Treat your initial contact with a VA as a job interview.

Treat your initial contact with a VA as a job interview.

I would be disappointed if potential clients DIDN’T treat our initial contact as a job interview. I’m a business owner and have been successfully running my Virtual Assistant business for just over three years.  I personally wouldn’t walk into a ‘pop-up’ business and hand over my hard earned cash. Neither would I do the same with an online business without first checking its credentials. So in the same respect wouldn’t expect a fellow business owner to hand over their business administration, and all of their sensitive business information to me. Without first running…Read more
Sole Traders you can take time off for Holidays. Here’s How.

Sole Traders you can take time off for Holidays. Here’s How.

Sole Traders and Holidays Having recently spoken to many small business owners about the summer holidays, I am not surprised to hear that some have not actually had a holiday for at least 5 years. “How on earth can I go on holiday, what would my clients do?” “It would be more stressful to be on holiday than at work” “Holiday, what’s that?” “What would I do if there was an emergency?” Sound familiar? In the weeks leading up to your holiday start making a list of work that needs to be completed…Read more
How to Start a Virtual Assistant Business

How to Start a Virtual Assistant Business

Over the past 3 years’ not many months have gone by when I haven’t received an email asking me for advice on how to start a virtual assistant business. I’ve mentored a few new VAs, so I thought I would put it all down in one place. Before you read further. I have no interest in building or starting a profitable virtual assistant advisory service, neither do I want to offer courses as a VA coach. I am 'just' a hard working, happy virtual assistant offering a little advice to those who want…Read more
Top Tips for the new Freelancer

Top Tips for the new Freelancer

Top Tips for the new Freelancer I’ve been a freelancer for just over three glorious years now. I am more than qualified to let everyone know that starting out as a freelancer is utterly terrifying. I can assure you of that much. But don't let that scare you. I remember well the first time my business phone rang and I knew it was a potential new client. I went to pieces. All of my past experience and the confidence that I knew I had went away. It vanished and reduced me to a…Read more
How much is your time worth to you?

How much is your time worth to you?

As the old adage goes, time is money. Time is something that most of us like to think we manage well. Truth is it’s often the last thing we actually think about. No wonder so many small business managers and sole traders frequently say such things as ‘There just aren’t enough hours in the day’ or ‘I haven’t had time to do the things I planned’, or even ‘I don’t know where the week’s gone!’ Running a successful business, however big or small, relies a great deal on the management of time. It’s…Read more
Do you Really need Customer Relationship Management – CRM?

Do you Really need Customer Relationship Management – CRM?

One of the most used acronyms over the past few years in the business world has to be CRM. As a start-up three years ago one of the first questions I was asked via Social Media was "What CRM system do you use?" I have to admit I had to Google what is was. I’m old school and had never heard of it before. Soon I discovered that CRM was the buzzword for a customer database. This is what I discovered when researching CRM. What are the key functions of a CRM System?…Read more
Writing a Subject Line That Encourages Interaction

Writing a Subject Line That Encourages Interaction

How to write a great Subject Line You’ve finally got some subscribers to your email list, and now you want to start getting some interaction from them. You want them to read the information and answer your calls to action. But first, you have to get them to open the emails. All that starts with crafting the subject line which will encourage opening of your email messages. If like me you have many emails arriving in your inbox on a daily basis, how do you ensure the ones you send are going to…Read more
Increase Conversion Keep Email Marketing Simple

Increase Conversion Keep Email Marketing Simple

Keep Email Marketing Simple Email marketing is a very effective way to market your products, services and information to your audience. But, it can be just as easy to confuse your readers to the point that they do not take action or worse case scenario, they don't even open your email. If you want to improve conversions, and get a fantastic opening rate consider these ways to keep email marketing simple. Create Attention-Grabbing Headlines - When someone opens an email, the headline is the first thing they will see after the subject line…Read more
What Freebie can you Offer Subscribers?

What Freebie can you Offer Subscribers?

Everyone loves a Freebie The freebie is a popular way to entice a new subscriber to offer up their information so that you can have them on your email list. The important thing about a freebie is that it should be useful, valuable and of the same quality as the things you sell to your audience. If it’s a lesser value, they may not realise it and they will think this is an example of the type of work that you do and not buy your products or use your services. If you…Read more
E-newsletters How to Personalise for Excellent Opening Rates

E-newsletters How to Personalise for Excellent Opening Rates

AFTER Your Subscribers have Opted In I’ve been working alongside a client for a few weeks now. They want to increase the subscribers to their e-newsletters and also get excellent opening rates. We’ve been doing a lot of brainstorming; trying to come up with ways to make their monthly newsletters more personal and relevant and at the same time offer value to their subscribers. One thing which didn’t take a lot of brainstorming and was agreed by everyone is that the best email subscription forms ask for very little information to begin with.…Read more