We did our Wiz through Word seminar today. One delegate was amazed at the number of tips and tricks we crammed in the two and a quarter hour seminar, all of which she could relate to and was eager to start using when she got back. In fact she's coming again for a dose of Excel tips next Monday (29th June).
There are still places.
http://wizthroexcel29june2009.eventbrite.com/
for more details and to book online.
Something else I’ve been up to…..
http://www.southoxheyfestival.co.uk/index.asp
Click on the “Debut Recording” link on right of screen to
hear us.
A recording by my choir here in South Oxhey – being televised
for BBC in the autumn.
I wasn’t able to make the recording as I was performing in
Bedroom Farce (www.rickmansworth-players.org.uk) when they did the recording in the Abbey Road Studios on Saturday.
With all the snow, poor weather, travel disruptions, school closures, risk of accidents on the slippery roads, reminds me why I chose to work from home. I remember those days when I was the one sitting frustrated in my car, going nowhere, too many miles away from home to just abandon the car and walk, small child in the back getting even more fed up than me, feeling hungry, needing to go to the loo and can't.....
Oh, those were the days...... don't miss it!
I've just come back from an amazingly relaxing holiday in Portugal with my 2 daughters. We hired what turned out to be a luxurious villa in Praia del Rei, an hour's drive north of Lisbon on the Atlantic coast, not far from Obidos. A bit of an adventure to get there, having to get up at some ungodly hour when it's still dark outside to get to Heathrow, Heathrow is always so busy, no matter what time you get there. Lisbon was fairly busy, but mostly busy waiting in the longest queue to pick up our hire car - a lovely Nissan Micra with aircon. Its boot didn't quite want to hold our two cases, so Claire had the company of one of them on the back seat. So having been given the key for the car, the most nerve-wracking bit - getting used to a left-hand drive car on the wrong side of the road and trying to observe road signs and look out for the landmarks in our explicitly written directions. Thankfully, it didn't take too long to not be grabbing the door handle to change gear, but it did take a while to find the rear-view mirror without double-taking!
Traffic lights have a different sequence in Portugal, did you know that? They turn from red straight to green - no advance warning of the orange light. Anyone around the toll-booth on the A8 would have had a laugh, as to my horror, the 5 Euro note change the toll booth lady put in my hand got whisked away by a gust of wind before I could grasp it. Well, what a panic that caused me! Trying to put the handbrake on and put the car in neutral with the door handle and at the same time release the door with the handbrake! Fortunately I managed to save it, then as we drove off, managed to open Zoe's window instead of wind mine up!
Got to the villa and found it fairly easily. My goodness, we were in for a treat! It was huge! It had its own swimming pool, it had a balcony, it had huge outdoor area with sunloungers and garden chairs galore, it was hot, the kitchen was oh so modern with marble work surfaces, all the appliances you could wish for, an American fridge with an ice-maker! A bathroom each! Flat screen cinema tv! Each room we entered was greeted with a "wow" from us!
First things first, girls wanted to strip off and jump in the pool. In the fridge Helen had made sure we had some basic food, bread, butter, jam, cheese, ham, milk, water. We were so spoilt!
Rest of the week and more discoveries to follow....
by Vee Smith
Media
headlines are clamouring
about the Credit Crunch, inflation and how we are all heading for recession,
(or not, depending on who’s side you’re on), as well as the impact the American
instigated contraction of credit has had on the business community here in the
UK. Indeed, panic in the world financial markets has led to sharp falls in
share and house prices.
How should
we business owners be preparing our businesses for the inevitable lean times
ahead? In nature, lack of food and water – famine, naturally sift out the
strong, leaving the weak to die. We call it survival of the fittest. To survive
famine in business it’s about being lean and streamlined.
So, how can
the small business owner be more lean and streamlined than they already are?
Small businesses already have the upper hand when it comes to responding to
market changes. There’s no doubt that because of their very nature, there is
little bureaucracy of board, management or shareholder meetings getting in the
way of changes in policies, strategies and overheads that their larger,
corporate competitors suffer. But can the small business owner tweak it
further?
The astute
business owner needs to work smarter. Working
smarter does not mean working harder. Working smarter means reviewing their
activities and seeing where their time should be used, and comparing it to
where their time is actually being used. The business owner should be focusing
on activities that generate income. The smart business owner does this by
delegating the small stuff or activities that don’t directly generate an
income. These activities might include invoicing, book-keeping, filing,
customer service, answering emails, the mechanics of managing email campaigns
or any activity or procedure that you perform in your business for its
well-being. They’re all important and for some, easily done, however, they are
time-consuming and don’t directly generate income. These are the activities
that should be delegated to a Virtual Assistant.
Virtual
Assistants (also known as VA’s) are a new generation of business administrators
and assistants who work virtually from their own office, serving several
clients on a freelance basis. VA’s have typically come from PA and office
manager backgrounds who have gained a wealth of experience and skills during
their careers. You can take advantage of their top skills without having to
provide space or equipment as the VA provides it, or deal with employee issues
like PAYE, holidays and sick leave, because they are self-employed. A VA
charges for just the hours they work, so you don’t pay for tea breaks or quiet
periods when you don’t need any help. Far more flexible than the alternative of
engaging PAYE help, where you risk having to pay staff for doing nothing more
than turn up during your quiet periods and then not being able to cope with the
busy periods in their fixed hours.
Hard-working
business owners might take the view that they can so easily do these admin
tasks themselves and they have been doing that since they started. But that’s
not working smart. Suppose you spend 15 hours a month dealing with admin tasks
and your charge-out rate is, say £60 per hour. It doesn’t make sense to use
your time to do non-income generating work when you can engage the services of
a VA for £20-£25 per hour and focus on the income-generating work.
So, having
finally let go of your small stuff and delegated it to your carefully selected
VA, you find that instead of just surviving the credit crunch, you’re actually
better poised to grow. You’re no longer working “in” your business. Your
business has become lean and streamlined. All your time and energy is being
focused on the big picture, which means you’re more likely to spot lucrative
opportunities that you might otherwise have missed.
by Vee Smith, Virtual Assistant
I loved my job as Office Manager and PA to the 3 Directors I looked after in a multi-national engineering holding company, but I hated the sometimes 2 hour journey into and from work, dropping children off en-route at either the child-minder or nursery. When the company announced their Exit plans and that we at HQ would all be working ourselves out of a job, I started imaging what my next perfect job would be. I first discovered the world of Virtual Assistants reading through some of the PA and secretarial magazines that were sent to us and after some research and speaking to a few VA's, I decided that working as a Virtual Assistant seemed to be just the option that fitted with my work/life balance. I came across Carmen's VA Mastery coaching and training programmes after reading one of the PA magazines and after having an initial chat with her, signed up for the VA Mastery Course, using my redundancy money.
The course took the form of hour-long weekly phone calls over 7 weeks. It was well-structured and in particular I found it useful that Carmen got me to focus on how my VA business was going to be and then identify the steps I needed to take to get me there, as well as discovering my blocks and fears. Carmen helped me every step to identify what I wanted/had, the steps I needed to take as well as help me overcome my fears and blocks. Each session was followed by a practical exercise that made me commit my ideas to paper, which would eventually be used in my business plan. These included identifying/sourcing items of equipment and services, setting time boundaries, my business name and legal status, my niche market, my skills strengths/gaps, pricing, quality control, marketing and financial plans, business and personal targets. Carmen provided constructive and positive feedback on my homework, all of which was easy to understand and accommodate.
After I completed the course I set about putting my marketing plans into action, which were creating my website and networking. I was fortunate to have my redundancy money to fund the early months whilst I was setting up and trying to secure clients. My first client came as a result of my responding to one of many VA posts that Carmen circulated to her graduates. After being interviewed, I was offered a contract. I was in an enviable position of having my target 25 hours per week satisfied by the one client. My client was in the process of franchising their already successful networking business and I helped streamline many processes as well as take care of the day to day admin of the business, while they focused on marketing and recruiting franchisees. After some 11 months, the franchise side of my client's business had successfully taken off, with several territories sold and many more reserved. Consequently, my and my client's workload reduced significantly. I needed to get more clients.
I had a follow up call with Carmen who helped me get out of panic-mode and re-focus on how I wanted my VA business to develop and commit to actions and steps to get there, which included networking. By the end of the month I managed to secure 1 more regular client and by the following month another 2 regulars came on board as well as another 4 ad-hoc clients. 4 of the 7 new clients were my first client's franchisees, so I was able to offer them my expertise of running the admin for their new franchise business. I had found my niche market. At the same time, I came in contact with 2 ladies who were looking to set up virtual admin businesses of their own. I trained one to do the franchisee's admin work to my high standards. The other had a great track record in call centres, so it was natural to offer her telemarketing skills as a service to my clients.
Now, a little over a year later from being in "panic-mode", I have a team of 6 super associates and together we serve 8 regular and as many ad-hoc clients who think we are wonderful!
It has been enormously beneficial for me to have Carmen as my coach. Not only is she understanding and empathetic she is able to get to the root of my concerns and fears, squash them or turn them into conquerable obstacles. In addition, Carmen has an amazing in-depth knowledge of all aspects of the VA business which she enthusiastically passes on. Every call I've had with Carmen leaves me inspired, energized and focused. I feel very fortunate to have someone as knowledgeable as Carmen on my side and would whole-heartedly recommend anyone committed to the VA route to fast-track their journey by "standing on the shoulders of giants" and taking up the VA Mastery Course.
By Vee Smith - founder of My Super VA
I've discovered a great new passion for dancing in the form of Ceroc. I hate the gym but I love dancing, so this seems a great substitute. I'd describe is as a cross between
What a fantastic day at Latimer House it was yesterday. Full of lovely inspiring business ladies and some very informative topics discussed. I particularly liked....
I chaired my first Athena meeting yesterday at the Amersham Tuesday group. Being a member of Athena has been really great for not just my business, but a huge boost to my confidence. I'm enjoying some great supportive friendships. When I think back to this time last year when I attended my first Athena meeting, what a quivering shy thing I was, absolutely dreading the moment when I would have to stand up and deliver my monthly minute!
Continue reading "One miniscule step for Man-kind, one huge leap for Vee" »
