Excerpt from:
Working with A Virtual Professional? Avoid These Costly Pitfalls

Link:
Help Email Help You: My Top-Ten Tips to Avoid Mailbox Overwhelm

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Read the full original post here:
Things You Should Know Before Building Your Website: Control Your Domain Name

Upcoming events include:

March 25: Regaining Your Marketing Momentum with Cristina Favreau
Wednesday, March 25, 2009 from 8:30 PM – 9:30 PM (Eastern)
Cristina will share 3 underused marketing momentum strategies that could generate an additional 30 leads for you in the next 90 days! You’ll learn how to take a personal, human approach to attracting ideal clients. Learn more.

April 7: Creating Passive Revenue in Your Business with Erin Blaskie
Tuesday, April 7th, 2009 from 8:30 PM – 9:30 PM (Eastern)
Erin will discuss how you can take your virtual assistance business from surviving to thriving.  Join this session to find out how you can create alternate streams of income in your business to turn your business into a six-figure (and beyond) enterprise! Learn more.

Visit DVVAA’s Event Registration page for more information and to sign up.  Recordings will be made available.

From the description:

If you’re like most Virtual Assistants, you have a wealth of knowledge and expertise, and are GREAT at what you do.  But perhaps you’re struggling with:

How do I get clients?
How do I market my services?
How do I develop a marketing plan?
How do I get the courage to introduce myself to prospective clients and what do I say?
How do I figure out my niche and ideal client?
Not to worry!  The answers to these questions and more are available right at your fingertips!

What you may not realize is marketing your Virtual Assistant business doesn’t have to be difficult, overwhelming or terribly expensive.  You can easily offer your services in a way that is professional, authentic and that makes you money.

To sign up for the call, you need to register. A recording will be made available. Click here for full details:
http://www.eatova.com/marketingsecrets.html

Live call-in number: 218-339-2500;   Access Code: 535373#

_____________________

For Immediate Release
Company: The Academy for Legal Virtual Assistance
Contact: Dana Fortier
Address: 23871 W. LeBost, Novi, MI 48375
Phone: 248-426-9974
Email: academy4lva@gmail.com
URL:  http://sites.google.com/site/academy4lva/

The Academy for Legal Virtual Assistance Announces its Spring Launch

Novi, MI  – January 26, 2009  – There’s a new training program available for legal virtual assistants and you can become a trained and certified legal virtual assistant in a matter of months, studying from the comfort of your own home.

Dana Fortier, a Michigan-based legal virtual assistant, owner of Fortier Business Solutions, which provides off-site virtual law office management to a number of in- and out-of state law firms, has founded The Academy for Legal Virtual Assistance.

The Academy is currently accepting members for its inaugural class which begins on March 31, 2009 and continues for 35 weeks. The course outline includes in-depth study of legal office applications, such as electronic filing procedures, ethics, and mock case studies, as well as the basics for running and maintaining a home-based business, including marketing, tax and accounting issues, business communications.

“In my past career as a legal assistant and as a department supervisor, it was always abundantly clear that quality support for attorneys is in high demand. Due to the recent economic factors, many law firms are looking for quality off-site support. The Academy is positioned in a way to provide the training for that support to law firms and attorneys,” says Ms. Fortier.

For the members of The Academy, web-based instruction will occur once each week for approximately two hours at a time, with homework and reading assigned. Reviews are scheduled to ensure that the learning is continued throughout the course. At the mid-point of the course, Part I of the Certification Exam will be administered. Coursework will proceed, following the same outline with web-based course instruction and built-in reviews, and concluding with an interactive group project and Part II of the Certification Exam.

Simply put, contracting off-site support is cost-effective in many ways. A small firm, or a solo-based attorney can leverage expenses by utilizing a qualified legal virtual assistant in any way from client communications, calendar management, handling discovery processes and even including legal research and writing. A legal virtual assistant can also enhance the office staff already in place by handling tasks that are overwhelming, or can be managed by an off-site person to free up the time of the in-office staff.

With so many career options available today, developing a niche as a legal virtual assistant has taken on new appeal. Stay-at-home parents and disabled people are also jumping on this fast career track. Working at home may not be everything you hope for. While it sounds like the ultimate liberation, you’ll probably have to give up some freedom to provide fast service on painfully short notice. Chances are, the small-business owners most likely to need you won’t call until they’re desperate. But then there’s the positive side of working at home, especially for stay-at-home parents: you’re there if your kids need you.

Dana Fortier is a Virtual Business Manager based in Novi, MI who specializes in virtual office support and virtual project management, with an emphasis on creating strategic partnerships for and with her clients.

# # #

Here’s what you’ll learn:

• Where to find subcontracting opportunities
• How to create your own subcontracting opportunities
• How the VA is the client (providing service that maintains the relationship)
• Recognizing and handling issues
• How to balance your workload
• How to read the contract and understand how to live up to expectations
• How to work on a multi-VA team

There are two time and date choices for the call:  January 29th at 8pm ET and February 5th at 2pm ET.  Visit the OfficeDeva website today to sign up.

Virtual Dream Office Services offers bookkeeping and spreadsheet services, general office support and VA subscontracting.

Check out Collete’s site here.

Kathy Zengolewicz is Owner of The Virtual Independent Contractor is a Shopping Cart Certified Strategist and a Learning Management Solutions Certified Strategist. She assists other VAs with a variety of support services.  Visit The Virtual Independent Contractor website for more information.

Congrats Kathy!!

VA Classroom

“Do you realize Social Media has fundamentally changed the way businesses communicate, opening a huge opportunity for your virtual business?

The movement to Social Media has become no less than a stampede! LinkedIn has grown by 319% since 2007, Facebook is adding about 200,000 users a day, and Twitter has grown by 422% in the last 12 months! Internet advertising is up 21% in spite of the economic downturn.

Businesses see the huge potential for expanding their exposure, building their brand, and increasing their search results through Social Media.

But getting good results from Social Media Marketing takes time and specialized skills, and businesses are looking frantically for the right virtual professionals to help. “

There’s a limited number spots available for this program. The last session in November sold out quickly, so act fast. Registration begins at 11am Pacific on Thursday, January 15.

Click to learn more about VA Classroom’s Social Media Marketing Specialist Training Program.

Note that a reason for your vote needs to be included with your vote/tweet. Yes, this is a challenge given the 140 character limit, but it doesn’t have to be Shakespeare to count – just positive and brief.  Also remember that it will be a tweet that will post to your Twitter stream.

The winners will go to NYC to accept the Shorty in person. You can even request an invitation on the Shorty Award site. Vote soon, as voting is open only to January 23rd.  A win for AssistU would be real nice exposure for the VA industry – the only VA nominee.

Congrats to Stacy Brice and AssistU – and good luck with the Shorty!   Click here to cast your Shorty vote.

Interested in providing social media services to clients? Consider VAClassoom’s Social Media Marketing Specialist Program!

“We want to be sure that the annual membership cost isn’t a barrier to entry for our potential members while online and remote services business may be a bit more sluggish than in previous years,” said RemoteProfessionals.com partner Angela Allen Parker. “We also want to offer a our long-time members the opportunity to cut annual expenses while continuing to offer them the best possible service.”

Remote Professionals is a selective network of professionals in a variety of fields, including virtual assistance, copywriting, technical & web services, graphics and more. They also offer the RP Masters designation to Full members who meet more stringent requirements and successfully complete the RP Master application.  Benefits of Remote Professionals membership include access to proposal requests, a mentoring program, special training and development events, peer networking and more.

Learn more about Remote Professionals membership here.

Check out the list of features (from GoToAssist Express):

• One-Click Session Start: Save time by starting your support sessions in just one click.
• FastSupport Entry Site: Seamlessly transition from a phone call to an online support session by directing your customer to our FastSupport.com site and providing a 9-digit Support Key.
• Remote Control: With your customer’s permission, you can remotely take control of their desktop to provide service just as if you were sitting at their computer.
• File Transfer: Instantly exchange files and folders with your customers.
• Remote Diagnostics: Get your customer’s system information in a single mouse click.
• Support without Interruption: Log in as administrator or reboot and reconnect to the support session in progress.
• Multiple Sessions and True Color: Simultaneously support up to eight customers at a time. Plus, see screens in full 24-bit color.
• Mac User Support: Provide live remote support to both PC and Mac customers. (You must run the support session from a PC.)
• Unattended Remote Support: Work while your clients are away from their computers by pre-installing Unattended Support. Set it up on as many computers as you like!

Good news is that you can sign up for the beta now,  get free access  – then get 30% off once the beta ends next month.  Sign up for the GoToAssist Express beta here.

Try GoToMeeting now – get 30 days FREE + $10.00 off!

The guest expert is Suzanne Falter-Barns,  a best selling self-help author, former  journalist and marketing consultant. Suzanne will be sharing her tips for getting the media to call you for interviews and profiles:

Recent studies show that 79% of all major media find their resources and story ideas from blogs and the Internet. So, yes, the major media really will call you… but only if your web presence has instant credibility and the ability to stand out from the crowded pack. This is what media and publishing pundits call ‘Platform’, and it’s critical to not only attracting key decision makers but impressing them, too. Platform also allows you to build your national audience and spread your message further, so it’s an important part of any serious coaching business.

Visit the VANetworking eSeminar page to sign up:
http://www.vanetworking.com/seminars/

Instead of working at a task until it is completed, you time box the task by setting a fixed period of time that you will work on it. You then continue to create boxes of time throughout your work week until the task or project is complete. For virtual assistants, this can be a very effective way of working on simultaneously managing multiple clients and their important action items.

Nora’s Time Boxing guide for VAs is very detailed and even features a visual sample of how it works.
Check it out:  http://www.aysweb.com/?p=967

DVVAA bids farewell to 2008 Board President, Carla Wilson, owner of Wilson Virtual Assistants and welcomes Mary Motz, Owner of ProVirtual Solutions, as its new President for 2009. Wilson commented, “The DVVAA Board members have done a bang-up job of helping to put structure to this organization that is now thriving. I am grateful to have served our organization along side such industry leaders! And a warm welcome to the 2009 Board members!”

The 2009 DVVAA Board Members include Megan Barber (www.barbervasolutions.com), Emily Morgan (www.delegatesolutions.com), Linda Siniscal (www.yourextrahand.com), Mary Motz, President, Corie Hartsock (www.coreofficesolutions.com) and Lynn Edwards (www.virtualexcellence.com).  DVVAA’s new President Motz commented, “I’m so happy to be part of the DVVAA Board of Directors and am especially excited to serve as President for the upcoming term. Riding the momentum created by the Board over the past year, DVVAA has some great plans on deck for 2009.”

DVVAA is a professional organization for Virtual Assistants in Delaware, New Jersey and Pennsylvania. Their mission is to be the go to source of information regarding Virtual Assistance in the tri-state area, provide resources and educational opportunities to Virtual Assistants, be a networking forum for Virtual Assistant business owners, encourage growth and development in the industry and inspire business excellence with learning and leadership opportunities. For more information on the new DVVAA Board of Directors, the Virtual Assistance industry or the services DVVAA provides, please visit www.dvvaa.org.

Depending on your situation you will most likely use a combination of some hourly and some retainer billing. If you’re looking for more stability and predictability, you’ll want to focus on attracting clients who are comfortable with a retainer arrangement over time. For clients just starting out with you, hourly might be the way to go until trust is established.

Each approach can be accommodated with the ClientSpot system, and this is spotlighted in the article.

Good food for thought:
http://www.myclientspot.com/retainer-versus-hourly-billing/

Cindy is owner of Creative Assistants and is President-Elect of International Virtual Assistants Association (IVAA). Creative Assistants offers social networking management,  marketing support, data analysis, bookkeeping and payroll support, CRM services and more.

Congrats Cindy!

From the description:

Determined to make 2009 your best year ever? Wondering how to create a vision board that keeps you powerfully aligned with your dreams? Curious about other success tools you can use to keep yourself on track all year long?

Cari Vollmer, the Passion into Profit mentor and founder of LifeOnTrack.com will teach us her world famous vision boarding process and share with us other tips for staying on track all year long.

What a perfect topic to start the year! VACOC’s teleseminars are free and are open to any VA, solopreneur or small business owner. For additional details and to reserve your spot on the call, visit the VACOC.

Now that there’s only a few hours left in 2008, check out these 5 inspirational new year blog posts – they are sure to provide motivation and food for thought for your 2009 fresh start… enjoy!

• AFFORMATIONS: Better Than Affirmations? Part I
  [Change Your Thoughts]
• New Year’s Resolution: Four tips for writing your personal commandments
  [The Happiness Project]
• Are you really ready for a bright new year?
  [Virtual Moxie]
• 3 Key Lessons We Can Learn From the One Minute Manager
  [Dumb Little Man]
• My Four Commandments
  [Zen Habits]

A very happy 2009 to all!

So what’s a good candidate for a VA Newsday item?  Any of the following:

• Press Releases – May be edited for brevity if needed, but will be marked clearly as a press release.
• Media Clips – Were you on TV? Send a link to the video! Radio interview? Send that too.
• Training/Webinars & Teleclasses – Offering training on something of interest to VAs? Do tell.
• Events – Summits, meetups, coffee clatches, confabs – VA related of course.
• Organization News – Have a new local or interest-only VA organization? Please dish.
• Announcements – Seeking subcontractors? Expanding into new service areas?  Tell us about it.
• Product/Service Reviews – Love Basecamp?  Checked out the new version of Act!? Tell us how it helped your business.

So what’s NOT a good candidate for a VA Newsday item?

• Stories about people or things having no real connection with you as the story submitter.
• Nastygrams or other nattering nabalms of negativity. Duh.
• Items that aren’t related to VA life in any way

Please note that all submissions are subject to editorial review, and we don’t guarantee that we will run every story.  Some stories may be delayed or posted in roundup format where appropriate. We won’t provide an explanation about any editorial decisions, but we promise to be accurate. Ok, there’s your disclaimers.

So, if you have something to share with the world, please let us know!  We created an easy form, too. The link is above on the black toolbar,  News Tips.

So – have at it.  VAs – share your news with VA Newsday!

Diary of a Self-Help Dropout: Flirting With the 4-Hour Workweek.

]]> http://www.vanewsday.com/2008/12/va-networkings-va-holiday-choir/feed/ 0 http://www.vanewsday.com/2008/12/online-event-time-management-for-the-new-year-with-julie-morgenstern-jan-13/ http://www.vanewsday.com/2008/12/online-event-time-management-for-the-new-year-with-julie-morgenstern-jan-13/#comments Mon, 22 Dec 2008 13:03:48 +0000 The Editor http://vanewsday.com/?p=265 Hay House Radio is hosting an online event with organizational guru Julie Morgenstern entitled Time Management for the New Year on January 13 at 7:00 pm ET. Julie Morgenstern is the New York Times bestselling author of several time management books, including the productivity classic Never Check E-Mail In the Morning: And Other Unexpected Strategies for Making Your Work Life Work and Organizing from the Inside Out, second edition: The Foolproof System For Organizing Your Home, Your Office and Your Life.

The two-hour online seminar will feature these topics:

• Harnessing your natural energy cycles.
• Connecting your daily activities to big-picture goals.
• Viewing time in more tangible, measurable terms.
• Effectively mapping out your day to focus on what’s important.
• Staying in balance.
• Learning techniques for saying “No.”
• Staying focused on your most critical tasks.
• Applying the SPACE Formula to manage tasks and interruptions.
• Selecting the best planner (paper, computer, or electronic) for you.

Tickets are $20 and are available at The Knowledge Economy and Hay House Radio.

The blogosphere is bursting with great ideas and tools for fine-tuning your routines and achieving your goals. Here’s some great blogs that are all about efficiency:

Unclutterer: The name says it all.  Offers daily tips on keeping a tidy and organized office. Even the elegant and eh… uncluttered site design will inspire a desk purge.

Lifehacker:  An oldie but a goodie – has MacGyver-esque tips on all sorts of stuff that will improve how you work and live. Topics range from making your own butter to the top 10 ways to lockdown data.

GTD Times:  For the serious Getting Things Done/David Allen devotee. Elegant site featuring GTD wisdom  from a distingished lineup of contributors.

Productivity501: Packed with productivity tips about money, technology, time management, going paperless and general organization. Offers free e-mail courses on overcoming procrastination, using lists and desk organization.

Put Things Off: Despite suggesting procrastination in the title, Put Things Off features articles on all sorts of organizational topics as well as an ebook, Todoodlist, about using paper to achieve simplicity.

43 Folders: Another classic, has interesting articles on the link among  attention, focus and creativity

Organize IT: Offers practical advice on personal development with an emphasis on GTD principles. The author has a huge list of links to other productivity/GTD blogs he likes.

This is a short list, so please feel free to share your favorite productivity blogs in the comments…

The site is packed with great information for emerging VAs. Sydni draws on her extensive experience as a successful VA (nominated for 2008 AssistU Virtual Assistant of the Year award) and shares it with her clients – offering VA business coaching and “Pick My Brain” sessions.

Editor’s note: I had the pleasure of chatting with Sydni this week – she’s wonderful. Go visit her site!

Interestingly, the magazine is sponsored and published by Nozbe, a task management web application built on GTD principles.

The inaugural issue, as you might expect, features a cover story/interview with David Allen himself, along with lots of other productivity-oriented articles and tips from productivity-oriented bloggers and authors. The first issue is jam-packed with content, with no ads except for the Nozbe product placement and David Allen’s next book, Making it All Work, due in December.

Check out Productive Magazine!

VAnetworking.com is a boomer-run business whose success is undeniable. [...]  created the world’s largest online social network for Virtual Assistants to gather learn share and grow successful virtual assistant practices. With outsourcing time management and home-based business being hot trends of the day VAnetworking.com fills a great big need and was a clear stand-out winner for the 2008 Boomers Back in Business award.

Read the full article at Startup Nation.  Congrats to Tawnya!

The network features news and info sharing on all aspects of OBM, including Groups, Videos, a Forum.

Check out Online Business Manager Connect.

Open to all VAs, freelancers and other outsourcing providers, the 12-week Virtual Assistant Mentor Series will feature virtual business veterans presenting classes on topics ranging from startup issues to finances to security:

The Mentor program offers the information that the “old hands” wish they had known when they first started. Our goal is to help you shorten the learning curve, start out making more money and endure fewer costly mistakes.

Click for more information about Remote Professionals.com and the Virtual Assistant Mentor Series.

The show will broadcast on Wednesday, November 5th at 4:30pm ET on Sirius channel 112 and XM channel 103.  You do need a Sirius/XM subscription to listen online, however they do offer a 3-day free trial.

Congrats to Emily!!

The theme for the 2009 IVAA Summit is No Boundaries for Your Business… fitting for IVAA’s first Canadian event. The Summit will feature the very popular Dinner with Strangers event and a schedule of great speakers.

The Summit Committee is also seeking speaker proposals for a few open slots that remain. If you have expertise to share, be sure to check out the speaker proposal page.

As a personal aside, I attended my first Summit this year – it’s a first-rate event and wholeheartedly recommend it!

Visit the IVAA Live Summit site to learn more.

Also discussed are ways to recognize a problem before you even make contact with the prospect – by noting the tone and wording of a RFP or inquiry email:

If the ad is very detailed and well written, it usually indicates professionalism.  It’s alright for potential clients to have grammar or spelling mistakes, but when the sentences are too vague or hardly make sense, future communication might be such a hassle.  The same could be said for the first exchange of emails.

Watch out for ads with a defensive tone, such as “Don’t send an outrageous quote, as I can get my neighbor’s son to do this” or “This shouldn’t cost/take more than…”  This just goes to show the small value they’ll be placing on you and your work.

Check out the full post at Web Worker Daily. What “red flags” do you look for?

Mikelann’s blog tackles some thorny subjects that most self-employed women contend with. Recent posts discuss dealing with situations such as “pick your brain” requests, enforcing cancellation policies and dealing with the current economic downturn.

Click here to check out Mikelann Valterra’s My Self-Employed Life.

The hi-def teleconference service is a bit more limited than other … eh.. lo-def (?) services – it has a 25-caller limit and works best when using Skype. It does, however, offer web-based call controls and recording. Certainly worth a try…

You can lend as little as $25 to a specific low-income entrepreneur in the developing world (hey, $25 is a WHOLE LOTTA MONEY in those areas). You choose who to lend to–whether that’s a baker in Afghanistan, a goat herder in Uganda, a farmer in Peru, a restaurateur in Cambodia, or a tailor in Iraq–and as they repay the loan, you get your money back.

If you join the VACOC lending team of Virtual Assistants, you’ll be joining forces with us to work together to alliviate poverty. Once you’re a part of the team, you can choose to have a future loan on Kiva “count” towards our team’s impact. The loan is still yours, and repayments still come to you, but you can also choose to have the loan show up in our team’s collective portfolio, so our team’s overall impact will grow!

A fantastic idea! Check out the VACOC announcement here… or go directly to the VACOC/Kiva Team page here.

The webinar is scheduled for Tuesday, October 28th at 5:00pm ET. A sneak preview of VA Classroom’s soon-to-be-launched Social Marketing Specialist Training Certification System will be included in the presentation. For more information about this webinar, click here.

Learn more about VA Classroom’s Internet Marketing VA training and certification.

Check out the MaineBiz article here.

Read VANewsday’s post about the Maine Association of Virtual Assistants here.

Most small businesses have a website that behaves like their old paper-based brochures, but just sitting online. It is rarely updated, is not given significant visibility by the search engines, has low traffic levels, does not encourage return visits, does not enable/track conversions, etc. What HubSpot does is transform that relatively static website into a modern marketing machine that produces the right leads and helps convert a higher percentage of them into qualified opportunities.

HubSpot offers handy analysis tools that get the conversation started and you thinking about what can be done better to increase targeted traffic. The blog is a must-subscribe, with a wealth of great information, tips, interviews and insights.

Click to visit the HubSpot Blog.

Tweet me, baby, one more time:
Twitter isn’t exactly known as a tool of the teen-pop set. The most popular accounts on the micro-blogging service, according to analytics tool Twitterholic, are currently either politicians (Barack Obama), tech industry heavyweights (Digg’s Kevin Rose, blogger Robert Scoble), or news outlets of one kind or another (CNN’s breaking news, the Mars Phoenix). Mainstream forays into Twitter typically deal with news and politics…

The fact that Brit’s Twitter debut has got the attention of a tech blog made me wonder how many other celebs have tweets to follow – and apparently, not a lot. Some that I found are probably fakes, but a cursory search of celeb Twitter pages turned up only the following notables:

Britney Spears
http://twitter.com/therealbritney

Oprah??  I have my doubts about this one. Unfortunately, no Oprah wisdom has been posted there yet.
http://twitter.com/oprah_winfrey

CNN’s Rick Sanchez (he’s not only handsome, but a Twitter master with 26,542 followers!)
http://twitter.com/ricksanchezcnn

Anderson Cooper:
https://twitter.com/andersoncooper

William Shatner!!
http://twitter.com/WilliamShatner

Kathy Griffin:
https://twitter.com/kathygriffin

Jon Stewart (apparently fake, but sure looks real!)
https://twitter.com/jonstewart

MCHammer (a blast from the past!):
http://twitter.com/MCHammer

The Twitter Fan Wiki offers a handy categorization of known Twitter pages in its treasure trove of Twitter trivia – check out their lengthy “Minor Celebrity” list. The wiki also includes a shockingly long list of US Goverment Twitter pages (??)- just in case you need to follow tweets from the General Services Administration: Office of Citizen Services and Communications.

Please share if you know of any “official” celeb Twitters!

I’ve been coaching individuals and groups since 1996. And until recently, I’ve focused the vast majority of my attention on the Virtual Assistants at AssistU.com. Until a brilliant coach opened my eyes about all I have to offer in a new way, I’d never really thought about doing group coaching on a more global basis. We all have blind spots.

And so I’m bringing my coaching to all VAs– at both new and more experienced levels, whatever their backgrounds and current states of practice. I’m brilliant at helping people create and sustain businesses that serve them, rather than make them struggle, and I want to help as many Virtual Assistants as I can to be as successful as they want to be. My coaching groups give me a way to do that.

=About the Groups=
There are two groups. One is for experienced VAs, and the other for new VAs. All of my group members receive the same things:

* One 90-minute group coaching call/month
* Access to me during a 2-hour office hours chat, once/month
* Additional teaching calls on various topics periodically
* Mp3 download of all calls
* Special teaching sessions offered on occasion
* A discounted rate on my on-the-spot coaching sessions

All that for $89 a month. Truly–group coaching just about any VA can afford (and if you can’t, contact me, and I’ll show you that you can!)

For full program details and registration information, visit:
http://www.virtualmoxie.com/group-coaching.html

“I plan to offer small and large businesses a one-stop-shop from start-up to exit strategy, where they will have the ability to do what they do best in their business and let us do the rest” says Sandi Silva, owner of Dynamic Support Solutions (DSS) and Certified Virtual Assistant in Marketing/Promotions, and Administrative Support.

DSS is targeting existing and new businesses that desire success. “Our goal,” says Sandi “is to setup a business plan with the business owner. Find their short, mid and long term goals and implement the procedures necessary to help them obtain those goals. Marketing plans will be drawn, branding plans will be introduced, and accounting programs will be put into place. Every business needs to run like a well oiled machine. No matter how great a business idea is if any part of the business does not run smoothly there is a chance it will not survive. We are here to give that great business idea a chance!”

ABOUT DYNAMIC SUPPORT SOLUTIONS: Dynamic Support Solutions (DSS) is an innovated rapidly growing company which has increased 200 percent in the two and a half years of doing business virtually. Sandi Silva the founder and owner of Dynamic Support Solutions has over 19-years experience in marketing and administration and each Virtual Assistant joining the DSS Team brings with them over 17-years experience.

For additional information on Dynamic Support Solutions a Multiple VA Business contact Stacy Layne Bergsma or visit www.DynamicSupportSolutions.com.

Contact: Stacy Layne Bergsma
Dynamic Support Solutions
Phone 707.239.5270
Fax 707.620.0500
Stacy@DynamicSupportSolutions
www.DynamicSupportSolutions.com

###

So far they have posted about Paris, Amsterdam and Berlin already – and they still have 2 weeks left to go!

Check out The Traveling VA and follow along…

Stacy Brice, a leader in the VA community, recently blogged about the economy and what we can do to stay positive and focused in our businesses. After a few general good-advice tips, she suggests how VAs can use the news as a reason to sharpen our games a bit:

Maintain your standards; raise them, even. Don’t freak out and think that you suddenly have to work with anyone, just to make money. The more you want great clients, are open to having great clients, and take opportunities to connect with great clients (while continuing to grow yourself and your skills) the more great clients you’ll have. [...] Oh, and introduce that topic in your interview/consultation process. It won’t hurt to be sure new clients are in a good place financially.

Check out Stacy’s post here: Economy post: What we should be doing NOW

Andrea is also a featured presenter at IVAA’s Online Summit on October 24th.

Congratulations, Andrea!

The class is scheduled for October 16th at 8:00 Eastern/5:00 Pacific. Visit the VACOC’s teleclass page to register for this free event.

The article received such a great response that it was ranked in the Shifting Careers’ Top-10  in it’s 1st anniversary post!

Congrats, Emily!!

Visit Sandi’s website here.

If you are interested in this career and have decided the best means to get up and running is to pay someone to teach you, you’ll have your hands full researching all the training programs out there. Take a deep breath: there are a ton to choose from.  [..]  To help you select the program right for you, I contacted sixteen companies who offer VA training and/or coaching, and asked them to tell me about their approach. Here’s an initial list of respondants, which I’ll add to as I hear back from those who were invited to share details on their programs.

Katie lists her initial responses with links and details regarding their respective programs. If you are a VA in the market for a training program, check out this post!

The keynote speakers are networking guru Terry Bean and marketing whiz Charlie Wollborg, who will present A Superhero’s Guide to Attraction, Action & Achievement  – a program designed to help build business passion, brand development and growth.

For more information about this event, please visit the Michigan VAs website.

Many of the ideas featured on the blog are transferable to other web-based businesses as well. She’s a proponent of using teleseminars and social networking – all tools that would be helpful with any online business. Connie also offers a mentoring program and a talk show on BlogTalkRadio.

EBook Writing and Marketing Secrets with Connie Ragen Green

Denise Wakeman of The Blog Squad

 describes her recent experience with asking her Twitter followers to help her find a good resource.  Denise was looking for a good product for online scheduling… and since many of her “tweeps” are also virtual professionals - she instantly received a lot of excellent suggestions:

I put my request out on Twitter and within minutes I had dozens of responses and suggestions. Amazing. The predominant suggestions were for TimeDriver, Appointment Quest and Google Calendar (which we use, but I’m not sure it can really do what we want). I’ll be checking out these systems over the weekend and make a decision by Monday.

The takeaway is that you can leverage your Twitter connections to quickly crowdsource a question and save time on researching issues.  Of course, DM-ming to replies and saying thanks is a great connection-builder and just good Twitterquette! 

Read the full post by Denise Wakeman at BizTipsBlog… and be sure to follow VANewsday on Twitter!

[...] Tawnya Sutherland is every VA’s modern mensch. Sutherland’s newest venture, the VAinsider Club, is proving that economic downturn is no match for a virtual empire of home office entrepreneurs. In just one year, hundreds of virtual assistants have signed on for VAinsider memberships, accessing Sutherland’s worldwide network of business experts, marketers, speakers and coaches. Not to mention a very active RFP forum.

VA Networking is the web’s largest online community of virtual assistants, with over 10,000 members and a very active member forum and RFP participation.

Virtual Assistants Ignore Recession and Pay for Access to the Fast Track ( PR-Inside )

“That’s exactly what I want to see for the Maine Association of Virtual Assistants, a membership organization where virtual assistants can network and learn from each other, support each others’ businesses and help each other grow and develop. I want our membership to be a source of inspiration and guidance for emerging virtual assistants. [...]  We can help one another. Everyone has strengths and weaknesses individually but together we can accomplish and overcome so much more” Marie states.

Visit the Maine Association of Virtual Assistants for more information.

With the “multi-va” team approach gaining a lot of steam lately in the virtual assistant world, the WWD article is timely. The article touches on several not-too-obvious potential pitfalls in working with virtual teams, such as accountability, consistent communication and even how to deal with when “the client keeps each contractor “blind” to each other’s work.”:

It’s also important to have all communication in one interface used by all, such as a wiki, as opposed to private email communication between each member of the team. Basecamp and Web Office are other common tools used for this purpose. However, some rules must be established before everyone starts using these tools. What types of messages should be available for everyone to read? Are the contractors free to talk about their rates? Is the wiki or communication platform reserved for “business only” messages?  These rules are needed to avoid miscommunication.

Check out the full post at Web Worker Daily.

View the press release here.  Visit VANetworking.com for more information.

CoveritLive’s Web-based software allows you to publish your commentary on your own event or another event you might be attending in real time just like Instant Message. They also offer “one-click” publishing for uploading polls, videos, pictures and audio clips. For example; you might use an “UltraFlip” Camera at an event to shoot some video that you can then quickly upload on you blog through their “Media Uploader” tool.

Another tool for the toolbox! Visit CoverItLive or read VA Classroom’s review here.

P.S.:  VA Classroom is a treasure trove of info for any VA interested in knowing more about Web 2.0 tools, social network or general internet marketing. Learn more about their VA training here.

Can’t make it to the class? No worries…the VACOC makes recordings of all teleseminars available on its website for a small fee.

Details about the September teleseminar are on the VACOC website.

In this experiential teleclass, we will examine the impact the “weight” of your thoughts has on your overall health and well-being. You will learn tools to assist you in your personal and professional development regarding your body image and health “from the inside-out.”

This teleclass is scheduled for Tuesday, September 16, 2008 – 10:00am PT/1:00pm ET. Visit the Virtual Nation for details and to register.

The site features a variety of training options including live training, e-books, video, print books and more.

For full details:
http://www.vatrainingclub.com

Wade has high expectations for her role as the Real Estate Industry Liaison for the VACOC. Her passion is real estate. She is an agent in the state of California herself, and she knows how detail-oriented the administrative work can be that is associated with this industry. Her goal is to connect qualified, disciplined Real Estate Virtual Assistants with savvy real estate agents who know that in order to make money, they have to make time to tend to their clients instead of sitting at the computer handling non revenue-generating administrative tasks.

To view the full press release issued by the VACOC, click here.

Additional information is available for American VAs regarding Canadian entry requirements, passport tips and travel options. An email update signup is also on the site for automatic updates as they become available.

Visit the IVAA Summit website for more information.

Out of the blue one day, I made a note to myself in TextEdit, named it FRIDAY and stuck it on my desktop. The note was a brief description of my Friday afternoon, and referred to a kind of “state of the company” as of mid afternoon on the coming Friday.

I didn’t even really open the file that much that week, but I had written down the goals the way they always say you should – as done deals – and the file sat there in plain view all week.

Even I was amazed on Friday at how much of it got done.

Sounds like the power of intention… I’ll give this approach a shot! Check out the whole article at Web Worker Daily.

Registration is open to all virtual assistants – IVAA membership not required:

With just a headset with microphone and access to the internet, you can join us in listening (and chatting) with inspiring presenters who have prepared topics just for the Virtual Assistant Industry. No membership is required, just a registration fee for an All Day Pass.

For more information and registration:
http://online.vasummit.org/

The site is organized in a way that makes it easy to follow news you’re interested in, with sections and RSS feeds focused on VA niche specialty areas, events, opinion, lifestyle, news from VA groups – even podcasts. A typical post will feature a summary (and maybe a bit of commentary!) with a direct link to the story. Visitors can subscribe to the RSS feed of any one topic section or to our main feed which includes all stories. Once we get rolling, we will feature guest VA bloggers, special events, podcasts and more.

In addition to RSS feeds and email subscription options, you can follow us on Twitter and on Facebook (coming soon). VA Newsday makes it easy to stay “newsfed” on all things virtual assistance.

We aim to not only gather news of interest to VAs, but also spark discussion. Every post is open to comment and we happily encourage your participation… we want to hear from you.

Got a story or news tip? Share it!! If you have a press release, a hot resource, or an event for your VA group, be sure to send it along from our News Tips page.

Welcome to VA Newsday. We hope you become part of our reader community!

- Mary Motz
Editor, VA Newsday

Honestly, I was SUPER impressed with the quality. Doing it via skype had me a bit worried, but I made sure and closed any other applications running on my pc, same with the person I was interviewing. Don’t know if that made a difference but the result was really good. I was happy!

Andrea credits Podcasting consultant Jason Van Orden for the tip.