~ Have you recently been laid off from your job in the corporate world?

~ Are you looking for a way to profitably stay home with your children?

~ Would you like to make a second income from the comfort of your home?

~ Or maybe you just need to jumpstart your current virtual assistant business?

If you said YES to any of the above, let me show you how to (kick) start your own profitable home-based Virtual Assistant business quickly and easily.

Tawnya Sutherland is a well-known and successful veteran Virtual Assistant since 1997.  She is the founder of the largest social network for Virtual Assistants online today (with over 17,000 registered members at VAnetworking.com). She’s also a Certified Internet Marketing Business Strategist who has helped online businesses turn their clicks into cash since 2000.

I’m a member of Tawyna’s Virtual Assistant online community and the resources that she provides are really eye-opening. I wish that I had discovered her earlier because it would have saved me from a lot of confusion when I first opened my business. She has forms for EVERYTHING that you may come across in your business. I spent a lot of time  (felt like years) searching for necessary business forms, agonizing over  market rates,  the best ways to advertise and the other nuts and bolts of business.

This month Tawyna is offering aspiring Virtual Assistants the opportunity to invest just a few hours a day in a proven system that will have you up and running in JUST 1 MONTH.

Her 30-day course will help you to:

> Have your own professional Virtual Assistant website optimized to rank HIGH in the search engines

> Have your entire business/marketing plan FINISHED.

> Know exactly what to do to attract targeted clients HUNGRY for your services.

> Be “networked” with some of the best VAs in the business.

> Have a clearly defined niche that will give you a fierce competitive advantage.

> Work from home with NO MORE commutes and stresses of the corporate rat race.

> Begin to attract a following of prospective clients through the social networking world.

> Have all your promotional materials designed and ready to market your business.

> Easily jump on the blogging bandwagon to being promoting your products, services and expertise.

> Have the freedom to take holidays or time-off from your work whenever you like.

> Find the much wanted time for you and your family again being your own boss.

> Have the confidence AND practical tools necessary to go forward as a profitable, highly sought after professional Virtual Assistant!

The  Virtual Business Start Up System (VBSS) makes it even easier to get started online. It gives you a guided step by step process eliminating the road blocks that come from not knowing how or where to begin. You can read up on it at

http://www.VirtualBusinessStartups.com

Oh, and while you’re there, you can download Tawyna’s  F.R.E.E. VA Startup Checklist to get your virtual business up and rolling as a gift from one professional to another.

PS:  Tawyna’s holding a webinar on Thursday, July 8th, 2PM EST called “Learn How to Become a Virtual Assistant” at http://www.VANetworking.com/seminars

PPS: Pop by Tawyna’s website to download your FREE 48-page sampler of my Virtual Business Start UP System (VBSS) to see for yourself.

photo credit: zugaldia

Disclaimer: http://cmp.ly/5/jv45lp

Technorati Tags: Tawyna Sutherland, VANetworking, VBSS, virtual assistant

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

Technorati Tags: niche, VAClassroom, virtual assistant, virtual event specialist

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.

Technorati Tags: joint ventures, seminar, Sydni Craig-Hart, teamwork, virtual assistant

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!”

Technorati Tags: educate for success, Rhea Perry, small business, virtual assistant, webinar

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

Technorati Tags: Calculator, outsourcing, savings, virtual assistant

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

Technorati Tags: VA, virtual assistant, webinar

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

Duration : 0:2:4

Technorati Tags: telecommute, VA, virtual assistant

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.

Technorati Tags: calendar management, consulting, sales, scheduling, virtual assistant

HARO stands for “Help A Reporter Out” and is a daily listing of inquiries made by reporters doing research for their news stories. It’s a useful service because this is an opportunity to get free publicity for your business as you help reporters get their assignment done as well.  When you sign up you’ll get at least two messages a day that contain a list of information that reporters are looking for help with. Can you spell “Free Publicity”?

Another perk is that HARO always includes great deals for their readership.  Check this out:

This HARO is thanks to a new publicity tool for you! A PR Tool Kit that is packed with useful stuff including a 20,000+ contact media list. HARO Family member Damon Carson, whose offbeat company, http://kiddieridesusa.com has been on The Today Show, Time, in The Wall Street Journal, CNN, and a bunch of others, has packaged together all his best tools, tips, and tricks to help you generate similar media buzz.  His DIY publicity efforts have garnered him nearly $1m worth of media. The cornerstone of these PR tools is his huge media list. Also included is “50+ Ways to Tell Your Story to the Media”.  By just requesting a sample of his media list included in his free report, he’ll also send you his free press release template, and he’ll let you in on six things he’s learned doing his own PR that will be both a surprise and helpful at http://www.publicityassociates.com/haro101309

Sign up is free.  Just go to http://www.helpareporter.com/ and sign up today. And don’t forget to get the resource mentioned above.

Technorati Tags: haro, publicity, virtual assistant

Virtual assistants answer questions of your customers 24 hours a day, 7 days a week via web, chat and instant messenger. Fast, without waiting time and easy to use. And fully automated.
This movie shows why every company needs a virtual assistant!

Duration : 0:1:31

Technorati Tags: chat bots, chatter bots, CRM, eCRM, selfservice, selfservicecompany, virtual assistant, webselfservice