A good image to distribute with your article can be researched by virtual support. They can track whether submissions have been successful by using Google alerts and research other places which may accept articles.

A VA can use and repurpose the articles into blog posts and extract links for social media updates. Using excerpts/clips from the article for Twitter updates and link back to the complete article, together with ensuring they are posted to all social media channels.

When assisting with press releases the same work can be done by your virtual assistant as that done for articles, ensuring the press release is sent to the right people and the most beneficial outlets, and in the mode that they are best received. Make sure that the articles or press release are easily read and reproduced. It’s of no use to you if all the hardwork put into the work falls down because it is inaccessible for whatever reason. If the media require hard copy it’s not worth sending it by email as it may well be binned and not reach an audience at all.

Virtual support can contact and submit press releases to television, newspapers and radio. They can be responsible for submitting items of information to the same channels.

Using Google Alerts to monitor keywords and competition a virtual assistant can analyse the success of the press releases and help you to make the necessary changes.

Do you need help with articles, press releases or do you want to know more about Google alerts? If so, email us here, or telephone Tamara, on 0203 468 8594.

The best of both worlds comes from a team that is provided with a clear picture of your vision , who are then given the freedom to do the job to the best of their abilities.

Are you are afraid of taking the plunge because you’ve heard horror stories of Virtual Assistants leaving you in a mess, and you have no idea how to access the parts of your empire they have dealt with?

To avoid this happening:

It’s a mistake to carry on with something that is only OK, it’s a waste of their time and your money. Don’t settle for second best just because it’s easier. Your team should support your business, helping it progress and grow. If you have chosen your team unwisely, you can change this. Don’t expect things to get better until you have taken responsibility and made the moves necessary to remedy the situation, whatever that entails. Having a heart to heart with your team may sort things and give people the opening to either follow and really work with you at your business or take the moment to move on and find something else.

You don’t have to go it alone, there are many virtual support professionals available who can help you succeed in your business . Trying to do everything yourself is a recipe for disaster . There are people available to do all the jobs you hate doing, or the ones that take you such an inordinate amount of time to do, which would then allow you to get on with building your business while they take care of things.

Have you got the right team?
If you feel, or can say, that your team cares as much for your business as you do, you may well have the ‘dream team ‘.
With the right team in place it should give you the confidence that they understand what you want and they will make it happen. They enjoy what they do and share with you in the success of your business, proving with what they do, that they care about your business as much as you do.

For help and advice, email or telephone Tamara, on 0203 468 8594.

Have you employed your Virtual Assistant and now don’t know what to do? If you are unsure of your needs before you hire you may end up with the wrong person for your business. Choosing someone needs to be based on what they can do for your business and if you haven’t a clear idea of what you want them to do, then your ability to choose the right person for the job is made more difficult. Likewise, if you are unaware of the capabilities of a Virtual Assistant, you may be looking at a work load that you think you need to do, when in fact the work load is better managed, and more efficiently done by a Virtual Assistant.

Your team that you employ need to be given a clear picture of what you see as the future of your business, what you want to see happen and where you want to be. If they know and understand your vision they can apply their knowledge and ability to help you reach your goals.

For your team to be able to achieve this, they need to be aware of the ‘big picture’ and will be working at a disadvantage if you expect them to gain this knowledge by mind-reading or ‘osmosis’. Don’t hire a team and think that all the work is now done. You still need to share with them and keep them updated on changes that could affect your vision. The inability to share the knowledge with your team will lead to frustration for them, and could lead to an incorrect decision being made. An error in judgement leading to a wrong things being done, result; a waste of time and money. The other scenario being no action by your team, again a disgruntled you and a frustrated team, twiddling their thumbs and again, a terrible waste of man power.

Have things run well for a while but things seem to have taken a backward step? Did you jump at the chance of hiring and made a mistake and hired the wrong person for the job? Or were you unsure of where you were heading? Before hiring, clarify where you are in your business and what you want to achieve. This gives you a basis for selecting the right people for the job.

For more help and advice, contact us by email or telephone Tamara on 0203 468 8594.

Image: jscreationzs / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

Virtual events are most commonly used in sales and marketing applications because they are ideal for reaching your customer at the beginning of the sales cycle. A virtual trade show eliminates problems of attendance and cost, providing an event that can continue to be available long after the scheduled time. To gain the best from both worlds, a combination of a physical event and a virtual webcast could expand the reach of your event worldwide. Once recorded the event can be accessible for as long as the information is relevant.

A virtual event allows companies to showcase their goods without the inherent problems of shipping and handling goods to a specific location. Products can be filmed in situ and broadcast to attendees, thus reducing costs. With the ability to record and describe your products before going ‘live’ your information can also be translated into other languages, assisting your customers even further.

Going virtual allows an amalgam of information to be coordinated in one place, integrating companies and information that would normally find it difficult to come together because of geographical location and expense. The virtual experience opens up your company and expertise to the world.

Training virtually

A virtual learning centre can be established as a permanent learning centre, with pre-recorded audio and video training merging with documents and live presentations. A live learning event can be recorded and become a permanent training session; the knowledge and presentation will never be lost. It will not matter where the experts are or where the learning is required, the two can always be brought together in a virtual experience.

High quality Internet connections allow employees to work remotely, in their time and at their convenience.

Internal meetings

Whether a large or small company, the need for meetings, will always be necessary. The number or frequency will be your choice. Most companies need a meeting once a year to keep employees informed of the state of the company, what it has achieved in the last year and where it sees itself heading in the future.

Being ‘virtual’ doesn’t mean your team are unable to communicate and interact. Using modern communication tools within your virtual event (e.g. chat applications and social networking) allows knowledge and experience to flow through your sales office.

Store all information so that it is accessible at all times, your sales team will be able to refresh their knowledge of tactics and strategies to assist them with promotion of products to your customers. No matter, when or where, the knowledge will still be available. Virtual communication allows both sales and corporate to share a wealth of knowledge easily, effectively and with very little cost.

If you would like to host a webinar, telephone Tamara on 0203 468 8594.

That’s why many small business owners use one of the 3 types of business calls delegation: call answering, call handling or call managing.

Call answering is the simplest and the cheapest form of virtual reception. Usually it’s handled by teams of people so that there is always someone available to answer incoming calls. Call centres have advanced IT systems installed, that tell them in an instant which company the call is for, how they need to answer it and how to pick up a message. The conversation will go something like this:

Virtual Receptionist: [your company name], good morning! [their name] speaking. How may I help you?
Caller: Good morning. I’d like to speak to [your name] please.
VR: [your name] is not available right now / out of the office / away in a meeting. Would you like to leave a message?
Caller: Yes please. [introduce themselves, leave a message and a phone number]
VR: I will pass the message straight to [your name] once he/she gets back to the office. Thank you very much for your call!

What’s the benefit of this service? You don’t rely on the voicemail machine any more. Your phone is answered quicker. Callers are more inclined to leave a message, rather than listen to a voicemail recording. You will receive the message via email and/or a text message and can decide if it is so urgent that you have to stop what you are doing and return the call as soon as possible. This service is usually used by businesses that only need to divert their phones on rare occasions and/or have a small calls volume.

Next level is call handling. A professional call handler knows as much as possible about the business or the person they are answering the call for. In this case they can not only take a message but are able to assist the caller with simple tasks, that won’t require your attention. For example, call handlers can provide information about the business (address, opening hours, how to contact the business, how to request a refund, how to make a purchase, where to find certain information on the website). They can deal with enquiries such as booking an appointment in your diary, taking a new order/payment, chasing a delivery, sending promotional materials. Finally, they can take a more detailed messages, pre-qualify new leads, prioritise urgent matters and in some cases connect those calls directly to your private mobile.

The main benefit of call handling, above those of call answering, is that you usually have the same person(s) dealing with your calls. You can train them how the calls need to be answered, they learn more about your business, your systems and operations. Efficient call handlers save you time by dealing with simple matters that you don’t have to be involved with yourself. This service works best for someone who needs their business phones to be manned most of the time, who would like to offer a better customer service without wasting their own precious time to deal with mundane enquiries.

Finally, there is call management. It can work instead or alongside call answering/handling. The key difference is that you, as a business owner, will hardly ever answer any of the calls or messages yourself. Instead, your business manager will. A business manager is someone who works alongside you on all key projects, who know the business inside out, who has access to most systems, documents and information. Typically, a virtual assistant who is heavily involved in supporting your business, could act as your business manager. In this scenario, once the message is taken by one of the two call diversion services, it will be sent to your business manager. The business manager will then either deal with the message or pass it on to you. If you delegated down enough of your responsibilities you will find that most of the messages can be dealt with by your business manager, rather than you.

Some virtual call answering or call handling businesses promote themselves as virtual PAs or virtual assistants. This has been causing a lot of confusion amongst small business owners. But you can see clearly now that it’s not the same. Not all virtual assistants will be available to answer your phones throughout the business hours. And not all virtual receptionists will have enough knowledge and understanding about your business to be able to handle the messages.

So next time you are switching on the voicemail to get some work done or to attend a meeting, think about using a professional call diversion service.

After the first 3 years in business (and what a great time we had along the way!), we are so proud to announce that TJConsulting Virtual Assistance have made it through to the final round in the Virtual Business of the Year Awards 2010.

It is a great achievement for us to be nominated and we would be grateful if you could support us. Voting is very simple and literally takes 2 seconds of your valuable time by following this link and clicking the VOTE button:

http://www.vbawards.com/2010/11/tjconsulting-virtual-assistance/

There are no forms to fill in, no registration and no personal details to disclose. It really is simple!

Who should be the Virtual Business of 2010? PPH are looking for “rewarding, young, fledgling companies that make progressive use of the web and technology in the way they operate, innovate and compete, looking for companies that can demonstrate how they have used the web in innovate ways to remain lean, efficient and competitive.” And we absolutely stand by every single word in that statement.

Why are we doing this? As well as getting recognised as the ‘Virtual Business of the Year’ the lucky winner will receive £20,000 sponsorship to grow their business from a wide range of top sponsors: People per Hour, Intuit, Adjug and others. You will agree that this is a fantastic opportunity to grab with both hands for 2011. We are proud of what we managed to achieve so far and we are sure that with your support we will be able to win this competition, the first award of many to come. It’s time to spread the word far and wide about the services we offer, the value you have received and the positive impact it has made on your business.

We are up against a very worthwhile competition. So every single vote counts and we would really love you to support us today. The voting closes on 30th November so please don’t delay! We will keep you posted on the progress.

A way around this is to ‘outsource’ where possible your office and business requirements. So let’s look at the different areas of Outsourcing.

Secretarial and Administration Services

• Secretarial and Administration services can be found in a variety of companies, from a firm that simply takes your phone messages, to a company that will deal with all your daily requirements, from diary management to online marketing. Draw up a list of your requirements and expectations before you start your research to make it easier to find the right provider.
• You may find that you will need to hire more than 1 virtual assistant to cover all your needs: someone can be answering your phones while another VA could specialise in copy writing.
• Prices for virtual assistant services vary greatly based on location and skills. The cheapest doesn’t mean the worst quality though – take into account the location and cost of running a business there/living, experience, the complexity of the task, any special equipment or software a virtual assistant needs to have in place in order to complete jobs like yours.
• Not all virtual assistants answer phones, same as not all virtual assistants can create an email marketing campaign. If you have to have an all-in-one provider it may take you longer to find someone who can do it all for you.
• Outsourcing abroad is generally cheaper, but you will need to spend much more time finding the right virtual assistant. Someone who not only can do the job, but can understand your instructions, can communicate well in English and can deliver work within the deadlines of your timezone.
• You may not have work required every day, and some months are busier than others, so by using an outsourced company, you will only be paying for the hours worked.

Accounts, book-keeping and payroll requirements.

• Employing a book-keeper in the office may suit you, but for many businesses the amount of work may vary from month to month or not be sufficient for someone working full or part-time.
• There are many accounting services out there to choose from. The trick is to find one that will tailor the work around you and only charge a sensible fee.
• For Year End accounts, tax returns etc., agree a set fee prior to the commencement of work, rather than working on an hourly rate, that way if there are any ‘complications’ you will not be incurring any additional costs. Fees charged may vary widely from £600 to £1500 for the same work, so it’s always good to shop around and ask for recommendations.

Human Resources

• If you employ staff  - you need to be aware of the HR regulations, covering staff contracts, grievances, dismissal procedures, wages, whether PAYE or Self employed etc.
• This can be a real minefield, especially with new legislation coming out all the time. But using a HR manager may not be feasible or necessary. Once you have a system set up, then you may only need to use the company again on occasion.

Consultants

• Management consultants promise to make your business more efficient. A good Management Consultant will look at your business and what you already have in place and advise on areas they feel can be changed or added to, in order to benefit the business and the cash flow. Their initial basic advice can often be free of charge until you request a more in-depth review.
• A Business Consultant may offer the services as above, but generally they would be there to advise on the general running of a business, the rules and regulations, government legislation and to make sure that your company is running as legally as required for staffing, insurance, health & safety etc.
• Finally, you will find consultants specialising in one specific area of running the business: Tax, Marketing, PR, Sales, Training, IT, Telecoms, Web, SEO and many more. When choosing someone to do work for you it’s usually the best place to start by asking others for recommendations of consultants they’ve used in the past. Compare the rates, what’s included, and don’t forget the all important personality and values.

All in all, outsourcing and delegation can be of great benefit to the smaller business. If you can find one company to undertake all the tasks of accounting, administration and consultancy, then that can prove more efficient and cost less. It’s a case of finding the services and the providers that suit you and your business. And apart from using recommendations you can search online directories for relevant professions or advertise your requirements on sites like elance, peopleperhour, LinkedIn and Twitter.

Secondly, it’s all about the process and self-discipline. Keep your books up to date and avoid piles of receipts and invoices stacking up in the corner. Tackling books a little and often would reduce your fear and overwhelm when dealing with it. You can also employ an accountant to keep an eye on your records. This will be much cheaper than getting them to do it all for you, but you won’t have to fear making a mistake and being fined by the “tax people”.

Finally, realise why you are doing it. Bookkeeping is a wonderful practice helping you as a business owner understand where you need to reduce the expenses and how you can gain more profit. Bookkeeping is a core area of your business, it’s the blood pressure measurements of your cash flow lifeblood. If you don’t do it regularly you may miss the warning signals of your business running out of cash. As a solopreneur coach or consultant you would really want to avoid that at all costs!

Here are our useful tips on how to deal with your business bookkeeping:

• Your bookkeeping will be more effective if you have a system that can quickly analyse the financial transaction of your company. You will then see the “large picture” behind the numbers and reconciliation.
• Keep your offline books and registers in either invoice number or date order, rather than entering some in invoice number and some in date order. Try to keep your personal expenses separate from your business expenses at all times. Be consistent with the way you decide to do your bookkeeping.
• Follow a check-off list whether you employ payroll services or you are preparing payroll tax returns by yourself. Keeping a good due date reminders will be the best idea in order to file and pay the taxes on time.
• Keep good records. If your records are poorly maintained, you will not be able to understand the expenses and the income in the past and in the future. You will be unable to decide on important decisions like investment, marketing or hiring staff. This creates massive chaos in your business planning!
• Request bank statement with month end cut off date. This will save your time while reconciling your records with the bank statement every month.
• Establish a systematic practice of monitoring transactions on a regular basis (daily or weekly). This will avoid the small mistakes, lost receipts or the unwanted purchases.
• Depositing the cash immediately at the bank once it’s received. Check how the bank charges you for over the counter services. It may make more sense to receive payments and pay your suppliers via online transfers (direct debit, standing order or direct deposit).

But if all fails and you just don’t want to do it any more – hire a bookkeeper. Online bookkeeping is straightforward and will let you just view the reports and summaries, while someone else, like a virtual assistant, can deal with entering all transactions.

Work out what you’re best at and express it clearly on all marketing material – niche marketing is a simpler and more profitable way to grow your business, rather than trying to be everything for everyone. The more detailed your customer avatar is – the simpler it will be for you to find them, connect with them and offer something of value. To start creating your customer avatar think of the following questions:

• Who is my ideal customer? Who would I like to work with?
• Are they able to pay my fees? Will they be willing to pay my fees?
• What problem do they have in life, that my offering will help them solve?
• Why is it important to get it solved?
• How many of those customers are out there in the marketplace?
• WHERE… (do they work? Where do they study? Where do they live?)
• WHAT… (do they eat, drink, read, listen to, are interested in?)
• HOW… (do they look for new products or services, do they choose their suppliers, do they pay the bills?)

Talk to current and former clients to understand if they want the services you offer - there is no better way to find out if people want what you set out to deliver than actually asking them!  Talk to your ex-colleagues, people you know in business, create a survey and email it to your contacts. At the end you will have a statistics to hand to show whether your business proposition is viable.

Keep marketing even when you’re snowed under with work – many solopreneurs go through the same business cycle of  ”no work – marketing – lots of work – no marketing – no work”. It may be hard to find time when you are already busy. But by carefully managing your time and finding a few chunks of 60-90min per week to do your marketing will help you smooth the flow of work and ensure that you don’t end up with too many of those “no work” periods. Many marketing strategies are designed for ongoing marketing based on building relationships. Such strategies work best when you regularly commit to doing something over and over again, regardless of the amount of time/work you have at the moment: Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, other social media, networking, blogging, etc.

Invoice promptly and chase for payment as soon as its due – if you have done your job well you should get paid for it. And being late with your invoice can show your business as unorganised. Plus it means you are giving your customers a free credit, instead of earning interest on their payment in your own bank account. If you are really late with your invoice – the customer may forget about the benefits of your product or service, may ask for changes or extra work before the invoice gets paid or simply go out of business in the current climate. Can you really afford to lose your income like that?

Keep careful records of expenses for tax purposes – trying to do a year’s worth of accounts actually at the end of the year is more expensive, more stressful and there is a deadline which you can’t miss. Much better way is to keep track of your income and expenses throughout the year and keep your book-keeping system up-to-date. Losing claimable business expenses (especially if paid by cash) could mean that you will have to pay more tax than you should. So speak now to your accountant to see if they offer a book-keeping service, set up your system to do it yourself and get your virtual assistant to help with book-keeping on the regular basis (TJConsulting can offer great deals for our book-keeping customers using Xero or KashFlow systems).

Always use a contract or send clients your terms and conditions, however small the job – make sure your contract has been checked by a solicitor before you start using it. Not sending your contract through for a “small job” can potentially leave you open to payment disputes, invalidation of your business and/or professional indemnity insurance, claims against your business. Better being safe in the knowledge and both parties have clear expectations and know the rules – so spend that 15-30min to draft your contract and get it signed before starting any assignment. Finally, if the client wants you to sign their own agreement – get it checked first by a solicitor to ensure that there will be no unpleasant surprises later.

Put at least 30% of what you earn aside to cover tax and unexpected gaps in income – August and Christmas time are traditionally quiet in the UK. In any country there will be periods when a lot of people take time off to go on holidays. So cover yourself for such gaps you need to ensure there is enough cash in the business. Another issue to consider is tax. Unlike being employed, when your tax is taken off the salary before it’s transferred to your bank account, when you are running a business you need to remember that taxes are due quarterly or yearly in most cases and prepare for it. Your accountant can give you an estimate of how much tax will be due to ensure that you have enough cash set aside to cover those bills when the time comes.

BONUS TIP: Being a solopreneur doesn’t mean you are alone – although you won’t have a water cooler where you can chat to your colleagues, you can find people in similar position to buddy up with. LinkedIn has a large number of groups specific for industries, interests or locations where you can talk to other professionals, exchange tips and experience. Online and offline networking can offer a sense of community and interaction. Finally, having a business coach or a mentor can offer guidance, support and a sounding board for your ideas. Some of our clients regularly have a business briefing sessions when we help them to sort out their ideas and projects, create a structured system of what needs to get done when, offer a sympathetic ear for their business problems – one of the reasons to hire a virtual assistant.

What’s your top business tip? Please share with other readers!

How do you rate your time management skills? Do you feel you get a lot done every day? Do you plan your day to the last detail or just “go with the flow” and deal with whatever landed on your desk/in your inbox? Whichever category you are in, it’s important that you take time to analyse what’s working for you and make adjustments where necessary.

I’m someone who’s fond of written to-do lists. I’ve got my hardcover diary where I scribble every day my lists and feel great emotional empowerment once all items on my to-do list have been ticked off. I add my meetings there too, any trivial household tasks like getting the shopping or doing the school run. In this way I know exactly how much time I’ve got between “fixed” commitments and can schedule and organise the rest of the tasks in between those.

Here are some tips from the born organisers (aka “virtual PAs”) for organising your day:

1. Write it down.
Make a list and write everything down – on paper, on computer, in Excel, on iPhone or Blackberry. It doesn’t matter where but it’s got to be written! You may be shocked, surprised and overwhelmed looking at your list of ‘to do’s’. But don’t despair – as they will all get done, if you follow the steps below. Also, don’t forget to schedule lunch in your diary, especially if you find yourself often working through your lunch break!

Another tip I’ve picked up from Nigel Botterill (UK top entrepreneur) – “this day isn’t over until tomorrow is planned”. Don’t stop the work until you’ve done the list. In this way you won’t waste time in the morning and you will be more likely to stick to your list/plan rather than changing everything because of an email that landed in the Inbox overnight.

2. Prioritise.

The next step is to number each item on your to-do list in importance of completion starting at 1 for most important and so on. Think strategically – where do you want your business to be in the next 3-6 months? Will this activity help you to get there quicker? If something just has to be done today and there is no excuse for not getting it done put it at number one.
Next estimate how long each task will take. Beware of time sappers – emails, social networking, browsing… It may seem that checking emails will only take 5 minutes but before you know it you could spend 3 hours of your day just reading and responding to messages! Be realistic about what you can get done in a day.

3. Delegate.

Go through your list and delegate things that don’t specifically need your attention. There are so many tasks that could actually be done by others: book-keeping, email marketing, arranging travel, posting a blog article, research, chasing invoices to name a few. Why not use your VA for those things? Or if you feel that a particular area of your business takes too much time because you are not an expert (sales, marketing, IT, HR, etc.) – why not hire a professional consultant? It may look expensive from the outset but a good professional adviser will save you money and time in the long run.

4. Use your list!

There is not point in writing your list and then never looking at it again. Your list is one of the most important tools that help you manage your business and your time. Therefore once you’ve arrived at work – open your list and get on with it from Priority 1 down. Try to use concentrated effort to get things done quicker (e.g. a short period of time when you have no distractions from the task in hand). Take short breaks between tasks to answer calls or read emails. Then go back to your list.

5. Things happen… Be cool!

We wish we could be in control of everything but we are not. A delivery may be late, a project could go pear-shaped, a subcontractor can let you down. Your list will have to be put on hold to solve an issue that’s threatening your business right now. In this situation don’t stress: getting frustrated and upset about this interruption is only a waste of your time. Deal with an issue as soon as you can and go back to your list.

6. Plans for Short and Long.

Ideally you need to have 2 separate lists. One – short-term actions, items that need doing today/tomorrow. You will be re-arranging and re-planning this list every day. Your second list is the list of your long-term business goals. For example, you would like to launch an email training course for your customers in 4 months. It’s a long-term goal. But then you need to start working backwards and figure out small, manageable steps to take today and tomorrow to achieve this big goal.

There is no point just adding the big goal to your today’s list as you won’t be able to do it. But referring to the goal and the list of actions required to achieve it – you can add those along with other items and complete everything in time.

7. Analyse and review.

At the end of the day look at your your list. Have you managed to achieve everything? If not, what went wrong? What can you do next time to prevent it? Can you delegate even more? Review what’s left to do, plan your list for tomorrow and the check your long-term plan.

Finally, if you have never made lists before it may seem time consuming and limiting. Try it though and give it some time! Very quickly it will become a habit – something that you will do without thinking. You will find yourself more productive, achieving more every day.

You will master the time… so how will you use it?

So what works for you? I’d love to hear your comments.