GHVA Founder Janet Barclay is one of several experts who were interviewed for the FabJob Guide to Become a Virtual Assistant, a comprehensive resource covering a wide range of important topics such as starting a business, marketing, education and training, and how to become a great virtual assistant.

In the 268-page e-book, Barclay is quoted as saying,

A great virtual assistant has a thirst for knowledge, is constantly learning new things, and shares that knowledge with his or her clients by making recommendations to enhance the client’s business. There are so many rewards, including the flexibility to create my own schedule, and the knowledge that I don’t have to do the same old work day after day. But perhaps most rewarding is being able to constantly learn and apply new technical and creative skills.

To learn how you can get involved in this growing profession, make your first investment the FabJob Guide to Become a Virtual Assistant.

The course included 20 hours of video sessions, 3 general assignments and one master assignment to achieve certification.

While the course covered the more technical “how-to” process of assessing, coordinating and implementation, this is a brief summary of the benefits of holding a live event, the types of events and a general outline of how to assess which would best suit a particular client.

The course taught how to:

• Plan, produce and prepare  a virtual event
• moderate (i.e. introduce guest speaker/s, welcome guests,  assign access levels, monitor
  chat area, feed questions)
• handle technical problems anyone may have and provide information (i.e. how to mute, chat, ask questions)
• record the event
• share and repurpose the recordings

What are the benefits of holding a live event?

• They are interactive, convenient and more spontaneous than recordings, as questions can be asked and answered immediately, helping the client better understand their market.
• They are not region-based, the client can reach people from  around the globe.
• Offering free seminars leads to list building.
• Virtual events clients stand out from the crowd. They look like risk-takers with a knowledge of new technologies.
• There is no need for the participant to travel thus making it green friendly (no emissions). The participant can decide to attend at the last minute as there are no travel arrangements to make.
• There is a high completion rates for training courses.
• Virtual training events are 50-75% less expensive than live training and can be profitable with only a few attendees.
• Recordings are easily edited and customizable and can be repurposed into other products for marketing and/or passive income generation.
• FACT – There has been a 14% in increase in webinars and a 13% decrease in live events

What is a live virtual event?

There are four types of virtual events:

• Webinars – with audio and video, done over the computer or participants can dial in over the phone to listen in. When recorded they’re called webcasts.
• Teleseminars – Audio only over the telephone.
• Live Internet radio – Audio only. Once recorded are called podcasts.
• Live Internet TV – Audio & video. Can be live or recorded.

Why would someone hold a  virtual event?

• To deliver information
• To do an interview with a product owner
• Offer live training
• To do a live product launch
• Q&A sessions

Some things to consider when assessing what kind of virtual event the client should use:

• What is their motivation and business outcome?
• Have they ever delivered a virtual event before?
• The client’s comfort level using web-based technology
• Who is their target audience?
• The audience’s comfort with technology
• What level of interaction they want  during the event
• What kind of event they are planning (conference, sales meeting, multi-speaker, training program etc)

Comparing types of events

• Teleseminars & Internet radio – easier technically, only has audio, fewer buttons, speaker can multi-task, easy to replay, cheaper to produce
• Webinars & Internet TV –new tool,  technically harder, has a visual component, can be more demonstrative, higher perceived value

The Planning Process :

• Planning the event (who, what, when, where, why, how)
• Production (setting it up, creating templates re: registration page & emails, reminder emails etc)
• Promotion of the event  (autoresponders, social media etc)
• Preparation (dry run, rehearsing with client, creation of Powerpoint slides)
• Presentation (who will be the moderator? How many guest speakers will there be?)
• Post event (replays & repurposing)

For any VA considering adding virtual events coordination to their services, I highly recommend this course. It was interesting and very informative. The assignments requiring us to plan, do and record our own live events were challenging and fun!

A virtual assistant (typically abbreviated to VA, also called a virtual office assistant) is generally self-employed and provides professional administrative, technical, or creative (social) assistance to clients from a home office.

Virtual Assistants work as independent contractors, enabling us to work for a variety of different businesses, usually from our own home offices. We use current technology to perform a wide range of administrative and other tasks. The following is just a small selection of roles a VA can fill for your business:

Internet Marketing Virtual Assistant

Some VAs specialize in social media, video, or other online marketing strategies to help you promote your business. Editing and formatting articles and posting them on article marketing websites can be very time-consuming for you to perform yourself, but will add tremendously to your return on investment if completed on a regular basis.

Bookkeeper

With a virtual bookkeeper to keep your financial records updated, you always know how much money you’re making, how much you owe, and how much is owed to you. When your books are up-to-date, you’ll have no surprises when tax time rolls around!

Webmaster

A virtual assistant can look after your website, updating content, monitoring traffic, and checking for broken links or other problems. A VA can also add products to your online shopping cart system, or blog posts to your blog.

Technical Support Specialist

Some VAs offer remote technical assistance, using technology such as GoToMyPC, Webex PC, or other remote-access solutions to sign on to your computer and fix any technical problems you may be facing.

Executive Assistant

In addition to the specialized services listed above, many VAs provide traditional administrative functions such as editing, word processing, proofreading, calendar management, organization and so on.

Depending on your specific needs, you may work with an individual virtual assistant who provides all the services you require, multiple VAs to look after different areas of your business, or even a larger VA business with team members who can fulfil all your requirements. In each case, you will not be required to provide equipment, office space, or training, nor to pay for healthcare, benefits, or taxes. Instead, you only pay for the time we are actually working for you.

To find a Virtual Assistant that can help you further your business, take a look at our Members Directory or submit a Request for Proposal.

1. Billing Boss

A free service for invoicing. You can upload your contact list or add it separately. Billing Boss will email invoices and make a PDF version. Clients can pay online or pay with PayPal, just click to pay! Unfortunately you cannot make a custom invoice, and it won’t track your time. There are additional items that cost to connect them. Mobile version is a cost and you can do it from your phone! Can allow others to run reports.

Recommended by Janet

2. Doodle

Doodle offers a basic free scheduling service to connect to your personal calendar, and ad-free premium services with advanced functionality. All accessible from anywhere, anytime.

Recommended by Angela

3. Dropbox

Great place to share documents with clients. I have different folders for each and they can only access their folder. 2GB of Dropbox for free, with subscriptions up to 100GB available.

Recommended by Salma

4. Echosign

Free for contracts and agreements. Upload your agreement, enter your client’s email address, then you get an email when your client has signed it. You can download the PDF with the electronic signature. Free up to 5 signatures per month. Uploading a document, making changes to a document, and sending a document for signature are included in the 5 transactions with a free account. The 5 transactions are tracked within a 30 day rolling window from the time the free account is activated.

Recommended by Janet

5. Hardware: 2^nd monitor

A second monitor connected to your computer, so you can have email on one screen, and QuickBooks or another program open on another screen. You can drag open windows from one monitor to the other.

Recommended by Jacquie

6. Infusionsoft

Better than 1shoppingcart. It puts customers on a promo list, takes them off easily. Customer service is very good.

Recommended by Angela

7. Mailchimp

No cost to a certain level, up to 2,000 contacts at no cost! Low cost compared to others. A lot more plug-ins, opt-in forms for your blog or website. Has a hook-up to sign up through your Facebook page. Send out 6 email blasts per month free. Easy templates.

Recommended by Crystal

8. Meetingwizard

Free and low-cost options. Easy to get started. No downloads required. Integrated with Microsoft Outlook™

Recommended by Peggy

9. QuickBooks

With over 4 million users worldwide, QuickBooks is the #1 best-selling accounting software in North America.

Recommended by Jacquie

10. Roboform

A password manager. It works like a bookmark. There is one called RoboForm Everywhere that supports mobile devices. You can password protect it for opening the files. It will pop up and ask if you wish to save it. Free up to 10 logins.

Recommended by Janet

11. Screenshot in MS Office 2010

You can quickly and easily add a screenshot to your Office file to enhance the readability or capture information without leaving the program that you are working in. This feature is available in Microsoft Excel, Outlook, PowerPoint, and Word. You can use it to take a picture of all or part of the windows open on your computer. These screenshots are easy to read in printed documents and on PowerPoint slides that you project.

Screenshots are static images. When you take a screenshot of something (for example, a Web page), and the information changes at the source, the screenshot is not updated.

When you click the Screenshot button, you can insert the whole program window or use the Screen Clipping tool to select part of a window. Only windows that have not been minimized to the taskbar can be captured.

When you choose Screen Clipping, your entire window will temporarily become opaque or “frosted over”. After you select the part of the window that you want, your selection will show through this opaqueness.

Recommended by Crystal

12. SendOutCards

SendOutCards’ convenient system lets you send that birthday, anniversary or thank you card without the hassle of pen, paper, stamps, envelopes or mailboxes. Sending a card has never been so easy! With just the click of a button, you can choose your custom card, add a personal photo, write your message and click send. We print, stuff, stamp and mail the physical card for you.

Recommended by Salma

13. Surveymonkey

Surveymonkey is great when compiling a simple survey; it’s confidential and the free version is very good.

Recommended by Manda

14. WordPress Videos

They are very clear and easy to understand and to follow through.

Recommended by Debbie

15. Zoominfo

From their website: “We are the leading provider of business information and the market’s only source of just verified, in-depth profiles on millions of businesses and employees.”

Recommended by Peggy

Can you think of any other “must have” tools for virtual assistants?

One of the speakers was OIVAC founder Sharon Williams. In her presentation, Letting Go of “D” (Difficult) Clients, Sharon described ten types of “bad” clients:

1. Free Samples Guy expects you to complete a project for free before he agrees to sign a contract.
2. Scope Creep Gal agrees to a set price for a small project, which gradually grows into a much larger one.
3. Vague Victor doesn’t really know what he wants.
4. Fannie Freebie can’t afford to pay you, but tries to tempt you with the “ideal” volunteer opportunity.
5. Mr. Unavailable doesn’t respond to your emails, then wonders why his work isn’t completed.
6. Clingy Sue wants constant progress reports and communicates with you multiple times each day.
7. Revisionist Ronnie never finds your work quite good enough.
8. Gossip Girl wants to discuss her personal life or previous VAs.
9. “The check is in the mail.” ‘Nuff said!
10. The Lowballer tries to negotiate a lower rate than you charge your other clients.

If you’re a new VA, it can be tempting to take on anyone and everyone, but it’s important to ask lots of questions and get to know each prospect as well as possible before entering into a long-term contract. It’s much harder to disengage from a client who isn’t a good fit for your business than it is to turn them away in the first place.

If you’re in the market for a virtual assistant, do you see yourself on the above list? Of course, you have every right to expect excellence from your VA, but mutual respect is the key to all successful relationships. You’re far more likely to form a thriving long-term partnership if you articulate your requirements clearly, respond to all your VA’s questions on a timely basis, and treat him or her with the same courtesy you would give to any other professional.

Having a central hub is important. Increasingly, businesses are creating a blog as their “go to” site. Why? The social media audience loves fresh content. Unlike static websites, blog sites now offer you the ability to continually offer fresh, new information to your audience. This platform also allows your audience to comment back to you, giving you the feedback every business owner needs to stay on top of their clients’ needs and wants.

In order to build a visible presence on the web, you’ve got to be consistent. Doing this once in a while is not going to help your business and it takes consistency to build up a presence that creates ambient awareness.

Is your image consistent?

When I talk about your image, I mean the visual image you create and you present across the web. That includes your picture; the name that you use on your social networking sites and your blog and your home pages. Make sure you’re using the same business name per niche; if you have multiple niches then you have to do this for each niche. Banners, backgrounds, your headshot, your colours, your logo, whatever it is, the look and feel of your image across the web must be consistent.

Photo credit: TopRank Online Marketing

Subcontracting allows you to work with many other VAs with many different skill sets. The team is usually very supportive of each other. I was fortunate that when I started with the firm I’m still with today, I worked with an experienced Online Business Manager (OBM) who would explain how to do something and let me run with it. This is certainly a huge perk if you can work with someone that is so willing to teach you the things you don’t know.

You also don’t have to market yourself for new clients, as long as you are content with the money you are making. Normally a multi-VA firm has more than enough business to go around and are happy to hand you more of it.

And, collecting on invoices, something that can be difficult at times, is not your problem. In most cases, payments are made regularly once a month and normally, regardless if invoices have been paid, you will get paid on time. I have only ever had someone not pay me on time and they were completely upfront about it and it all worked out.

There is always a contract to sign. One of the biggest things in this contract is agreeing not to take any clients away from the firm, meaning that if you are offered business from someone you met through the firm, you must refer them to the firm and work for them in that way. This can stay into effect for one to three years after the contract ends.

There are good firms and bad ones to work with. I have no complaints about either of the two I’ve worked with.

So what are your goals: to increase your customer base; to generate leads; to drive sales; to build awareness; to establish thought leadership; to educate customers; to reach new channels of customers?

At the end of the day, social media is really a very simple concept; it’s about people connecting with one another; sharing ideas with one another; collaborating with one another; and becoming friends with one another; all ONLINE.

Social media is all about adding value to the community. It’s about giving back, collaborating and contributing.

In social media, LISTENING is twice as important as speaking. Listening gives you metrics, gives you topic material for content, and gives you a sense of where your crowd is. Online, the tool for listening is a news reader.

What should you listen to?

Build an ego search – use tools like Technorati and Google Blogsearch to build a search on your company’s name, your products’ names, employee’s names, etc. Then build the same for your competitors. Find blogs about your specific industry and subscribe to a handful of them; then find blogs on other topics of interest to you and subscribe to a few of them.

Blogs, podcasts, video blogs, Twitter, Facebook and dozens of other tools exist for SPEAKING.

Use Facebook and MySpace and other social networks to point people towards your primary media. Use these services to tap into audiences that might not find your work otherwise. Seek out like-minded people who are making similar media excursions and share attention with them (meaning, give them attention, and offer your media as something they might like as well).

Make sure your site and all your media points back to you, so people know who you are, where you are, how to reach you, and what you are all about.

CONNECT, build community. Social networks abound; comment and share.

You need to understand that the primary purpose of social media is to build relationships. Social media is an ideal place for getting to know your target market in a professional but conversational way; sharing information, getting feedback and becoming the person businesses think of when they think of your products or services.

Companies are being pressured into the whole social media thing from lots of angles. They’re reading about it in the press, they’re seeing it everyday on TV, their PR agency is asking them about it.

What does it mean and where do you start?

One has a lot to consider once you seriously decide to enter social media and the social networks. There are many opportunities to slide off the rails or have your efforts fall apart.

The success of your social media efforts and plans rise and fall on your strategy. And without a clear and effective strategy in place, you are doomed to failure within social media marketing.  It’s like a builder without a blueprint, not knowing where to lay the foundation.

First, know what the intent of your social media and the networks you join will be. Are you hoping to improve awareness and open communication about your brand, services or organization? Are you looking to increase your customer base?  Are you looking to reach new markets and open new channels of customers for sales or memberships? Are you making informational products that you want to distribute?

Knowing your intent drives which path you take.

Strategy isn’t the goal; it’s the path you plan to take to get there; and should always precede activity. The social media strategy needs to be closely connected to a company’s marketing game plan and overall business objectives.

An effective social media assessment will help to identify the appropriate starting point and direction you need to take.

A social media specialist can work with you to perform an effective assessment.

There are a number of questions you should ask when looking for the virtual assistant that’s right for your business.

Many of your questions will probably relate to your specific needs, such as “What experience do you have working with [a particular software program, online service, or industry]?” You may also want to ask how their past work experience and training relates to the needs of your business.

If you’re going to need same-day turnaround, or if you want to be able to contact your VA by phone or instant messenger without scheduling something in advance, ask if he or she will be able to accommodate that.

If you want someone to come to your office on occasion, don’t assume that they will, just because they’re in your area. Ask whether they do that, and if they do, ask whether there’s an extra charge or a travel fee.

Speaking of fees, you need to ask not just how much they charge, but how it is calculated. Is it by the minute, or in 15 minute increments? Is there a minimum charge? Do they require a monthly retainer? Do you have to pay in advance? Are there different packages available? Do they charge extra for rush jobs? If so, how much is it, and what’s considered a rush?

It’s okay to ask to see work samples or to ask permission to speak to some of their other clients, but keep in mind that it’s not a job interview, but a consultation to see whether the two of you are a good match.

Someone might have the best qualifications in the world, but if your communication and work styles aren’t compatible, it may be difficult for you to work together.

To begin your search, browse our member directory or submit a request for proposal.

Photo: Dominik Gwarek