It’s no surprise that social media marketing is crucial to business growth in 2018. After all, we’re living in a digital world — one where there are 2.62 billion social media users worldwide, according to Statista. Coupled with reports that show 93 percent of marketers place a high value on social media as a business growth tool and more than … Continue Reading
You’re probably already aware what a virtual assistant is. But just in case you’re not, in a nutshell a virtual assistant is someone who can provide you with business support, without costing you any additional overhead. For small business owners and entrepreneurs, working with a VA is a more cost-effective solution than employing someone in-house … Continue Reading
If you manage your own social media you will absolutely want to know what shortcuts are available in order to help save you time. My last article highlighted the best Twitter shortcuts, so today’s one provides Facebook shortcuts that you may not be aware of which should help to quicken up the process for you … Continue Reading
Setting up your own Virtual Assistant business may seems like hard work, but I’m sorry to tell you that it’s actually the easy part. Being a successful VA isn’t simply helping someone with their admin or supporting their business, it’s knowing how to manage and communicate with them. And sadly a lot of VAs seem … Continue Reading
We no longer live in a time where the only solution to get the business support you need, is to hire a full- or part-time employee. Thankfully. Because half the time that ‘dedicated’ employee would be nattering on the phone, checking Facebook, or loitering by the coffee machine. And you wouldn’t be getting value for money. Now … Continue Reading
A while back I was talking to a woman who was thinking about becoming a Virtual Assistant and wanted some advice. She said: “I’m confused as to what to do at the moment. Full time work is a safe option but the hours are too long for me now and I’m trying to run a part-time … Continue Reading
“Who’s your VA?” “What? You haven’t got one? Why ever not? Mine has been an absolute life saver, in fact, I don’t know how I coped before!” Have you had, or heard, one of those conversations recently? Perhaps it’s made you re-think the whole support issue that’s been nagging away at you of late. Being … Continue Reading
Because you don’t need any formal qualifications to become a Virtual Assistant, there’s often confusion and misunderstanding in the VA Handbookers Facebook group around what being one entails, and it’s sometimes described as being an ‘easy side gig’, I thought I’d explain what it actually means to be a Virtual Assistant. What it means to be a (good) … Continue Reading
The Ambitious Woman: What It Takes and Why You Want to Be One The Ambitious Woman illustrates how ambitious women embody characteristics such as inspiration, empowerment, and motivation to help others accomplish their goals, and create win-win relationships in all areas of life. When you think of the word ‘ambitious’, what comes to mind? Power … Continue Reading
Google Chrome as a browser is already pretty great. But there’s even more ways you can make it work to your advantage as a VA by downloading useful extensions. These extensions act as small apps that add on extra features to your browser. There’s dozens available in the Chrome Web Store, which do everything from saving … Continue Reading
Vincent and his wife were stuck in dead end newspaper photography jobs, in debt, stressed, with a baby on the way while making $15 an hour. After winning the highest award in his field, Vincent was offered a 3 percent raise. He knew at that moment he needed a monumental change. One month away from … Continue Reading
Systems can be a great way to help you get back some elusive time. Time that enables you to work on other parts of your business, expand your service offering, find more clients, or breathe a little easier by knowing that things are continuing without as much effort on your part as before. Or, time … Continue Reading
We’ve talked before about how to raise your business rates, and whilst daunting, it is something you should be doing year on year (until you realistically can’t raise them any further without a truly niche offering). But have you considered why you should charge more for your services? Yes, there’s the one or two obvious reasons – you haven’t had a decent … Continue Reading
As a trusted VA, you know keeping your client’s accounts secure is a top priority. Use these 4 tools to help you keep all your accounts safe – from sharing, to creating passwords and preventing viruses: Use these 4 tools to help you keep all your client’s accounts safe: Dashlane – keeps track of client passwords and automatically logs … Continue Reading
Successful businesses rely heavily on top-notch administrative professionals. A shrewd administrative assistant is the wizard behind the company curtain, the one who keeps the office running efficiently. In addition, skilled office professionals are constantly on the lookout for innovations to benefit the company. The best administrative professionals aren’t just supporting players. They add value in … Continue Reading
Listen up executive assistants and office professionals – in almost every aspect of your job, whether taking minutes, planning events, training staff or acting as your boss’s gatekeeper, listening skills are one of your most valuable assets. Many professionals forget about this crucial element of effective communication. But here are seven tips for mastering the … Continue Reading
An OfficeTeam and IAAP survey reveals some surprising truths about PA success… Administrative professionals are valued for their ability to wear many hats. Often their jobs require high-level responsibilities, ranging from planning large-scale events and representing senior managers to creating presentations and analyzing financial data. But what skills and attributes are must-haves for today’s support … Continue Reading
Anyone can be an Assistant, right? It’s not that easy, not everyone succeeds. It requires many things – patience, approachability & reliability to name a few. Aside from this though, there are 3 important traits a great Assistant needs to have: O for Organized: Let’s face it, you’re either organized or you’re not. It’s something every … Continue Reading
Virtual Assistant Skills: “I’ve been a PA for 26 years – I don’t need told how to write a document” – except this aspiring virtual assistant most definitely did need told, because she had just completed our virtual assistant skills spelling test and had spectacularly failed it leaving in misspelt words, inconsistent formatting and hadn’t known … Continue Reading
The Best Password Managers for Your Small Business Most of us either use weak passwords or use the same password across multiple accounts. This makes us more susceptible to identity theft and other crimes. Perhaps we do this because we fear we won’t remember those super long unique passwords? Well, the secret to managing passwords … Continue Reading
At some point, in any professional’s career, there comes a time when enthusiasm wanes. It’s natural, after all. Even as an assistant, a role where “no two days are exactly alike,” the day-to-day operations can eventually become monotonous. When you feel a lack of enthusiasm for the work you do, it can really take a … Continue Reading
(Excerpt from Become an Inner Circle Assistant book, Joan Burge) For the first time in history, the administrative professional’s job description hints at the full engagement of cognitive powers. When the job description includes identifying goals for the coming year; meshing them with your executive’s goals and department and organization goals; being prepared to track progress at specific … Continue Reading
One of the greatest advantages organizations achieves from automating various processes is saving time, among other resources. In the entire history of human development, the need to make work easier, faster and even cheaper comes naturally. This is what has led to various discoveries and developments of tools that automate work. Phenomenal examples include manufacturing, … Continue Reading
As I’m sitting here on Friday afternoon catching my breath from a very busy week and working on my speeches for our Annual Conference for Administrative Excellence, I am reminded how change is more prevalent than ever in our lives. In the past week, I have personally been through lots of changes; my staff has gone … Continue Reading
I have always said, “You do not need to be a manager or senior executive to be a leader. Every executive assistant and administrator can be a leader and should be a leader.” Leadership is often defined as a set of characteristics such as being ambitious, broad-minded, dependable, forward-looking, intelligent, mature, and honest. Kouzes and … Continue Reading
The biggest secret of highly productive people isn’t in any way ground breaking, but it is most often forgotten: They don’t try and do everything themselves. In theory, delegating work sounds like a fairly easy mantra, but in reality it’s a huge challenge for heads of startups and small businesses. For starters, it’s difficult relenting … Continue Reading
Let’s say you’re an ideas person. You have approximately 17 ideas a minute and aren’t famous for the, er, completion of your projects. You have what I have: creative chaos brain, which means you get easily overwhelmed and your ability to prioritize effectively basically disappears and everything starts to look important. When I launched Baby Got Booked … Continue Reading
As the American workplace evolves, more and more companies are thinking of ways to increase productivity without reducing the caliber and engagement of their teams. Additionally, there is increased pressure on venture-backed startups to operate leaner until they can generate revenue. As a result, many companies are turning to virtual employees, found through sites like … Continue Reading
Using a virtual assistant can shave hours from your workweek, but knowing which tasks to delegate can be tricky, whether you’re starting or growing a business. Most virtual assistants are contract or freelance workers who do their jobs from home and focus on administrative tasks that are similar to those of an executive assistant or secretary. … Continue Reading
“This is all useless,” I thought. I’ve had this scenario occur several times throughout the process of formal schooling. I felt it in high school while learning the “SAS” rule to compute angles for a triangle. I felt it in college when I had to listen to my professor — who never had any business experience … Continue Reading
As entrepreneurs and creative workers, we should use our brains mainly for creative problem solving, and use simple rules for most other kinds of decisions. It keeps us happier. I finally have an assistant, and he is awesome. I can tell him, “These are the cities and events on my global book tour, now go, and … Continue Reading
Most of the small business and solo professionals I know don’t have an assistant. Whether they are an independent consultant, coach, professional speaker, writer, or even a startup CEO, they consider an administrative assistant a waste of money. Why spend on an admin when I know how to use a computer and can do it … Continue Reading
If you’ve ever seen The Devil Wears Prada, you may believe that being an administrative assistant is a stepping stone to something greater. Though it can be a proving ground that opens doors to other positions, being a personal assistant to an executive or middle manager can also be a fulfilling career that is currently totally … Continue Reading
The benefits of an Executive Assistant are becoming a necessity to successful Business Owners, Managers and Executives, and here are the reasons why: With today’s fast paced environment, and the high demands placed on businesses, an Executive cannot always make it on their own and that is not an insult. It is a reality. The … Continue Reading
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