virtual assistant | Quality Practice Management Solutions

Reading Clients’ Minds

March 12, 2010 By Sherra 1 Comment

Sometimes I might as well be having the following conversation with a client when it comes to their projects.

Client – I need you to find someone to build me a fence.

Me – Where?

Client – Out around my property.

Me – Do you have a lot layout/dimensions of where you want the fence?

Client – Um, I’m not sure exactly where I want it yet.

Me – OK, moving on…What’s the fence for?

Client – Why does it matter?

Me – Um, well, is it going to be a decorative one, a tall one to keep stuff out, for livestock, chickens, kids, etc.?

Client – Oh, I just want something around the perimeter to define my property.

Me – OK, so, chain link/hurricane fencing, barbed wire, chicken wire, picket, privacy, split rail, stone, brick…???

Yeah, that conversation could go on and on, but I think you get the idea. Seriously, clients and potential clients, KNOW what you want when you ask your VA to do something for you – and SHARE that information with him/her. Don’t give just half the information. If you KNOW you’re going to want a 4″ natural stone fence, pass that information on. It’s very costly for YOU (and frustrating to us) when we have to drag it out of you and end up on a snipe hunt!

OIVAC – Online International Virtual Assistants Convention

April 29, 2009 By Sherra Leave a Comment

It’s a Steal! 5 by 5 pm on 5/5

It’s a steal! OK. Maybe not quite a steal… but it’s still one heck of a bargain! The OIVAC is celebrating the number 5. Purchase any 5 sessions by 5pm on 5/5 and you will receive passes to attend 2 sessions for FREE!

Yep, that’s right. Buy a 5 session pass (only $100.00) by no later than 5pm on Cinco de Mayo (5/5) – and you get 2 FREE passes. That’s 7 passes to presentations provided by industry leaders on topics relevant to today’s virtual professional for the price of 5.

Sounds too good to be true, doesn’t it?!

Well, that’s not all….

Not only do you get access to 2 additional OIVAC sessions at no charge – you can give your free passes to anyone with an e-mail address, internet connection and the desire to learn! Give a FREE pass to a client, co-worker, spouse, mother, child, nephew, neighbor… or redeem yourself.

Simply buy a 5 session pass by 5pm on 5/5, and in your confirmation you will automatically receive the details on how to redeem or gift your 2 FREE passes.

Of course, no need to wait til the last minute! The OIVAC 5 special starts now, so navigate to www.oivac.com and buy your 5 session pass today!

Call for Moderators:

If you would like to serve as a moderator during the OIVAC this year, be a part of this international event, and get your name known and out there to fellow VAs and business people, contact Anita at anita@akavirtualpa.com.au or Nikki onnikki@scribes.net.au.

Training sessions will take place next week on 7 and 8 May – times to be confirmed. It’s seriously very easy to do and you do get a blurb of what to say as well as sitting in for free at the session.

Open Sessions:

Speaking of sessions, we have several FREE activities scheduled this year.

* International Virtual Assistants Day Celebration – VAs celebrate the industry and our contributions to the growth & stability of small
businesses, awarding of Thomas Leonard International Virtual Assistant of Distinction and Janet Jordan Achievement Awards; Keynote Speaker Susan Solovic, CEO of SBTV.com; State of the Industry presentation; and distribution of prizes and giveaways
* Networking Sessions – Opportunities to meet and greet VAs from around the globe
* Exhibitor Halls and Trade Show – Network and chat with VA organizations, vendors and grab downloads, giveaways, etc.
* Four Sponsor Sessions – Learn about some VA organizations, benefits of becoming a member and get to meet the leadership
* Certification and Accreditation – Open discussion about pros and cons and VA organizations offering credentialling opportunities
* Intro to the Virtual Assistance Industry – Sessions where potential and aspiring VAs can get answers to questions about the industry
* Understanding Your Client through Market Research – Better define your business’ future growth through target audience research, impacting successful marketing plans/campaigns

Yes, they are all free and open to the public activities. Stop by and check them out. These are all no-cost opportunities to speak up, ask questions, give input, and have a good time!

And, don’t forget the 37 seminars given by expert VAs, niche specialists and Internet-based business leaders, waiting to share their insight and knowledge. Read profiles of our exceptional array of presenters here.

Take advantage of the 5 by 5 p.m. on 5/5 special or signup for the entire convention and receive mp3 recordings along with your purchase. And, you don’t have to travel, worry about hotel, meals, leaving family friends or clients.Visit OIVAC and check out the schedule for details.

4th Annual Online International Virtual Assistants Convention

April 17, 2009 By Sherra Leave a Comment

I just got this update from the OIVAC today …

“X” marks the spot on your calendar for this year’s 4th Annual Online International Virtual Assistants Convention (OIVAC).

“Jammies” and your favorite chair are just the style for the cost-effective, daily, 8 a.m. to 12 midnight, Thursday, May 14, 2009 – Saturday, May 16, 2009 online Convention. Highlights of this year’s event include exciting features like: Social Networking, Fundamentals Of Copywriting,1 Shopping Cart, QuickBooks and technology topics like Google Analytics, W3C, CSS, Advanced Microsoft Office and WordPress.

Also offered: never-before-seen activities and training, product demonstrations, seminars on business planning and marketing, and other
informative and business enhancing topics. Prizes and awards, exhibits and trade show booths, too! And don’t forget our famous Blog Hopping and Podcast Tour that kicked off on April 13th.

That’s three days of powerful stimulation! And just so you know, there is still time to get your name on the attendance list. It’s so easy to order
your “tickets,” so you can meet up with your friends and colleagues, and create a network of new contacts. Make it a point to stop by www.oivac.com today. This is one event you won’t want to miss!

… Now, as a side note, I will be presenting the QuickBooks seminar, so be sure to sign up!

My Request for Creating Custom Twitter Backgrounds

April 7, 2009 By Sherra Leave a Comment

I’ve been using Twitter for a while now, and also use it for my clients and I started doing custom backgrounds in Photoshop several months ago. I tend to think of custom backgrounds in 3 categories: good, boring, and frustrating.

The good backgrounds are the ones that are creative or have good contact information AND are optimized for smaller screens. Let’s face it, how many of us use laptops and are using 15″ (or smaller) screens?

The boring backgrounds are the plain standard backgrounds that you choose from in Twitter.

The frustrating backgrounds are the ones where the Tweeple are TRYING to have a good background, but because they have little or no concept of how the viewer’s screen size affects how their background looks to the viewer, half their information gets cut off by the bottom of the screen, the Twitter box or the right side of the screen. What if I DO want to connect with you on Facebook, LinkedIn or call you? I can’t because your information is chopped off and you potentially lost a valuable connection.

Here are MY suggestions for optimizing the viewability of your Twitter background:

Don’t put anything important on the right side. Keep that for the “pretty” stuff because unless I’m viewing it on a 21″ monitor I probably won’t see it anyway.
Keep the information on the left side no farther than about 130-150 pixels from the left edge (even less if you can swing it). Up to 150 pixels from the left is still visible on my husband’s 15″ laptop.
Keep the information on the left side no farther down than about 550 pixels from the top edge (again, even less if you can swing it).

I can not even begin to tell you how frustrating it is for me (even on my 17″ widescreen laptop) when I can’t see the contact information. You are much more likely to have someone visit a web site, send you an email, connect with you on other social networks, etc. if they can see the information right on their screen. We are pretty lazy as a society (yes, I’m part of that society), and we don’t want to have to click on your web site link in your bio area (You DO have a web site or other information link on your Twitter profile don’t you? That’s a whole other can of worms.) and search around your web site to find how to contact you.

So, bottom line, if you are creating your own Twitter background (or having someone do it for you), please check to see what it looks like on at least as small a monitor as a 15″

Here is a resource I found very helpful when I don’t remember the dimensions (which is more often than I care to admit). Croncast

Happy Tweeting!

Is a Virtual Assistant retainer the same as an attorney’s retainer?

March 29, 2009 By Sherra Leave a Comment

I recently spoke with a potential client and the conversation turned to my retainer option. The PC noted that she had heard the term from other VAs but was not completely clear on what that was and asked if it was similar to the retainer for an attorney. This question has also come up between virtual assistants on various VA forums.

A Virtual Assistant retainer is not quite the same as a retainer for an attorney. Almost every VA I’ve come in contact with has the same definition for a virtual assistant retainer. A VA retainer is pre-purchased hours (generally each calendar month) and they are ‘use or loose’. Some VAs give a discount to retainer clients and some do not.

So, why would you even consider a retainer with a virtual assistant? Other than a potential discount, the major reason is that if you have a retainer agreement with a virtual assistant, that VA has budgeted his/her time for your tasks. “Hourly” clients are not guaranteed a VAs time. If he/she has scheduled his/her time for the week and an hourly client contacts them with a project, the VA is not obligated to accept that project.

Don’t Make this Mistake When Responding to Proposal Requests

February 19, 2009 By Sherra Leave a Comment

I recently posted a request for proposal on one of those on-line freelance sites to have a very large Word document with table information converted to an Excel spreadsheet. Generally it’s a straightforward issue that I would have no problem completing myself. However, this particular table had a trait that made it just a bit out of my league (I know bupkus about scripts) – but someone with more advanced Excel skills would have no problem with, which was confirmed by some of the responses I got for my request.

Now, on to what annoys me…

Do not make the person requesting the proposal look in different places to find your bidding information. Please just respond to the proposal in the designated proposal area. Don’t make me go to the stinkin’ private message board to see what you have to say. I’ve got 50+ proposals to look through and I DON’T want to have to track down your response. Needless to say, those who responded with “See my response in the PMB”, or even LESS professional “pls see pm” didn’t even get a second look – and barely got a first one.

I DID however, appreciate those who attached a sample of how they converted the sample page I attached to my proposal. That showed me they actually looked at what I put out there and thought about what I needed.

The “canned” responses that had absolutely no reference to what I needed done in the first paragraph of their response also did not get a second look.

Article for my local Chamber of Commerce

January 27, 2009 By Sherra Leave a Comment

Here is a copy of the article I wrote for my local Chamber of Commerce’s quarterly publication. What is a Virtual Assistant?

How do I find a virtual assistant?

January 8, 2009 By Sherra Leave a Comment

This week I’ve been posting about what a virtual assistant is and the cost of a virtual assistant. Your next question may be, “How do I go about finding a virtual assistant for my business?”

There are several resources for finding a VA to partner with to help you grow your business. Since virtual assistants are, well, virtual, odds are you will not find a VA in your local yellow pages. Also, because they are virtual, that means you are not limited to a VA in your local area. Other than doing a web search and wading through the thousands of VA web sites, you can turn to virtual assistant associations. All VA associations have a section of their web site dedicated for potential clients to submit a request for proposal (RFP). Once the RFP has been posted to the private, members’ only portion of their web site, individual VAs then respond directly to the business owner who has requested VA services. It is then up to the individual business owner to screen the proposals and begin a conversation with who they believe would be the best fit for them and their business needs.

So, what VA associations are there? There are hundreds of VA associations (local, regional, national, and international). Two good places to start are VAnetworking and the International Virtual Assistants Association (IVAA). Both are international organizations, but the majority of their members are in North America.

Don’t be shocked by the cost of a Virtual Assistant

January 6, 2009 By Sherra Leave a Comment

Earlier this week I wrote about what a virtual assistant is. Some people are initially surprised to see the hourly charge for a virtual assistant. VA fees for generalists can range from $25 to $50 per hour and specialized VAs can charge $75 per hour or more. That can seem a lot at first glance, but compared to the actual cost of an hourly employee, VAs are right in line with, and sometimes less than, the cost of an on-site employee. But remember, a virtual assistant is not an employee – VAs are business owners like you, who are responsible for all their own expenses related to running a business such as taxes, software, computers, electricity, Internet connection, health insurance, retirement, etc. The median wage for an entry level administrative assistant in my local area (South Carolina) is $16 per hour, not counting bonuses and benefits. Factoring in bonuses and benefits, the actual cost to the employer is over $24 per hour. Add in the cost of employment taxes, an extra computer, telephone, electricity, work space, unproductive time such as breaks, etc. and the actual cost of an administrative assistant can easily top $30 per hour – that’s just for an entry level assistant. The cost goes up significantly with experience, increased responsibilities and location.

Here is another VA vs. Employee cost comparison at VAnetworking.com.