Money Laundering Regulations

money laundering regulations

Jo Sparkes of VA Pro Mag has bravely decided to tackle the thorny issue of Money Laundering Regulations (MLR) registration as anecdotally we’ve heard so many different rules regarding whether or not VAs should register and what is and isn’t allowed. At times it feels like if you called them 10 times, saying exactly the […]

Is “virtual assistant” going out of fashion?

virtual assistant alternatives

The USA tends to be about 5 years ahead of us here in the UK when it comes to the virtual assistant world… (Check out the history of the virtual assistant! https://www.societyofvirtualassistants.co.uk/2013/07/08/the-history-of-the-virtual-assistant-2/) But one trend I’ve noticed is that increasingly VAs are distancing themselves from the term “virtual assistant”.  A variety of words are now […]

So you want to be a subcontractor virtual assistant?

average subcontract virtual assistant rate

(Or how much a VA’s virtual assistant gets paid!) “They’re paying HOW MUCH for a virtual assistant subcontractor???”  Yes, the outraged exclamations on Facebook Groups for a subcontract virtual assistant job this week raised a lot of eyebrows…  But you know, the virtual assistants doing these subcontract jobs aren’t necessarily doing the same job as […]

Typing Gold – or those little things which make a big difference!

audio typing for virtual assistants

Dictation, audio typing, transcription Back in 2004 when I started my virtual assistant business, digital dictation was just starting to take off.  We occasionally got the odd cassette tape delivered, but more and more dictation was being emailed.  Over the years, our clients have asked us for various tweaks to the system – and for […]

The Longest Ever VA Business Set-Up?

The Mourne Mountains In 2005 I found myself living at the foot of the Mourne Mountains in Ireland with my husband and children who were then 4, 12 and 14 years old.  Of course, having a young family and moving away is always a difficult time and I wanted to do something other than applying […]

Becoming a new VA

“So what do you do as a job?” Since becoming a full-time V.A. in January this year I haven’t quite worked out a satisfactory reply to that question. So what do I do? Data entry, creating websites, researching CRMs, testing software, social media management, event planning, project planning, everything planning. Well, I do it all. […]

Office* – Virtual Assistant Myths!

virtual assistant working mums WAHM

Virtual Assistant Myths Here is our presentation from Office* 2017 – this year for the first time incorporating the PA Show and the VA Conference and Awards.  Many thanks to John Palmer and the BeMyVA team for inviting me to present and launch the UK VA Survey data collection appeal! We had a really interesting […]

7 Habits of Highly Effective VAs

Shamefully stolen from Professor Stephen Covey’s book, these are a few habits that I’ve noticed successful VAs have in common – and I don’t think it’s by accident! 

What made you become a virtual assistant?

I’m curious – what made you become a Virtual Assistant? [poll id=”13″] The reason I’m curious is this: Various government papers and legislation at this moment, are trying to harness the power of the so-called “gig economy” (of which virtual assistants or freelancers would be considered part of). Basically they want to put a whole […]