Tag Archives: Virtual Assistants

Looking for Virtual Assistants to Spotlight

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We have posted so many tools, trials, and successes of our virtual businesses this year. Now we want to share the stage with you!

How Being a Guest Blogger Helps You:

This is a free blog resource and it is not a paid opportunity, it is simply an opportunity to share your knowledge with other virtual business owners and get some exposure for yourself. We currently have built up more than two hundred weekly visitors to our blog posts and that number is growing every week. You are welcome to include a banner of no bigger than 468 x 60 or 200 x 200 at the bottom of your post. However, this is not a request for sales posts, it is a request to share experience. You are also welcome to link back to your business site or blog (a maximum of two linkbacks per contributed post will apply).

What We are Looking for in a Guest Blog Post:

Eventually we hope to be inviting two or more bloggers to post weekly or monthly as we do. We need one person for Tuesdays and one person for Thursdays, but for now we are leaving these days open for guest writers. We are inviting all virtual business owners, virtual assistants, and other solo entrepreneurs to take the spotlight and write a guest post on this blog. We are looking for many types of businesses like:

  • financial investment advisers
  • YouTube channel operators
  • podcasters
  • copyright editors
  • legal advisers

or even just a new viewpoint of the virtual assistant businesses that we already write about every week.

These posts are to be real life, original posts about you or your work at home life. If you want to rant or rave about a particular application or virtual business resource, you must write about your experience with the product or service in first person. Unless someone is officially charged with doing something illegal, we will probably not accept negative posts about a specific person or small business. Even though we all love a juicy bit of gossip now and then, we are not in the business of starting rumors. ;)

Quality Assurance:

Before writing the post about any specific topic, you are welcome to contact us and make sure that it is appropriate for our blog. We are welcoming all kinds of input. However, in the interest of protecting our reputation, we will have to approve any content before it is posted.

All posts must be proofread using professional etiquette and grammatically correct. All material must be non-offensive and viewable to the general public. If you do not have a proofreader, Jen has been gracious enough to offer professional proofreading for five dollars per post (with a maximum of two hundred and fifty words). This unheard of deal is only available for contributors to the “It’s a Work at Home Life” blog, for this special or other editing services, contact Jen.

Contact us to contribute to “It’s a Work at Home Life” blog

5 Quick Home Business Tips

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1. There’s no shame in looking for free options. However, more often than not, you get what you pay for.

2. If you have kids or visitors, make sure you know where the “mute” button is on your phone.

3. Make sure you get references, everytime.

4. It’s OK to invite your friends to try stuff with you or go to events. As long as that’s not all you’re doing. Use social media to share, not annoy. So no more than one promo every two weeks or so. Does that sound reasonable? See my earlier post: Invite Me Too! (Once.)

5. Never underestimate the power of before & after photos!!! Whether you are a personal organizer, video/photo editors, web designers, chefs, or even home theater system installers!

If you can think of more, do share. :)

Masquerade

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“Faces of disguise, that’s what you see. Pictures of others, but never of me.” ~Jennifer (Guzman) Gallaher

That was something that I personally wrote a long time ago, but seems to be pretty relevant today, as well. This small saying could mean something different for each of us, depending on what is going on in our lives at the time. Back when I first wrote this, I was in high school, so the meaning back then is obviously something totally different than what it means for me today.

“Faces of disguise, that’s what you see.” Everyone has different “disguises”, masks or hats that they wear throughout the day depending on what they are doing at the time. For example, I am a wife, a mother, a business owner, a colleague, a daughter, a sister, a friend, etc. Now, depending on what I am doing at a certain time of the day, would depend on which disguise I am in. As of this writing, I am also internet tech support.

“Pictures of others, but never of me.” So many times throughout the day our disguises can start to blur into each other. So much so that we may forget who we truly are! What a shame! Our true selves should never get lost in the shuffle of our daily lives. Instead, who we are as core individuals should shine through, at least in part, in all that we do; regardless of the mask or hat we are wearing at the time.

Who we are as individuals is key to having not only a successful personal life, but a successful business as well. We need to remember to honor ourselves and one of the ways we can do that is by letting bits and pieces of who we are into other parts of our lives. Show who you are in your blog posts or be your bubbly self to your clients. I bet they would appreciate happy Virtual Assistants over a stuffy ones, any day.

With our lives going at full speed, and then some, there will be times when we want to just slip away and put one of our masks on because it’s easy and comfortable. That’s probably because we are too busy being too many things to too many people. Take a step back and breathe.

I think I need to do just that, as I am in the process of also helping to coordinate my family’s move from the Pacific Northwest to the East Coast, finding a new home, keeping up with my client’s so they don’t feel forgotten and oh yea, living!!!

Introduction

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Welcome to The Work at Home Life blog.

Here you will learn about

☑ the best virtual office organizational processes and tips,
☑ social network tips for businesses to build an effective social network,
☑ the best internet tools that streamline and really do some of your work for you (e.g. in January you will learn about a free service that will transcribe your notes and email them to you!),
☑ and last but not least for all those work at home parents we will all be sharing advice and support for balancing family and work at home!

We all learn from each other. We will be posting Monday, Wednesday, and Friday beginning on Monday, December 28, 2009.

Read more about the VA Friends

Virtual IT Assistants

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Great News!

I have joined forces with a great team of professional graphic designers, web developers, and other skilled virtual assistants!
We all know that no one person has the ability to be everything to all people. I have widened my network by carefully selecting a group of innovative and creative talent to enhance the services for all of my clients’ businesses. My goal for internet marketing and web design is to guarantee that our customers are provided with the newest and hottest technology services out there!

Visit Virtual IT Assistants for more information.

Here are a few of my professional references:

As a consultant for another VA firm, I had the opportunity to work with an international Career Coach icon:

Sherri Thomas

” Working with Amber was fabulous! She’s extremely creative, customer focused, fun to work with, and a whiz at internet design. She helped me create a polished and professional on-line image, and took my website from ordinary to extraordinary! Thanks Amber :) “

- Sherri Thomas,  Career Coach and Author,  CareerCoaching360.com
 
Susie Matthews

” I met Amber through a mutual client. I was immediately impressed by her work ethic, ability to multi-task but stay focused, and her amazing attention to detail. Being in the customer service field, I always look for those types of traits in people, and Amber brought it all to the table and served it up with a smile! ”

- Susie Matthews,  Online Operations, PrintsMadeEasy.com

 

Recommendations from Linked IN:

Jennifer Goodwin
“I have had the pleasure of working with Amber over the last few months. She has been brought on board to work on sites for a range of new clients. I know that if I give her a task, not only will it be executed to the client’s fullest desire, but in a timely manner as well.”
I highly recommend Amber.
Top qualities:Personable, Expert, High Integrity – Jen Goodwin hired Amber as an IT consultant in 2009, and hired Amber more than once
 
Revka Stearns
“Amber is a joy to work with: quick, thorough, a fast learner, and determined, she always found a way to accomplish every task given her, even those tasks that were completely new to her.”
I highly recommend Amber as a Virtual Assistant. – Revka Stearns, Owner, Berries and Cream Blog Design

Work at Home

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Where to find it.

craigslistCraig’s List

Start with finding your country, state, then the city located closest to you. Look under jobs, and you’ll find lots of great virtual job choices under “Gigs”. If you don’t see anything you are qualified to do, then look in other cities in the state or surrounding states. After all, working from home doesn’t require looking for work within commuting distance. Right? When you find your niche or your groove, you will be capable of having clients all over the world!

elance

Freelance writing and coding jobs galore!

guru

If you have a specialty, go post a profile.

If you need someone with a specialty, go post your project.

odesk

This has really earned a sort of bad rep from established professional online consultants, virtual assistants and freelancers. The reason is because it is known as the “online clearance section” for people who want to offer their services at something like $3.00 an hour! Which is really too low for anyone to do work for considering basically half our income goes to taxes so that’s really $1.50 an hour. The only thing I have to say is that this may be a good place to start. But after you get your first client’s work completed, make sure you ask for a reference and don’t sell yourself short anymore.  Your time is worth so much more than $1.50 an hour.

And on a side note, thanks to Virtual Assistant Forums, I also learned that oDesk offers Free Testing here to see where to qualify you for certain jobs. And if you pass these tests, then you can become “certified” through their site and prove you are qualified to employers. I am planning on looking into it further to see if it is (quality or not) something I may want to blog more about.

My Advice:

1. Be honest.

2. Work hard.

3. And keep track of everything.

4. Listen to your client, they’re always right.


VA eBook

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This is being updated @ abcsforworkathomeparents.blogspot.com – It’s 10 times better this time. :)

The ABC’s for Work At Home Parents

I just finished an eBook geared to help stay at home moms and stay at home dads work at home and tips to invest Zero dollars and 2 hours a day to begin a virtual business venture. This information is relevant to almost anyone wanting to become a Virtual Assistant or startup another type of e-business. This has been written and distributed with the intent of educating stay at home moms and dads with the facts and tools to become Virtual Assistants in the current job market. This is not a get rich quick how-to. (Sorry ; ) But it is totally Free. In fact, if anyone tries to charge you anything for it. Please, let me know.

eBook pix

The best things in life are free. Check it out.

ABCs For Work At Home Parents on Scribd

♥

Here you can:

    1. Download your copy: ABCs-For-Work-At-Home-Parents in PDF format

    2. Write a review for this at scribd.com: Click here. Let me know what you love, what you hate. This is my first eBook. I definitely could use any input for the revision projected in the Fall of 2009.

    3. Or just read this web version!

Virtual Assistant Jobs

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Jobs that almost any starting out VA can do.

There are a number of odd Virtual Assistants end up doing, some are fun and some are kind of tedious. But these are the kind of jobs you can do until you find your specialty:

  • Appointment and meeting schedules
  • Blog writing (you should attempt to learn how to set one of these up for yourself.)
  • Bookkeeping Records
  • Concierge services (ordering services and deliveries for clients online)
  • Data Entry
  • Editing someone’s website, newsletter, or e-zine content
  • Gift orders and/or wish lists
  • Remote PC support
  • Research target markets for advertisers
  • Travel Arrangements
  • Setup business facebook profiles,
  • Writing articles, eBooks and freelance writing

Think of it this way: sometimes 24 hours in one day just isn’t enough.

To Do List

As a virtual assistant, you work to help other professionals live a balanced life too.

I work for Virtual IT Assistants which is a company that technical virtual assistants that setup web 2.0 technology to work for you.
See? It all looks pretty simple right? Experience will teach you how to do these this in the most efficient ways possible. You’ll make your clients happy because they won’t have to do these jobs. Your goal should be to become efficient in a specific area to be able to market yourself and streamline your business.