Entries Tagged 'Work At Home' ↓

However, and there is always a ‘however”, it is critical to create time in your daily schedule to care for your body. I quickly learned that sitting at my desk for 10-12 hours a day working on virtual assistance tasks, building websites, or just generally running my businesses quickly took a toll on my weight, my energy levels and in some notable instances, even my ability to put together a cogent sentence.

In order to run your VA practice successfully you quite simply MUST take the time to move your body, energize your system and take the time to get, and remain fit and healthy.

Now I am not saying that this schedule works for everybody, but it very definitely works for me. In fact on days that I don’t make it to the gym, it is very apparent to me by early afternoon that this was not a good idea. In fact, it was a really bad decision on my part.

I also have a small rebounder, or mini-trampoline in my office that is in my opinion, a MUST-HAVE piece of equipment. In fact it is right up there with my scanner. When words begin to blur on the screen or I am having trouble concentrating it is a simple matter to walk over the the rebounder, bounce on it gently for three or four minutes, grab a bottle of water and get back to work. It is amazing what that does for my energy levels. Just for fun I counted how many times I got on the rebounder during a particularly time-crunched day and found that I had bounced 8 times during the day (24-30 minutes total though out the day). I had a great day, powered through all of the work and had a fabulous evening with my husband.

One thing that I am getting ready to do in early June is a detox program with The Fitness Jeanie. I downloaded her free CD the other day and found it to be the perfect accompaniment to my rebounder bounces.

Summer in the Deep South is difficult even with the air conditioning running 24/7. The humidity can sap energy quicker than anything that I have ever encountered and I am really looking forward to this detox program to arm myself with a healthy system before summer really slams into us.

What is a Virtual Assistant?

As a thriving Virtual Assistance firm this is a question that we heard a great deal in the early days, but now potential clients have a very clear idea of just what a virtual assistant is and how they want their virtual assistant to partner with them. 

Our clients are not looking for simple administrative support any longer.  Rather they want, need, and expect their virtual assistant to become a strategic partner, almost a manager if you will, who will work energetically and proactively to help them build and grow their brick and mortar as well as online business(s).  Our clients recognize that we are not only home office based contractors, but entrepreneurs in our own right who bring a rich knowledge base to bear on client projects.  We live and work on the internet!

Virtual assistants provide much of the same services as an onsite employee, but without the added tax and insurance burdens that the employer must bear.  VA’s work from fully equipped home based offices which are often better equipped than the average professional office.  At a minimum, your virtual assistant will have the following basic office equipment and software:

Powerful computer with high speed connection (DSL, cable)

Backup server

Fax Machine

Scanner

Copier

Shredder

CD / DVD burner

Professional telephone system with unlimited long distance

Professional voice mail (We use GotVM)

Postage meter

Office supplies (printer and copier paper, mailing supplies, etc.)

Software

Microsoft Office Suite (Excel, PowerPoint,  Access,  Word, Outlook)

HTML editor: Dreamweaver, Microsoft FrontPage, Microsoft Expression Web

Adobe Acrobat

Instant Messenger (AOL, Yahoo, MSN, Skype, etc.)

Anti-virus software

Bookkeeping software

Client management software

Your Virtual Assistant is a consummate professional who looks at your projects and tasks with an eye to automating processes, building long-term relationships and growing with your business.  We are here to assist you by taking care of the tasks and projects that grow daily more burdensome and prevent you from doing what you love best.  Our clients are excited to learn that they can turn over the minutia of their daily business and turn their minds to the creative thought processes that brought them into business to begin with.

Please call us toll free at 888-719-6710 to schedule a free 30 minute telephone consultation.  At the end of the call, you will walk away relieved, energized, and excited about all of the possibilities that will open up to you after you hire professional help.

Ok, so you have a website, a cell phone and a wonderful plan to make your presence felt on the internet. What you probably don’t have, is a voice mail system that makes you sound like a Fortune 500 company.

In the highly competitive field of Web Development and Virtual Assistance, having a voice mail system in place has been essential for our marketing efforts.  We chose GotVM (Got Voice Mail) because it successfully handles every aspect of our toll free and messaging needs at a very affordable monthly cost.  Even if you are a start-up company with little to no cash flow you can afford this voice mail system at under $10 a month. You can even get local service and they offer a 30 day money back guarantee.

Potential clients can now call one of my toll free numbers and be routed to the proper person within our companies. Since we work virtually, our clients and staff are all located in different time zones and we can now make sure that no calls are missed. GotVM has been an excellent resource for our companies as has allowed us to link our cross-nation staff  via our toll free numbers.

GotVM is a VERY affordable service (starting at $9.95 month) and we recommend it to all of our clients who are in need of a reliable and affordable virtual voice mail service. Even if you only have a cell phone,  your calls will be answered and routed properly which makes your company sound much larger than it really is.