This year alone, The Office Escape has gone through a lot of  positive changes. From being a virtual team to now operating from a real office. As we conclude our first year anniversary this May, we have moved out of a shared office space to our very own office set-up.  Its about high time we give you a quick tour in our new office!

Since the launch of our contact solutions services, I found myself talking a back seat on social media and just passively browse through posts and updates from fellow virtual assistants and mentors along the way. The Office Escape team has grown so fast that even up to now,  I am caught in a blurry moment.

Office Move

In a span of 3 months we have moved out of our home based office set-up, moved to a shared office and back to the home based set-up.  Because of our team growth, we are no longer fit to work cohesively in our shared office space and we have to temporarily move back to our house while we set-up a bigger and new office space for our entire team and this time, the move will definitely be permanent.

Virtual Team to Office Mates

Another major change that happened this past few months is from working with virtual team, now I work with 5 amazing the team mates who possess their own expertise in various fields. From weekly Skype meetings, we now have actual office meetings with both the VA team and our Telemarketing team. If there’s one thing I love with in our office right now is the smell of freshly brewed coffee everytime I step into the VA Room

Missing the Kids

If there is one consequence that I had to give up is the liberty to be with the kids. I terribly miss them. I have been busy and caught up with the changes in our business that I have missed simple things and milestones in the kids life. Im sure that this is just part of the growth and sacrifices that comes with being an entrepreneur but I know that in the coming weeks I will be able to practice becoming a Virtual Boss and CEO just like Chris Ducker

After almost 6 years of being a virtual entrepreneur, I have come to a point where I thought I already mastered the ins and outs of having an online business. But like seasons, every month brings me new challenges, learning and adventures that stretches me beyond my limits.

Having a business is definitely not for the faint hearted, good thing God created me a toughie

What are your recent challenges in your business?

The Office Escape team continues to grow. Today, we are proud to announce that we are now accepting Contact Solutions Services.

We have a team of call center professionals ready to take your online business to the next level.

We are now offering the following services:

• Appointment Setting
• Profiling
• Lead Generation
• Telemarketing
• Event Promotion

Our team is composed of highly skilled call center agents, account manager and quality assurance specialist that is ready to help your business generate more sales professionally.

Whether you have a new product or perhaps an upcoming event to promote, our team will be ready to call your prospects in your behalf.

Here’s a sample call from one of our associates:

Check out our Packages:

Half Time Package: $1600.00

(Promo  Rate:  $980.00)

• 4 hours worth of outbound contact services per day
• 5 randomly recorded calls will be mailed to you at the end of the week
• average of 65-70 calls per day per agent

Full Time Buzz: $2400.00

(Promo  Rate:  $1450.00)

• 8 hours worth of outbound contact services per day
• 10 randomly recorded calls will be mailed to you at the end of the week
• Average of 150-200 calls per day per agent

1 Day Trial: $100.00

1 Week Trial: $300.00

• 4 hours worth of outbound contact services
• 5 randomly recorded calls

Outbound Contact Solutions

1 Day Trial $100.00 USD 1 Week Trial $300.00 USD Half Time Package $980.00 USD Full Time Package $1,450.00 USD

I know you missed reading updates from us lately.  Our silence is not because of overload of client projects. But this is because I was personally busy processing all our business registrations for our Virtual Assistant Business.

Most Filipino virtual assistants and multi-VA companies would opt not to register their business to local government units for a lot of reasons. But primarily, one of reason is because Virtual Assistance is still a new industry here in the country, its hard to explain to the local government officials what we do and our services. I experienced this first hand when I started applying for a business registration in January.

I decided to register the business locally for the following reasons:

1. Growth – For the past year, I have worked with awesome home based virtual assistants with all our projects and everything went great. But I saw a need to hire local employees too and possibly give jobs to IT graduates who are based here in Aklan

2. Business and Employee Insurance – When I was a freelance VA, I didn’t have any SSS or Philhealth benefits (well I tend to forget to update it). Now that my business is registered I am obliged to pay all the benefits for me and our employees.

3. Turning a dream into reality – Since I started working as a VA, one of my utmost dream is to put up a corporate office and hire 100 virtual assistants. I know that for me to achieve that dream, I have to start small. So I decided to rent a tiny space to fit my computer hire 1 local VA for starters and hope for the best.

For those Filipino Virtual Assistants who also want to register their VA business, here are the steps that I took:

1. (DTI) Business Name Registration – Fee is Php515.00. Choose a business name that is unique. They will require you to add acronyms to make it even more specific.  It will only take you a few hours to complete this

2. Mayor’s Permit – Well this one is a bit more challenging. There are several steps that you need to accomplish first and may take you several days to finish. Please note that applying for Mayors Permit would mean government officials inspecting your office. Prepare the following:

• Small Fire Extinguisher
• Trash Bins
• If you are renting your house – prepare your contract of lease and occupancy Permit
• Fees for Local Taxes

3. BIR - Prepare your Tin Number, Fee of 600+, as well as your contract of lease. You are also required to attend a briefing seminar so you will have a better understanding of your business tax. As soon as you get your Certificate of Registration, you are required to have your official receipts printed. Receipts should be completed within 30 days.

In my experience, I have to keep explaining what a virtual assistant is to almost all local government offices. Some would easily understand but to some, VA industry is way too geeky for them to digest. I end up just saying well its an “online business”.

Are you thinking of putting up a Multi VA Firm in the Philippines? Would you also register your business locally?

This is a guest post from Alicia Rittenhouse of VATrainingProgram.com

About ten years ago, the idea of starting an online business and working from home was out there.  Dreaming that you could work from home and be successful was like finding the gold at the end of a rainbow!

However, this is very possible now.  I know from my own experience in building a successful Virtual Assistant practice from my home in a town that has more corncobs than people.

As a Virtual Assistant, do you negotiate your rate and sell yourself short?  It is hard to get out of this vicious cycle.  And I am sure this is not what you envisioned for your business, is it?  You are not leveraging technology to help your business and take it to the level that actually makes you money.

In 2010, an average of over half a million businesses were started every month.  Not every single one of those businesses could use a Virtual Assistant but there is an abundance of potential clients out there that DO need your help. The need for tech-savvy Virtual Assistants is growing more every day – VAs who can help their clients make money in their sleep and who can help create launches that bring 5-figure days.

I believe that the need for Virtual Assistants who can only handle administrative tasks is coming to an end.  Clients are now looking for that “One Stop Shop”.  If they interview a VA who has the techie skills and one who does not, they are going to go with the Technical VA – even if their fee is higher!  Someone who can make updates to their website and help them build their list is invaluable.

Can you say that about your business?

The key is having the administrative skills but also having the skills to set up their newsletter and web forms, maintain their website and market them on social media so that their business continues to grow (and they make money to pay you every month)!

When you become the VA that can do it all for them, they are more likely to commit to you every month in a retainer.  You will quickly be able to fill your business because you can implement everything you know into your own business as well.

Technology makes everything possible.

So what are the top six technology skills that make success possible?

1. Online Payments – If they get paid, you get paid.
2. Email Marketing – THE most important and effective way to market.
3. Product Launches – This is what brings in the money.
4. Productivity – The more you learn, the better you manage your time and the more you can handle.
5. WordPress – Be your client’s webmaster.  Teach them how to turn their website into a powerhouse using WordPress!
6. Social Media – Everyone is doing it and it is not going anywhere.

Use technology to create success for you.  Check out my popular Geek Labs, a virtual training program for Virtual Assistants (brand new and experienced) to sharpen their technical skills – and double their rates – in under seven weeks.

Get trained.  Geek out.  And give yourself a raise.

Become a Techie VA today!  The next session of the Geek Labs begins the week of February 13th, 2012.

If you are young, fresh graduate with a degree in Information Technology, we need you! We need young, passionate, driven individual to add to our growing team.

The Position:

(On site) Virtual Assistant / Entry Level VA:

• work on several online marketing and virtual admin projects
• communicate directly with various high-end clients to deliver results
• brainstorm and works with the entire team to accomplish projects for 100% client satisfaction
• Will work from 8AM till 5PM.
• Will be exposed to several learning materials and opportunities such as learning SEO practices, free webinars and a whole lot of free resources

Requirements:

- Must be college level. Undergraduates are welcome IF your course is Information Technology or related courses

- Willing to work in a start-up environment and willing to report in a “home office” set-up.

- Willing to work full time. Mondays till Fridays 8AM-5PM

- Must have excellent communication skills (both oral and written)

- Must be internet savvy (if you like hanging out on fb, twitter, youtube, pinterest and the likes you are going to love this job)

- Graphic design and web skills is a plus!

- Can start work right away

- Must live within Kalibo or nearby municipalities.

Transportation and Meal Allowances will be given during the first month of training. Benefits and competitive payout awaits.

If interested, here’s how you can apply:

Email your RESUME in PDF format to theofficeescape@gmail.com

Character References are a MUST with contact Information. At least 2 references.

Make sure to include your contact information so we can schedule a phone interview.

Emails play a crucial role in our online business. This is one indispensable tool that we use on a daily basis. This is where we send client reports, respond to inquiries, collaborate with your virtual assistants or team etc. That is why it is important that we create a professional template that will WOW our readers.

BrandMyMail.com is an awesome tool that will allow you to customize the look and feel of your Gmail account. If you are using Gmail or GoogleApps for your business email then read on to transform your normal email into a rock star professional template.

Here are the steps:

1. Open your Chrome or Firefox Browsers (won’t work on Safari just yet)

2. Go to http://www.brandmymail.com/

3.  Click on the big red button that says “Get Started”

4.  Click on the signature panel and edit the details listed there.  Start with your name and contact details.

5.  Click the Avatar and upload your profile picture

 6. Click on the + sign to add in your social media profiles such as facebook fan page, twitter, foursquare account, etc. Feel free to put in as many social media profiles possible.

7.  If you have a footer banner that you use for your newsletters, you can upload that in the banner area.

8.  Drag and drop the plugins that you like to use for the right side of your email. Our personal favorite is the image where we can put in our logo or banner as well as the WordPress plugin that automatically puts in your latest blog posts.

9. As soon as you are done entering the plugins, click on preview to see what your email looks like. When you’re satisfied with it, click on “Im Done”

10.  As soon as you click “Im Done” it will take you to an option to  sign in to your Gmail or Google Apps Account. Click on Sign in and enter your login details. Once logged in, make sure to allow Brandmymail plugin.

11. Install the browser extension on your browser. This will only take a few seconds. It may ask you to restart your browser in order to activate the plugin. You’re all set!

Just a  reminders:

a. Turn off your existing signature (if you have one) set up in your gmail account to avoid duplicate signature

b. Make sure to use the “Send” and “Preview” button of Brandmymail to use your existing template.

Enjoy your new email template! Feel free to post in any questions below or share this to your network!

Slowly but surely, a seismic shift is taking place in the way that we view working. If you like, we are far more enlightened and aware of exactly what is possible and we are beginning to question the impositions that working for a living actually imposes on us, our family and our private lives. We understand that we need to work, to generate compensation that will help us to pay all those bills, but we would love to find ways of working which do not place so many difficulties upon us. This growing trend can be described in one word – workshifting.

While it’s difficult to get real figures to illustrate just how many people are already engaged in workshifting and can already be classified as working from somewhere else other than their traditional “office” for example, the respected analyst Forrester Research went so far as to estimate that as much as half of the workforce could be telecommuting, or teleworking by the year 2016. This is a rather bold suggestion considering we don’t really know the extent of the trend today, but it nevertheless gives cause for optimism among those who see this as a movement toward more freedom.

Workshifting does not necessarily dictate that you need to work from your home, but it could also involve working from hotel rooms, airport lounges, Internet cafés and other remote locations, wherever your work might take you. Fundamentally, we will be casting away those tethers which have up until now held us prisoner within the traditional workstation and begin using technology and advanced communications to enable us to achieve our objectives, whatever they may be.

We’ve seen in recent years how more and more employees consider that their home is their primary place of work and we wait with interest to see what the Census of 2010 is able to tell us about this trend. Will we see a wholesale adoption by 2016 as Forrester suggests?

With the technology available to us these days, why is it that we’re not seeing a wholesale exodus or even a stampede toward workshifting? Both from the point of view of the employee and the employer there’s a lot to be gained, after all. If an employer was able to eliminate the overhead costs associated with physically running an office it could be a whole lot better off and be able to report significant additional profits annually. However, traditions die hard and organisations are used to relying on a management hierarchy that dictates a certain amount of physical oversight. In short, does our management culture actually “trust” wholesale workshifting or telecommuting, or do we still expect certain people to look over the shoulders of others in order to ensure that productivity is in check?

The trend is interesting and while it seems clear that there is a head of steam behind it, it’s likely that it will take a little time to fully emerge as traditional cultures and perspectives slowly but surely fade into the distant past.

January is my third most favorite month of the year (next to my birth month and December!) Its because January gives (most of us) that optimistic feeling that this year will be different. A fresh start, leaving the past year behind but taking all the learning that comes with it.

During the last week of December, I made an appointment with myself to tackle what had happened in 2011. 2011 was a great year for us because it was the year The Office Escape was born. Looking back, it was one of the most successful years in my life and business. I want to replicate that in 2012. Armed with my android tablet, and my trusty cupcake notebook, I sat down silently in one corner of a coffee shop and started jotting down notes. Vanishing away from the crowd and noise. I listed down all the mistakes and learning that I had for 2011.  I was able to create affirmations for myself and our business this 2012:

2012 will be different because…

I will be a better virtual assistant, and strategist.

I will be truer to myself, my clients and colleagues.

I will not stop in making our clients satisfied and happy.

I will put more value in myself, my skills and my virtual assistant business.

I will no longer mind my detractors and will choose not deal with any negativity.

I will no longer be chained on my work desk and enjoy freedom to work

whenever and wherever I want to.

I will welcome new possibilities and challenges 2012 will bring me with more confidence.

I will choose to work only with the best (clients, mentors and team mates).

I will believe in myself and my capabilities.

I will conquer and rock the virtual assistant industry.

From our Office Escape Team to yours! I do hope that 2012 brings you more blessings, more clients, and better business!