For all those new (or even veteran) Virtual Assistants that have MANY questions about their new or existing VA practice, this is where you can visit and get answers from a full-fledged VA with an extensive technical background.

Or even If you are a small business owner looking to work with a Virtual Assistant, then this is the place to stop and get answers to those burning questions too. So fire away! I cannot wait to answer you back!

Shoot Aletha an email to: info@dcvirtualoffice.com

Not to worry, your name will be kept strictly confidential when your question is posted.



• Recently Written

  • Why Have Your Website as a Blog?
  • Questions from a New Virtual Assistant
  • Too Many Ideal Clients?
  • Answering Client Emails
  • Outlook Question: Choosing Signatures for Emails
  • aMember – Membership Software
  • Testing My New Blog - Ask This Virtual Assistant

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Why Have Your Website as a Blog?

Posted on August 4, 2008 | Filed Under Blogs, Websites, WordPress

Dear Ask This VA:

Why would one consider having their website as a blog? One blog company states right on their site that they do not want businesses using their blog services to ramp up search engine results.

What are the pros/cons between having your website as a blog and having your website hosted by a service and having your blog hosted by your site? — td

Dear “td”:

I believe the reason now why people want a website that looks like a blog is it’s just easier for them to maintain both from the same platform and not have to have a web designer create their website. What ends up happening is the website owner is not at the mercy of the web designer to make minor changes when they can make their own edits. It is a bonus to have the blog page right on the same dashboard as the website.

Of course, just like this blog, you can accomplish having your website and blog using WordPress. WordPress has made it easy for a novice website builder to load up the administrative and theme files to their website host server, sometimes automatically with the touch of a button. They offer free themes that you can choose from and customize. Plugins are available to customize the sidebar areas as well (i.e., newsletter web forms, site meter counter, surveys, 30-day calendar, etc.)

Another thing that most people don’t know about WordPress is that you also can create your own page template (using an HTML editor like MS FrontPage) and load that up to your host server account under the WordPress files. It has to be a .php file, but with a little snippet of code added to that HTML page, you can save it as a .php file. Yep, you heard right. And where did I find this information? I purchased the WordPress for Dummies book and was able to read up and study how you can create your own page templates for your website and blog. Matter of fact, you can make it so that you do not have to have a blog sidebar show up on your actual web pages. You can utilize that sidebar space for other snippets of text or affiliate logos. Better yet, have a signup for your newsletter on the sidebar.

Now there is also a free alternative to having a website blog through WordPress or TypePad, but your pages is not hosted by your own domain name or website. Your URL would read something like this:  www.dcvirtualoffice.typepad.com/dctimes. Chances are, your URL will be not as searchable this way. It’s well worth having your web pages and your blog pages hosted by your web server.

 

Questions from a New Virtual Assistant

Posted on July 26, 2008 | Filed Under Virtual Assistant Resources

Dear Ask This VA:

As a new Virtual Assistant just starting out, I have a burning question while researching a possible career field. What do companies/people want and willing to pay for? I just do not have a current understanding of what the real needs are. I know this could be difficult question to answer but as I am in the begining stages, it is rather an intimidating one for me.
 
I can write, do general computer work, have basic technical skills and work with dedication. My personality is such that I like doing projects on my own but also welcome working with associates on a problem. However, the problem right now is understanding what really it is that I can sell without selling myself short? What should I focus on learning, developing skills at and what is most in demand for new virtual assistants to look at?
 
Any advice that you can give will certainly be appreciated. Thank you for having posted this site as a resource. - KA

Dear “KA”:

To answer your question about how to start out building your new VA practice, you want to take into consideration who your ideal client may be. Is there a particular industry that you have worked with in the past and enjoy working with a client within that industry? Align yourself with the kind of clients that will benefit from your skills that you possess and do not let them dictate what you are worth. That is up to you to determine!

Fortunately, more and more small business owners, and now even large companies and corporations have the knowledge of what a Virtual Assistant is. But there are still those that feel that a Virtual Assistant is the same as an employee, but that is NOT the case. Virtual Assistants are small business owners that operate from their own home office, relying on the income intake from clients to maintain and build their business, just like any small business owner. Unfortunately, those VA’s that start out tend to not take the next step in building their business, thus they don’t take the line of work that a VA performs seriously.

As far as what a client or company is willing to pay to work with a VA, again, this is where you dictate what your rates should be, not what they want your rates to be. When determining what you want to charge, take into consideration the following criteria:

1. What kind of income to I want to make per month/per year? Five figures? Six figures?
2. What are my monthly expenses? Remember you have to pay your taxes and possibly insurance, not to mention that you want to put some aside for retirement someday.
3. How many billable hours do I need to factor in each month to meet my income budget?

These are just a few factors to consider in developing your rates. Not every prospect you come into contact with is going to agree with what you charge. And that’s okay. There are prospective clients that will welcome your expertise and pay you what you are really worth. I guarantee you will find them!

For some great resourceful information regarding becoming a Virtual Assistant and working with a Virtual Assistant, visit the Virtual Assistance Chamber of Commerce (VACOC) at www.virtualassistantnetworking.com and the VA Blueprint website to learn more about building your VA practice with the assistance of a coach and VA mentor. You will get GUARANTEED results from the VA Blueprint program! Their web address is:  www.thevablueprint.com.

Too Many Ideal Clients?

Posted on June 3, 2008 | Filed Under Working with Clients

Dear Ask This VA:

I am working to build my business to triple its current size in the next 3 months. I’m getting many prospects who can only do 5 hours with anticipation of going to 10 or more in the near future. My initial goal was to only sign on clients at 10 hours or more. Now I’m thinking maybe I should take these 5 hour clients as they are income, and if they are also ideal clients, I want them. However, I’m leary of eventually having 10-15 clients to deal with regularly. What are your suggestions? — td

Dear “td”:

First, I want to commend you for setting expectations on the kind of clients you want to work with and the number of hours you desire for each client. However, sometimes the client that only wants to start with five hours may be your ideal client and those that desire to work up to ten hours may not be so ideal. I guess this is where you need to be selective in who you work with. Be absolutely sure this is the client you want to have a collaborative relationship with. After your initial consultation with the prospective client, answer yourself these questions:

1. Were they clear in what they would like for you to accomplish for them?
2. Are the services they requested in line with what your business supports? Sometimes we want to sign up every client that knocks on our door, regardless of what services we offer. We’ll promise the client that we’ll learn how to manage a software as soon as we “read the manual”. Well this is where you’re expending your time and energy to learn another program when you could be focusing your time and energy on landing another “ideal” client.
3. Make sure that this client has a business strategy that would support adding additional hours to their contract. If the client prefers to stay at five hours per month, there’s no potential growth there for the client or yourself. You would be stuck performing the same kind of tasks each month since it’s limited to what you can accomplish in that short amount of time. Imagine if you could work with a client for ten hours per month. You could get a lot more done for this client, thus increasing their potential for income. Each time you are taking another task away from you client to perform for them, it’s more time they can spend on marketing and building their business. It’s important that you communicate the benefits of working with a VA and see where growth warrants the need to increase the time you want to work with a VA.

If you answered “no” to all of these questions, it doesn’t sound like you want to work with this client. You want to have a YES-YES-YES answer here and land the clients that want the maximum number of hours, not the minimum number and then you end up having too many clients with so little hours.

Answering Client Emails

Posted on June 1, 2008 | Filed Under Small Business Resources, Virtual Assistant Resources, Working with Clients

Dear Ask This VA:

Do you sometimes, or all the time, charge clients time toward their retainer for reading emails they send to you? - td

Dear “td”:

Usually if a client sends a single email, I do not charge them for the time to read and respond to it; however, if a client sends a number of emails back-to-back that need answers or I’m providing a lengthy response to a client email message, then I do charge them the time to read and respond. Sometimes the message request will require research, which means I will perform the research, then respond to the client via email with my research findings. That kind of task takes time and it needs to be noted as part of the work performed for your client.

Outlook Question: Choosing Signatures for Emails

Posted on May 16, 2008 | Filed Under Microsoft Outlook, Small Business Resources

Dear Ask This VA:

Well, I thought I would see if you give me some insight on a problem that I am spending so much time on for it is truly a ‘bee in the bonnet problem’ for me. 

Recently, I added a few more signatures so I can just be able to go up to the ‘accounts above’ and bring down the one that I might need (basically be able to switch back and forth as needed) AND it seems like before I added the extra signatures in the ‘option place’ in Outlook, I was able to do just this thing. 

Do you have any earthly idea why it is not working as smoothly any more? Like when I went into the info@dcvirtualoffice.com to send you this message, my business signature popped in which was great. So I went up at the top where Accounts sits to just check and see if I could switch from personal to business…it would not do it for me; in fact it will not even bring back in the business signature so I just typed in my name below.

Any clues, would be helpful or tell me where to go and investigate why this is happening?  The most frustrating thing is that before I added a few more signatures it worked great. — jo

Dear “jo”:

Be sure that you are choosing a custom signature for each email account. The way you accomplish this is:  In Outlook 2003 (or 2007), select TOOLS/OPTIONS/MAIL FORMAT/SIGNATURES and just make sure that you are selecting a default signature for each email account. If you do not do this, when you go to select a different account within your email message, there will not be a custom signature to come up for you. That is what it sounds like is happening to you.

aMember – Membership Software

Posted on May 8, 2008 | Filed Under aMember

I had a Virtual Assistant colleague ask me the other day what aMember was all about as she had a potential client requesting that particular service from her. The answer to that question is this:

Simply put, AMember is a membership software package for selling digital subscriptions and product downloads. For a “technie”, it’s a PHP script that you can integrate with your website and also pull in your e-commerce platform in order to accept payments for membership.

I will tell you that more and more internet marketers, business coaches, speakers and authors are investing into aMember to offer membership opportunities with current and prospective clients. It’s a great way to earn passive income, not to mention offer products, services and paid tele-seminars that can be offered along with the membership.

For additional training on how to use aMember, I recommend checking out Christina Hill’s website (a.k.a., The Shopping Cart Queen) and grab her aMember tutorial program at a mere cost of $97.00. You get access to the package as a member where you can see first-hand how a membership works as a user. Here’s the link to Christina’s aMember page: http://www.shoppingcartqueen.com/products/audio-amember.php

Right now, when I search for a VA that offers aMember administrative services, it’s rare that I find someone that can maintain a membership site. I know that prospective clients are looking for VA’s that can administer their membership sites, because I have been targeted a number of times from my own website. I offer that service; therefore, clients are finding me when they search for “aMember VA’s”. So if you like administering back-end software programs and you want to take advantage of the training that is available, then jump on board the bandwagon with the rest of the VA’s who are raking in the money building aMember sites!

If you have any additional questions you want to ask about aMember or anything related to your Virtual Assistant business, feel free to email me at info@dcvirtualoffice.com.

Testing My New Blog - Ask This Virtual Assistant

Posted on May 1, 2008 | Filed Under Introducing, Small Business Resources, Virtual Assistant Resources

For all those new (or even veteran) Virtual Assistants that have MANY questions about their new or existing VA practice, this is where you can visit and get answers from a full-fledged VA with an extensive technical background.

Or even If you are a small business owner looking to work with a Virtual Assistant, then this is the place to stop and get answers to those burning questions too. So fire away! I cannot wait to answer you back!

Shoot me an email to: info@dcvirtualoffice.com

Not to worry, your name will be kept strictly confidential when your question is posted.