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VA Network News

Issue 1, February 2008

Editors: Kathie M. Thomas and Carmen MacDougall

Thank you to everyone who has subscribed - it was great to see them come in! Please do feel free to forward this newsletter and invite others to subscribe as well. Let's all join together to make this a wonderful contribution to our industry as a whole. It is you, the reader, who will help this grow if you participate as below.

Your dues for this free newsletter is to submit two tips a quarter. As the tips increase we hope to send this newsletter out every two weeks. This is a newsletter for the Virtual Assistant Industry by Virtual Assistants so we look forward to your contributions.

Do you have tips you can share with the VA industry regarding technology, resources, sales & marketing, PR and other areas? Share your tips here, maximum 250 words (the shorter the better), with just your name and email address. No URLs or other promotional wording please.

Time Management Tip - Terence Kierans, Cyberspace Virtual Services

1. Use just one calendar for all your appointments and scheduled events, business and personal (two if you have a PDA and can be certain to keep it synchronised with your PC).
2. Do something productive, like making notes, while you wait for the PC to reboot, or while on hold on the telephone.
3. You can use your time more effectively if you know where it is going. Keep a “Time List”. For a minimum of five days, as you complete each major task or spend time, log it in on your list. Include date, time and what you did, the length of time it took, and the rating:

A = Essential, B = Necessary, C = Trivial and D = No Value.

Analyse the results. Nearly always you will find chunks of time wasters you can control and minimise.

1. Make things important enough and they will get done. Work smarter by identifying what is important.
2. Keep a clean desk and your focus on what must be done.
3. You spend a lot of time reading each day. Increase reading speed by taking a speed-reading course.
4. Subscribe to Dr. Donald E. Wetmore's newsletter – from which I learned most of these tips.

Sales & Marketing Tip - Louise Pack, Assist You Administration

As a previous National Sales Manager for a Hotel Chain my tips are for sales  and marketing.  S imple but effective they are:

1. Never underestimate the value of a good client relationship for free marketing, keep your clients happy with excellent service and the occasional unexpected bonus (either in work or remembering their birthday or a special event) and they will definitely talk to their friends (fellow business people) about their fantastic VA. 
2. Your image that you present via your website and email/phone etiquette is the equivalent to meeting a client in person within the virtual world, so remember to remain professional at all times, this ensures you are respected by the client and gives them confidence to use you again and again.

Tips For Your VA Business - Lisa Taliga, Virtual PA

1. Volunteering in your local community is an excellent way of getting clients and growing your business. I found my biggest ongoing client this way. The time you invest into volunteering will pay back many times over. It really is true that if you give first, you will receive.
2. When setting goals, as well as saying "I want to earn X amount in my business this year" or "I want to lose X pounds in 4 weeks", write down goals in terms of behaviours. Examples of this would be "I will go to X number of networking events this month", or "I will join X number of online forums to network with potential clients this month" or "I will exercise X times per week over the next month". This way, you're more likely to achieve your goals, rather than having a pie-in-the-sky idea.

Do you want to know how to do something or where to find something? Why not ask here and we'll compile a list of answers to send out in an issue in the following month.

Question: Should my rates be showing on my website? Shy VA.

What is your answer to this question? Please give us your answer at our Comments section - please include the question that you are answering.

This month's topic is Setting Goals for a new year, or perhaps a new business. Share your tips here for this topic. Please put 'Topic of the Month' in your subject and send to the Editor.

- Patty Benton, JERPAT Training & Coaching

Many people make the mistake of not making their goal specific.  They say something like “Make enough money to cover my bills.”  Instead, you should be sure to include a SPECIFIC OUTCOME and date.  For example, take the above one and write, “Make $2000 by June 2008 to cover my bills.”  When you have finished setting specific, dated goals, print them out and put them in a location where you see them regularly.  Read them daily so you know what you are aiming for!

Do you have a service or product that you've found excellent for your business and would like to tell others? Share the details here.

- Tracey Tarrant, Your Virtual Round To-it

PlanPlus Online by Franklin Covey is a fantastic database software. And because it's virtual it's great for us to manage our clients contacts! http://www.planplus online.com/

Want to add your Virtual Assistant Blog to our blogroll? Send the Blog address and name to us here. Please note: Your blog should be active, i.e. has regular posts added to it and is updated at least on a monthly basis.

A word from the editor.

The goal for VANetwork News is to provide you with useful information for the Virtual Assistant industry. Postings will be edited and checked carefully to ensure they meet our guidelines.

VANN is not affiliated with any particular VA network or forum, but rather is for the VA industry as a whole.

VANN is not a place where VAs promote themselves or their services, but where they can learn about things of value to them in their industry.

Send comments or suggestions.

Quick notes:

• If a poster was requesting information please respond direct to them, and not via the Editor.
• To unsubscribe, please click on the link at the bottom of this email.
• To subscribe, click here.

About your editors:

Carmen MacDougall is an internationally renowned corporate and VA coach and trainer. Carmen, is one of the industry's leading authorities, author and speaker on What it Takes to be a Remarkable VA. She has personally trained over 600 VAs across the UK, Europe and the Far East, is the Business Development Manager and VA Trainer for the International Association of Virtual Assistants (IAVA.org.uk) and is also the president and founder of the National VA Conference & Awards now in it's 2nd year (19th April 2008, UK).

Kathie M. Thomas pioneered the Virtual Assistant industry in Australia in 1996 and is also a VA Coach & Trainer. She has written 3 books for the industry and mentored hundreds of women worldwide. Kathie is an active member of the OIVAC steering committee and participates in many VA forums. She is also a member of National Speakers Association of Australia (NSAA), International Association of Coaches (IAC) and the Australian Institute of Office Professionals (AIOP).

Copyright 2008, VANetwork News. Other than your own copy, permission must be granted for reprinting of any item in this newsletter.