Tracey D’Aviero, Virtual Assistant

For many small business owners and solopreneurs, working with a Virtual Assistant (VA) is becoming more common. Do you have a VA yet? If you do, congratulations on making a great business move! If not, what are you waiting for?

When you run your own business, it can be easy to fall into the trap of ‘doing it all’ yourself. But remember that by outsourcing those tasks that you don’t do well, or that you don’t want to do, you will be freeing up your time to do the things that you are an expert at doing.

Actually there are only 2 things you should be doing in your business : you should be working with clients (the thing you are an expert at!), or you should be doing specific marketing tasks to grow or manage your business (meeting and getting to know prospective clients!). All the rest should be outsourced to appropriate people.

In my networking circles, I am always talking about the merits of finding a VA who is a good fit for you … but up until last month I didn’t follow my own advice! I just hired my own VA last month and am already realizing how much more organized I am … how much more time I actually have to ‘be’ in my business.

It is amazing when you get those little things off your plate that you really shouldn’t be doing anyway, how much more organized you can be and how you can actually save money by spending money – by freeing up your time to do client work, networking or marketing.

So if you haven’t started working with a VA yet, what are you waiting for? I can honestly say I wish I did this a long time ago (and you will too!)

Whew. Where have I been the last few weeks? Just when I thought I was getting organized, I went and dreamed up a new idea.

Your VA Mentor is here! I have put together a training and mentor program for new Virtual Assistants, to help them get set up for success.

I am extremely proud of the course materials I have been putting together over the last few weeks (truthfully they have been coming together in bits and pieces over the last several years … it is so great to be able to pull them together and polish them!), and I know that my students are going to get some amazing information in this course – not to mention the bonuses I have planned for them!

You can get more information about the program itself (and me!) at my website: www.yourvamentor.com.

I feel very fortunate to have a very successful VA business, and I am happy that I can share my knowledge of the VA industry with people who are just starting out. I am excited to share my tips and tools and guide them through the process of getting set up in a professional manner so they can sign those clients!

My business has boomed in the last year and I now take new clients only by referral. I have hired team members to help me get it all done. I have developed systems and procedures for everything I do so that I can be sure that my clients are getting the best support they deserve, and so that my team feels confident as they work on new projects.

I am looking forward to sharing my strategies and how I built my business with my Your VA  Mentor students. The first class starts tomorrow night (Wed May 19) and registration is still open until noon tomorrow. You can choose to pay all at once or choose our convenient payment plan. Another session will be scheduled soon, but act fast, because the early bird price will not be available much longer!

(If you are an established VA, ask us about our affiliate program … you can earn great commissions for referring people to us!)

So here I am, still transitioning my business to the beautiful vision that it is inside my head! I am making space in my day, making space in my business, for new clients and more business from existing clients.

There is much to do, and as long as I am breaking it down into manageable chunks, it is really not a difficult process. Each day I have put aside time to do ‘something’ for my business that will help me learn and grow. Last week I submitted an RFP to VAClassroom to get some new people on my team (how Tim Ferriss of me, huh?).

I have a few people that already help me out with overflow and special types of work that I do not do (read: graphics and design!) but now I am expanding to have more VAs work with me on a regular basis to take care of the growing list of tasks that my clients need.

I constantly tell my clients that it’s important to build a support team around them so that they can focus mainly on their clients and what they LOVE to do in their business. So the more I can take off their plates, the more time they will have to concentrate on just what they want to do.

By putting a team in place that can handle a larger workload, that means that I can spend more time planning for my clients, and we can get our initiatives in social media or just marketing working harder for them.

I am looking forward to this new transition in my business, too. I look forward to being more productive, and learning as much from my team members as I hope they learn from me!

As a solopreneur, one of the most important things that you can do in your business (and for your business!), is to grow with it. Although you might go into business for yourself with a very static view of which services you will provide, you need to be aware that the old adage ‘a change is as good as rest’ is really true. You can breathe new life into your everyday work by keeping an eye out for change and growth opportunities!

I have been a solopreneur for many years, but over the years I have grown from providing financial services to providing Internet marketing and social media services. I am certain that I could never have predicted that I would be working with shopping carts and social media when I started my business so many years ago as a food & beverage consultant, but I grew with my business when I saw change approaching, and I would never look back.

How did I grow? I learned everything I could about what I was doing at the time, and then I kept an eye up ahead in the road to see what else was coming my way.

I have said I am in perpetual learning mode, and that is true. When I worked in finance, I studied accounting and business and took workshops in Excel and databases. I needed to know that I was always using the most current methods in my daily work.

It just so happened that I needed to take over some projects from a colleague that were closely related to my financial work. They were documents and training manuals. So I grew in the direction of words, and away from numbers.

I began to focus mainly on document work, and I took writing courses and learned about back-of-the-book indexing. I refreshed my education in the principles of grammar and sentence structure. I expanded into proofreading website copy and then realized that HTML was really not as difficult as everyone said it was. So I took a course in HTML.

That has been one of the smartest moves I ever made in my career. I do not do web design, but being able to set up sales pages and do website updates is a really big business for a Virtual Assistant.  I have continued to grow with Internet marketing and now social media.

Perpetual learning is a great way to keep growing with your business. By recognizing the changing needs of your business, you can bring a fresh, new perspective to your clients. Give them what they need, maybe  even before they realize they need it!

This week I was able to attend the Ottawa Virtual Alliance (OVA) October breakfast meeting. OVA is the association for Virtual Assistants who are located in the Ottawa area. We keep in touch via email, but we get together several times a year for breakfast and a chat, and that’s what I really like about this group.

When you work on your own, it really helps to get together with people who ‘get’ what you do for a living. I am aware that there are many people who don’t understand what I do for work, and it’s always nice to get together with my colleagues to have a bit of a chat about how work is going.

I have mentioned before that I really value the face time that I can get with my colleagues, and OVA is no exception. We enjoy breakfast while using each other as sounding boards for ideas and issues, and sharing industry stories.  Barbara Best (Virtual Works)and Raymonde Lemire (Documents Etc.)are the founders of OVA and together they provide support and direction for new and aspiring VAs, as well as great advice and insight for those of us who have been in the business for a while.

We have just set up a Facebook Page for Ottawa Virtual Alliance. Check it out here, and please feel free to contact us if you are a VA in the Ottawa area. Our next breakfast meeting is December 11 and there is always space at the table!

And if you are not in the Ottawa area, seek out your Virtual Assistant association in your area – you will be able to share and network with people who truly understand our industry.

VAClassroom is offering a new course that will teach you to create fantastic Facebook pages!

Facebook fan pages can be used as a great marketing tool for your product or service, because so many people are connected to social networking sites these days.

Fan pages integrate with your other marketing tools, such as your blog, and can help you reach a bigger audience. By getting increased exposure, you can increase traffic to your website or blog, and connect with more potential clients and generate more income opportunities.

Visit VAClassroom to learn more about the course, and to register!

I recently finished my Social Media Marketing Specialist certification through VAclassroom.

I love taking courses through VA classroom. The ones I take are self-paced, which means that you do them on your own schedule. This can be very helpful for people like me who have a full schedule of client work and a busy family life.

I am in perpetual learning mode. I love to learn new things, and I am constantly seeking out places to learn things about my business.

However, if there is a course, seminar or event online that doesn’t offer a self-paced element (or if a follow up mp3 or document can not be sent to me after the live event has taken place), I won’t sign up for it.   At times I have found myself logged in at 2 a.m. just because it suited my schedule, so, for me, self-paced learning really is the way to go.

Of course, self paced learning is not a new concept – the option of taking correspondence courses was available when I went to high school many years ago.

In fact, my girlfriend took a correspondence French course while we were in high school. She was not great in French, but I used to help her through her lessons, as I plugged away at a similar curriculum in our high school. She studied mainly business courses like informatics and accounting in high school, and I stayed with the mainstream academic stuff, so she took her French elective via correspondence.

Long story short, she got her French credits and it was a good thing she did, as she moved away after high school and worked for the Disney chain, and she was able to go to France to help open EuroDisney. Now she lives in Holland with her husband and two boys, and runs her own business.

So for many years self-paced learning has been beneficial for people like my friend, but now with the internet, this form of learning can really help you enhance anyone’s personal life or business.

The concept is simple: someone puts together some training materials in the form of PDFs or PowerPoint presentations along with audio files or video files with the training instructions on them, and there is the course. You sign up for them and you are able to study when it’sconvenient for you.

So whether you call them correspondence, self-paced, home study or long-distance learning courses, the concept of taking someone’s prepared materials and learning at your own pace, is a great way to continue to improve your education and tending to your busy life.

It can give you the edge over competitors online, by helping you to stay current with the changing trends of the internet. I highly recommend to find a place like VAclassroom that offers programs on subjects that interest you, and get learning!

One of the things I love about being a Virtual Assistant is the chance to work with people that I want to work with.

It’s not a job, it’s a business. And I have worked very hard over the years to be able to pick and choose my clientele now. I rarely seek out new clients, though … much of my business comes through referral from my other clients or people that I know.

It can be said that networking is everything when you are running any type of business, but networking doesn’t seal the deal. It gets you to where you need to be, but YOU are the reason that potential clients will want to work with you, or they won’t.

YOU = your personality, your work ethic, your style, your communication skills.

Many of my clients have been with me for many years. I don’t very often have a client ‘quit me’, and I don’t very often quit them. If that happens, it’s usually pretty early in the game. Once we have done any type of work together, we end up growing together, because the fit was right.

Oh, that’s not to say that I haven’t parted ways with clients over the years. That has definitely happened … but I am proud to say that in the last, probably, three years, that I still work with 90% of the clients that have come on board with me. That’s 9 out of 10, which is pretty good.

Take the time when you are having your preliminary meeting with your potential client, to really see how their personality and their style and their needs fit into your ‘work box’. If they don’t fit into your ideal client type, take a pass on them. It probably won’t work out long-term.

It’s like any relationship … you have to ‘fit’ to make it work.

I recently took some time away from my busy schedule of client work to focus on my own professional development.

From June 3 to 7, I was in Niagara Falls, Ontario with a number of other virtual assistants at the Forum on Virtual Assistance, or as we call it, FoVA.

The slogan for FoVA is ‘Meet, Learn and Grow’ and we sure did that (and more!).

It is a gathering where we meet others in same line of work (it can be isolating working from home all the time!), and where we learn (seminars and workshops) and where we grow from our experiences at the conference (whether they are work-related or personal experiences!).

Wesnesday, June 3, I made my way to Niagara Falls and got in quite late. I was lucky enough to locate a gang of VAs – some of whom I had met before, but some of whom I had not. They had finished dinner and were just hanging out relaxing after dinner, and luckily I was able to join them to unwind after a long day of driving. I also met my roommates that I would be staying with for the week (more on them in another post!). There is nothing like meeting people in person who you ‘know’ online. Great fun!

Thursday, June 4,  I had the very good fortune to be able to attend a workshop on blogging and social media by an industry great, Kathie Thomas. Kathie came all the way from Australia to speak at FoVA this year, and I was thrilled to meet her and to learn from her.

Thursday night was the official meet n greet for FoVA, and everyone else arrived for dinner and drinks. Somehow after our great dinner at the Marriott, we ended up at the Casino, where we had fun dancing to the band, and we even spotted a celebrity or two (check out Facebook photos for our much-discussed missed photo op!).

Well, it so happened that Friday, June 5 was my birthday, so when the clock struck 12 in the Casino that night, I received quite the celebration (with my friend Pat @cletch who was also born June 5). There aren’t many better places to celebrate your birthday than with a gang of crazy friends in Niagara Falls (but I digress!).

Friday brought more seminars, and I was happy to see my favourite FoVA 2008 speaker again, Mary Lou Ashton, who talked about how to set professional and personal foundations and how to eliminate tolerations. Friday lunch was a Lunch n Learn session about different personality types with Janet Barclay. Friday afternoon we learned all about Wordpress from Frances Palaschuk (one of my awesome roomies). Friday night the whole gang went for dinner with Alex and Julie from Solvate. Very full schedule, so Friday night was a welcome relaxing evening with plenty of laughs!

Saturday morning we had an amazing panel of professionals available for a panel discussion: representatives from various VA groups and associations around the world  (Yvonne Weld, Kristi Pavlik, MaryLou Ashton, Jeannine Clontz, Stacy Brice, Dawn Goldberg, Kathie Thomas, Sharon Williams, Pam Ivey .. have I missed anyone? If I got your link wrong, please let me know and I’ll edit it!).  We missed seeing Tawnya Sutherland and Elayne Whitfield on the panel, but it was amazing to have such a group of highly respected people all on the same panel!

Saturday afternoon we spent with Pam Ivey who discussed defining your niche, and creating passive streams of revenue within your niche.

In between we had loads of fun, but the sessions were extremely informative by all – (there were many more sessions available - the above list are the seminars I attended).

It’s truly professional development (amid the fun) for virtual assistants anywhere. I would highly recommend attending FoVA to any virtual assistant, whether you are starting out or have been in business for while.

There is nothing like getting together with colleagues and even mentors, to discuss the finer points of our industry. And there is definitely nothing like meeting the people that you are in contact with every day online, up close and in person!

I know for myself that I came home from this year’s conference with a renewed excitement for my business, some great networking opportunities, and some fantastic new friendships. I am looking forward to using all of my newly-acquired knowledge to forge ahead in my business for 2009.

Thanks to Barb Lang for all her hard work this year, pulling FoVA 2009 together. Thanks also to all of those who helped in any small (or large!) way, to make the conference such a memorable event for all of us.

I can’t wait for FoVA 2010 (wherever it is!) …

Wow is it possible that I haven’t posted since mid-May? I guess so! June kinda got away on me … attending FoVA in Niagara Falls the first week of June certainly had a lot to do with that for me. (Next post will be about my experiences at FoVA!)

I’ve never been off work for a week for a conference before. It was great, but it took planning the two weeks before and catching up the two weeks after just to be able to do it.

If you know me, you’ll know that I’m a list-maker and a details person. I always try to approach each situation (work or personal) by assessing the necessary steps and then planning the best route to the result.

Lately I have been starting to work with the social marketing needs of my clients, and we always begin with a checklist that we turn into an action plan, just to be sure we start off on the right track.

The extra attention that we put into the planning phase pays off in the end, when we know exactly what we are going to include in our strategy, and how we can best pull it all together. The setup for social marketing can be very daunting, and it is easy to get lost in the maze of it all. Good planning is essential to streamlining your strategy and saving valuable hours of setup time.

After the proper setup is done, the maintenance is much easier to manage. It’s like anything … plan it well and then execute to the best of your ability. It may not go perfectly every time, but you’ll be better prepared to handle any bumps along the road if you plan accordingly.

Take the time with your VA to figure out what you want to do with your social marketing, and then plan your implementation strategy to get there the right way. You’ll be glad you did