VERY soon to be VA

I am aware I haven't posted on here for rather a long time now, as I have moved to my RRVA blog, since I started trading properly in April this year. However, it seems appropriate that I say it on here too.

I will VERY soon be a full time VA!!!! Yay, whoop and hurrah!!! Slightly off my 6 month hope, and it will be nearer a year when I achieve my goal but not bad!!!

Suffice it to say by February 2010, mission accomplished! Then to drive the business onwards and make it the success I know it will be.

New client and others promoting me!

This week has been great as I have started working with my first proper regular client who seem to be willing to trust me with both big things and smaller but equally essential things. Big smile on my face!!! I had a brilliant skype meeting with them (and I taught them how to skype at the same time which was fun!!!!

A VA I did some sub work for back in June finally paid me this week too so my bank balance is a little happier.

Also a friend/client who I've helped out has been telling loads of her contacts about me and how fab I am so fingers crossed I hear from one of them soon!!! Must remember to sort out some article writing for her to say thank you but its just the most awesome kind of publicity!!! The free kind of other people saying your brilliant and they tell you about it later... So yep, a great week in R&R VA Services land :-)

Distractions, distractions everywhere!!!!

I am getting sooo distracted at the moment. I think it's coz I've been away on holiday....Just look at the lovely St Brelades Bay.

And I'm away again this weekend, this time to Cardigan Bay. In between I have further market research to do and another press release to write so focusing on actually promoting my business has slipped a bit.

This is a big mistake I know and I'm trying to rectify it ASAP. But then I'm off to the beach with the kids !!!

Building up my client base...

I'm rather pleased that things seem to be on the up at the moment. After careful following up I appear to have a regular client! Don't want to say who yet unless it all goes horribly wrong at some point but yay to me!!!

I also have a client who keeps coming back for another one off job, ooh and could you just do another one too so am hopeful he may become a regular too. We'll just have to wait and see but currently rather proud of my little business and need to get networking again to increase my client base even more.

Referals today clients tomorrow!!!

Had a great meeting today with Fred BRookes from Creative Leicestershire. Lovely guy and he gave me some great suggestions for other avenues to market to and in but also good places to keep up with so I keep up with whats going on in the Creative Industries!

He may even refer a few clients my way which would be awesome! An idea that came to me during the conversation as well is to post on my RRVA any interesting calls for funding that are coming up as it would be useful for my client base to know (without having to search themselves!).

I also need to highlight my abilities and experience in finding such funding opportunities and help that I can give in completing the forms and keeping people focused on what the call is for and not just what they want to do!! I'm no bid writer more a bid writing assistant...I'll have to think of a better name.

Plus whilst I was at the Depot I dropped a few postcard flyers in all the post boxes of the creative companies that are based there....you never know I may get a call from that.......

Organising my time

I really need to do more planning! I know its a good thing, I tell other people they HAVE to do it but...when it comes to my own I am as guilty as the next business owner. I put it off because someone else is going to pay me for my time and my own jobs get pushed down the list.



I must stop it! I have updated my filing and am in the process of scheduling my regular tasks across days of the week and including some time off to be with my family and husband of an evening!!!!



I know, I know...how dare I consider it but I do need to look after myself a bit otherwise I'm not on my best form to give my clients the service they need or my children a mum who is awake enough to play with them!

Being helpful ... for free!

I do keep doing this and not in a marketing 'give-something-free-and-hook-them-in' kinda way or a big thing about the fact it's my expertise I'm giving away (well apart from this!) but just because it's a nice thing to do. If it brings me clients then great, but if not, at least I helped someone out.

And also a note on being organised....
I'm currently printing out a few new client consultation forms that I complete as I converse with any potential client for reference and to help identify what they require (as I'm sure all good VAs do) but I just don't want to get caught on an unexpected call with no notes to guide my talk or notes on a client in lots of different places!!!

VAs that Lunch and Night Owlers

These are 2 completely awesome skype groups set up by Claire Lydia Ray of Vomnet-uk for UK/European and Australasian VAs to network, chat and generally help each other out. You can drop in and out of the thread and I have honestly not met a more wonderful, supportive and inspiring group of people. VAs are very supporting of each other whether a newbie or a pro, you got an issue, drop it into the conversation and you get instant helpful comments, a virtual hug when needed and inspiration when you get a difficult/interesting to work with client or project.

I found this group and was invited to join via the VA Twitter community and have particularly participated in Night Owlers which is from 10pm (GMT) onwards every weekday. It's convenient as it in no way impinges on the day job or distracts from my VA activities and the wonderful ladies are helping me to stay determinedly fixed on my 6 month plan and are helping me to believe I can actually pull it off!

If you are a VA in any of the above categories or happen to be around when our respective time zones coincide, I seriously recommend you come join in!!!

Creative Business Networking

I attended the LCB Depot TCB Social tonight and have to say it was great. Some useful but short presentations with opportunities to meet with business services afterwards as well as mingle. I met some interesting new people, people interested in research, people who already know me and friends! So enjoyed myself.

I have been thinking a lot recently about how I should approach these evenings (having been reading The Dream PA's Virtual Assistant Handbook) and I went with just being myself. Helpful, offering advice or to put people in touch and using my local knowledge to point people in the right direction. I hope that this strategy engages peoples interest and leads to paid work. Plus it is much less nerve wracking attending as myself rather than getting worried about representing my company, I mean I AM my company after all!!!!

I went to Creative Coffee Club yesterday too and made some good connections there too. Bring on the next event! The more I do this the more likely it is to pay off!

Lots going on!

I've been busy with lots of different things over the last week and am having guilt that I haven't fit in blogging!

I've opened a business bank account, I've set up a meeting with Creative Leicestershire, struggled with some coding and spent the weekend in the total signal dead zone of North Shropshire!

Next big thing on the horizon is the Creative Networking (TBC Social) event on Thursday evening at the LCB Depot in Leicester. My main challenge will be getting people who know me from my day job role to view me in a different light. It could either work in my favour or not....

Website & other things

After a fairly long discussion of with Ben my web designer my website is finally up as I want it to look! So please go and check it out.....www.rrva.co.uk

Now to promote it lots!

Also formatting a few word documents for information, client consultation etc. packs ready for any follow ups I have after tomorrows event. Hopefully I'll get at least 1!

Hopefully won't be up too late or need to be up too early.

Getting busy

I have some Sub work for another VA to do first this weekend ... well actually tonight! I have set myself the task of stopping procrastinating and actually finishing my business plan by the end of the weekend too, as I want to apply for some funding and I also have to perfect my 1 minute pitch for networking.

There is also the small task of redesigning husbands spreadsheet for his tax return ready to send to his accountant as soon as possible!

But it's all good. Interest is growing and I have a few meetings in the offing about possible recommendations and further contacts. What I want to achieve, I think, is profile raising and the paperwork behind me so that I'm actually ready when the work starts flowing in more rapidly. Plan and organise....and practice what I preach!!!!!

Even more networking

I've recieved my guidelines for the next networking event, how and what to say in my 1 minute elevator pitch.

Think I better get practicing!!!

Continuing to move forwards

Yipee I've had responses to my survey!! And I have contacted Creative Leicestershire about distributing it more widely - hopefully they will help it reach more people.

Now to do the information pack to send out to my respondents......busy, busy. It's the best way to be!!!

Networking events aplenty!

I have realised that I'm actually about to start attending quite a few networking events in the next couple of months and am hoping that business is forthcoming and good contacts will be made.

First up is the De Montfort University Alumni Association Leicester networking event on the 29th April, then the Leicester North Women In Business Network have kindly let me visit their 13th May meeting to see if I wish to become a full member and then on the 4th June I'll be at the LCB Depot in Leicester networking evening for Creative businesses!!!

So quite a lot to be getting on with....off to work on that elevator pitch and make sure I have enough business cards!!!!!! Wish me luck!!!

To rant or not to rant.....

That dilema again and upon reflection I think I'll choose ... not to.

I shall let today's crappiness and frustrations go and try to focus on achieving the dream of being a full time VA, getting that client list to build and moving back to sunny shropshire!

Business goals

Trying to write these. It is a good process as it is making me think really hard about what I want to achieve both in the short and longer terms.

Short term: get 40 hours of client work a month along side current day job
Medium term: go full time as a VA and network my ass off!
Long term - (as in when both kids are at school, so about 5 years time) employ a network of VAs to provide THE service for small and medium size creative businesses.

Right those are pretty straight forward, now to work out how the hell to achieve them and then get on with it!

(post inspired by a discussion on UK Business Labs and a desire to get profitable!)

Am I nearly there yet.....?

This is what I keep asking myself. Can I actually call myself a Virtual Assistant now? Some days I think yes I damn well can, I have a client, I'm joining networking Groups, I'm promoting the idea of Virtual Assistance to everyone I know (which is a fairly hefty number of people) I AM a VA now!!!

But then days like to today happen. I want to sack in the day job and focus, focus, focus on making this my main earning business but the depressingly practical side of me knows that I have 2 children in childcare and a mortgage to pay. I am also not exactly earning much from it at this very moment. I need to turn those contacts into paying clients, I need my face to be more known by my client group and to be recognised as RRVA and not as my current position. AND I need to do that without pissing off my boss as I need my job to pay for everything in the mean time!

Small tasks really....am I now VA??? Probably not quite yet.

Longing for Mrs Mop....

I have been working out just how many hours I can work as a VA without my current employer (for whom I work nearly full time but not quite) getting annoyed and trying to fire me. I think I can take on 40 hours a month comfortably without completely exhausting myself or them putting me in front of some kind of tribunal for breaching their rules somehow.

I know this sounds a bit paranoid but someone I know of lost their job because of conflict of interest and apparently doing their own work on company time. Need to be very careful and basically not Tweet or Facebook about VA related stuff when not on my lunch break or at home. Still I have a business to grow which I am rather serious about and am busily making contact with potential clients.

Plus if I can get 40 hours a month I can employ a cleaner!! That's my idea of heaven........

Big lesson learnt!!!

Yes it was about payment. Having been on training courses and read it everywhere on the VA forums and blogs about always getting payment in advance, guess what newbie, desperate to get going me didn't do......obvious isn't it.

Don't get me wrong, client has paid and everything but the dynamic between us is a bit skewed now. Its a bit too employer/employee which is NOT what I want at all!!!! Plus I was really anxious and I mean worried with sick feeling in my stomach anxious until I actually got the payment....it's my own fault I know.

Anyway payment in advance in future!