Since the very beginning we have been involved with Talking News Islington charity. It has been set up by a group of volunteers who wanted to provide a valuable service to the blind and partially-sighted in London Boroughs of Islington and Camden. There are Talking News in many parts of the UK, produced similarly by volunteers. The News are recorded and posted to anyone registered to receive it on a CD or tape, the users listen to the news and send back to the charity. The service is free and relies on donations and funding. continue

Tips on using Social Media tools like Twitter, Facebook, Plaxo and 4N for business marketing, presented by Ian McKendrick.

Do you feel like you will never have sufficient time to devote to marketing your business using social media?

Use a virtual assistant!

After a free initial consultation we can set up a package for you offering set up and maintenance of your accounts across all popular social networks, creation and design of e-newsletters, blogging, twittering and connection research on LinkedIn. Contact us now for more information and to book your consultation.

Certified Hypnotherapist

I realized almost immediately after completing my training that I needed to have a website set up.  The reason was because I was offered the opportunity of writing a column for a popular astrological site and my column included a question answer section.  Since it reached people worldwide, I realized I needed a way for people to contact me and read about me and my work that didn’t include them calling me at any time of the day or night.

After my site had been in place for a while when I decided that I needed a Shopping Cart System: my practice includes telephone sessions with clients and recorded sessions they can purchase. My VA helped me with the payments procedures necessary for this to run smoothly. So my Virtual Assistant supports my business -  handles all my shopping cart issues, client list and mailing to my clients as well as changes to my website for me. During the course of time I have come to depend on my Virtual PA more and more because it has made it so much easier for me to do what I do best, and that is hypnotherapy and counselling.

Professional speaker

I’ve been using a VA for several years and at first when I was travelling and needed a virtual secretary to take messages etc. and when I was developing product and needed to source various people such as desk top publishers. I also needed help with redesigning my website and designing promotional flyers. Now my Virtual Assistant is also answering calls and taking messages in my absence, managing my website, creating book layout and producing promotional flyers. It is great to know that when I need to outsource tasks I can get different people to contact me with a quote and a chat, so that I can choose.

Leadership and Team Development Consultant

Since starting my business I have always had some administration support.  Originally I looked in the local paper for people who advertised this type of contract support service. The level of support required has increased and the type of projects has become more varied i.e. beyond just typing to: diagnostic support, client liaison, project management, research, personal assistance etc.

Running a small business means you have many hats to handle at once. For five years I have been working with my VA and   I now have the flexibility and support I need when I need it. I have always found her to be reliable, accurate, prompt, flexible and this always comes with a smile and helpfulness that makes working together a joy.

Business directory owner

There have been a number of times I realised this, however in the last two years, my attitude to new projects has been “how can I get someone else to work on this”? This decreased my workload dramatically and the results are much better than I could have done.  Initially the support was editing our magazine, administering our conference and then my email newsletter.. Now my VA puts together the magazine and has done for the last 2 years, but now does so much more, including transcribing workshop recordings for us.

I love having a VA work with me. It’s cheaper than hiring a staff member, or in my case, multiple staff members for the various tasks I outsource. Each of my VAs are experts in what they do, which is why I’ve chosen them. They also produce amazing results that help my business grow.

Speaker and Author

Once my business started to grow, I wanted to free my time to work on my business and only do activities that I enjoyed. Bookkeeping and basic administration are definitely not what I wanted to do. Initially my VA did book keeping, database set-up, general typing on an irregular basis. Now my VA support is constant and a permanent member of my team. I now have database management, PowerPoint design for my presentations, product creation, i.e. e-books, e-courses etc., website maintenance. e-newsletter set-up, broadcast emails.

I found my VA via a networking breakfast a few years ago and my business would never be where it is today without the support of my VA. You cannot run a profitable and thriving business without support.  If you’re doing everything yourself, you’re crazy. You need to free up your time to concentrate on business development and improvement, not keep busy on £18+ per hour tasks.

For a free quote and more information contact us directly.

Source: VA Network blogs by Kathie Thomas

You might be thinking that since you only need assistance for a few hours a month that there is no point in bringing in qualified help.

• But what if your business is not at the stage where you need a full-time or even a part-time in-house or virtual employee?
• What if you only need help for a few hours each week?
• Wouldn’t it be less expensive to do it all by yourself instead?

Sure, you work long hours, but that’s because you’re still in the “paying your dues” stage. You might even be considering getting help just as soon as you sign up another client or reach certain sales volume. In the meantime, you’ll simply suck it up and forget about any time off for the next few months.

But let’s look at the situation from a slightly different angle. One of the reasons you started a business was to follow your passion, create the workplace and lifestyle that you have always dreamed of, and ultimately to make money. You did not plan on focusing on daily tasks at the expense of the big picture. To make money, your business needs to run efficiently. If you have boxed yourself into a corner with overwhelming to-do lists and seeming unshoulderable burdens you are probably not enjoying your new business and not making the money that your vision demands.

All other tasks your business requires – bookkeeping, website maintenance, submitting press releases online – cost you money. This is true whether you do this work yourself or hire someone. It is true regardless of the size of your business, the number of clients or the sales volume. Understanding this is absolutely critical to successfully growing a profitable business. Therefore, the real question is would having a virtual assistant work on these tasks will cost you less than if you do it yourself. Here is how to find out.
Figure out your true hourly rate

Begin by keeping track for a week or so of the hours you spend on bookkeeping, website or blog maintenance, social media marketing, research, article writing, data entry and other maintenance tasks. This includes time it takes you to learn how to do each task, open appropriate software, and mentally switch from whatever else you were doing.

I suggest that you sign up for a free account with PayMo which allows you to create a list of tasks associated with projects/clients and keep track of time spent on each task. You will be astonished at the hours that you spend on tasks that could and should be outsourced to a highly technically savvy virtual assistant.

Now add these hours to the time you spend doing paid work or business development and networking. You’ve arrived at the total hours you work on your business. To arrive at your true hourly rate, simply divide your weekly income by the total work hours.You might find out that your true hourly rate is much lower than what you expected. Remember, it’s those easy-to-delegate tasks that drag your rate (and your real income) down.
Consider opportunity costs

Operating a business is always about setting priorities, but especially so if you do all the work yourself. Naturally, paid work comes first. Then – maintenance. Unfortunately, business development and networking take the back-burner for many DIY entrepreneurs.

For example, you know that a newsletter is an important customer relations tool. Yet you are too busy to design a template and write content. You get so wrapped up following up on outstanding invoices that you forget to connect with prospective clients. You are too exhausted after yet another 14-hour day to write even a short maintenance post for your business blog. You are frustrated to miss yet another networking event but it’s either that or another night of working until midnight.

Every time you forget, delay or cancel you hand the opportunity to your competitors to connect with your existing and future clients. Even if you achieve short-term savings by doing all the work yourself, you end up sacrificing your long-term profits, not to mention draining the creative spark that propelled you into entrepreneurship to begin with.
Most businesses, regardless of size and revenue, can benefit from delegating work even if it’s only a few hours a week. Being a small business owner doesn’t mean you have to do all the work yourself. Instead, realise that many tasks cost money regardless of who does them. Delegate them to a virtual assistant and concentrate on money-making tasks like networking or building joint ventures.
Have questions about the Virtual Assistance Industry?

Contact Tamara at TJConsulting Virtual PA to find out how you can save money and improve your efficiency. We will offer you a free quote and a saving of 15% off your first invoice if you mention The Best of Brent.
**Based on article by Denise Griffitts, Virtual Assistance Industry Expert, http://virtualassistantindustry.com, info @ virtualassistantindustry.com, 888-719-6711.

How a VA can help with marketing through Social Media

• Update and monitor your websites
• Optimise and publish articles on your Blog site
• Add new pages, links, functionalities to your WordPress blog
• Keyword research
• Create and edit video and audio for online marketing – YouTube and podcasts
• Set up your profiles and pages or revise your current profiles in Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn
• Set up a Facebook Fan Page or Group, publish new events, discussions and news
• Set up your profile in targeted niche social networks
• Create and publish your e-newsletter
• Schedule and publish tweets, provide summary of tweets amongst your followers/those you follow

All these methods of communicating with future clients create a relationship that’s both personal and effective. They increase brand recognition and awareness with more chances that you will be remembered with an increased amount of followers spreading the word.

How a VA can help with business development

• Setup a Contact Relationship Management system (some are even free!)
• Enter details from business cards that you receive while networking into the system
• Call referrals to book sales appointments
• Manage your diary to make effective use of your time
• Answer email queries from clients
• Handle all business paperwork: expenses claims, invoicing, booking of events, travel, procurement, stationery orders
• Create powerful PowerPoint presentations for sales pitches, project summaries, proposals
• Write and research information for tenders and bids
• Provide project management support based on Prince 2 methodology
• Professionally format your reports, create automated templates in Word and Excel

If you outsource your admin to professionals you will have the time to focus on your business, develop your client base and increase its profitability. Some business owners think they can do all those tasks themselves so why should they outsource? Let me give you an example.
A financial consultant was earning on average £100/hour. He needed an Excel sheet done to analyse a big chunk of data in Pivot tables and then create charts and graphs to represent the findings in an easy to understand way. He spent over 2 hours struggling to get Pivot working properly and trying to manually format the data = he lost £200. He eventually outsourced it to us, a virtual assistant. We completed the job in 45 minutes = £15+VAT.
Saving if he used a VA straight away = £182.75.
As you can see using a VA is not an expense for your business, it’s a saving!