Another award honour

I am really excited to announce that I have been awarded the VANA Blog of the month award by my peers for this blog.

I am just glad that people enjoy it and hopefully find some useful tips that they can implement in their businesses.

Thanks again to everyone at VANA!

Until next time,

Emma Walker
CKPA Office Solutions

How can a Lifestyle Manager help me?

I am launching a new service on 16th July, Lifestyle Management, to compliment my Virtual Assistant business. Thought the following article would explain a little bit about how you could utilise this service.

• Do you work hard and want to play hard?
• Have a never ending to do list for your personal life?
• Too busy at work to even think about home?

Are you one of the growing numbers of cash rich, time poor individuals who never seems to be able to get anything done in their personal lives?

People today are working longer hours at work leaving little or no time to sort out their personal lives - their personal to do list is not really a priority.

If this sounds familiar, then this is where a Lifestyle Manager can help.

In essence, you get a Personal Assistant for your personal life and they can help you with a whole range of tasks including:

Home improvement project (building work, decorating, garden landscaping) - your Lifestyle Manager could become the Project Manager and deal with everything

Family and friends important dates - use the reminder service and receive text message / email / telephone call to remind you of birthdays, anniversaries etc

Family holidays - liaison with Travel Agents to ensure the family holiday is perfect

Household staff (Cleaners, Nannies, Au Pairs etc) - your Lifestyle Manager can recruit and manage the staff taking away any hassle for you

Restaurant bookings - let your Lifestyle Manager know where you want to eat and they will take cae of the arrangements

Event management - arranging a wide variety of events leaving you to enjoy yourself

Selling or purchasing property - your Lifestyle Manager can be the point of contact with all parties and co-ordinate all arrangements

Relocations - let your Lifestyle Manager handle everything from finding the house to researching schools etc

Vehicle maintenance - your Lifestyle Manager can schedule all necessary service / MOT appointments, deal with insurance renewals and car tax etc

Pregnancy / new Mum support - help with everything you need from pregnancy bump to new arrival (equipment, child care, home help etc)

Want to find out more and put your name down on the waiting list to start with a Lifestyle Manager on 16th July, then please contact us.

About the author

Emma Walker is the owner of CKPA Office Solutions Ltd, a UK based Virtual Assistant company that specialises in helping Entrepreneurs, Business Coaches and businesses in the construction / property sector make more money by freeing up their valuable time from administrative and secretarial tasks.

Until next time,

Emma Walker
CKPA Office Solutions

International Virtual Assistants Day

Have you wished your Virtual Assistant a Happy International Virtual Assistants Day?

For those of you that haven't engaged the services of a Virtual Assistant (or VA), then why not contact me to find out how you could gain an extra 3 months each year to focus on doing what you do best.

To all the VA's out there, enjoy our day as we all deserve it!

Until next time,

Emma Walker
CKPA Office Solutions

Improving my email marketing

At the beginning of the year I set myself various targets that I wanted to achieve in my business and one of them was to improve my email marketing campaign.

I decided that I wanted to take my newsletter to the next level and start using a paid subscription service to distribute it. I set a timescale of achieving this goal in April so that my May newsletter will go out with the new service.

So far I have signed up with AWeber as they seem the best 'fit' with what I want to achieve and I know a few colleagues who use it and recommend its service. I would be interested to hear other people's comments on AWeber - please post a comment.

Are you utilising this important marketing facility in your business? If not, I suggest you consider it to see how this can improve your sales. Concerned that you don't have time to manage and maintain a newsletter - hire a Virtual Assistant.

Until next time,

Emma Walker
CKPA Office Solutions

Want to gain more time?

I thought I would share with you the 60 second presentation script that I used at my BNI Chapter on Tuesday.

BNI Script
We can help people make more money with the services of a Virtual Assistant.

Over the weekend we have all lost 1 hour of our time with Daylight Savings Time coming into effect.

So I thought I would tell you how you and your business could gain an extra 10 hours a week to spend focussing on what you do best.

This time could be freed up by outsourcing your routine administrative tasks to CKPA which would mean you would gain an extra 3 months per year.

Who do you know that could benefit from gaining 3 months of extra time to focus on growing their business? I am particularly interested in speaking to business coaches, small businesses and builders who do the administration themselves.

Do you know anyone that would benefit from a free, no obligation consultation to see if working with a Virtual Assistant and CKPA can help them? Please contact me now to book an appointment.

Until next time,

Emma Walker
CKPA Office Solutions

What an honour

Can't believe I have not posted this great honour received from VANA - please read news item taken from my website.

MD receives award from networking group (14th March 2007) - Emma Walker has been awarded The VAccolade Business Entrpreneur Award for March 2007 from Virtual Assistant Networking Association (VANA). Speaking of this award, Emma "is proud to receive this recognition from her VA peers and is thrilled to be part of this wonderful organisation".

Until next time,

Emma Walker
CKPA Office Solutions

Think before you speak

Online networking is all the rave both on a personal and professional basis as technology and the internet has allowed people to access various forums regardless of location.

I belong to various organisations specific for Virtual Assistants and others relating to my personal and business interests. What I find amazing is how some people treat other people on these forums - as usual it is the minority that spoil it for the majority.

I have previously written about unprofessional conduct on a public forum before - read it here but thought I would give another example.

One of the forums I belong to was discussing the definition of a Virtual Assistant and a couple of these members were totally unprofessional, unethical and rude to other members - to the point of bullying.

To be honest, the definition of a Virtual Assistant is all down to personal opinion and I will not participate in any kind of dialogue where you are publicly ridiculed unless you agree to their dictation - that is why I left the corporate world after all!

Bottom line, remember that the internet is a public place and your posts are there to be seen by your peers and potential clients. Are you sure you want them to see you behaving unprofessionally? I don't think so.

There is a time and place for everything, so think before you speak!

Until next time,

Emma Walker
CKPA Office Solutions

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

What is a Virtual Assistant?

I am finding that a lot of people do not understand what a Virtual Assistant (VA) is and what they can do for a business.

The following is the definition of a VA that I use on my website and marketing material.

VA definition
A Virtual Assistant (VA) is a self employed professional providing administrative, secretarial and creative services on a remote basis. Working from their own fully equipped office, VA's work with a variety of different clients helping them in their businesses on an ad hoc, regular or project specific basis.

By partnering with their own VA, individuals and businesses can make more money by focussing on what they do best and growing their business.

Ways a VA can help
To give you an idea of how a VA can help, here at CKPA, we currently offer the following types of support

PA & Secretarial – diary management, travel arrangements, reminder service
Legal Secretary Support - emergency, ad hoc or regular support for UK solicitors
Administrative – typing, spreadsheets, databases, research
Creative – mail shots, websites, newsletters, desktop publishing
Events & Meetings – organisation of any type of event or meeting
Virtual Office – telephone answering, email management, fax service
Accounts – send out invoices, credit control, payment of invoices
Project Assistance – office move / relocation, recruitment drive, HR

I have also written a blog entry about other, non recognised ways a VA can help which you can find here.

Until next time,

Emma Walker
CKPA Office Solutions

Impressions count

How do you present yourself to your clients?

We all know that first impressions count and that we don't get the chance to make a second first impression!

Lets say that you have an important meeting with a potential new client. Now this is worth a lot of money so is a big deal for your company. Do you turn up to the meeting all casual and not really making much of an effort - what do you think the potential new client will think to the quality of your work from this impression?

Or, do you turn up all suited and booted ready to represent your company with the right image?
Remember, the way you present yourself and your business to clients tells them how important they are to you!

So how can CKPA and a Virtual Assistant help you and your business to present the right image? Some areas we can help include:

• Telephone Answering - divert your calls when you are in a meeting, on holiday, don't want to answer calls so that you never miss an important call again
• PA & Secretarial - let us organise you with diary management, travel arrangements etc
• Administrative - typing letters, reports, proposals, updating database, presentations etc
• Events & Meetings - organise any type of event from a new product launch, sales meeting to Christmas party
• Creative - send out newsletters, website design, desktop publishing etc
• Projects - your office may be relocating, having a recruitment drive and don't want hassle of dealing with applications
• Accounts - sendingout invoices, credit control etc
• Virtual Office - email management, fax service etc

Contact us now to discuss your needs and see how we can help.

Until next time,

Emma Walker
CKPA Office Solutions

It's official - VA's have their own day

The Virtual Assistant (VA) industry started in USA around 1996 and has become a popular alternative to working in the corporate environment. VA's are huge in USA and are becoming more popular but it is a different story here in the UK as not a lot of people know what a VA is.

I was really excited to hear that our colleagues across the pond had established our very own International Virtual Assistants Day taking place tomorrow (19th May) in recognition to VA's across the globe.

What a great way to promote our industry to clients and I hope that us UK VA's can start to get the recognition we deserve from our continued efforts in educating the public.

So if you are a VA, have you took advantage of this? I must admit that I haven't but will definately include it in my marketing plan for next year.

Until next time,

Emma Walker
CKPA Office Solutions

How can a Virtual Assistant help me?

I attend a weekly BNI meeting and have got to know the chapter members with a couple of them signed up for my services. However, it is always difficult to get across exactly how a Virtual Assistant can help.

During a conversation with 2 members (with one of them being my client), I was explaining that it was difficult to explain exactly how I can help but gave them some examples. My client then said in wonder "can you really do that?". I then proceeded to tell them that it was really important to have one to one meetings with members to tell them what I do and educate them in order to pass quality referrals.

So what do we do? We help people make more money by freeing up their time working as a Virtual Assistant. We do this by providing professional secretarial and administrative solutions to a range of clients. Some non recognised areas we can help include:

• Management of newsletters - this could be writing your newsletter to distributing it
• Internet marketing - SEO, passive income, affiliate programme monitoring, Blogs
• Accounts support - creating and sending out invoices, accounts organisation, payment facilities
• Marketing support - mail shots, follow up calls, advertising co-ordination
• Time management - create systems and processes to organise people and businesses

As you can see, most people would not be able to associate some of these tasks with your Virtual Assistant. That is why we like to talk to potential clients and ask them to draw up a list of tasks that they don't like / have time to complete etc. We then look at the list and give an honest answer of if we can help.

Remember, if you don't ask, you'll never know.

Until next time,

Emma Walker
CKPA Office Solutions

Power of dreams - Part 1

I was working as an Office Manager / PA on a full time basis and hated the company I worked for. I used to come home totally drained and weary from having to tolerate the behaviour of the directors of this particular company.

I dreamed of escaping but didn't want to jump out of the pan into the fire by going to another employer. The only option was to go self employed and start a business - but what on earth could I open a business in?

I then, by accident, heard about Virtual Assistants and thought that this could be the answer to my employment problem. I carried out some research and learned as much about the industry as I could so that I could make an informed decision. To see what a Virtual Assistant is, have a look at our website.

I decided to take the plunge, leave my employer and start my business in July 2005, and haven't looked back since. I am now my own boss running a successful company with a wide variety of clients on board. I am achieving a better work / life balance and am the happiest I have been for a long time as I love my work and my business.

My message, dreams can come true. If you have a good business idea, go for it (even if it is only part time). What have you got to lose and even more to gain.

Watch out for an inspiring story in part 2.

Until next time,

Emma Walker
CKPA Office Solutions

Use your VA to Guarantee a Successful PR Campaign - Part 2

As promised last week, here is the concluding part for this article. To view part 1 of the article, please click here.

By Emily Gordon of Do Your Own PR (www.doyourownpr.com)

Placing Articles
Writing articles is a great way to promote your business and present yourself as an expert in your field at the same time. You can get your VA to place those for you on various free websites that publish articles. There are hundreds of these websites around and you could have your VA research the most prominent ones. We list top ten sites in our Promote Your Business by Writing and Selling articles ecourse. The more often your name, business and website are promoted (because of course you will have these listed at the end of every article), the more likely potential clients are to find out about you and to visit your site - leading to more potential sales.

Follow up Calls
Once all the press releases have been sent out you can get your VA to follow them all up with a telephone call about a week to ten days later. It is quite useful at this stage to have a personal contact (i.e. your VA) and she can ascertain the general level of interest in your product, business or service as well as make a note of when to re-call as and when necessary. Editors will often be interested in your business but not feel that they have the time at the moment to discuss things further. They can let your VA know the best time to call them back and she can keep an up to date record of who to chase and when, building up a rapport with various people and publications on your behalf. When they are finally ready to talk, she can set up the time for both of you.

Keeping You Informed
It is at this stage that your VA will really come into her own. You will have been carrying on running your business as usual and in the meantime your VA will have contacted everyone on the list that the two of you made at the beginning of the campaign. She can send you the outline database or chart and you can then get a good idea of how things are progressing.

It can take months for some publications to come around to even looking at your press release and having someone on top of who has read what and who hasn’t is invaluable.

Your VA can keep you up to date with who wants to know what, whether you need to write another article or call them yourself. Your VA can keep on top of all of these contacts by regularly ringing around and acting on the most recent advice such as ‘yes, I’m interested but won’t be able to do anything with it for at least two months’. In two months’ time you could have a regular feature in one of your most sought after publications.

Your VA can also keep abreast of developments in terms of how you are achieving your initial goals and targets. If you said that you would have contacted 100 publications by the end of the first month then she will be able to remind you of this goal and to ensure that it is completed.

If you said that you will have written another press release and 2 new articles then your VA can also act as your ‘conscience’ and ask you whether you have completed these tasks yet. Your VA can really help you to get on with what you said you were going to do in the first place.

Fielding Calls and Dealing with Responses
Let’s suppose that your PR campaign is wildly successful (and why wouldn’t it be?) and you are inundated with replies, questions and responses. You can’t handle the work load let alone the requests for interviews and appointments. Having your VA on board here can be hugely helpful in terms of fielding those inquiries that are really important and need tackling at once and those that can wait. Your VA can even be trained to help out with basic queries, and one of the benefits of building a long term relationship with your VA is that she will have an in depth and up to date knowledge of your business as well as an interest in seeing it succeed.

Sending out information
You can often find in business, especially where you are a sole trader or a small company that you are spending an awful lot of time in merely sending out information. Whether it be responding to initial enquiries, sending out promotional material or distributing your newsletter. Providing prompt responses and mail outs are vital to the success of any business but is one of the most time consuming tasks.

Running a PR campaign can involve loads of additional mail outs and having your VA on board to undertake this task can be absolutely essential. If as a result of a successful Press Release or article you are inundated with responses, it can prove invaluable to have your VA set up with an email address with your company name so that all enquiries are directed to her in the first instance. This will ensure that these are dealt with straight away and your VA can provide an initial personal response and enable her to sift out the more genuine enquiries while you spend your time dealing with those that are most promising in terms of leading to a new client relationship.

How to Get the Best Out of the Relationship with Your VA
Having a VA can be one of the most worthwhile investments that you make for your business. But it is surprising how many people actually under use their VA. If you think of your VA as a developmental tool for your business, a marketer, who can win more clients then you have made the first step towards a rewarding and beneficial relationship. Your VA could easily pay for herself many times over.

Copyright © Do Your Own PR 2004. All rights reserved.

I hope you find this article of interest and if you want to see how a VA can help your business, have a look at our website (http://www.ckpa.co.uk/).

Emma Walker
CKPA Office Solutions

Use your VA to Guarantee a Successful PR Campaign - Part 1

By Emily Gordon of Do Your Own PR (www.doyourownpr.com)

Embarking on a PR campaign can be time consuming and nerve racking. So, delegating some or all of the tasks that you don’t like, don’t want to do or that you just haven’t got time to do really does make sense. Here we will show you how you can work closely with your Virtual Assistant to maximize your PR campaign’s success and create a long term partner to take some of the load off your shoulders and allow you to also get on with the business you started in the first place!

We’ll take you through ten ways to hand over PR activities to your VA, and ensure that both of you feel comfortable and excited about the whole thing!

How to hire the right VA in the first place?

Instant Rapport
This needs to be there. During the telephone interview do you get along? Does she give you the impression that she understands what your business is about and what she can do to help it grow? Does she make you feel at ease, and do you understand her and where she is coming from? Is she comfortable with taking on PR activities? If not try another VA.

Before You Begin
In general working over the telephone and internet you are relying on a ‘gut instinct’ but if you really feel that you want to meet your VA first, no matter how far away they live, most VAs will be totally agreeable to having at least one initial meeting face-to-face to get things up and running.

Try Her Out
Suggest a trial period before signing a contract and make sure that there is a get out clause which you can use if things don’t work out. Make sure you understand and agree with the terms and conditions in the VA’s promotional literature and check that the contract ensures confidentiality.

Day to Day
Give it a while; start off with a few small tasks and see how your VA handles them. Does she respond swiftly or do you have to remind her (you can’t take this chance if she may be contacted by journalists – they need immediate action)?

Respect Her
Make your VA a partner in your business and share your successes and failures. Use her skills and talents and treat her as a sounding board for ideas too. It will make a noticeable difference to your business; helping you develop your sales, gain more clients and generally raise your profile.

How To Get Started
Once you have decided to use your VA as one of the key tools in your PR campaign the two of you will need to start off with a thorough briefing / brainstorming session.

Goals
Let your VA know the required goals and outcomes of your campaign. One way to make sure is to undertake a brainstorming session, either in person or over the telephone. Together you could come up with potential contacts and ideas that you hadn’t yet considered.

Setting up a Media Database
Your VA can do the research for this by acquiring a list of publications and finding the contact details for your target hit list of editors and journalists. Once you have agreed on the type and scale of the campaign you can have your VA set up a media database. If you use a database such as ACT already then you could ask your VA to simply transfer these details here. However, you could easily make one up from scratch and it could even include all of your goals, aims, objectives and timescales so that your VA can keep you up to date and informed of how the campaign is progressing.

Editing and Proofreading
Use your VA as an additional pair of eyes to proofread and edit press related copy such as press releases and tip sheets, as well as ebooks, ecourses and your own web site copy. How many times have you read websites or articles only to find spelling mistakes and punctuation errors? Sometimes when you write an article you can become so bogged down with the detail and the message that you want to convey that you simply overlook the final touches. Allowing your VA to go over it with a fine toothcomb will ensure that any errors are corrected and that your business is able to continue to portray a professional image.

Cuttings
Rather than plod through all the publications, trade and professional magazines that you may or may not have been featured in after your campaign has started (journalists rarely let you know when something is coming out, you have to find that out for yourself), a VA can keep on top of all this and inform you when you are featured in the press. But a VA can also clip any press articles that may be relevant to your business, even interview with competitors, or ideas for future markets, so that you are provide with a steady stream of useful information.

Sending out Press Releases
Physically sending out press releases is time consuming and can be stressful. What better way to avoid the tension than to get your VA to handle it for you? Your VA is one step removed from your business and so can provide a professional and much less emotional outlook. It also gives your business a much more professional look and feel.

Copyright © Do Your Own PR 2004. All rights reserved.

Part 2 coming next week.

I hope you find this article of interest and if you want to see how a VA can help your business, have a look at our website (www.ckpa.co.uk).

Emma Walker
CKPA Office Solutions