Of course this was extremely flattering and I was more than happy to help out.  But this got me thinking – maybe I should just write it all down and then I can direct people here instead!

Research 

When I first started out, I called up a VA I liked the sound of. She lived in Yorkshire so I wasn’t a competitor and she let me pick her brains to find out what mistakes she had made and what she might do differently should she have to do it all over again.

I reeled through a long list of questions I’d prepared and her answers were actually quite surprising and gave me a lot to think about.  I also looked at a lot of VA websites and amended their T&C’s to fit in with my own requirements. No point inventing the wheel if someone has a damned good wheel!

Specialise

Whatever industry you’re in, it’s always best to have a niche. Work out what you’re good at, what you like doing, and what people need; because what you think they’ll need never turns out to be what you end up doing!

Look at your career history or interests and target people in that area. My niche turned out to be working for consultants, freelancers and sole traders, but it might be the industry that’s your niche, the type of work or the types of people themselves. Basically, If you have a niche then you become the go-to person in that area and you will get more suitable enquiries.

Contact people directly

I started out by actually emailing target companies directly. With any other business it would be spam, but because Virtual Assistance is unique, people kept my emails for months. They all said they knew the day would come when they needed my help.

As long as the email is friendly, polite, to the point, and explains why they might need you, people are happy to keep and pass on your details.

Get a good website and business card

Do not scrimp on the website. It has to outline what you do, be SEO friendly (read up!) simple to read, and easy to navigate. Although easier said than done, your website is your shop window and you will be judged by it. My website gets a lot of positive comments because it’s clean, simple, and to the point.

Personally I would never use a free business card either. Moo.com do a good range but, whoever you use, make sure it has on it what you do and how to contact you. This may seem obvious but you would be surprised!

Network like crazy

When I called the VA way back when I started, I asked her if she would do anything differently if she had to start again. She told me that with hindsight she wouldn’t have printed any flyers but would have done more networking instead.

Work out how to explain to people what you do when networking – the penny usually drops once you explain the exact kinds of tasks you do for people. Networking gets easier with time and always keep in mind that people do business with people they like.

Always target your networking though. If you were a fisherman trying to catch salmon then you’d fish where the salmon hung out not where the bass socialised!

Social Media

I often get work through Social Media and it also helps with my SEO and visibility.  I mainly use Twitter, anduse my Feedly RSS Reader to gather relevant information which I then schedule to be broadcast on my Twitter feed throughout the next day. I also go online when I can to actually talk to people and build relationships. I’ve been told I share useful information which demonstrates that I know my business.

Once you’ve started chatting to people try to meet them in person. People do business with people, remember and they will not recommend someone they’ve never met. If Social Media is not your thing then don’t do it as it’s better to not do it at all than to do it badly!

Blog

You don’t have to blog but it does drive traffic to your website. I like to write how-to articles which demonstrate my expertise and other people have said they find the information useful. If you use Social Media then make sure you post a link to your blog or website each day, as well as make it easy for people to subscribe to your feeds.

Adwords

I tried Adwords last year to much success. It works better at certain times of the year but it was a marketing method that I tried and which paid off. The Google Adwords folk are very helpful and it’s worth getting them to assist you with the set up. You can even call them!

Share & collaborate

I’ve found that knowing all the other VA’s in the area has been really beneficial to my business. We exchange resources, pass on work, and support each other. I also listen in on the  Virtual Assistant LinkedIn groups to see what apps they use and how they overcome problems.

When I was deciding which Time Tracker to go for, I listed all the ones they mentioned on the LinkedIn group discussion and tried them all out until I found one I liked. They are a great community who are always happy to help other VA’s.

Keep learning

I spend half a day (sometimes more) keeping on top of new developments. I recently created a Slideshare presentation and learned how to make screencasts which I posted to YouTube.  If you keep your skills up to date and keep learning new things then you will have a more varied and valuable skill set. You are also demonstrating that you know how to do something.

USEFUL RESOURCES

Google – How anyone can be a VA without using Google products is beyond me. Gmail, Calendar, Chrome, Docs, Rapportive, Boomerang – try them all out and know how they work. Your life will be so much easier!

Time Tracker software – I use Screeperzone which is a free app that comes with my Windows Vista sidebar. It’s an easy way to record what work you do for which client. There are other systems which incorporate invoicing as well, but I find this one does the job simply and without any fuss.

McAfee – Stuff the free software – you simply cannot risk getting a virus on your computer. I pay £40 per year and have never had anything slip through. My boyfriend used a supposedly excellent free one and had 99 virus’s attack his laptop in one hit… he had to buy a new laptop.

Mozy backup – Make sure you don’t lose anything by backing up regularly. Whatever you use make sure it’s reliable.  Mozy is free and in the cloud. I’ve had external hard drives break so online suits me better. You can also upload docs to Google, Dropbox or even email them to yourself. Just don’t lose client info!

Evernote –This is a great free way to store websites instead of bookmarking them. I use it to keep interesting business articles where I know I’ll read them later. I use this mostly for myself rather than clients but it’s handy for pretty much everything.

LastPass – Another free one. This is a secure online system that lets you keep you and your client’s passwords safe. You’ll never remember them all and this way you don’t have to.

Invoice Bubble – Whatever system you use, make sure it’s professional. I pay £3.80 per month to have the adverts removed but otherwise it’s is free.

Skype – It’s very hard to be a VA if you don’t have Skype as you can chat to clients and send over documents for free. I actually pay £10 per quarter which gives me unlimited calls to UK landlines which is very handy for making calls for clients.

Dropbox – Another great way to collaborate remotely. A lot of clients will use this so it’s good to know how it works.

Jing – This is an application that lets you take screen shots then write and draw on them, as well as record your screen so you can demonstrate how to do something. They have free and paid versions. I pay $20 per year and used it recently for this video which I recorded in one take!

Wisestamp – When you use the paid version of Wisestamp (just £20 per year) you can set up multiple email signatures. There’s loads of features such as adding your latest blog post, your Social Media Profiles, or your company logo. It’s a great way to switch between personas if you have lots of personal and client email accounts.

I know it must sound like you have to be Wonder Woman to be a VA and that’s because you do. You’re Administrator, Researcher, Book-keeper, Marketing Expert, Web Designer, Copywriter, and a billion other things – and this is before you even do a single stroke of work for your clients!

So if you still want to be a Virtual Assistant then hopefully you now have a better understanding of what you need to do to succeed. It’s a very rewarding job – but I’d be lying if I said it wasn’t also very, very hard work!

Like myself, if you’re using the same bank account for personal and business, you’ll need a quick and easy way of recording your income and outgoings for your tax return.

In this short video you can see that copying and pasting your statement into a simple Excel sheet, and using highlighter colours, you can effortlessly keep on top of your yearly income and business expenses with little or no fuss.

My first article has just been published. It’s called 16 Sure-Fire Ways to Fail Any Interview and is aimed at slackers who keep being forced into interviews by concerned and demanding partners. Not everyone wants a job so the article is aimed at these poor unrepresented souls who need fail-safe techniques to weasel out of being hired.

So please feel free to mosey on over to The Sussex Newspaper and find out how a moist limp handshake, oversharing on Facebook, slagging off your last employer, and 13 other tricks can prevent you landing the job of a lifetime.

Although it’s nice that not much gets done, if you use some of your spare time in December making sure your house is in order, you’ll be in a much better position to spring into the new year without any baggage from this year holding you back.

So here’s 15 things you can do between now and the new year to make sure you’re primed and ready for 2012. You don’t have to do them all but just pick a few because anything you can do to prepare your business now will be rewarded later.

1 – Update your Social Media profiles

Google shows Social Media profiles and updates in search results, so check they’re all up to date. Go to every site where you have a profile and make sure your bio accurately reflects what you do and has key words that would bring you up in a search. It’s also a good idea to audit, categorize, or cull your contacts and followers while you’re at it.

2 – Review your website

Websites can sit unloved for months so make sure yours isn’t stagnating. Do the links and contact buttons work? Is your About page still relevant? Are the pages and headings SEO optimised? Do you have recent testimonials? If not then do a bit of a rewrite and email all your clients asking for testimonials. Then ask a friend to review your website to find out how others see and use it.

Tip – Google loves websites that have updated content. So if you have a blog or your Twitter feed on your site this will help Google rank you higher. (read how you do this here on Twitter.com) Remember that using keywords in your blog posts will also make a difference.

3- Do your expenses

Dull I know but it has to be done. Use your quiet period to get your accounts up to date so you can submit them online at the end of January. If this is the first time you’ve used the online system then you should know that you have to register to receive an activation card which takes up to 2 weeks to arrive. There are penalties if you submit your return late so apply now!

4 – Ask for testimonials

In addition to your website, try to have lots of testimonials on LinkedIn and other online directories as these will help you stand out amongst your competition. A customer is more likely to choose a company that comes recommended over one that has no ratings at all. Use this time to contact clients past and present to ask for a testimonial then post it everywhere!

5 – Update your skills

Use this time to learn something new like SEO, online marketing, Social Media, or even just update your skills in your own field. Often we’re all so busy working that we don’t have the time to keep our skills current or check out new sites. There are lots of great sites to investigate such as Evernote and Pinterest for saving notes and images instead of using bookmarks, Wisestamp for an interactive email signature, and Feedly for a truly beautiful RSS reader.

6 – Specify your goals

If you’re specific about your goals they’re much easier to achieve. So instead of saying “I want to earn more money next year”, work out how much money you want and break that down into the amount of billable hours you’ll need to work (remember the tax!) to earn that amount.

Or instead of saying “I want more clients next year”, specify how many. If you’d like 8 more clients then you need to land a new one approximately every 6 weeks. Breaking it down makes it simpler to achieve.

7 – Update your CRM or email contacts list

Check that everyone’s details are up to date along with any notes regarding where you met them or any recent contact you’ve had. If you use Social Media then you can export your LinkedIn contacts to your email client, and then get Twitter to search through your list to find businesses you may know who may also be using the site.

Grouping your contacts makes it much  quicker to contact people and manage your communication with specific groups. Once your groups are up to date you will definitely save time in the long run.

8 – Sort your office and paperwork out

It can be hard to work with piles of paperwork everywhere and you don’t want to start the new year with baggage from this one. Get some sort of system going – buy some clip files, folders, clear wallets, and sticky labels and get to work archiving and creating a system that doesn’t involve taking half an hour to find something!

Pinboards, whiteboards and filing trays are also handy for productivity. The boards can be used for ideas, to write your to-do list on, to list invoices you need to raise or have out, and to pin an envelope for your expenses to go in.

9 – Consider Gmail

I’m a huge fan of Google products. They enable a seamless, shareable way of working and make frequent tasks 100% easier. If you register for a Google account you are given Documents, Email, and Calendars that you can share and sync to other computers or your smartphone which makes it much easier to organise yourself.

If you import your webmail (info@ etc) account into a Gmail one, you can manage the account from Gmail and people with still see your emails coming from info@. You will also be able to use all the other Google features such as ‘boomeranging’ messages if you don’t hear back, scheduling emails, and importing multiple accounts. Once you use Gmail, Outlook looks like a dinosaur.

10 – Clean your computer

Don’t only give the actual screen, the fan, and the keyboard a good clean, but get rid of most of the desktop icons as well. Hardly any of them are useful and you can pin them to your Start menu or Quick Launch menu anyway.  It’s only going to get more crowded so now is a good time to have a clear out.

When doing this make sure your document folders are labelled correctly or archived, and go through these steps to clean up your registry, defragment, and save disk space to make your computer run faster.

11 – Turn your email client into a productivity machine

I’ve had people tell me they spend over half an hour every day going through their emails. This adds up to half a working day each week! Unless you’re using your email client correctly…

Set up filters so your LinkedIn updates and other newsletters bypass your inbox. Better still, unsubscribe if you’re not interested any more, change your settings to amend the frequency, or set up a new email address solely for non-business emails.

Get in the habit of actioning, filing, archiving, or deleting emails as soon as you can. Having hundreds of them just sitting there can be really distracting and makes it easy to miss important ones. Use coloured flags or stars to mark emails (Red for action, Orange for Waiting-on, blue for Meetings etc)

12 – Save time with templates

If you send a particular email or proposal out a lot then create a template for it. If you use Gmail go to Setting, Labs and enable Canned Responses. Then when you write an email, you can insert the appropriate template and save yourself some time.

13 – Schedule reminders

Whilst I do appreciate that I’m hard-core organised, scheduling really makes a difference to whether your week runs productively. If I see time on my calendar set aside for marketing or admin, then I’m more likely to do it. Even if I move it across to another day, I still know it has to be done. And by scheduling blocks of client work throughout the week along with my other commitments, I can see whether I can fit it all in or not!

Other reminders I schedule to repeat are: downloading my bank statement for my expenses sheet, the expiry dates of my antivirus, web hosting, and business membership fees so I know if any big payments are coming up when I’m budgeting, dates of other business direct debits, when it’s time to write and send my quarterly client newsletter, and loads more.  Scheduling works people!

14- Reflect on the year and make decisions

December is the perfect time to take stock of the past year. How many new clients did you get? How did you get them? Who are your favourite clients and why? Do they have anything in common? If you know what kind of client you want then it’ll be easier to find more of them.

Also take time to analyse your marketing efforts. What marketing did you try? (Adwords, networking, email marketing, Social Media etc) and how well did it work? See what worked and what didn’t to decide how to focus next year’s marketing.

15 – Get ready!

By looking at what worked and what didn’t in 2011 you’ll know how to focus your efforts in 2012. If you know when your quiet periods are and why, you can plan accordingly and use the quiet time wisely. By thinking ahead about what your business may face, you can only be prepared for it.

With the economic climate as it is, 2012 may be a difficult year for many businesses  - ones who are not on the ball may even go under. But with preparation, knowledge of current business trends, foresight, current skills, and manageable goals, 2012 could be your best year ever.

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I don’t often give details of my personal life, but I went to Rome for my 40th birthday at the beginning of November and it was so beautiful there that I thought I’d share my trip with you.

My boyfriend and I spent 4 days pounding the streets taking in as much as we could. Rome is stuffed full of amazing things and around every corner was something remarkable – 2000-year old ruins, beautiful architecture, towering statues, secret gardens, massive entrance doors, and huge plazas. Rome doesn’t really do things on a small scale!

The Roman architecture was quite consistent. The buildings were my idea of aesthetic heaven with square symmetry and straight lines. They all had shutters and massive doors with little ones secretly hidden inside. They were imposing and bold and I thought they were stunning. Even newer buildings had been designed to fit this ideal so there wasn’t this awful mishmash of elegant old buildings and nasty 60′s carbuncles.

The food was simply outstanding. It was cheap (if you knew where to look) and we spent hours over lunch at little trattorias drinking red wine and eating pasta. The wine was only 8-10 Euros for a litre so we sometimes had one at lunch and at dinner! The coffee was just gorgeous and served exactly as it should be – which is to say not in buckets with a tonne of nonsense on it.

I love how the creator of Starbucks wanted to recreate Italian coffee for the masses but made such a hash of it they won’t allow one single Starbucks to open in Italy. Italian coffee is smooth, dark, strong and hot. It cannot be beaten and shouldn’t be messed around with. It also costs around 90p a cup which is a gift from heaven if you ask me.

Another ritual we fell into was eating ice cream every day. There were so many bonkers flavours that we tried as many as we could. I rediscovered chestnut ice cream which I first come across in Sorento and had completely forgotten about. Even though the temperature was 20 degrees, I believe you could eat ice cream all year round in Italy.

Rome is quite hectic although not a patch on Naples. dozens of scooters zip around and, with cars coming at you every direction, you have to keep an eye out. What look like zebra crossings are in fact meaningless and even if the green man is lit up, you still don’t have right of way. We discovered you just have to stride out and hope for the best! We only saw 2 brave cyclists the whole time.

One afternoon we met a Yorkshire couple outside the Colosseum looking for directions into the Palatino and Forum. These suckers had just paid 20 Euros to have their photo taken with a mock ‘Gladiator’ (read bloke in Reebok sandals and a skirt) and they couldn’t wait to get home. The man informed us that Rome was dirty and he’d never knock the UK again. Personally I’d swap Rome for Scarborough any day but, like most cities, you do have to seek out the good places and avoid the touristy ones.

The only thing I’d change if I went again is to have 3 full days there instead of 4. Our feet were absolutely killing us by the second day even though we used the bus a lot. We got a Roma Pass for 25 Euros so could use the public transport for 3 days and get into 2 major attractions. This doesn’t include the Vatican but the Colosseum, the Palatino and the Forum count as one and the Pantheon is free anyway as it’s a church. You can also jump the hour-long queue with the pass.

One of the most memorable moments was the first night we arrived. We dropped our bags at the hotel and took an amble into the centre. We found a little place and had wine and pizza outside while we circled places on the map we wanted to see during our stay. We then went for a wander, turned a corner and there stood the Colosseum. It was deserted, all lit up and it looked stunning. We stood staring at this age-old monument in the warm night air and felt really lucky to be there. It was a great start to our holiday.

In fact, I think that if you live in the UK it would be possible to go to Rome for a day. It was only £60 return each to fly to Fiumicino, 14 Euros for the train from the airport to the Termini station, and then the food and transport were really cheap. You could get there late morning, fly back in the evening and only spend around £150 You’d need a bit more for the sights but for a couple of hundred quid you’d have an amazing day in Rome.

I’ve spend 3 of my birthdays in Italy now and may spend the next one in Muscat with a Foreign Diplomat friend stationed there. But for my 40th birthday, all roads led to Rome.

How about you; Have you ever been to Rome? What did you think?

Once I do get the call, I enter the details of the business card into an Excel spreadsheet. I usually record the contact name, company name, email, and telephone numbers. My client then imports this information into their email client where it can also be picked up and imported by LinkedIn and other Social Media channels.

Over time I have studied thousands of business cards – here are 6 of the commonest blunders:

1) No contact name or just initials – So when I call you who is it that I ask for? It certainly makes a bad impression and an awkward start to any phone conversation if that was the intention.

2) An email address as long as my arm – I’d love to add jonathan.longname@reallylongnamebusiness.co.uk to my contacts, but I’d also prefer to do it while I’m still young!

3) No email address at all – That’s right. Not even a free Gmail , Hotmail or Yahoo one. This is pretty poor. Even if you’re a builder it’s an idea to offer people another way to contact you rather than just by phone. Some cards even have a website address but no email, resulting in a potential client having to trawl through their website in search of their email address.

4) A wafer-thin free business card – I know a lot of people use free business cards but I personally think this is a big mistake. Your card says a lot about you and I’m sure most people wouldn’t describe themselves as being generic, flimsy and cheap.

A website and a business card are the 2 things you should spend some money on. Go to Moo and get some nice ones, or signup to about.me and take advantage of the free ones they offer through Moo. You’ll still have to pay P&P but that’s all.

5) No mobile number – This again is something that tradesmen in particular do quite a bit. I once needed a man with a van to help me move house and, strangely enough, I gave the job to the man that answered his phone to take my business. If you’re not going to be at home to answer calls then your mobile number should be on your card.

6) No clue as to who you are or what you do – There really is no point in having a business card if the person you give it to has to write your name and what you do for a living on it when they meet you! And they’ll probably query the standard of your work if you can’t even get your own card right.

Include your address or Social Media information if you’d like to, but most people simply want to know who you are, what you do, and how to get hold of you. Your card reflects you and your business and is often the first point of contact, so it needs to look professional and have these basic details on if nothing else.

There are other errors out there like having a really cluttered card, tiny text, cards that are so big they don’t fit into card holders or wallets, or ones that have bits of old cards glued on the back (I’ve actually seen this) but these are the mistakes that could lose you business due to lack of information or professionalism.

There are some great deals out there if you shop around. I think I got 1000 business cards for £90 as they were doing a 2-4-1 offer at Printing.com in Brighton. Cards don’t always have to be expensive, but they do need to give the right impression – so here’s some fab ones to inspire you!

Clients are often bewildered by email filters but once you know how to use them they will make your email management so much quicker and easier that you’ll be dismayed you didn’t discover them sooner.

Everything runs much smoother once you’ve set up filters so watch the Slideshare presentation and learn how, in 3 easy steps, you too can have a streamlined inbox.

I add testimonials to the Posts section just like blog posts. I then mark them as Testimonials and that should be the end of the matter, but Feedburner has decided that they must be shouted from the rooftops and delivered straight to your inbox. I thought I’d worked around it by changing the publish date to a day before the last blog post, but it’s still happening.

It looks like I might have to change the whole set up and just copy all the testimonials to their own page instead. Changing the date seems to keep my Wisestamp email signature happy so my last blog post section doesn’t say “Jo is amazing – Hoorah for her!” but Feedburner isn’t on the same hymn sheet unfortunately.

So I thought I’d mention that I had noticed the inbox testimonial trumpet blow, and thank you all for bearing with me while I sort it out! Normal service should resume shortly.

We discuss how our business has been going since we last met. This includes how much marketing or networking we’ve done, where enquiries are coming from, any problems with clients, any news or developments, ideas we’d like to bounce off each other, and any other work-related issues we might want to raise.

It all started nearly a year ago when I read an article on Freelance Folder called ‘5 Reasons Every Freelancer Needs an Accountability Group’. I read that the point of an Accountability Group was to set each other goals, provide encouragement, push each other to grow and hold each other accountable for our businesses. I thought this was an excellent idea so I decided to go ahead and set one up for myself.

The group came together very quickly and, although the meeting is enjoyable it’s not all fun and games. To make sure we get the most out of it, we have set rules and an agenda:

* No mobile phones on the table and no calls to be taken during meetings unless otherwise agreed.

* Each person gets half an hour to speak about their business.

* We have to be open and honest about our concerns and current situation.

* No interrupting and bringing the discussion round to your business until it’s your turn.

* If two members of the group agree with a suggestion or solution to a member’s problem, then the member has to go away and action that suggestion.

* If the group member has not actioned the suggestion by the next meeting, they are held accountable.

* If a member persistently fails to action suggestions or keeps missing meetings then they will be excluded and replaced.

* Everything we discuss is confidential and is not shared outside the group.

The group has been extremely successful so far. We all benefit from being able to run ideas past each other and, because we have to report back each fortnight, we can’t slack off and just cruise along.

I can highly recommend being a member of an Accountability Group. It provides a safe place to air concerns, you’re bombarded with new ideas, you receive support and advice and, more importantly, it keeps you motivated and focused on moving forward to make your business as good as it can be.

Maybe you should start one of your own?

For others it’s an occasional annoyance – they want to get on with things but for whatever reason they find they simply can’t get their act together.

So how do we get procrastination to shut it’s unsolicited, lazy mouth so we can get on with our work then?

1) Understand the nature of the beast. If you’re not that fussed about cracking on, then try to work out why. Is it because the task is too hard, it’ll take too long, it’s boring or you’re just not in the mood? Do you really need to do the task, or is it something you think you should do but it actually isn’t that important? Once you understand the reasoning behind your procrastination you may find it easier to work around.

2) Break it down. Perhaps you’re faffing around because the job is too big to finish in one go? If this is the case then sit down, outline the task and break it down into smaller chunks. If you hit a tree with an axe five times a day, then one day the tree will fall down (it’ll take a while though so don’t drag it out!

3) Is your head in the right place? Personally, I need a quiet space to get on with ‘proper’ work otherwise I can’t concentrate and my mind leaks all over the Internet. Make sure your environment isn’t to blame for your lack of action.

4) Get rid of external distractions. You’re never going to get work of any value done when your Twitter notifications keep popping up or you can see emails arriving in your inbox. Turn them off and focus on the task at hand.

5) Man up and just start. This is usually the answer. Allocate 45 minutes to the task (or whatever you decide) and put your head down, because you’ll never finish unless you start. You might not want to do your marketing or write that report, but if that’s what you have to do to earn a living, you need to stop being a baby and just get on with it.

6) Don’t beat yourself up over it. It could be that the job isn’t that time-specific, and you’ve been working quite hard lately. In which case you might as well take the day off and do the task when you do feel like working. We’re not always in the mood and, if your profession allows it, then work according to your own body clock and preferences. If this starts to get out of hand then refer to point 5 however!

7) Get someone else to do it. That’s what Virtual Assistants, copywriters, book-keepers, researchers, proofreaders, web developers, and a hundred other outsourcers are for!

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