The degree of flexibility that those operating virtual businesses are afforded is quite simply amazing.  For instance, I’ve been operating my virtual assistant business for over three years and have been lucky enough to work with some amazing clients throughout that time – and very few of them are located in the same state (or even country!) as I am.  And it doesn’t matter!  We use email, phone calls, texts, Skype, project management applications etc so well that it honestly feels like I’m part of their in-house team sitting in the same office most of the time.

It also meant that when family circumstances necessitated a move interstate, the impact on my clients was minimal.  I was quite concerned about breaking the news that I was moving state, and I was very upfront in providing plenty of notice to my client base of this impending move, however the reality was nobody batted an eyelid, and once I sat back and really thought about it I realised… why would they?  Very few of my clients have ever met me in person, and very few of them were based in the same state as I in the first place!

Apart from being out of contact for a couple of days while I was physically moving house/office, their service was not affected in any way and I now operate from my sparkly new office in Tasmania and in reality nobody would be any the wiser that I’m no longer based in mainland Australia!

While it is amazingly easy to relocate a virtual office, there are a few things to be mindful of, and my main lessons learnt throughout this experience were:

• Be upfront with your clients.  While my move didn’t end up affecting any of my clients in a negative way, and they were largely unconcerned about the relocation they really did appreciate me keeping them apprised of my situation.
• Give plenty of notice of downtime.  In my usual uber-organised way, our move was planned sometime in advance which allowed me to know exactly what days I would be out of the office and unable to be hands on in my business.  I was diligent about ensuring that my clients had adequate notice of these days and offered to find replacement support during that downtime, if required.
• Mobile broadband is your friend!  No matter whether your internet provider has assured you 1000% that your new internet connection will be ready for you when you arrive at your new location, experience tells me that is not always the case!  I’ve never had a move yet where my internet connection hasn’t had some sort of dramas.  Invest in a mobile broadband USB (even if it’s only a temporary prepaid option) just in case.  It will save your sanity!

I even know of some owners of virtual businesses who have taken the virtual office idea and really ran with it – one such gal is now based semi-permanently in Bali!  Imagine that, running your own successful virtual business from a beachside tropical location!

Written by Melissa Williscroft from MJS Virtual Business Support. Melbourne virtual assistant and Tasmania virtual assistant.

I used to be particularly terrible at this and have been known to check my emails at 1am on the way back from checking on master 4!  Not because I was frantically busy or expecting an important email – just because the PC was right there in front of me, and I hadn’t learnt to switch off at the end of the day and step away.

I was even called on this by a number of clients who had received emails from me in the middle of the night and become worried that they were overloading me or that I was so frantically busy that I needed to work until all hours of the night.  You’re weren’t.  I didn’t.

After a while I found that constantly being in “work mode” was beginning to affect my motivation levels throughout the week, as well as the amount of quality time I was spending with my family.  I realised something needed to change and instituted these steps to bring my work/life balance back into check:

• Giving myself a daily ‘knock off’ time of 5:30pm
• Moving all of my office/work equipment into a separate room of the house, closing the door at ‘knock off’ time and not allowing myself to re-enter until the next work day
• Not working at all on weekends or public holidays, except under special circumstances
• Being very strict about not checking emails on my iPhone during the night, or on weekends.  I can’t bring myself to remove my email accounts from my phone altogether, but when I find myself thinking… “I’ll just check my emails…” at midnight I’m mentally smacking myself beside the head!

Now I love my business and my clients and I work very hard to ensure that I am available to everybody when they need me, but I’m of the strong belief that by allowing myself these breaks and “me time” periods I will be a much better support to them.  After all, a well-rested and happy VA is a more motivated and efficient VA and somebody you want to have on your team!

Do you work from home and have trouble switching from work mode to family mode?  If you’ve got any tips for implementing change, I’d love to hear from you!

Written by Melissa Williscroft from MJS Virtual Business Support. Melbourne virtual assistant and Tasmania virtual assistant.

We will regularly be posting new videos which cover WordPress, Facebook, Outlook and many other questions that we regularly get asked.  If you have a particular burning need for guidance in something that falls within our realm of expertise, please feel free to add a comment to this post and we’ll endeavour to cover it in future tutorials.

In the meantime press play on the video player below to seer how easy it is to change your Facebook Page tab icons.

Enjoy!

Written by Melissa Williscroft from MJS Virtual Business Support. Melbourne virtual assistant and Tasmania virtual assistant.

There are so many themes available these days that it can be very difficult to know what to look for and what to steer well clear from. As a rule I choose not work with free themes as I find that their functionality and reliability generally leaves a lot to be desired.

I invest in premium themes from a few reputable providers and am totally enamoured with the Genesis framework, which is why it’s probably no surprise that my five favourite WordPress themes are definitely skewed in Genesis’ direction!

1. Landscape: A stunningly sophisticated theme for photographers to showcase their talent. Give your photos an exceptional home with this first class theme.

2. Associate: A very stylish corporate theme with a strong emphasis on quality imagery on the home page to reel your prospects in and give them a great first impression.

3. Bee Crafty: A gorgeous theme perfectly suited to craft businesses, DIY or even gift shops who want to beautifully present their wares with a lovely photo showcase.

4. Enterprise: Perfect for businesses wanting a corporate look and feel with this streamlined design.

5. Private Lawyer: Don’t be put off by the name – this nice, clean theme would suit any professional business and comes packed full of options.

None of these tickle your fancy? As a bonus, I’ve also included my five favourite WordPress theme providers where you are bound to find something that’s just right for you:

1. Studiopress
2. Woo Themes (If you’re looking for a beautifully designed online store packed full of features you can’t go past Woo for stunning eCommerce themes. They have so many great ones that I couldn’t choose which ones to include in my Top 5 – I love them all! Check out Sliding, Shelflife and Coquette)
3. Natty WP
4. Templatic
5. Press75

Written by Melissa Williscroft from MJS Virtual Business Support. Melbourne virtual assistant and Tasmania virtual assistant.

I recently decided to join a gym and as I toddled off for my very first session I was more than a little nervous about the whole experience. As this was my first visit I expected to be personally greeted and shown around the facility, shown how to use the equipment and basically made to feel welcome. Did this happen? NO!

I wandered around the club clearly lost and uncomfortable, spent 45 minutes fumbling with the equipment and trying to do something resembling a workout, and then gave up and – feeling completely inept – left and headed to my car.

This is where things got even better. Tucked under the windscreen wiper of my car I discovered a scribbled note that was both abusive and utterly offensive. Apparently, in my nervous state I had managed to enter the car park from the wrong entrance (although on closer inspection afterwards no entry/exit signs, or in fact directional signage of any sort could be found) and this person had taken it upon themselves to scrawl a disgusting note rather than politely approach me and point out the errors of my ways.

So, what do you think, is this any way to treat a paying customer?

I certainly would never treat one of my clients this way, and I would like to think that this is not becoming the norm. With so much competitiveness in the market at the moment, shouldn’t we be looking to attract and retain as many customers as we possibly can?

Written by Melissa Williscroft from MJS Virtual Business Support. Melbourne virtual assistant and Tasmania virtual assistant.

Basically, it’s internet based computing which means that you have no software to install, infrastructure to maintain and you can have access to your documents, files, emails, calendar etc from wherever you are in the world (provided you have access to the internet, of course).

Chances are you are already working “in the cloud” one way or another (think systems like Hotmail, Flickr and YouTube).

As a solo-entrepreneur I use many cloud computing applications and they make my life so much easier.  There’s something reassuring about knowing that all of your files, data and information is securely stored and you can pick them up and access them wherever you happen to be – not to mention the savings in time and money!  They are particularly useful to the travelling business person because you now don’t have to lug everything around with you – just pick up your laptop and off you go.  Everything can be accessed at the click of a button.

So, here I share with you my top eight cloud computing apps:

1. Google Apps:  Particularly Google Calendar, which I synch with my iPhone (and you could even share it with your VA so she can help keep you on track!) and Google Talk (instant messaging).
2. Dropbox – A fantastic tool for storing all your documents and files online.  You can add it as a folder inside your ‘My Documents’ and it acts like any other network drive – except all the data is also stored/backed up on line.  You can also share any or all of the files with other people.  Hands down my favourite cloud computing app J
3. Toggle – For time tracking.  In my business particularly I need to have the best, most reliable time tracking software and Toggle ticks all the boxes for me.  With downloadable apps that work on Mac, PC and iPhone I can track my time wherever I am.
4. Skype – The cheapest way to make bulk calls.  I particularly love the video calling and screen sharing functions.

5. Xero – I’ve only recently started using Xero to manage my finances and I’m sure I haven’t yet discovered all of the benefits but I’m loving what I’m seeing so far!  Online accounting, online banking and the ability to create and send invoices automatically and get paid on line = love it.
6. Remember the Milk – Think of it as an online ‘to do’ list.  I use it to remind me when bill payments are due, to renew domain names – even birthdays!  With the ability to use it from your phone and to share your tasks it’s definitely a keeper (plus it’s free!)
7. Zoho CRM – a complete customer relationship management system for managing Sales, Marketing, Customer Support, and Inventory activities in a single system. Very easy to use and full of features it allows you to grow your business and have a complete view of your customer interactions.
8. Evernote – Is like an online scrapbook/notepad/post-it-note – Capture all of your thoughts, ideas, and inspirations, into a single place. These could be text notes, webpage clips, PDFs and more (and it’s free!)

What are your favourite cloud computing apps?  Do you have one that you absolutely swear by – if so, we’d love to hear about it!

Written by Melissa Williscroft from MJS Virtual Business Support. Melbourne virtual assistant and Tasmania virtual assistant.

1. Use a ‘To Do’ list. I always find it so much easier to plan and prioritise my days if I have a list of all my ‘to dos’ in front of me. Whether it be handwritten in a notebook, through Outlook’s task feature or an online system such as Remember The Milk, you will feel so much more organised once you’ve started.
2. Subscribe  by RSS to all your favourite blogs and read through a feed reader (i.e. Google Reader, and Outlook also has an RSS function) instead of physically visiting the site all the time.  Why not start with this blog?!
3. Manage your customer relationships with one of the many CRM systems available – Zoho, Salesforce and Highrise are all great options.
4. Have a dedicated space for your home office. This may not always be possible but you will work best if you can separate your business and home life – and all the noise and interruptions that come with it.
5. Start Now! Don’t procrastinate and put off until tomorrow what you could start today.

Well, those are all the words of wisdom I have for you this week.  I hope you have found something here that you can implement to make your life a little easier.  Stay tuned next week where I will share another five productivity tips, and of course, please feel free to comment if you have any that you would like to contribute.

Written by Melissa Williscroft from MJS Virtual Business Support. Melbourne virtual assistant and Tasmania virtual assistant.

1. Use a time tracking service to see where your time is going so that you can identify ways of using it better.
   There are many systems available, but my favourites are Toggl and TimeStamp.
2. Automate your social  media as much as possible by scheduling tweets and updates.  Granted, you can’t automate everything, but you can schedule the tweets and updates that you regularly put out.  i.e. you can schedule regular business marketing/promotion updates (of course, ensuring that these aren’t all you’re tweeting!), links to articles and websites that would like to share etc.  There are a few systems available but my favourites are TweetDeck and Sendible.
3. Set up Google Calendar and synch it between all your computers and iPhone so you always know where you are meant to be.  You can also set your VA up with access so they can manage it for you!)
4. Identify your productive hours. What hours of the day do you have the least distractions and are more able to fully focus on work?
5. Recognise if you need help: There may be times when you are on a tight deadline or you cannot physically complete the set task on your own.  Recognise the instances when you need a little extra support, and outsource or delegate when the need arises.

Well, those are all the words of wisdom I have for you this week.  I hope you have found something here that you can implement to make your life a little easier.  Stay tuned next week where I will share another five productivity tips, and of course, please feel free to comment if you have any that you would like to contribute.

Written by Melissa Williscroft from MJS Virtual Business Support. Melbourne virtual assistant and Tasmania virtual assistant.

Well, there a couple of ways to combat this problem when working with a Virtual Assistant and here I give you a few options to keep better control over the time you spend using a VA so as to avoid any nasty surprises come invoice time:

1. Make sure you know what you want and communicate this clearly to your VA to eliminate any misunderstandings. There’s nothing more time consuming that constantly having to go back-and-forth over a document and make a mountain of amendments because the intent wasn’t understood by all parties.
2. Set a budget and make sure you communicate what this is so that there are no nasty surprises come invoice time. There are a few ways that you can do this:

• Set a time limit for each task: This works well if your tasks are large project-type tasks, however could be hard to manage – not to mention tedious – if you have many small, day-to-day type tasks
• Set a weekly budget: Define how many hours you can afford to spend on your VA each week. Your VA will let you know once you are nearing the budget limit and you then have the choice to scale back the work you give her for the rest of the week, or raise yor budget.
• Set a monthly budget: This works similar to the weekly budget, however if you spend all your budget in the first half of the month, you could find yourself with no support for the last weeks of the month – not exactly an ideal situation!
• Monitor time closely through frequent reporting: Negotiate a reporting timeframe with your VA (whether this be daily, weekly or fortnightly) whereby you are given a report at your nominated frequency on the number of hours used, thus keeping you constantly aware of what you are using and avoiding a shock at the end of the month.

Keep in mind that your VA is a professional business owner and will be more than happy to help you manage your budget the best way that works for you.

Written by Melissa Williscroft from MJS Virtual Business Support. Melbourne virtual assistant and Tasmania virtual assistant.