When I was away on that homeschooling/business retreat in Destin, FL I met many aspiring virtual assistants including my new best friend Mimi of Your Virtual Services. We were roommates and talked a lot (I’m sure you can tell I’m the quiet type — not!) and during one of our marathon conversations Mimi told me about an interesting VA niche called “Virtual Event Specialist.”

Disclosures: http://cmp.ly/5/m4l2iq

Leveraging your time is one of the ways that smart businesses operate. One way that you can do this is by borrowing resources, trading skills and services instead of using money. But first what is a team? According to Webster’s dictionary, a team is “a number of persons associated together in work or an activity.” There are many ways to assemble a team, and one way is through what is known as a joint venture. How does a joint venture work?

• Let’s say that at one of those business mixers you meet a Ms. Escribe who runs a transcription business. You two develop a friendly relationship. Now somewhere down the road you decide to create an audio or webinar product that you want to sell to your client base, but you want to also include a free eBook for those who prefer reading information to watching or listening. You think of Ms. Escribe and give her a call. You tell her your situation and plans. You offer her a deal. If she will do the transcripts for the product launch for free you’ll split the profits from the sale of the eBook and product. Ms. Escribe accepts and now you are in a joint venture.

Carefully planned joint ventures can be a winner for both (or more) parties involved. All you did was exchange skills (her transcription skills for you marketing skills). By exchanging these skills you’ve created another source of income for both of your businesses without any additional cost to either partner.

• Another way to add members to your team is to enlist contractors to get the work done for you. Some virtual assistants are Marketing Mavens and can bring in business faster than you can blink. However, the downside for these gifted people is that now they may have more work than they can physically accomplish! To alleviate the stress (and panic!) that this will cause they reach out to fellow Virtual Assistants for help. These subcontractors are paid to do the overflow work for the Marketing Maven VA who is bringing in the business.

This is another win-win scenario. Newer virtual assistants can join up with experienced VAs while they learn the ropes and gain greater skills. For VAs that may not be as successful in attracting clients, this allows them an opportunity to earn a living while still doing the work that they love. And in many cases they also learn some marketing skills from an expert. Of course the subcontractors are still responsible for their own taxes, so the Marketing Maven VA has not added any additional tax liability to her business.

VAs that create joint ventures and make up a team not only gain the monetary benefits, but have a built a talented support system to keep their business chugging along in good and bad times. Speaking of which, I just found out about an upcoming free teleseminar that’s being held on January 27th, 2010 at 8 PM (EST). It’s being hosted by someone I just discovered named Sydni Craig-Hart. She’s a coach to virtual assistants and has some great material at her websites EAtoVA.com. You can sign up for her seminar by visiting VASuccessSecrets.com.

If you’re a small business owner, how do you know when you need a VA? And more importantly — what do you do with us once you’ve decided to use our expertise?  This is one of the more frustrating aspects of being a VA. People hire you and then don’t let you do anything to help, which of course means less hours, less money and more frustration.

I am very glad to hear about this webinar being hosted by Rhea Perry.  She’s answering questions that small business owners have surrounding the mystique of virtual assistants as well as explaining the best ways to use them. So, if you’re a small business person, please jump on this webinar and find out how we can all work together to build the business of your dreams.  Your virtual assistant will thank you!

“To have a successful business, it helps to have a strong team.

One of the key players on that team can be a Virtual Assistant who operates your  business or ministry completely virtually, like Denise manages everything we do at Educating for Success.

Yet the more small business owners I talk to, the more I realize that way too many folks either don’t know how to hire someone, don’t trust giving their business details to someone else or don’t know who to hire.

I understand completely.

So tomorrow night, Tuesday, Dec. 8, I’m going to conduct a web class for you to explain all that and answer your questions. I want to help you determine what’s keeping you from going forward so you can make 2010 even better than 2009!

Our web class is tomorrow night, Tuesday, Dec. 8 at 9 PM Eastern Time.

Register here to reserve your seat:

http://clicks.aweber.com/y/ct/?l=7S4s7&m=1dN4mJvOz3dPeP&b=bN7rhz6DUXrP9TKkgeJZtw

I want you to succeed.

You want to succeed.

God wants you to succeed.

What can stop you?

Let’s go!

Rhea!”

When I tell people that I work as a virtual assistant, many times people are confused. Why would any one hire a virtual assistant when they can easily pick a local person to take care of their needs?  How do you know that the person will even get any work done without you standing over their shoulder? And most of all, why would anyone want to hire me to work for them in this capacity?

I wish I had found the resources that are available a lot earlier than I did. One thing that always burned me up when I worked at Morgan Stanley and other large companies was their total inflexibility with even flex-time. Most things that are done in offices can just as well be done remotely, as all the companies who have outsourced to India do happily every day. My beef, even back in the 1990s, was why couldn’t I stay home and do the transcription, Powerpoint slides, etc.? What’s the difference?

Well, my new favorite website is the VANetworking site. And they had this really great calculator that they generously share with other VAs to prove the point that not only are we more cost effective, but we get the job done correctly which is more than I can say for India. (One day I’ll share my husband’s frustrations with his dealings with overseas staffing!) So, here’s one very real reason to consider hiring a VA if you are a small business owner. And it also provides people considering entering the VA arena an idea of just how money they can make from the comfort of their own homes.

Full-time Employee vs a Virtual Assistant Cost Comparison

Want to SAVE over $60,000 in business expenses this year?
If you answered yes, read on …

A cost comparison for a full-time employee
versus a Virtual Assistant

Difference = $60,160.00 per year

By hiring a Virtual Assistant …You SAVE over $60,000.00 per year!

Although the Virtual Assistant’s hourly rate is more than the employee’s rate in the first place, you save the cost of benefits and overhead that would have to be applied to the new employee’s wage. And, because Virtual Assistant’s are usually more experienced, more efficient, and better connected than the employee, you’ll need to devote far less time to the project to get the same results, only 480 hours a year versus 2,080 for the new employee.

**Remember, with a Virtual Assistant, you only pay for the time on task by the minute! No more paying for socializing, hour long lunches or frequent trips to the washroom.

Your employee’s 8 hour day can be crunched into 3-4 hours with a Virtual Assistant.

Simply put, you should contract with a Virtual Assistant because it’s more cost-effective and Virtual Assistants go above and beyond the normal assistant’s duties to impact your own productivity. No task is too big or small for a Virtual Assistant to handle. Even if you only have 1 hour of work a month for a Virtual Assistant to do, a VA can (and will) do it.

Visit www.kafellc.com to find out more.

*Source: Virtual Assistant Networking Association Cost Comparison

The Largest Global Network Online for Successful and Aspiring Virtual Assistants

So many busy moms have asked us about the successful Virtual Assistant training we offered earlier this year that we have decided to make it available as part of Rhea Perry’s Stimulus Package.

If you are an organizer and thrive on helping others organize their lives to get more done, then join us on the call tomorrow night to see if this is right for you. If you have friends who need to make some extra money part time from home, forward this invitation to them. They will thank you, trust me.

In the meantime, register to grab your seat for tomorrow night’s web class right here:

https://www1.gotomeeting.com/register/929697944

Space is limited so don’t put this off.

The web class will be at 9 PM Eastern Time, tomorrow, Tuesday, Dec. 1.

P.S. Learn how you can turn your organizational skills into a part-time business in our web class tomorrow night.

Register here: https://www1.gotomeeting.com/register/929697944

This seems to be the weekend for membership site videos and classes.  As I was going though my email I came across not one, not two, but three emails on the subject.  After watching the videos I’m starting to get some ideas of my own way about ways to help people while adding a passive income stream to the mix. So, if you have a couple of minutes, why not check out what’s going on in the world of membership sites.

• Educating for Success has the introductory video on how membership sites work and how you can use it to generate passive revenue for your business. There is also a class offered to help you to setup your own membership site, but it’s already in session. So, if you’re interested in taking a class right away, you might want to check out the next bullet.
• The WLM Training and Certification Course is designed for business people who wish to learn more about how they can incorporate membership sites into their business offerings and create a community around your product or service.  This class starts on December 2, 2009 and is only offered once a year. So, if you’re interested you should jump on it.
• Learn about The Top 10 Membership Models when you watch this video. I was surprised to learn that some very successful membership sites don’t even have content inside! Amazing.

While I’m still on the fence about when and what type of membership type I would like to organize, one thing that I do know is that I want the software to be compatible with WordPress. From what I’ve heard thus far, membership software can range from free , but very limited functionality (i.e., MemberWing) to $5,000! If you’re a VA who hasn’t worked with membership sites and you’re self-hosting WordPress, you’d do well to download the free plug-in so that you can get your feet wet while you gain the skills to impress potential clients.

I’m leaning towards Wishlist since it’s a low-cost, but fully functioning one time cost. But if you  hear of any other good software packages out there, please be sure and share with the rest of us in the Comments Box.

To begin the transition to working from home can be very frightening. Who do you trust? Where do you apply? How do you get hired? There are many work at home resources out there in cyberspace. There are also services that provide weekly lists of work at home jobs at a reasonable yearly cost. There are also free resources such as Craigslist as well as Google searches and word of mouth. I’ve found places to be upfront and helpful when I first stepped on the road to a non-commuting lifestyle. You should check them out when you get a chance:

Sohojobs

My favorite one is SohoJobs. They have an impeccable reputation and have been around for over five years. Each Monday their staff updates the job listing as well as providing training on how to create a compelling resume and insight into what telecommuting companies are looking for in a virtual worker. You can even get a free sample of their job listings at their website.

Check out SohoJobs

Virtual Office Temps

Virtual Office Temps is a good choice when you first begin for many reasons. My favorite reason is that you register for free and they provide job postings for free. (Free is my favorite price!) These jobs are sent to your email as they become available. They also offer a certification program (for a fee) along with other tips and resources.

Check Out Virtual Office Temps

Team Double Click

There is also an agency called Team Double Click. They hire virtual assistants for tasks such as research, word processing, secretarial, data processing, transcription, bookkeeping, marketing, etc. There is no fee associated with joining them. You will be tested on your knowledge and if you do well on the test you move on to the next step, which is a live interview.

For people who aren’t interested in working as a VA, they also have sales positions to help them to grow their business. As with most sales positions in the telecommuting world, you would be an independent contractor that is paid on commission.

Check Out Team Double Click

Virtual Assistants

Virtual Assistants has been featured on Lifetime Television, Home Office Computing Magazine and several books, CDs and e-books. They provide 100 new jobs each week that range from real administrative, data entry, research, writing, secretarial, web design, customer service, voice operator, medical and regular transcription, medical coding, desktop publishing, coding, programming, technical, translation, instructor, sales, telemarketing, website design and other legitimate work at home jobs.

They charge a membership fee of $59.99/year. Their best feature is that not only do they provide the 100 new jobs per week, but they also advertise your virtual assistant business. If you’ve ever looked into advertising costs you know that’s a great deal for sixty bucks!

Check Out Virtual Assistants

http://www.virtualpabusiness.com – here’s a comparison of the cost of an employee vs a Virtual Assistant

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How to get started as a virtual assistant, brought to you by http://www.2minuteswithava.com

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Time scheduling is one of the 101 ways that virtual assistants earn money. We organize our client’s calendars, setup appointments and manage day-to-day events for them.   Doctors, lawyers, and even network marketers have a high need for this kind of help. Just this past week one of my clients gave his clients an opportunity to have one-on-sessions with him. Although the offer was for the first ten respondents, we were flooded with calls and we blew up his calendar.

The email exchanges, working out time zones, work schedules, etc. to setup the ideal times for everyone really kept me hopping. And it was also a very time-consuming process.  While we were in the midst of all of this activity my client found an application that looks really promising.  It’s called TimeDriver.

TimeDriver allows you to send invitations to your client’s list of people who’d they’d like to schedule a meeting time with. You create the email, embed a “Schedule Now” button and send it on its way. The person interested in meeting with your client clicks the link and is taken to the web calendar. There they pick the time and day that works best for them. The system then updates your (or your client’s) Google or Outlook calendar automatically.

Why this is great for a virtual assistant? First of all, it’s inexpensive for a virtual assistant — it only costs $29/year.   And by using this type of system, you’ll be able to support more clients who need calendar management.  This software is appropriate to use with sale teams, consultants, teachers, and people who do recruiting (i.e., network marketers). So you’ll be able to earn more money faster with less headaches.

So check it out and see if what other applications you can come up with. And be sure to share your thoughts with the rest of us.  You can find the tour and complete explanation of  the system by visiting http://timedriver.timetrade.com/tour.php.