Recently I had a post about choosing a virtual assistant with the help of Twitter. That post mostly focused on the different types of work or niches that a virtual assistant can offer to your business, but today I’d like to talk about another factor to consider in finding the perfect virtual assistant for your business.

TIME

You need to consider how much time you need your virtual assistant to spend helping you, and how exactly your virtual assistant charges for her time. Many virtual assistants prefer to work on a retainer basis – offering packages of 10-40 hours per month generally speaking. This means that if you contract one of these assistants you are paying for a minimum number of hours per month, regardless of how much time you actually use. If you go over your minimum number of hours there is an extra fee. Some virtual assistants will allow unused time to roll over to another month, some do not.

It can be very hard at first to be sure of exactly how much time your virtual assistant will need to dedicate to complete the tasks or work you need completed. You may prefer to work with a virtual assistant who will simply bill hourly on an as needed basis. Or you may prefer to work with an assistant who charges on a per project basis, eliminating the typical hourly billing procedure altogether. A lot will depend of course on the type of work you need completed, your personal style and the policies of the virtual assistant you prefer to work with. Each arrangement has advantages and disadvantages.

Another thing to be sure of is whether your chosen virtual assistant will have the time in his/her schedule to perform a greater proportion of work as you become more comfortable with their skills and they become more educated about your business. Some of the best virtual assistants have pretty full schedules already after all, especially if they have been in business a long time. On a similar note, many virtual assistant practices are team-based or use sub-contractors. This is something you should be aware of and comfortable with. If you prefer to always work with one specific person make sure you are very clear about that when contracting a virtual assistant.

Here at Halo Secretarial I offer dedicated virtual assistant service – I have no team or subcontractors working with me. That may change some day in the future, as my client roster is filling up, but I will always let my clients know if I start working with another virtual assistant. And as for hours/billing – I personally am happy to work on pretty much any basis that is most appropriate for the situation and my clients’ needs. See my rates page for more information!

Happy New Year!!!

I meant to get this post up yesterday, but actually, January 1 seems like a great day to set out my plans for this exciting new year. I have a lot of goals and I know what I want and expect out of the coming year. This past year gave me time to ease into this business of being a work at home mom, to develop my virtual legal assistant skills and do plenty of networking and now I am so excited about what the future has in store!

Affirmations

A big part of my plans for this year are about affirmations. I read a great article just a little while ago (in Good Housekeeping!) about affirmations. I loved it! It’s something I believe in but don’t utilize near enough, so one of the things I will start doing this year is to put a copy of my affirmations in places in my home where I will see them daily and then I will have that extra confidence builder I need.

Marketing

This year I am finally going to do some local marketing. Just because my business if virtually based doesn’t mean that the local market doesn’t have a need for my services. I’m following the suggestions of some fellow VA’s and doing a simple postcard mailout for now to some law offices in Alberta. I’ve already started work designing it and it should be done and out by mid-January.

Networking

I definitely want to do some in-person networking in 2009. The biggest part of this plan will be my July trip to the annual BlogHer conference in Chicago. It will be my first blogging conference and I’m really excited to network with other bloggers “IRL” (in real life being the theme of BlogHer ‘09!) It’ll also be a real test in respect of accomplishing my work while on the road, although I do plan to lighten my load to be fair to my clients.

Clients

Speaking of clients – my plans for 2009 include adding at least 3 more “ideal” clients to my roster. By ideal I mean clients who I feel I can work with in a long-term and successful partnership, individuals or businesses whose work interests me and who will utilize my strengths and challenge me with some interesting work.

Blog

I plan to post at least 3 times per week to my blog. I want to provide content that is informative, interesting and timely. I’ve managed to do pretty well this past year, but I know going into my second year of business blogging that there will be times that I’m busy, or feeling uninspired so it’s important to have a goal to stick to.

Service

It might be last on my list of plans/goals for 2009, but this is of course the most critical component to my virtual assisstant practice. I have every intention of providing incredible value to each and every one of my clients; the ones who I work for a couple of hours a month and the ones who need ten hours of assistance each week. It’s so important to me that I make life easier for my clients, help them grow their businesses, and provide a cheerful and professional shoulder for them to lean on so that they aren’t overburdened by their workloads. My business IS about their businesses after all, not just about me!!

So that’s what I have in the works for 2009 – I’d love to hear what you are doing to make 2009 a successful year for your business. Take care!

I’ve seen a lot of chatter on Twitter lately about needing a virtual assistant. I think the start of a new year encourages people to plan for their coming business needs and Twitter is a great way to find a VA to help you streamline and grow your business.  I personally love finding clients on Twitter and I know many of my colleagues also respond to tweets about possible virtual assistant opportunities!

I do think it’s important though not to get caught up in the ease with which you can find a VA (on Twitter or otherwise) and make sure you stop and really think about what you need from a VA and be sure to choose one who meets all of your qualifications. You may want a virtual assistant with a particular skillset, a certain personality, or one who is familiar with your industry.

To get you started, consider these virtual assistant niches and how they might (or might not!) be appropriate for your needs:

• Marketing virtual assistant
• Speaker’s virtual assistant
• Virtual bankruptcy assistant
• Author’s virtual assistant
• Coach’s virtual assistant
• Virtual assistant catering to Web Designers/Technology Gurus
• Real estate virtual assistant
• Construction virtual assistant
• Virtual assistant to insurance industry professionals
• Bookkeeping virtual assistant
• Virtual receptionist
• Virtual assistant to wedding professionals
• Virtual legal assistants/paralegals (like me!!)

As you can see, there are many virtual assistant niches and if you are, for example, an accountant who needs some general virtual assistance and someone who can help with your Quickbooks work, your best bet is probably a virtual bookkeeper. But, if you need email management you may want a virtual assistant generalist, or you may find that a virtual assistant familiar with your  industry would be your preference. Of course there is a lot of overlap between the services offered by virtual assistants, as most virtual assistants offer some general administrative work.  If what you need is highly specialized or requires some training don’t feel that means you can’t hire a VA, as you will find that most VA’s love to learn new skills!

And if you are finding or vetting your virtual assistant choice via Twitter, do make sure to read through their tweet history. Does he or she seem professional? Friendly? Thoughtful? It’s a great way to get some insight into the person you may be working very closely with!

Take care!

This year is rapidly coming to a close and it’s that time when many of us business owners decide to spend some time reflecting on the year past and planning for the future.

This year was my first year in business as a virtual legal assistant and it was a great year in my opinion! I started out last January with a 6 week old baby plus two older boys and the knowledge that things really had to change. I had already been researching virtual assistance for a while and really felt it was the right choice for me.

So I spent the late winter and spring months making plans, starting very slowly to blog and hanging out at a couple of my favourite VA forums (Virtual Assistant Forums and VAnetworking) to learn all I could about starting my business. Thank goodness for all the wonderful virtual assistants on those forums – they really helped me figure out where I wanted to go with my business!

Sometime in the spring I discovered one of my favourite blogs – Home Office Warrior. Grant Griffiths (also of Blog for Profit) has so much great information on his blogs! Lots of info about technology, blogging and networking and running a homoe office (particular emphasis on lawyers since Grant is a lawyer!)

Spring turned into summer and I excitedly went and registered my business name at the local registry office. I found someone to help me customize my site/blog and I designed some business cards. August in particular was a great month – I did my first guest post, found my first client and got quite involved in my favorite networking site – Twitter!

Then it was fall. My darling oldest son went off to grade one, I went for my first getaway weekend since having baby #3 and I got another client! Slow progress in the client department, but I knew that good things were coming!

And now it is winter. Not generally my favorite season and yet, as we move into 2009, I feel a real sense of achievement in this year and so much excitement for the year to come. I’ve gotten one more client recently and hope for many more next year. In the summer of 2009 I’m going to my first blogging conference and next fall my middle child will go off to kindergarten, adding some room in my schedule. I’m going to make a big list of my goals for 2009, but that is another post!

And now, time to go do some more work and then make some Christmas cookies! Take care!

I am in the process of finding some simple, eco-friendly holiday cards to send out to clients and a few business contacts. I was so impressed when a google search turned up a post over at MamaDivas about a wonderful line of stationary from My Good Greetings. Their products are, as they state:

printed on 100% recycled, carbon neutral paper which is Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) Certified. We use 100% digital short-run presses which significantly reduce paperwaste and emit 90% less Volatile Organic Compounds

If I was buying personal Christmas cards I think I’d definitely go with this style – it’s so pretty isn’t it?

Peace Love Joy holiday card

I don’t have a current family picture that is appropriate though – agh! Plus really I want something for my business to send out, so picture cards aren’t really what I was thinking of, although I may try them next year. Instead I’m going to use one of the invitation templates to create a holiday business card! I’ll post a pic of it when I get them!

Oh and Happy Thanksgiving tomorrow to my American readers! Canadian Thanksgiving was in early October so we are definitely moving into full Christmas planning mode! Remember I have a special holiday offer for those of you who could use some virtual assistant help over the holidays (or anytime, lol!)

Take care!

Just a quick note to share that Halo Secretarial’s feed can now be found at Alltop in the virtual assistant category!

I think that’s pretty exciting news on a Wednesday afternoon! Oh and as you can see, we are still undergoing “renovations” of the blog and site, it should be complete sometime next week!

I received an email this morning from the ABA (as my blog has a link on their site) asking me to share a link to this survey on my blog. I’m happy to do so and definitely recommend that you lawyers out there help the ABA out with the survey!

The current financial situation is very challenging for us all, but I feel certain that times will eventually improve.  Patience is the key I guess, and making smart choices in the meantime!

I actually feel that some businesses will really prosper despite, or maybe because of, the current financial climate. Smaller, leaner, more cost-efficient businesses can much more easily work to provide services that are valuable to consumers in these times. For example, lawyers are still very much needed in times of economic slowdown, but solo and small law practices are in a much better position to offer services to clients at a price that they will be willing to pay.

Virtual assistants are likely to do well during these times as well. We offer good value for the money and can be a great alternative to traditional in-house staff. You only pay for the time or service you need, if your business slows down you don’t have to keeping paying a full-time salary just to have an employee sitting bored part of the time! Most of us virtual assistants are also happy to work on a capped fee basis for specific projects, so you can be in control of the costs right from the start.

While we all wait for the economy to improve, we need to take steps to minimize our spending and improve our own bottom lines! Take care!

I received another contact via Twitter today that could have turned into an opportunity. I love Twitter – it’s really helped me get clients and raise my profile!

Tweet Tweet

This client won’t be signing with me though (at least not for now!), because the lawyer who contacted me needs a virtual assistant who can help with QuickBooks. I am not yet very experienced in QB. I use it for my business, but definitely need some training in it to offer it as a service to  clients. Thankfully I knew that @candieb on twitter is a VA who specializes in bookkeeping and so I happily referred the lawyer to Candy.

To me this is proof that in any business we need to have resources and we need to work with our so-called “competitors” to offer an industry that is truly valuable to potential clients.  It wouldn’t have done me or the client any good if I attempted to help her despite not having the proper skills. It would in fact make a mockery of professional virtual assistance.

Fortunately, I had met Candy on the VAnetworking forum. I have to say that VAnetworking has helped me in so many ways. It’s given me contacts for work that is not my specialty, I’ve been given business start-up advice and made friends. What a great thing!

So a tip for virtual assistants, join forces with other VA’s, network with them and please don’t do work you can’t do properly!

I’m a little late in learning this but I thought I’d share anyway – I doubt I’m the only one who doesn’t catch things instantly!

So, I use Gmail for my catchall email account.  The email for my virtual assistant business is through my host (laurie AT halosecretarialservices DOT com) but is all forwarded to my Gmail account.  I simply find Gmail to be easy to access and easy to work with. It also then gives me the option of chat and use in my iGoogle homepage.

Today I realized that I can fully integrate my google calendar and docs into my Gmail left sidebar – wow! So much easier than having to open a separate tab. I simply went into my gmail settings, clicked on labs and then enabled both google calendar and docs to show up! I also moved my chat and labels to the right side bar to make everything more visible.

Now I can see my schedule and plan my daily tasks much more efficiently. I always schedule time for client tasks and my own marketing plans in my google calendar, with popup reminders, which definitely increases my productivity. And the more organized I am, the more time I have to devote to my clients’s needs!

Hope this helps you other virtual assistants and other business owners!

November is already flying by for me, how about you? I usually put off some of my holiday planning until December and then realize it’s getting late to get certain tasks done on time, like sending out holiday cards or gifts to people who are far away.

This year I’m getting started on it right away and this post over at VAnetworking helped me realize that help with holiday tasks is something my clients might appreciate too! And because I’m getting into the holiday spirit I’m offering 20% off my usual rate to anyone who reads this blog post and decides that they would like my help in the months of November and December, whether with their holiday planning or any of my other virtual assistant services! Just let me know that you heard about it from my blog by referring to holiday code ho-ho-ho!!