What a wonderful Summit. Fabulous speakers, tons of great information and contacts! I met so many people that I recognized just by names in signature blocks. Now I have a face to go with those names.

The speakers were energetic and all had great information to share on marketing, relationship building, contracts, search engine optimization, not to mention the information just passed around by networking with everyone.

The only word I can think of is “energy”. There was lots of energy from the new VAs. Their excitement fueled us all on and in my opinion, brought out the best in all of us. I know my batteries were fully recharged!

Beside the energy factor, the networking was the best. I had the opportunity to reconnect with VAs I’d met before, met VAs I’d never met but only corresponded with via email and I found a few new team members too.

I will definitely be at the 2009 Summit. I can’t wait to see what the line up is!

© 2008 Cheryl K. Callighan, MVA/Coach and owner of eOffice-VirtualAssistants LLC (www.eOffice-virtualAssist.com), has more than 30 years of executive administration and 19 years as the owner of eOffice-Virtual Assistants LLC Contact at Cheryl@eoffice-virtualassist.com.

Is your business in overwhelm?

Are you puzzled over how to make your business more successful? 

The Alliance of Virtual Professionals is the key to unlocking your business puzzle.

Experienced Virtual Professionals

The Alliance of Virtual Professionals (AOVPs) understands how to work with small businesses and busy professionals. Our alliance consists of hand-picked, highly skilled, experienced members that work as a team to guarantee your satisfaction. We specialize in working together to ensure that your projects receive the best creative, technical, and professional services available online.

What We Offer

We provide more than just general administrative support. Our talented pool of professionals are in touch with today’s latest technologies and offer you a full range of proficient services with years of experience and a proven track record of client satisfaction. Services include:

 ·         Bookkeeping

·         Blogging & eZines

·         eCommerce

·         Editing & Proofreading

·         Graphic Design

·         SharePoint & Outlook Training/Support

·         Podcasting

·         Transcription

·         Virtual Assistance

·         Web Design & Maintenance

·         Writing Services . . . and more!

Click Here to see detailed descriptions of our services.

From Overwhelm to Success

Let us unlock your business puzzle and take you from overwhelm to success!  Our goal is to help your business become productive, visible and profitable.  We’re dedicated to making sure your business grows because, we don’t look good unless you look good.Click Here to see our talented professionals and the services we can provide your business.  

The title of this blog post came to mind after reading several posts on the virtual assistant list serves. It appeared to me that many of the newer virtual assistants were having problems in two areas: 1) taking responsibility for their virtual assistant business and 2) setting boundaries with clients. 

Those of you that know me know I’m an ardent fan of Jack Canfield and his book The Success Principles. I’ve taught The Success Principles and have had numerous people tell me “This changed my life!”  

Well, Success Principle No. 1 is “Be Responsible.” This one principle alone has changed my life and my business. I no longer look for excuses, blame anyone or anything else for the outcomes of my choices nor do I complain. I try to make smart choices in my business and in my life. If the outcome is not what I was hoping for I examine my choice and my reaction to the event. I strive to learn from my mistakes.  

Being responsible as it applies to my business and how I interact with my clients means no excuses, no blaming anyone or anything and no complaining. Simply find a solution, make the right choices and provide excellent services and work products.  

I take complete responsibility for telling my clients about fees, terms, communication style, etc. I take responsibility for getting all the details of a project, getting an actual, not arbitrary deadline, and I get it in writing. My clients are aware that any changes or deviations from the original project scope means additional time and fees.  

Most importantly, all clients sign a contract and we review the terms in person over the phone. No contract, no work. Plain and simple.  

My team members all have contracts as well. Their contracts spell out their services, fees and payment terms. Both contracts have a clause that allows either party to terminate the contract with 30 days written notice.  

As for boundaries especially with clients, most of these are laid out in my contract but I specifically review my hours and communication style with each client. Clients are aware of my regular business hours and how I prefer to communicate even before they sign a contract. Urgent or complex issues deserve a phone call, day-to-day tasks or updates work well with email and I don’t use IM with my clients, it’s too disruptive for my work flow.  

I do not work evenings, weekends or holidays period. I have my boundaries for family time as well and I stick to them. While my youngest son is going to be 20 this month (no kids at home!) I now have grandchildren that I spend time with regularly.  

The bottom line is to take responsibility for all aspects of your business from setting your fees, setting your hours, getting detailed information on each project and establishing boundaries for your business operation. These few things will go along way in avoiding conflicts with your clients, your family and help to smooth out your daily business operation through less stress for you.  

Take time to identify just how you want your business to run, what you expect from your clients and what they can expect from you. No one will be disappointed and your clients will respect your business just as much as you do.    

© 2007 Cheryl K. Callighan, MVA, owner of eOffice-Virtual Assistants LLC providing administrative and secretarial services to small businesses and entrepreneurs and the University of Virtual Assistants where she assists new virtual assistants through online training. She has over 30+ years of administrative experience and 18 years as a virtual assistant. Contact: Cheryl@eOffice-VirtualAssist.com * Cheryl@UofVAs.com. Websites: www.eOffice-VirtualAssist.com * www.UofVAs.com.

Today’s clients are more likely well-versed in the typical Microsoft Office programs, Word, Excel, Outlook, PowerPoint, and Publisher. Maybe not as skilled or experienced as most Virtual Assistants but still they continue to obtain the rudimentary skills that serve them.  

Then their question becomes “Why pay someone $XX per hour when I can do this myself and save money?” It’s mostly about money and secondly about saving time. When our client/prospect is faced with spending money or spending time (if they think they can produce something fairly reasonable) they will choose using their time and saving the money.  

As a VA it didn’t take me very long to figure out my perfect client was about as tech savvy as I was. Having clients with a clue about technology simply makes working for them and communicating with them much, much easier. I like that.  

Then there’s the bigger problem. If your client/prospect knows as much as you do about the current software, hardware and technology, what are you going to sell them? What is your Unique Selling Position (UPS) going to be? Sure the old standbys could work,  “saving you time for your business” or “saving you money over hiring a full-time in-house secretary.” But what if their 14-year old daughter can put together a decent PowerPoint presentation? (My son was doing PowerPoint with audio for book reports at 9 years old.) What do we offer the client/prospect then?  

Well, that’s were continuing education or professional development comes into play. In order to provide value to our clients and prospects we need to be able to offer them services, skills and experience they don’t typically have (or have access to) such as creating a podcast for their web site, editing that podcast and maybe even uploading it to podcast a small business directory for marketing. Or maybe setting up a blog for them, complete with podcasts and RSS feed. Or maybe creating a package for their business consisting of a web site, blog, electronic newsletter and podcasts.  

Virtual Assistance is not just word processing any more! We need to seize technology and begin providing new services with a higher level of value to our clients and prospects. We need to keep abreast of the newest, latest and greatest technology not just for ourselves or to use in our own businesses but to sell to our clients and prospects. After all, the Virtual Assistant industry is literally founded on technology – computers and the Internet – we need to continue to carry technology forward, for ourselves, for our industry and for our clients/prospects.  

© 2006-2007 Cheryl Callighan, MVA, EOffice-Virtual Assistants LLC and the University of Virtual Assistants. All rights reserved.