Why advertising doesn’t work for small businesses
As a former Ad Girl, you would think I’d be gung ho about businesses advertising their wares, knowing exactly what media would work for a virtual assistant business. But yet, I can honestly say I have spent less than £50 on advertising in the last year. Marketing – don’t ask! But advertising, practically nil. Here’s […]
In retrospect…
This week my favourite band ever, Lush, announced they were reforming – this is me 20 years ago with their lead singer Miki… I couldn’t believe it had been 20 years, it seems like 5 minutes. And yet, I think of all the stuff I’ve done through those 20 years, and suddenly it starts to […]
Is networking killing your virtual assistant business?
A few weeks back I had an interesting conversation with a fellow new mum virtual assistant. She was complaining about how tough it was to get childcare so she could go to networking meetings – thus creating a vicious cycle of not having enough money to be able to get out there and get some […]
Sometimes I Work In My PJs
Disclaimer: This blog post was written at an undisclosed moment in time, no animals were harmed during this experiment, except for some fried eggs. These things sometimes happen – Sunday night and I pop out for a quick drink with an old friend and somehow it’s suddenly 11pm, last orders, and we are merrily rolling […]
Competitive Analysis
One of the most important things you can do as a new virtual assistant is research, research, research. Oh, and then some more research. Part of your business plan should be a marketing projection including a competitive analysis. So how do you actually get information about what other people are doing? And more importantly, how […]
How many hours do I need to work as a VA?
I had a common question ping into my inbox this week, and thought it was worthwhile writing a little post on it… How many hours do I need to work in my new Virtual Assistant business each week? I get variations on this all the time, and I actually have a pretty hard line view: […]
The pros and cons of working from home
Helen C discusses her pros and cons of home-working. A must read if you’re thinking of starting a new work-from home business.
Zirtual – what went wrong?
Last week virtual assistant giant Zirtual suddenly ceased trading with an email sent to all its employees and clients shutting the whole operation down. The financial markets that funded the project are somewhat baffled by why it didn’t work and are busy securing more rounds of funding to try and get this business back up […]
Experiment for the Newbies
We’ve just created your own space on Facebook… Do please join! We’ll be putting some free resources up there and links to some useful posts plus you can ask questions in a closed forum, chat and inspire one another! It’s very much an experiment based on the feedback you recently gave us about how you […]
How to sell a client
This gem comes from Phillippa Goodwin of Essential PA – one for all the MultiVA businesses or simply for someone looking to outsource work on a permanent basis. How to “sell” a virtual assistant client