Working from Home- 3 Major Tips to Keep In Mind

It is very difficult to work from home but not impossible. Here are three things to always stick by:

1. Make a designated area. 
It doesn't matter if you have a small corner desk as your working area or an entire room. Make yourself an area that is off limits to everyone else. If you only have a little corner to work in, put a curtain that will hide your desk for after hours. This leads us to #2.

2. Close the door/curtain after hours and DO NOT GO BACK. If you had an office outside of home would you get dressed and commute at 8 pm to check emails or finish that project you were working on? Probably not. Be respectful of YOUR time and your family's time. Shut the door, turn the phone on silent and let it charge. If it's an emergency they can call your personal number.  (Unless of course you are on-call or advertise yourself as 24-7)

3. Laundry, errands, and your friends'/mother-in-law's/ sister's favors can wait until after hours or your time off. Let your family know that between such hours you are busy working and you do not have time to- Take Fluffy to the vet, pick up your sister's clothes from the dry-cleaners, or baby sit your friend's triplets. This would be the flip-side of rule #2.

And as a bonus, something that helps me tremendously is 'DRESS FOR THE JOB'. Are you a Yoga Instructor? Marvelous, keep rocking those yoga pants. Are you an Executive Assistant? Let's swap those tennis shoes for something more business casual. You will not only look the part but when you put on the 'hat' you actually feel like you are doing something specific and can focus better.

I really hope this helps you whether you already work from home, or are thinking about it, or even if you are starting your own business. Most businesses including Dell started from home, now the attitude that drives the business comes from within. 

Feel free to add any tips you may have from experience 

-Nancy Valdez
Austin's Virtual Assistant

"25 Tasks to Outsource Today!"

I found a very interesting website that pretty much describes everything a virtual assistant can do for your business.  One of the things I saw was a list of 25 things an entrepreneur can outsource to others to help with their business.

"25 Tasks to Outsource TODAY!

1.    Email Management/Filtering
2.    Setting up Autoresponders (Aweber, Mailchimp)
3.    Booking appointments with clients
4.    Following up with clients/customers (sending thank you and happy birthday emails)
5.    Receptionist duties (answering occasional calls)
6.    Calendar Management
7.    File Management (organizing files using Dropbox etc)
8.    Database building (eg. updating email or contact lists on your CRM)
9.    Research on certain topics for blogposts, newsletters or others
10.  Personal errands (purchasing gifts for loved ones / family members online)
11.  Hotel and Flight Booking
12.  Transcription (transcribing voicemail, video or audio, podcasts etc.)
13.  Taking down minutes of meetings
14.  Creating basic reports (reports on weekly tasks, deliverables, sales)
15.  Preparing Slideshows (Powerpoint Presentations)
16.  Liaison between you and other team members
17.  Recruitment (source for other team members like writers or graphic artists)
18.  Set-up Social Media Accounts (Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Youtube)
19.  Manage and update Social Media Accounts
20.  Manage your Blog (Basic WordPress Skills)
21.  Publish posts on your Blog (content you provided)
22.  Filter  and reply to comments on your blog
23.  Answering support tickets (with the use of Zendesk)
24.  Blog commenting (to increase links to your site)
25.  Participating in discussion forums or message boards (more promotion!)"

-Source Chris Ducker

25 Tasks You Can Outsource to a Virtual Assistant to Grow Your Business – TODAY!

by Chris C. Ducker

http://www.chrisducker.com/25tasks/

I invite you to peruse his website, it has a ton more information for VAs and Entrepreneurs seeking outside help.

-Nancy

Productive Virtual Assistant

Many start ups or small business owners hesitate to hire an assistant to help them with their never ending workload because they just don't have the time to train anyone and it's an added expense to your overhead and they don't have an office yet and they haven't set up a second computer and the more you think about it you feel frustrated now because you spent so much time thinking about it and wasted time on just thinking on it now you have more work and still no one to help! (I meant this sentence to be very very long).

I get you. I used to own my own business too, and believe me the turn around around here is incredibly ridiculous. You hire a potentially great assistant and after three weeks of training and coaching and buying breakfasts, they leave you high and dry with less money on your budget and still a ton of work piled up on YOU the owner. I get it. I've been there, done that.

My work ethics are different than most others. I understand that you need to see productivity and keep your overhead expenses as low as possible. Have you thought of the possibilities for your business if you found and hired an assistant that not only caught you up on your work but also generated sales for you? So basically your assistant would pay for themselves and bring in extra profits?

Well, when I had my business that's exactly what I was looking for. So now here I am. I'm here to help you succeed. I have experience with the basic administrative tasks, to marketing management and sales. And the best part is that you can hire me as an employee or a contractor. I am set up at home with my own PC, wi-fi, landline, smart phones, fax, copier, scanner, whatever a smart business needs to succeed. I even film and edit videos for promotional, educational, or just for YouTube needs.

• If hired as a virtual assistant (I am flexible and able to have meetings with you on a regular basis) you only pay $12/hr.
• 
  
• If hired to work on location my rate is $15/hr. But think about it, you have someone with experience and the ability to help you succeed. 

Currently I am available from 1 hour a week to 20 hours a week. Most definitely can find more than 20 hours if you are in need of those extra hours but with an experienced person by your side you shouldn't need more than 20 hours a week.

Bonus: I'm a Texas Notary Public, signatures are free to my employers/clients who have hired me for administrative/clerical/marketing projects.

Regular Mobile Notary rate is $6.00 for the first signature, $1.00 per signature, and a travel fee starting at $25. (Best to call for quote)

BUT WAIT there is more...

Since I myself am sometimes busy helping others, I do have a pool of equally experienced assistants that work under my supervision, you have the ability to select the individual that has the skills that match your needs.

Best of luck in you search and please keep me in mind for any work small or large you may have in the future. 

Nancy

512-630-2581        contact@austinsva.com        www.AustinsVA.com 

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Great Reads: Marketing & Writing

I received a couple of e-mails, one from Manta and one from Vertical Response, with tips about writing for your blogs/websites and measuring social media success.  I usually don't read the entire e-mails they send with the newsletters, but they have some great tips most of the time.  I wanted to share the material they sent today.

Writing for the Web (It’s Not What You Learned in English Class)

One of my best friends is a dentist who is about to open her own private dental practice. I received a frantic call from her the other day: “I’m building my website,...Read More at their site.

How to Measure Social Media Success

Measuring your social media success involves monitoring your audience’s activity.  Keep track of how many followers you have and how often they share your content, enter a contest,  ...Read more at their site.

I just wanted to share this with you today. It's never to late so learn something new, especially when it involves making your company more popular.   

Even though you may not have time to sit down and write content for your webpage or a blog or engage in social networking in a constant pace, anything you do online can help your business grow.  Some of my clients set up about 5 minutes a week to dictate into their voice recorder app what their newsletter will contain this week.  Later they turn around and send me their memos so I can transcribe them, add a graphic or two and send it by e-mail or post it online.  If you are doing this solo, you may want to record several newsletters/blogs at the beginning of the month and then dedicate one day to post those blogs or send the emails when the time comes.  You still have the same results only this way you break it up into chew-size bits.

Have a great week, and remember to BREATHE, take one thing at a time and know that there are Virtual Assistants that can help tackle those ruthless tasks :) Call today or anytime you need help with ANYTHING :) 

 

Cheers!

Nancy Tolbert

http://austinspersonalassistant.com/

Austin's Personal Assistant 

 Not just for Austin anymore...

Call Today 1-888-946-4871

 

Measure your Marketing

"How did you hear about us?"  Have you ever had that question asked to you at a retail store or online while checking out?  Do you ask your clients/customers that question?  Some people new in the game are too shy or too busy to remember to find out how their customers are finding them.  No matter what reason you have now for not asking, toss it aside.  It is imperative to measure your marketing efforts regardless how small or large your marketing efforts are.  Below are a few ideas that can help you measure your marketing efforts a little easier:

Landing Pages:
When posting ads online, printing flyers or sending mailers, include a web address that will work as your landing page.  You can log onto your stats page and compare the number of customers that respond to the flyer, postcard or online ad to that from other marketing efforts.

Phone number/extensions:
If you have a service such as RingCentral or use Google Voice, you can use a specific phone number or extension for a specific campaign.  You will be able to determine immediately what campaign is generating more interest for you.

Surveys:
Ask your customer directly.  When they call your organization, check out online or stop by your shop, simply ask and keep notes on what has been working the most.

Why would you want to spend a few extra seconds on tracking your marketing efforts?  This way you will cut out the outlets that aren't generating much interest and improve on the ones that are bringing in customers.   You will save money, time and simultaneously increase your potentials by investing more time and effort into the marketing efforts that work for you and your niche.

Remember, you don't have to do any of this alone, virtual assistants are great at marketing and sorting out data.  Don't don't need a large budget or need to commit to a VA long term in order to sort out your marketing efforts.

Best!
~Nancy

Keeping the Books

Ah! Keeping the books, how time consuming and frustrating is that?  Where do you keep your receipts?  In a shoe box under the bed?  Many people I have worked with have tucked away their bookkeeping in a deep dark closet and only air them out a few times a decade.  BIG no-no.  Not only do you need the books in order to do your taxes each year but how will you be able to keep an eye out on your ROI, budgets and more?  All it takes is a couple of hours a week to update your bookkeeping journal.  Whether you keep books the old fashioned way...on a book, with Quicken, Quickbooks, PeachTree or many other softwares and spreadsheets, take a moment to update the books at least once a week and avoid a big mess at the end of the year.

Don't have time to keep your own books?  Don't worry, you can always find a contractor like a Virtual Assistant or a part time employee to help you keep in line.  Bookkeeping doesn't require a degree or too much experience.  Once you set up your accounts and your preferences, the data entry is pretty straightforward.  If you at least have someone help you do the bare minimum you will be alright.

Now mark my words: Don't let your books accumulate dust, you will kick yourself come tax season :)

--Best,
Nancy
www.AustinsPersonalAssistant.com

I Need Help but I Don't Have Time for Helpers!

"I need to hire someone to help me with some projects, but I don't have time to train anyone!"

I've heard this over and over again from so many people.  I know that it is time consuming to train people and your time is valuable and you have a million other things to do all at the same time but, you MUST find some time to train someone or at least bring someone in who can help with the bare minimum.  Believe me, if you set one hour aside and go over some details with a professional assistant (virtual or not), you will be able to catch up on that one hour you INVESTED and simultaneously your assistant will have you caught up in no time.

This is just one of the many perks of hiring a virtual admin assistant.  ;-)

-Nancy