Michelle

How To Respond To Initial Enquiries And Eliminate Half The Competition

Tue, 14 May 2013 08:24:00 GMT

I find initial enquiries from potential clients interesting, I think you can tell a lot from a person from the way that they make that first contact, and often times in the beginning we wonder what the best way to respond is - well, this is the formula which works best for me, and from the feedback I've gotton from it, it's also why most clients will respond back instead of going to the other VA's they've contacted.

In my experience when a contact form comes through, your primary goal is to get the potential client on the phone as soon as possible if you want to secure the business (even though many times I have secured clients with no verbal contact before they work with me, I still think it's the most effective way to secure the client early on, because going back and forth electronically takes more time), but sometimes you don't really know what it is you're securing because the initial enquiry is quite vague.

The folk that do send in comprehensive enquiries tend to be easier to respond to because you have much more to go on by way of understanding what they need. Then there are the ones that require us to gather further information or set to purpose a specific direction for them to go in.

Break It Down Into 5 Parts.

The best way to do the initial email response is basically lay it out in 5 parts, and keep it simple.

Part 1.

Thank them for contacting you and tell you'd be happy to help.

Part 2.

Relay back in your own words, your understanding of what they want from you, this could be long or short depending on their initial contact with you, but the point is to establish with them that you understand, or in some cases don't understand what they're needing assistance with.

Part 3.

Confirm that if you have understood correctly, that you can (or cannot help).

Part 4.

If you can, then provide 2 options, first offer to have a chat on the phone or second, if they have a project/ongoing task brief that you could look over, you could provide a quotation or options. (If this happens, the next step would be to secure the appointment to discuss the project or ongoing task brief and walk the client through their options).

Part 5.

Thank them, and mention that you are looking forward to hearing from them.

The Example.

So for example, someone contacts you to enquire about a website and ongoing marketing.

"I have a domain thisisthedomain.com and website. I also have a column "this is the name of my column" over 100 articles, plus I have a product. I would like to have an online store for the product and do marketing to send traffic to my website. Also to increase sales I want to offer an ebook of my articles. I need a website to reflect this. Help......"

So the response in this case would be... The areas in red show customisations and notes.

Hi [name of potential client],

Thanks so much for contacting Virtual Miss Friday, I am happy to assist with your enquiry.

So from what I gather you need help pulling together all the different elements of this project into one:

- A Website (To replace the current thisisthedomain.com site)
- Blog (For articles currently on [find the link to the column online])
- Product (What's the product,? Is it the [enter suspected product name and enter link to product])
- eBook (Is this already created and ready to be sold or do you requires assistance with putting this together?)

If I have understood correctly, I can most certainly help you with this, did you want to get together and have a chat on the phone or do you have a more detailed project brief that I can look over to provide a quote and options?

Thanks [name of potential client], I shall very much look forward to hearing from you soon.

You'll sound awesome, friendly and totally on the ball!

Eliminating Half The Competition.

So basically, you'll see the example response above contains all 5 points, but not only that, this email also shows that I have taken an interest in the client, I have specifically addressed a number of items that would have required me to go and actively look at their business, and I have also relayed back my understanding of the tasks, showing that I have read their requirements and I am actively in pursuit of meeting them, and this is what I believe half of the competition that the potential client may have contacted will not be doing in their first initial response, it takes a small amount of time, but it goes a very, very long way... And you'll stand out as a top notch prospective virtual assistant because of it.

Final Golden Rule.

This might seem obvious, but I know it happens.... Never, ever say you can help with something when you can't - do both the potential client and yourself a favour and instead, suggest a suitable colleague and point them in another direction.

Taking Care Of Family, Super Busy and Sat At A Desk Most Of The Day - Sound Familiar? Join Me NOW!

Wed, 08 May 2013 13:53:00 GMT

I'm a business woman and a mum of 2 who loves to cook, absolutely loves wine, and primarily spends most social events eating and drinking with friends and when I'm not with friends, I love creating meals at home. I spend most of the day sitting down at my desk, as my company is based entirely online. Since having 2 children back-to-back I'm struggling with my weight - and now, I'm setting myself a challenge to drink nothing but the juices of fruits and vegetables for (30) days.

Why I know this works

If you've been following me for a while you may recall that I did a juice experiment last year where I drank juice for around 29 days, just the juice of fruits and vegetables (with the occasional cup of herbal/green tea too). It wasn't the easiest thing I ever did, and I occasionally fell off the wagon, you can read all about the experiment here:

http://www.virtualmissfriday.com/michelle/juiceexperiment

I lost a good amount of weight during that time, going from 93.5 kilos to 85.9 kilos (a loss of approximately 17 lbs in 29 days) and although I stopped juicing, I did manage to maintain it, but sadly from Christmas until February, I became quite ill, and ironically, health was the last thing on my mind, getting by day-to-day was the only thing I could think about. Running the business, taking care of the kids, flaking out in the evenings before starting the next day was about all I could manage, and because of that, my weight slowly crept back on, all of it.

I did recover, and when I did I got back into juicing and green smoothies, usually having one for breakfast and also sometimes lunch, and whilst I felt good about that, it didn't help me lose any weight. I've decided to get 'back on the wagon' this month and do another 30 days juice detox, but this time, I'm going to try my hardest not to cheat, and see if I can improve upon the results I achieved before.

Thursday May 9th to June 7th 2013.

This Thursday, the 9th of May, I begin Nancy Desjardins Fresh Start Detox. I decided that rather than just go it alone I would try and stick to a programme, and keep myself more accountable. The experiment I did last year has prepared me for what's to come - I know what to expect, and I know not to foolishly quit the juice after the 30 days is up. I will keep going, at least once or twice a day.

Although I eat a very good diet, lots of fresh food, organic where possible, and the experiment I did last year kicked my sugar cravings, I literally can enjoy a nice dessert occasionally now, but I have no interest in sweets, sugar or chocolate anymore, I like food A LOT and also wine, so this is where I will need to bring out my willpower in full force, also it's my birthday on the 18th of May, my first choice on how to celebrate would be going out for a meal, and I'm trying not to think about that right now.

Make It Happen!

Support is essential to the success of this for me. I have a very supportive husband who pretty much does all the juicing so I can concentrate on the business and not have to think about where my juices are coming from. I'm currently living on Crete and the weather is perfect, we have lots of juice bars so I'll be able to socialise, but instead of a glass of wine I'll be ordering a juice, and finally, I'm going to do this with the support mechanism that Nancy Desjardins has put together on her website HealthLady.com

Not only am I going to be doing the Fresh Start Detox programme she has put together, I will also be documenting my journey and weight loss each day, Monday through Friday in her forums at the Health Academy.

So if you'd like to join me, I hope that my daily reports will help you to keep on track too.

This is what you need to do!

Option 1. Join Me!

If you'd like to do the Fresh Start Detox with me you'll need to click here.

First click on the "Fresh Start Detox" (second option) and sign up for your account so you get access to the detox programme, Nancy currently has a sale on until May 16th to get the programme for just $47!

Option 2. Follow Me!

The next option is that if you don't want to join me on the detox, but you'd like to follow my progress diary, I'll be updating Nancy's Health Academy Forums each day with my progress report. So all you have to do is click here.

Click "Health Academy" (first option), and sign up. If you want to follow the next 30 days it's just $17 for the month and you can cancel at anytime.

Juicing is really a 'life changing' experience - I'm looking forward to this journey and moreover if you decide to do it with me, I'll look forward to hearing about your results in the Health Academy forums, we'll have a much better chance if we all support each other, and in terms of health coaching, there's nobody better to get you through this than Nancy Desjardins from HealthLady.com, who is totally passionate and committed to helping people.

If you'd like to hear an interview I did with Nancy (who is also a client of mine) check out the special offer on The VA Rockstar this month, where you can listen to my interview with Nancy called "Body, Brain and Business" and how your health is linked to your overall success!

Wish me luck!!! Tonight is my last night of solid food and chewing for 30 days and I intend to go out with a bang.

3 Months, 7 New Clients, 3 Priority, 5 New Team Members - More FREE Time

Wed, 01 May 2013 11:04:00 GMT

At the end of last year, in December 2012, I made some significant changes within my business, I go through this approximately every year on a larger scale, those changes allowed me to expand my business in the last 3 months, faster than any other 3 month period before. In this post I'm going to share with you what I did to make this happen, and how you can follow this same process, as often as you feel ready for it.

If you have an established Virtual Assistant Business, you might feel happy with the set up, your brand, your presence, your systems and your services, you also have a client base and you're earning an income, then you may be content - but reaching this stage of your business can also leave you feeling like you're coming to the end of a journey, but you're not quite there yet. Something is still not right, maybe it's your clientele, maybe you feel you're working too many hours for the amount of profit you make, maybe you feel like your business is running you and you're not running your business, maybe you feel like you have reached a place where you've got stuck and can't see how to move forward.

Maybe you know your business could be so much better, and you need a system to follow, that's tried, tested, works and won't let you down - something you can keep following to continue to improve.

The Solution...

This is a very common place to be for many online service providers, and there's a solution that will bring everything on track. It's a step-by-step formula or process, let's call it this, and it can be implemented in any online service business that's already up and running with at least a small clientbase. It's the exact system I use in Virtual Miss Friday, it's the system I used these last few months to expand even further than I considered would be possible in such a short space of time, yet still keep my service to clients personal, responsive and maintaining a high standard, but for anyone who knows me, you'll also know I like to stretch the limits.

Exceeding The 3 Month Goal

In 3 months I've taken in 7 brand new clients, 3 on my priority support programme, 5 new team members, 2 of which are starting this week, and I have 1 new position which opened up last week for a team member to come in during May. Plus, the ironic thing is, that I have also turned more clients down and let projects and potential clients go than ever before, because they didn't fit into my formula - it was tough to discipline myself to do this, but by doing so it allowed me to concentrate and work with the clients who I knew would be better for me and for my business overall.

I have also made significant changes to my business overall, my mindset and my structure. Overall it's been the most productive 3 months of my entire business, since 2005. Not only that, in terms of the day-to-day operations of the business, I have more free time (again that took a lot of discipline) to spend with my family and enjoying my nomadic lifestyle - without compromising on my service levels to existing clients.

So, How Do You Do It?

The best part is that it's not rocket science, it requires following guidelines, and making some tough decisions about your established business and seeing them through to the end, in a fearless, ruthless manner.

Do you think you're at a stage where you could do this and break a cycle, make changes that could potentially ensure the ongoing success of your business?

This entire process has been documented into a programme called "The VA Rockstar," and to celebrate my birthday this month, 9 years into my Virtual Assistant Business I'm offering this programme which includes a direct coaching call with me which you can use anytime, at a very special price!

So click HERE to learn more or to get started today!

NEW in the Rockstar

I have just added a new interview with my client Richard Parker who I have been working with since 2009. One of the many great things about a varied clientbase is what you can learn from the clients you work with. On this call I discuss with Richard his own experiences on how he grew his corporation Diomo, into a 30 million dollar enterprise, what it takes to be an exceptional entrepreneur, and other ways online service providers can use their business to subsidise their income and have even greater earning potential beyond clients.

Click here for further details and to take advantage of this months special offer!

A Digital Nomads Disaster Story - Could This Be The End?

Thu, 25 Apr 2013 12:33:00 GMT

In my last post I mentioned that I would be away for a week, on a sort of holiday (vacation) type thing. It's odd really because since 2005 when I became a virtual assistant and digital nomad my entire life, day by day has been a complete holiday, having worked my way living through 6 countries, meeting my husband along the way and having a couple of kids but never having anywhere I particularly need to be, that kind of makes me and my life unique... But these last 7 days have I had an eye opener - oh my, yes I have...

So first of all I decided to take a holiday, my mum and a friend were coming to stay for a week, the friend I haven't seen in more than a couple of years and my mum more than 6 months, so it would have been lovely to see them, relax and just catch up.

How things actually turned out was slightly different - and I'm going to share this with you to show you that no matter how you think things will go, they might never quite go according to plan...

First I have to take you back to 2010, I wrote a blog post about an experience I had where my server went down unexpectedly, which, when you run a virtual services business it can seem like a complete and utter disaster. Here is the post - and you will notice, at that time, to remedy the situation I went out and purchased the absolute best server money could buy, and after about a year due to the expansion of my business, I even upgraded to bigger, more secure, and better... (by this time the original server company had been bought out by a larger company, but I still stuck with them, I had no reason to think the service would be any different) - In addition, I also hired a dedicated independent server expert with a team of web savvy technical people to make sure everything ran smoothly so I wouldn't ever endure the same issues I experienced before. You would think that with such a monthly financial commitment, let's say more than several hundred $$$ a month the safety of my business was pretty much covered... Wrong.

And this is where we come back to the present...

Sunday - I picked my mum up from the airport, I had intended to do a few days work, and then on Wednesday, her birthday, I was taking her to a spa, and then would have the rest of the week to go 'out and about.'

Monday was fine.

Tuesday we noticed that our email went down and spotted some other small issues.

Wednesday we had a scheduled upgrade happening for our main project area. I was at the spa that day for my mums birthday and left things in the capable hands of my husband and team. When I got back, that's when the news came. There was a significant issue with one of the hard drives on the server, it happened to be the hard drive that was supposed to ping us when errors or problems were detected and it didn't - this apparently was entirely a hardware issue, and the HDD (hard drive) needed to be replaced.

So - we accepted the downtime, but nothing is ever straightforward, is it? We had oodles of data to back up and that alone was going to take literally all night until the following morning.

Thursday - There was nothing I could do. Dale notified all the clients we knew would be trying to get a hold of us, and I carried on taking my mum and a friend out and about. When I got back, they were still working on the server via support tickets and direct phone support.

Friday - Eventually Friday evening came around and we were able to get everything up-and-running, remarkably due to the fact that we had a lot of back-ups in place we lost nothing other than a couple of days of business. In the online world, a couple of days in an (enormous) amount of time.

As I'm writing this now, I'm looking at yet again a broken office. You see, after the server people attached a new 3rd drive, we moved everything onto this good drive, fortunately we kept a spare (backup drive) from day one for instances such as this, we then instructed the server people in Amsterdam to take away the defective hard drive and replace it with a good drive. Do you know what they did??? (these are not my people by the way, they belong to the server company) - they went and took out the good drive... leaving the empty broken hard drive in place, and removing all my sites from the Web.

So, you see folks, sometimes life has a way of throwing a bunch of C**P at you, and the only thing you can do is do the best you can because it's totally out of your hands, and in the hands of the most expensive hosting company that money can buy and the a man called Nick who took out the wrong drive. He did apologise though...

And breath...

Needless to say, this first week back from the semi-vacation where I sat and worried for most of it, and also hit the bottle a few times (yeah it did help) has been busy, and I'm making a resolution to try and be more accepting when things go wrong, the problem is, I anticipated the people who rely on me in business are less accepting, and I discovered that I am truly surrounded by the most loyal and supportive clients a virtual assistant could ever wish for. We're now looking at ending our relationship with hardware (our dedicated server) in exchange for The Cloud...

Nick from Amsterdam has now put back the good hardrive and everything is back to normal. As they say in the Best Exotic Marigold Hotel, "Everything will be alright in the end, if it is not alright, it is not yet the end."

What Are You Doing? Making Excuses or Making It Work?

Mon, 08 Apr 2013 08:47:00 GMT

Last week you may have noticed I went 'radio silent' and a blog post didn't appear on this blog and a newsletter didn't go out either. This really was for a couple of reasons, the first, it was Easter and I decided that I would give myself a break from my routine for that reason, and the second, I had a major relaunch for a client, and several other very important projects simmering on my virtual stove for other clients - and when that happens, clients come first, and my time is wholeheartedly devoted to their businesses.

You see here's the thing, I am a real stickler for routine and meeting any commitment I make, you'll probably see that from the hundreds of blog posts from this site - a majority posted every week without fail. When I skip a post or a newsletter, I don't like it - but this is not an excuse for why I was unable to post last week, this is simply me making my business work, and prioritising. I think I'd like to talk about the difference between the two in relation to having a successful business.

The Entrepreneurs 6th Sense.

Usually I have more structure to my blog posts, you may find this is a little random, but sometimes a little random is exactly what is called for. Over recent weeks I have continued to have the pleasure of speaking to clients and VA's about their businesses and the future of their businesses. As a natural part of this discussion, lives outside of their businesses come into play, because this to me isn't just a business. I don't see a business as something you switch off from, or close the door on, that's simply a job or being an employee, for me, having my own business is a 24/7 type thing that blends in with my life and family. I Accept it.

Often times I wake up first thing in the morning remembering I should have done something, it's like having a 6th sense, or even sometimes in the middle of the night, and I can then slip into the office and right myself some notes, or schedule a reminder. Do I care that it's 3am in the morning, no... not really. You see if you ever have children, you'll know that the sense of responsibility becomes an integral part of your very being, you listen out for them, even while you're sleeping and for me, my clients' businesses all have a similar importance, but they just occupy a different part of my brain and a different part of my awareness. But essentially, I take care of my clients, in a similar fashion to taking care of my children, making sure they are okay at all times. It's not the first time I have used this analogy and I am sure it won't be the last.

But you see here's the thing. If I had been a salaried employee, I wouldn't have that same unconscious sense or gift of perception. I'd be wanting to distance myself from the thing I had to endure on a daily basis in order to pay my bills, but being a business owner, and knowing that my bills won't get paid unless I set certain standards in my business is enough to care, but it goes so much more beyond that too.

It All Comes From Having A Bloody Good Reason.

I'm in Crete right now, and last week I celebrated 1 year of living here. We sailed over from living in Italy on the 1st of April 2012, and we intended to stay here a year and then move on to another unknown place. But as time moved on, we realised this place was special, the island, the people, the weather, the lifestyle - how everything is so wholesome and invigorating... We then said to ourselves... Why do we have to go? Where exactly do we have to be? What's stopping us from staying? And we decided that until we felt the time was right to move on, we'd hang out here for a while...

Without my virtual business, I would have that decision removed from my hands. I am proud to say that I am in my 8th year of being a nomad, having left England, I have no need to return, but at the same time, no need to be in any other specific place either.

Without my passion for living this lifestyle and for raising a family within it, I wouldn't have developed my ability and drive to do the best I possibly can for my clients, this 6th sense I'm talking about. I am often told that I am "lucky" to be living the way I do - when I have come to the conclusion that luck plays little to no part of it. Dedication, determination, an ability to strive for something that means something and taking my income seriously, to the point where if I need to sit up until 3am in the morning working, because I have to meet a responsibility, I will, and I will do it with gratitude that I have a purpose, and that also provides for my family.

Just FYI, I often don't stay up later working these days because of the way I structure my business and schedule my clients' work with my team - however, it was not always like this in the early stages when I was on my journey to success, when I was living in France our neighbour once commented on how the light was always on in our office before 7am in the morning and after midnight, 7 days a week, at that time we had a 15th month old son and a newborn baby with us 24/7 too, and even though I feel now that I've come a long way beyond that several years later - I am still more than willing to pull out all the stops if needed, and that willingness is always there.

The 3 Musts.

What I am trying to say is that in business, not just a virtual one, but any business, if you want to see the kind of rewards that are in your big vision for the future, you MUST genuinely care, about yourself and your clients, you MUST be prepared to work harder than you would as an employee, and you MUST then learn to enjoy the fruits of your labours to keep reminding yourself the reason why you do what you do, to have fun and make the most of out your life and business combined.

So next week, you won't hear from me, because I will be enjoying the fruits of my labours, I am having family and friends to stay with me here in Crete and I will be making the most our time together, and I will be missing a weekly post on this blog, but I want you to know that even when I don't post, YOU my readers, my clients, the members of my programmes, and the people I mentor, are always on my mind and in my thoughts and I am always eager to return.

Making Excuses or Making It Work.

It's okay to break your schedule, to veer off your business routine, to miss the odd commitment here and there, but if you want a successful business, that your clients and even colleagues rave about, it's important to make those moments exceedingly rare - and learn the difference between the reason why you've done it -as being an excuse, or it simply being you making it work and prioritising something else as more pertinent to the bigger picture and the vision of where you want to be in life and business.

Cryptic this week, right?

Have a great week ahead, and I'll see you soon!

A Typical Day At The Virtual Miss Friday HQ

Mon, 25 Mar 2013 16:23:00 GMT

I am often asked how a typical day looks for me. I guess some people expect me to have a very glamorous lifestyle and I can only anticipate that my response may be a little disappointing, but to me, life doesn't really get any better than this, especially when we can achieve this lifestyle from almost anywhere in the world, whenever we want.

So, this is full disclosure about what an average weekday looks like for me. I am the CEO of a virtual business, I have 3 managers, and around 25 virtual champions on my team in total split into 4 small groups/departments. My client base is large, some on individual projects of various sizes, some just hiring us for content and SEO, and some with ongoing recurring daily work.

7:30 am

I hate mornings, I'm really not a morning person at all, my husband gets up around 6:00 for the kids and wakes me up around 7:30am with a cup of tea. For this I am eternally grateful!

8 am

Start rounding the kids up to get them ready for their day, at 8:15 we leave the house, I drop my son off at school and then my daughter with our Greek childminder. I would highly recommend if you are a nomad and living in a foreign country with children that they spend as much time as possible talking to people who don't speak English, it's the fastest way for them to learn the language - if they were at home with us all day everyday we could teach them squat about the language. In fact, my son now has a perfect Greek accent and often corrects me when I pronounce the words wrong!

8:30 am

I'm home and jump on my trampoline for a while and then I have my Green Smoothie or Juice for breakfast.

Around 9 am 'ish'.

I'm sat at my desk ready to start the day. First I check my horoscopes on Cainer.com and then take a look at my calendar to see what appointments I have that day, with who, and what time.

Then I open up my 3 primary windows that I am using throughout the day. My email, my support site and my project management space which I call "The Office".

I begin with checking the support site and seeing what has come in that I need to deal with, closing things off which are not required and just doing a general tidy up. Anything I can flag for my team, I will, to pick up when they come online. I clear my support site so it's prepped and ready for the day.

I then pretty much do the same with my email. My email contains both my personal emails, the emails between myself and my team and also I receive notifications of the tasks and discussions from my project space "The Office" which I process one by one until they are also cleared. This is usually a good portion of the morning, as we have to manage a lot of projects and clients. I delegate as much as possible and respond to any questions from my team so they can act on them as soon as possible and I'm not holding up the task processing.

Around 12 noon 'ish'.

I check my task list for the day and see if there are any regular essential tasks that I need to carry out, such as sending my newsletter, posting to my blog, checking social media etc... All those things that keep the business ticking over.

Then I look over each active client and their projects, starting with my priority support clients so I can keep their work moving as quickly as possible by delegating as much as I possibly can, and then creating a task list myself for the day from what I was unable to delegate - this is usually when I am required to consult, advise or coordinate specific items or stages on the project. I'll usually liaise with the clients and team through online discussions or Skype.

Then for the rest of the day I work on projects, periodically checking and responding to my priority support clients and any urgent tasks or emails which come in. I always put my clients first in this respect, but I am also sensible about it too, and will leave non-urgent or non-critical tasks for the team to pick up later in the day.

I stop for food whenever I feel ready.

Around 4 pm 'ish'.

I do a final check on everything, before getting ready to give the computer and myself a break. I do work pretty much solid during the day, but I often go out, do the shopping, run errands that type of thing - it really all depends on the workload and deadlines.

5 pm.

I go pick up my kids from my Greek childminder and then we have some family time at home, I cook dinner, we hang out or do something together.

Around 7 pm - 8 pm 'ish'.

We put the kids to bed and I do a quick check to make sure nothing needs my urgent attention, or to see if I need to do any quick approvals or comments on the tasks/projects just so I don't hold up the night shift (people outside of my time-zone).

I also tend to have calls in the evening too, and if I do have calls at night I'll usually work until the calls end.

After that I spend some time with my husband, or doing something I like to do, before we go to bed.

And The Weekend?

Unless something is really pressing or a deadline needs to be met, I spend my weekends with my husband and kids. It's important to have that balance wherever possible, but as a business owner, and not just that but an entrepreneur and someone who loves what they do I remain flexible with my time, some days I work long hours, and some days if there's not much that needs my attention I'll take a break and shutdown, go do something different.

The fact is that I have a 4 and 5 year old, so a 9-5, Monday to Friday lifestyle is currently what fits in with them best, I make the business fit around my personal preferences and my family. At that's what counts - that's one of the many reasons why I love being in business for myself. Becoming a business owner is not just about being your own boss and spending all day on the beach just because you can and there's nobody to stop you (although I do know some people who would like to do that) - It's about being responsible with managing the clients, the family, and the work day - but doing it with complete freedom knowing you are the one controlling what goes on, and when.

It's Not Like This Every Day...

Of course there are variations to my schedule, at lot of those variations tend to do with the country where we are living, for example we're in Crete right now, 10 minutes from the beach, so we'll often try and get some beach time in during the week if the kids have a day off or happen to be home with us. It's these perks that make the times when there's more pressure and more work to deliver that much more satisfying and easier to handle.

So there you have it. I'd love to know what your day is like if you'd like to leave a comment!

How To Have A Colourful Carnival Party On Your Blog

Wed, 20 Mar 2013 12:22:00 GMT

This weekend was a very special long weekend here in Greece, and we went to the annual carnival/festival in the main town. It was totally packed out but it was bunches of fun! Today I'm bringing the carnival to the blog with video and pictures for you to enjoy - And that's how you have a carnival party on a blog!

A True Love Story With A Twist Of Fate. Meet Mr. Friday

Tue, 12 Mar 2013 19:39:00 GMT

This is a true story, I don't know how common it is, maybe it's very common, maybe not so common at all, all I know is that I was certainly not expecting it, maybe my husband wasn't either...

When I was born I was named Michelle Louise Dale, after my father Michael Dale (Michelle is the female equivilant).

When I was living in Egypt, I had a friend who was a lovely woman and she rented out flats in her building. She told me that there was a tall handsome Californian man in his early 30's renting out one of her flats and I should go and meet him, (yeah, she was matchmaking I think) she suggested she invite him up for a coffee at the same time she invites me for a coffee as we might get along. Given the fact that young handsome men from California, and English was their first language were pretty scarce in Luxor at that time, I said sure why not, what's his name?

She said his name is Dale.... My friend and I went on first name terms funnily enough and I said, wow that's weird, so is mine. My name is Michelle Dale.

So... She invited me and Dale to have a coffee at her flat one evening and he and I hit it off, I think.... Actually he asked my friend for my number after I left and then he didn't call me for over a week, I think he was on Egyptian time.

Anyway, around 10 days later Dale called me, and we met for a drink, within a month we were planning the rest of the foreseeable future together.

That was in 2006. In 2007 our son was born, in 2009 our daughter and in 2010, we married. So I guess my name now 'officially' is no longer Dale, however my business and everything I built over the years has always been from Michelle Dale and hence I never changed my name.

Life has been unusual having the same name as my husband. When we were in the registry office creating our child's first birth certificate we were asked if we were sure my name was Michelle Dale... The same thing happened with our daughter, then again when we got married, when we applied for a lease on a house, and pretty much at any given point where we have had to provide both our names.

It's also interesting how we ended up getting married - you see that's us on our wedding day in the image above... No white gown, masses of people or food... We had been battling with the VISA office for ages in France since he is from the USA and decided to get married to make life a little easier for all of us, so on a cold February day we went to the registry office to sign the marriage papers, no fancy anything, no grand wedding plans, but really it didn't matter, what matters the most in life is simply being with the ones you love. I bought my 'wedding outfit' from a French supermarket a few days before, crazy right... In the photo you'll see our 2 witnesses, to the left, is Dorota, our Polish mid-wife from when we had Akasha (who I'm holding) and to the far right, a very good Swiss neighbour and friend, who helped us with Dale's VISA. In the middle, the man who married us, and to my right, his assistant.

We've also been asked if my husband took my name when we married instead of me taking his, but no, he was also a Dale before we met.

Since my husband joined me in the business shortly after the birth of our son, I have since been questioned when he sends emails using his name Dale, if I am pretending to be 2 people... this happens frequently, I'm not pretending to be 2 people.

So really this post is to say, yes, my name is Michelle Dale, and yes my husband is also called Dale, and he works with me in Virtual Miss Friday :-)

Just to make matters interesting, our son's middle name is also Dale so it looks like we gave him both my name and my husband's name. In hindsight that may have not been such a good idea and he'll also get the blank look when someone asks him what's your mother's maiden name and he says "Dale," having just told them his father's name is Dale and his middle name is Dale....

Anyway, this is all just a happy coincidence and in some ways I think fate just gave me that little helping hand to show me that I had chosen the right man to spend my life with.

So what's Dale's last name? I'm not saying, but what I can say is that it's foreign and very hard to pronounce the first time you say it, and it has a lot of letters in it. Needless to say, it's probably simpler I stayed with Michelle Dale.

How To Stop Micro-Managing Your Team, Confidently

Mon, 04 Mar 2013 00:00:00 GMT

Expanding into a Virtual Team can be both exciting and stressful. Hiring support gives us a feeling that we're breaking into another level, moving forward and progressing with things, and then we find that often times we end up working even harder as we expand further because we micro-manage everyone and everything.

I had a mentorship call this morning with someone who took my VA Apprentice programme. The programme was able to quickly launch her business into a successful VA company, with this brought a fast expansion of team members and then - overwhelm. She was constantly being interrupted throughout the day, and despite appointing a team leader, was finding that was taking even more precious time away from her clients and her marketing.

Here is the advice I gave her...

1. Appoint a Wingman.

The first thing you need to do is find a wingman, someone to be a team leader so you end up managing one or just a small handful of people depending on the size of your business. Then these people help manage the team.

2. Divert the team.

Explain to the team that they need to approach your wingman (obviously call them by their name and not wingman - for the sake of this post we'll say their name is wingman) with everything they would normally have approached you with relating to their work.

3. Begin the listing.

Your Wingman will need to sort their work/dilemmas/questions they are asked into 2 lists.

List 1: Items they know they can handle.
List 2: Items they believe they cannot handle.

On list one, your Wingman will need to write down (or explain to you in the morning meeting coming up next) how they would handle the issues.

On list 2, these are saved for the next step.

4. Morning Meeting.

Each morning before work commences you have a morning meeting with your Wingman to review how they would handle things, and the things they couldn't handle - you'll do this each morning for the next week.

On list one, you'll let the wingman know if they should do something differently to what they outlined/told you they would do, this is part of the training process of handing over how you would like things handled. It's also a good demonstration of your wingman's initiative. If they do well, give lots of praise and positive feedback.

On list two, you'll walk your wingman through what needs to be done at each point. The wingman then goes and actions all the items from the previous day.

5. Priority/Emergency.

During this training period there will be a 24 hour (or so) delay to responses, make sure the clients are aware if anything is being referred, also don't run a risk - if it's a priority client, or there's a deadline, or something important, you must be notified immediately, in these cases, the wingman can be bypassed or the wingman must notify you instantly if there's a problem.

6. Boundaries.

The next thing you must do is set some boundaries. You must be there for your team and for your clients and for your own business. Generally, last on the list is your business. Set aside times of the day or week, where you're not to be disturbed except in emergencies, for example, daily between 1pm and 3pm you focus on your marketing and only your marketing, switch off all distractions, set your Skype to Do Not Disturb, leaving a mood message "Only In Emergencies"

If you want to have time to fit everything in, you need to be ruthless with the way you schedule your time, and don't spread yourself too thin.

The Results.

After about a week of your Wingman consistently showing evidence that they can handle list one, hand everything over to them, and eliminate list one from your meetings. Let them do their job, let them do what you hired them to do. You may have to handle the odd hiccup, but with each hiccup, comes a new lesson, and improvement.

List two will begin to dwindle away on a daily basis as they become more experienced. You'll then be able to switch to weekly meetings, or even monthly.

The most important thing you need to have is someone you can trust, the most important thing you need to give to them, is your trust. Then you'll begin to have a much healthier life and business.

Break The Cycle, Change Your Life, Get What You Want - This Week!

Mon, 25 Feb 2013 14:33:00 GMT

Have you ever got into the cycle of wanting to do something, and maybe taking a few cautious steps towards making it happen, and then find that you end up not going any further, or life gets in the way and it gets pushed to the back of your to-do list and what you wanted ends up never happening? What if you could break that pattern?

The fact is, I think most of us are programmed to either put everyone else before ourselves, so therefore everything we wanted comes after what everyone else wants, and as a result, never comes, or we choose the easier option, either because we lack the drive, the energy, or simply because we're afraid of failing and then the dream would go 'pop' - maybe not trying and not knowing is more comforting than trying and failing...

Break The Cycle.

The first thing is no matter what reason it is that you aren't pursuing what you want, you need to understand it, find your weak spot, find the excuse you make, and break it. Eliminate it from your life... This is easier said than done. My weak spot happened to be the place where I lived, my job and even the country I was living in... It's pretty extreme, but I quit my job, moved country, and eliminated my excuses and reasons for not moving forward with my life, and staying on the treadmill. I broke the cycle.

But sometimes, a cycle is literally all about making one decision to do something new, or something different. What's the worst that could happen - really?

Change Your Life.

Do something that could change your circumstances, could change your life, even if it's not immediate and you work hard at it (rarely anything you badly want in life comes easy). This all depends on what kind of dreams and goals you have. Mine was to travel the world, be my own boss, escape the 9-5, live life on my own terms. Little did I know then that all I had to do to achieve all of that was start my own Virtual Assistant Business and make it work at all costs, cost of my time, my energy, the amount of sleep I got at night - but all that hard work makes coming out on the other side even more satisfying and more rewarding.

Source: Uploaded by user via Virtual Miss Friday on Pinterest

Get What You Want.

The easiest way to get what you want is to find someone who had similar goals, similar wants and went out and got them, successfully - that's the best way to fast-track getting what you want. Learn from the people who have been there and bought the t-shirt, make it your mission to gather as much information as you can about how they did it, what works and what doesn't.

I love food, I love cooking, and as a result, I always have extra pounds to lose. When I watched "Fat, Sick and Nearly Dead" and I saw the amount of weight that Joe Cross lost from juicing, I decided to try and break my own cycle, do something new, and it worked. I juiced for 30 days and in total, I lost over 8 kilos.

It's not actually as hard as it seems when you have someone to inspire you and aspire to.

This Week.

So, let me ask you...
1. Are you someone looking to break your cycle?
2. Do you want to change your life?
3. Do you want to get what you want?

I would like to help you along the way... My brand spanking new programme, The VA Apprentice 2.0 is THE most excellent business programme on the planet specifically for online service providers. That's Consultants, Online Business Managers, Virtual Assistants, Freelancers, Digital Nomads and anyone who would like to exchange a service, online, for money.

Ideal for anyone who wants a business that's scalable, flexible and completely mobile. Imagine what you could achieve if you were to break that cycle, change your life and get what you want?

Well, I'm here to do everything I possibly can for you to make sure that happens, and I've pulled out all the stops with the programme that provides you with everything you'll need to learn, everything you'll need to be able to work and build the business, including a top notch professional online presence, and finally all the support you'll need with monthly one-on-one mentorship calls.

So why this week?

Because until February 29th I'm giving you the gift of $1000 OFF this programme as a final fairwell to the original version, and a celebration of the new version released last week. This is the lowest price you will ever be able to purchase the Apprentice 2.0 programme and it's not to be missed!

So what will you do? Are you ready to break the cycle, change your life and get what you want?

Click Here To Begin

How To Simplify Your Client Intake and Centralise Your Systems

Mon, 18 Feb 2013 10:34:00 GMT

As an online service provider one of the many things I invest my time and money into is the overall client experience that my clients have when working with me. It's even more important when you have a team around you who also service the client's requirements, and you have a growing business, where new clients are coming periodically, and regularly. Maintaining the exceptional support standards and simplifying is the key. Without this, the business would likely suffer.

The Issue That Needed Resolve.

I provide clients with a number of facilities to use online within my business, but I also have struggled in the past with how to make the experience for the client seamless and not too overwhelming. You see, there's not a single systems that does 'everything' and the ones I have found can sometimes do 'most things' but not really well, and when I know another system can achieve a better result for both myself and client, I would rather use the better system.

The Time Has Come To Centralise.

So I've now created a way to centralise my client experience. Before, I would do this with a page on my website and I would add tutorial videos for each system, but it still seemed too fragmented to me, and if it seemed like that to me, it may also appear that way to the client. So I decided to make it super-simple and build a client area on my own site, where I could customise it exactly to the systems I use with clients, all of them, in such a way that it was all clear and made sense. That would allow me to make one tutorial video for the client area, and provide individual instructions inside the one area bringing together the purpose for each system we use online, and the access.

This makes it easy for clients to use and leaves very little room for confusion.

Growth & Consistency.

The nice thing about creating one of these centralised areas is that my business can evolve and grow, I can introduce new systems, take systems away, but all the time, the client area and login will stay constant, in the same place. All I need to do is update it, and that's the beauty and simplicity of taking a set of systems and centralising them into a personal client area that you control, on your website.

This Is About Being The Best.

Actually we can do lots of things to help our clients' experience become the best it can be, which is the key to growth and success in the online service business. Would you eat in a restaurant that had bad customer reviews? Maybe.... Would you go back there if you tried it and wasn't impressed with the experience, for example, the menu was too complicated, the dishes didn't go well, the atmosphere and seating environment wasn't very nice, and the service was slow and dissatisfying?.. No you wouldn't - I think even if the food was excellent, the disappointing service would be enough to put you off. Clients need to be treated in your business the same way that a top city restaurant would treat a V.I.P. diner... With finesse, attention to details and in today's environment a lot of innovation. It's not just about providing the end result, or 'delivering the goods' -- it's about the whole package.

How To Do It.

Simple! You can watch my 30 minute tutorial video released this month inside The VA Passport, which shows you step-by-step how to create and area just like the one I have created for my clients. I'm releasing this video to Passport Members as a part of the relaunch of The VA Apprentice 2.0 which, despite my March 1st deadline I'm hoping to have ready this week!! Make sure you join my mailing list if you would like to be notified of the "Go Live" date.

The video will demonstrate the kind of ideas and techniques that I'm introducing in the new Apprentice 2.0 programme, many of them will be new to you, some may not, but I promise to provide the most innovative, cutting-edge content, learning and tutorials that exist in today's online service provider industry. The aim of this programme is to not only provide the actual information and practical support you need step-by-step, but provide a lifetime of ongoing learning as well.

As many of you probably already know from the feedback I receive from colleagues, I'm often considered to be Avante-Garde in the online service business industry because I listen, I learn, I design and I master the entrepreneurial way forward for online service providers everywhere. I am so passionate about sharing this information with you, which I have always first tried and tested in my own business with real results that can be implemented and realised in yours too.

I look forward to seeing you inside The VA Passport - Plus it's your last chance to purchase The VA Apprentice before the price goes up on March 1st 2013 forever! Don't miss this amazing opportunity to become a part of the leading entrepreneurial online service provider community of this century...

10 Tips For Reducing Social Media Research Time When Content Sharing

Sat, 09 Feb 2013 00:00:00 GMT

As part of our social media services we often need to source fresh, quality, on topic content for clients who would like us to use that content in their social media accounts. There are various ways to go about this, some very in depth, but if you're looking for some quick tips on how to source content and you don't mind doing a bit of sifting then these pointers will help save you time and your client money.

#1 Google Alerts.

Add keywords and search terms relevant to the niche, topic or business that the client would like to share. Google can supply you with the best search results to your email address, saving you time searching through Google yourself. You can simply review and pick out the best results to share or use.

#2 Twitter Lists.

Keep Twitter lists in your client's Twitter account for accounts, companies and people who you'd like to retweet on a regular basis, simply click the list when you're ready to share and scan through to see if anything good pops up.

#3 Core blog list.

I like to try and develop a core blog list for places the clients would comment on for example, or blogs the client would enjoy reading. You can subscribe to the blogs on the list and get notified when they've been updated, they may have content worth sharing.

#4 Quotes.

Who doesn't share a good quote, and what business doesn't have quotes that are relevant to their topic?Keep a list of quotes, and keep adding to it for each client, then schedule them periodically. They are one of the most shared pieces of content I've come across.

#5 Products and Service details.

Share information or take portions of content from the client's website, make sure each and every individual product or service gets a mention as well as the big picture. If they sell pet supplies, tell people about the latest dog collar or the free nail clipping that comes with their grooming service. Small details are just as important.

#6 Hashtags.

Keep an eye on Twitter hashtags, see what's trending at the moment, maybe there's a hot topic that people are talking about that's relevant to the client's business, if so, drop the hashtag into status updates and replies.

#7 Competition.

Ask you client to give you a list of their competitors, check out what they're doing and see if you can use that to your advantage. Has someone come out discussing something which would be relevant to your client's business, could you tell the client and create content on it?

#8 Testimonials.

Schedule comments from their client testimonials to go out linking back to further testimonials. Don't go on overkill with this, but keeping the social proof alive is really important and it helps develop credibility for the client.

#9 Facebook & Pinterest.

Keep a list of Facebook pages that you consider active and popular and have a good social vibe going on, then when you have a new client, dip into the list and see if you can find any relevant pages for your client's business, sharing content with and from those pages can attract a lot of attention to your client's Facebook page. Do the same with great Pinterest boards, keep a list of great ones that you can repin for the client or share pins from on Facebook.

#10 Blog.

Probably the most obvious, every time a client posts a blog, make sure you run it through social media and relevant groups, but to keep the blog post alive, take quotes from it and schedule periodic updates linking back to it. If they have a Wordpress account use the "Tweet Old Post" plugin to automate this process of pulling out old posts, but just remember that using quotes rather than just titles will create unique, less promotional style status updates.

Wordpress VS Adobe Business Catalyst - From An Overall Online Business Perspective

Sat, 02 Feb 2013 00:00:00 GMT

This isn't just another comparison between Wordpress and Adobe Business Catalyst. You see while there are a number of comparisons out there, the people making them are either website developers (mostly who specialise in Wordpress) or Bloggers. What this comparison is about is what system is more cost effective, more functional, easier to operate in day to day business administration, and what would be better to run an online business and not just a blog or a website. The thing is web developers are all about functionality and design - where as at Virtual Miss Friday, I'm all about the entire package - design, functionality and how the client will logistically and financially operate the business after the website is finished.

I recently switched from having several Wordpress websites for my business into moving my entire business into Adobe Business Catalyst - I've actually used both of them for several years, in 2008 I partnered with Business Catalyst, and in 2010, I started using Wordpress. In Business Catalyst I had my main business website and email marketing, in Wordpress I had my blog, membership sites and products - now everything is in Adobe Business Catalyst and I made the decision to move completely away from Wordpress after 3 years of experience with using both simultaneously.

There are so many comparison reviews that are in favour of Wordpress as a website, I think a lot of them are also based on the fact that Wordpress is like a comfortable pair of old shoes and Business Catalyst needs breaking in, but people aren't prepared to spend the time doing it.

Since I migrated to Adobe, I have seen phenomenal results in my productivity, a significant reduction in the costs of my overheads, and I have a much better grasp on exactly what is going on in my business at all times, from one single login, which means I am more on top of my business than ever before. In short, I can wholeheartedly say I would never go back to Wordpress for operating my online business.

But like anything all systems have pro's and con's and it's for you to decide what you feel is more beneficial for you to build your business in. Below I am going to outline the differences between the 2 systems in terms of running a business now that I've used both of them extensively for a number of years. I'll explain the problems I had in both systems, and the triumphs.

I'll refer to Wordpress as "WP" and Adobe Business Catalyst as "ABC." If you're curious about Business Catalyst, create a free trial account in my partner portal and it will give this article a lot more context...

Installation.

Let's get to the basics, installation. On WP you need a compatible server and you need to install Wordpress on that server for it to work. In ABC there is nothing to set up or install, and it's a hosted solution, so there is also no need to buy separate hosting.

Maintenance.

When I talk about maintenance I'm talking about the health of your site. In WP you are required to manually upgrade the system with each new version. You are responsible for back ups, and general health checks of your server, you need to put work in to make sure everything is always running smoothly. In ABC they cover everything for you, upgrades, back ups, maintenance, and making sure the server is secure and your website and information are safe.

Design.

In WP you have a lot of flexibility to plug in themes and change the design of your site. This is not the case in ABC, so once you settle on a design, it can be a hassle to just flip it to another theme. You can't plugin themes like in WP, you build a site, and whilst you can of course change the design, it's much more tedious than WP.

Tools.

This is why I LOVE ABC, every business tool you need to operate an awesome, functional, busy online business is built in. I can quickly switch between my website, blog, CRM, email marketing, eCommerce and more. I am in complete control of my site from ONE place, and I don't have to mess around with plugins. You see WP plugins are great, but when you have or need too many, they can cause the site, or other plugins to break - so that obviously is not good. Not only do you not need plugins with ABC, you can rest assured that everything will work together seamlessly, as it's so well designed to.

Cost.

Whilst WP is a free system to install, you still need to pay for hosting and maintenance (if you have no idea on techy stuff). Then tag on the plugins or systems not available in Wordpress such as email marketing, and eCommerce, you could ending spending into hundreds of dollars depending on the size and scale of your business. In ABC you have one fee, and for the full suite of tools and functionality, it's under $40 a month. It will save you money in the long term.

Progress.

WP is free, and is changing and developing all the time, but I have seen ABC progress triple time in terms of technology, they are way ahead of WP and the gap is widening.

InContext Editing.

Simple, InContext Editing means you can edit your website on the front end interface, not the back end. So you can see the changes live without having to save and preview, save and preview, save and preview as you would with WP. This is a timesaver in itself and deserved a mention.

Dashboard.

In WP the dashboard is fairly basic. It's a means to getting to other places in your site. But with ABC you can login and the dashboard will immediately tell you how many people visited your site that week, how many people subscribed and unsubscribed to your mailing list, how many new forums posts you have, how many people logged into your members areas, how much money you've generated in sales, exactly what is happening on your website right now, including who is opening emails and clicking on links, and so much more... This is much more helpful!

Blog.

SEE THE UPDATE AT THE END OF THIS SECTION!!

This is where ABC gets a big FAIL. Their blogging engine is the most basic I have ever seen, I hate the fact you can't add unique meta data to the posts, but nonetheless it works, and my blog is now in ABC. WP is designed to build blogs, awesome blogs, so I would say if your only purpose in life is to blog, stay in WP. you'll be very disappointed with ABC. If blogging is just a part of a much 'bigger picture' of your business then you'll find that ABC is acceptable, and like me, you'll wait for the blog improvements to roll out in one of the many updates they are continuously making.

If you want the best online biz, and the best blog.

If you want a no compromise approach, it's simple - you do what I have done with many clients in the past - I'll put WP and ABC into bed together, and build the client's mainstream business in ABC, and their blog in WP - not as seamless, not as streamlined as I would like it to be, plus it will cost quite a bit more, but it is the best of both worlds.

UPDATE - I am very pleased to announce that you can now set meta data on the blog posts inside ABC - this makes the above message now obsolete - ABC came good ;-)

Email Marketing & eCommerce.

Well... in WP you'd need a plugin or 3rd party service for these 2 parts of your business, in ABC it's included, so whilst I think there are more robust systems out there for email marketing and eCommerce, this is a WP and ABC comparison - so there is no comparison to make here - the one in ABC is very functional, very simple to use and doesn't cost you any extra.

Databases.

One of the most valuable parts of ABC for me is the web apps function, allowing you to build an unlimited number of custom databases for content, this gives you the most amazing control over your site, and in my opinion, this small part of the ABC system is enough to completely replace WP - it's a gem. You can create any kind of databases you want, double-timing your ability to shift and add content. Magic.

Conclusion.

So those are the primary reasons why I use ABC exclusively now and not WP - when I switched over I felt a huge release, and now as part of my consulting services, I will always first see if we can make their online business work in ABC because I believe when you weigh up the pros and cons, there's really no contest.

There are SO many more benefits to Adobe.

Wordpress, in my opinion is like the Microsoft Windows of the online business world (Yep, I'll probably get slaughtered for saying that). Everyone uses it because it's the most popular and on the face of it, appears to be the cheapest since it's technically 'free' - but just like all the Microsoft Windows users I know, once they switch to Mac, and see how much cleaner, more streamlined, and sexier the whole thing is, not to mention that everything, all the time "Just Works" without a hitch, they would never, ever go back - that's what switching to ABC has been like for me.

If you'd like to know whether switching over from Wordpress to Adobe would be a possibility for you, please feel free to send me the following information and I'll be able to tell you whether the move would be viable and beneficial.

#1 Your website domain (or domains if you have more than one).
e.g. www.vitualmissfriday.com

#2 Your online business systems that you use.
e.g. for member sites, email marketing, forums, eCommerce etc...

#3 Mailing list details (This is the primary cost variable to consider when moving to BC).

The number of subscribers on your mailing list or lists.
The number of emails you send a month.

Schooling Children Who Travel - Is It Okay To Not Plan Out Their Entire Education?

Mon, 28 Jan 2013 09:03:00 GMT

My kids were born in October 2007 and February 2009 both in different countries, and every year, every birthday, they've been living somewhere different. One of the biggest questions or issues that families face when travelling with kids is what are they going to do about their education. It's a fair question - I haven't been too concerned about it to be honest, under the age of 5, there's nothing much they need to learn that some active playtime won't teach them.

I can't tell you the number of times I've been asked what I'll "do" with my children and their education, I've had comments such as "Well you'll have to go back to England or America right?" (they are half English, half American) or "Don't you think they deserve some kind of stability" or "You must stop at some point so they're inside a proper education system." To mention just a few...

Where I stand on the matter.

Whilst I can understand from the perspective of the people making those comments why they made them, I can't say that I agree entirely. As you can see from the video, my 5 year old managed to successfully perform in his school play, it's in a small Greek school here in Crete. He is one of 8 children in his class, and he had been going to school for 4 months when this movie was made at Christmas. He has never been in that kind of environment before, he certainly had never performed in a play before, and he was as nervous as hell (he's a very shy boy by nature, but my daughter is the exact opposite), his head was so hot through sheer nerves we wondered whether he would actually make it through the play, but he did, and I am so very proud of him.

Theo has adapted well to the school, and he is now conversing entirely in Greek, with Greek people. His capability is nothing short of a miracle in my opinion, how he has adapted to his environment. I would never of known he was capable of that, unless I put him in the situation where he could demonstrate it to me.

Swings and Roundabouts.

What I can say is that he does well in school, he may certainly be lacking in some areas, but wow - does he make up for them in other areas, he can adapt and understand things that children in a formal, consistent education in their native language may not be able to comprehend, so the question is not that one way is good and another is bad, it's a question of what the child feels okay about. After all, in my son's case, he knows no different and is more than content with his school, eager to go every single morning and asking me on weekends if he can go too. He loves it, I'm happy with this because he is.

I Just Don't Know... But it's okay.

So here's the thing, he is 5 years old, I don't know how long he'll be here and in all honesty, if we were to change countries, I don't know where we'll be next, but I do know one thing - I'll make the right decision when the time comes, and I don't believe that his changing environment will make him suffer in any way, as parents, we just would never let that happen.

We were considering returning back to Egypt for a time, (this is how we roll, we just think of somewhere to go, and when we feel we'd like to go, then it happens - we make it happen) and I found a wonderful international school run by German people, the school teaches lessons in 3 different languages - can you imagine, a child being raised to speak 3 languages simultaneously, with kids in the class from multiple different countries - does that beat the English education system that some people think I should be moving my kids too? In my opinion - hell yeah it does.

Think Chameleon.

We are very versatile creatures - no matter where we are, what country we're in, and what language we need to adapt to - the most important thing for me at this age is that my kids learn social skills, and can laugh and play like any other child, and know that they have parents who love them and will support them and help them with their education wherever we are needed, wherever we can.

I understand older children are more difficult to place in foreign schools, apparently they don't soak up languages like a 4 and 5 year old, (I don't know, because the only experience I have is with my two kids) but that shouldn't be a reason that holds you back from going out there and experiencing the world and everything it has to offer. As a family, remain tight, stay strong, and do what you feel is right at the time. Watch your kids, you'll know if they are happy or not, nothing is set in stone, everything can change, but one thing you'll need to let go of is that children need to be raised in one type of educational system, in one country. Once you've freed your mind from that thought, there are a world of possibilities out there to design your own children's education.

My Takeaway So Far...

The one thing I have realised from my experience, is that none of us know what our children are capable of, unless they are given the opportunity and the environment to demonstrate it. Pushing our children is something we naturally do as parents, generally for two reasons, fear of them being behind, or wanting them to be the best they can be - but consider whether the pushing is in their best interests as little people developing character and values, or to satisfy yours...

What To Do When Your Client Doesn't Seem To Be Delegating Enough, Or Even At All.

Mon, 21 Jan 2013 00:00:00 GMT

I recently connected with someone on LinkedIn about them potentially hiring support for their business. It was a very nice gentleman, a small business owner and he was asking if I knew someone who could come to his place of work.

When I asked why he needed someone with him, he said that he had tried going along the lines of hiring virtually but it just didn't work out. These stories often peak my interest, and I asked him what happened.

It turned out that he found that he wasn't really using the person he had hired, he was carrying on doing everything himself and the person being hired, from what I could gather, wasn't being very proactive in supporting him delegating. Now the issue wasn't the fact that he didn't feel he could delegate, in fact, he seemed quite confident if someone was sat with him, he'd be awesome at it, so in these cases you have to take people's word for it, but I believe his experience would have been very different if two things had happened...

#1 - The client was consciously prepared to delegate.

The best way you can encourage a client to become consciously prepared to delegate is to advise them that instead of going about their day, doing their tasks, they need to consciously consider each and every task and then ask themselves, could this task be written out in step-by-step instructions, or could this task be recorded on a Screencast start to finish - if the answer is yes, they need to either not do the task and spend the time instead writing out the instructions, or what might be easier, is to do the task and at each step, write out the instructions or record it on a Screencast. By doing this instead of being stuck in the loop of doing the task, they would have stepped off the hamster wheel, and they'll be prepared to hand that task over.

#2 - The VA was more supportive and encouraging.

There are various types of Virtual Assistant (VA), some pro-active, some re-active, some experienced, others not. The fact is we all have to start from somewhere, but this VA, in this case was not a good match for the client, because the client was not already in that state of conscious delegation - and when a client is not in that state, a different type of VA is required. This is one of the primary reasons why VA/Client relationships fail, it's the lack of compatibility for filling the client's individual needs. This is not a downfall of the client, not even of the VA, but a result of the combination of the two, like when you're cooking, you can have 2 flavours which taste great on their own, but when combined, they won't be as good as if they were combined with a different ingredient.

Could The Client Have Been Retained?

Quite possibly yes, what the VA could have done to retain this client would be to provide resources, tools and advice from the offset on how to delegate, what they need to do, where and how they do it, and then follow up regularly to make sure they are on track, this will then ease the client into a state of conscious delegation, building up a momentum like a plane to the point where it lifts off the ground and they're flying. You can't just wait for the client, you need to actively work with them to almost train them into delegating, and help them find a way to delegate that works, and above all is convenient for them.

What to do.

If you have recently taken in a new client, and they seem a little slow at delegating, or you feel they could be doing more with you, practise easing them into a state of conscious delegation and you'll find the relationship progresses along at a quicker pace. You should have clearly defined processes and systems on how you want the client to delegate to you, and it's important to communicate these from the offset.