Are your peers colleagues or competition?

All of us, irrespective of if we are business owners or employees, belong to a network of people in our own industries.

However, do you view them as your colleagues or competition?

The Virtual Assistant industry is a very supportive community and the majority of people do not view other VA's as competition as there is more than enough clients out there for everyone! I view fellow VA's as my colleagues and as such, I belong to a couple of industry specific networking groups.

Virtual Assistant Networking Association - public forum for aspiring and veteran VA's
VA Revolution - membership based organisation to help you revolutionise your VA business

For all you VA's reading this post, I highly recommend that you join these organisations as they can really help you and your business. Even though these organisations are US based, they are still relevant if you are based in the UK like me.

I would be interested to hear other people's comments on this subject and also your experiences of your specific industry networking group. Please post in the comments section.

Until next time,

Emma Walker
CKPA Office Solutions

Companies to update websites and emails before 2007

You can locate the original news item here.

An article published on The Register (21st December 2006) outlined regulatory changes that will effect UK business email. From 1st January 2007, companies in the UK will be required to include certain regulatory information on all business email.

This update to the Companies Act requires you to clearly present the following information on your business emails:

• Company Registration Number
• Place of registration (e.g. England & Wales)
• Registered office address

The article, which was written by Outlaw.com outlined how businesses failing to include this information will be in breach of the Companies Act and this can result in a fine. The article also mentions the UK Ecommerce Regulation requirement to include the same information on websites.

I have already updated my email signature to include the necessary information and am making changes to my website shortly. Is your information up to date? If not, make the changes now so that you don't incur a fine!

Until next time,

Emma Walker
CKPA Office Solutions

New Year means new opportunities

A lot of people think about the same type of things at this time of year - New Years resolutions.

So are you taking the opportunity to plan for the year ahead and use it as a means to focus on how to get there?

For me, it is no use just thinking about what I want to achieve and how to get there, I have to have it written down in the necessary stages. For example, I am currently revamping my PR and marketing plan for 2007 and I am producing a calendar so that I know exactly what activities are needed and when - I can then schedule my time appropriately and plan in advance for any specific tasks or expenditure.

Do you need help with any planning for the year ahead to take up the many new opportunities? Contact us now to see how a Virtual Assistant and CKPA can help.

Until next time,

Emma Walker
CKPA Office Solutions

Happy New Year

Well 2007 is now here and most of us are at work getting back into the swing of things after the Christmas and New Year break so I thought the first post of the year would be a very simple message:

"May we all have a successful year in all that we want"

Happy 2007 everyone!

Until next time,

Emma Walker
CKPA Office Solutions