has a Blackberry or iPhone or access to a laptop at the drop of a hat, so unexpected weather conditions like the heavy snow fall of January this year ground a large part of the country to a standstill, causing a significant financial impact on businesses and those people who could not travel into work.
You need to ‘think on your feet’ and be able to react in any situation, having a Virtual Assistant on tap who generally works from their own home office where weather conditions don’t affect their work or communication is an absolute must.
Having the option to pass any urgent messages, jobs to be done, responsibility to a Virtual Assistant is a huge weight off any business owner/manager’s mind.
So consider the positive impact of working with a Virtual Assistant and let us take the brunt of your worries and make your life a lot less hassled and a lot more organised.
Unable to get back home from holidays and business journeys brings home the necessary need to rethink how you operate your business communication, allowing your business to continue automatically without any hiccups or mishaps.
Not everyone has a Blackberry or iPhone or access to a laptop at the drop of a hat, so unexpected weather conditions like the heavy snow fall of January this year ground a large part of the country to a standstill, causing a significant financial impact on businesses and those people who could not travel into work.
You need to ‘think on your feet’ and be able to react in any situation, having a Virtual Assistant on tap who generally works from their own home office where weather conditions don’t affect their work or communication is an absolute must.
Having the option to pass any urgent messages, jobs to be done, responsibility to a Virtual Assistant is a huge weight off any business owner/manager’s mind.
So consider the positive impact of working with a Virtual Assistant and let us take the brunt of your worries and make your life a lot less hassled and a lot more organised.
Sunday, February 7, 2010
Secured 5 week research project trip to the US looking at the Virtual Assistance Industry through the Winston Churchill Memorial Trust Fellowship
We’ve had confirmation this weekend that we’ve secured the opportunity to do a massive research project on the Virtual Assistance Industry with a chance to visit America for 5 weeks sponsored/funded through the Winston Churchill Memorial Trust Fellowship - http://www.wcmt.org.uk/
As I'm already working with Sierra College in California assisting with virtually teaching the students as part of the Virtual Office Professional Degree Course - so absolutely overwhelmed that I'll get the chance to go over to the US and meet all these people I've been speaking with on Skype and email.
What a way to kick start 2010....
As I'm already working with Sierra College in California assisting with virtually teaching the students as part of the Virtual Office Professional Degree Course - so absolutely overwhelmed that I'll get the chance to go over to the US and meet all these people I've been speaking with on Skype and email.
What a way to kick start 2010....
Saturday, January 16, 2010
February / March 2010
Virtual Teaching with the Virtual Office Professional Degree Course at Sierra College in Sacramento, California, US.
Tracey will be virtually assisting online over 5 weeks of the student degree course covering subjects on office management, invoicing, contracts and remote access tools.
Sheffield City College
Tracey will be delivering presentations on 'Running a Virtual Assistance Business' to students studying NVQ Business Administration at the college during February and March 2010.
Tracey will be virtually assisting online over 5 weeks of the student degree course covering subjects on office management, invoicing, contracts and remote access tools.
Sheffield City College
Tracey will be delivering presentations on 'Running a Virtual Assistance Business' to students studying NVQ Business Administration at the college during February and March 2010.
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