VAnetworking.com

What Did You Waste Energy On Today?

I’m willing to bet you did at least one thing today that you either rolled your eyes over or had to take a deep breath to get through. Could have been faxing an email, organizing your receipts, typing up a letter or coming up with content for a newsletter. Maybe you’re the type that hates returning phone calls or updating your blog.

How many administrative tasks did you do today that could have been outsourced to a Virtual Assistant? Or more importantly, how many administrative tasks did you not do today that could have been outsourced to a Virtual Assistant?! ;)
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Posted by Karri on September 10, 2008 in Administrative Services, All Topics, Deep Thoughts | Comments closed

The Importance of Personality

Far more important than rates and almost equally important as skill when selecting a Virtual Assistant, is personality.

If you need website updates, assistance with your Internet marketing efforts and database management, you can find handfuls of VAs that provide those services and most will fall within the same price range.

How do you choose after you’ve narrowed it down to a couple?
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Posted by Karri on September 2, 2008 in All Topics, Hiring Tips | Comments closed

What to Look For in a VA’s Proposal

When you decide to partner with a VA, it can be overwhelming. It’s a very big decision because you will be working very closely with this person and you want to make sure you choose the best VA for you that you possibly can.

I’d like to address a couple things you should keep in mind after you have submitted an RFP (Request for Proposal).

If you submit an RFP (Request for Proposal) for a virtual assistant at a place like VAnetworking.com, you will probably get dozens of responses. How do you even begin to weed through them?
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Posted by Karri on August 16, 2008 in All Topics, Hiring Tips | Comments closed

Common Policies and Procedures of Virtual Assistants

There are a few key things to look out for when you initiate the process of working with a Virtual Assistant.

First of all, the VA should provide you with a contract or client agreement to sign before you start working together. This should outline his/her hours of operation, your rate, different policies and procedures which are put in place to protect both parties involved. Look at the agreement carefully and make note of payment terms, termination and non-compete clauses.

If your VA doesn’t send you an agreement that’s a bad sign!
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Posted by Karri on August 11, 2008 in All Topics, General, Hiring Tips | Comments closed

What is a VA, anyway?

Because we have decided to build this blog to help educate potential clients of VAs on the ins and outs of working with a virtual professional, this seems a logical starting place.

What is a Virtual Assistant (VA)?

Perhaps you’ve heard about virtual assistants in the media, through an article or a press release. Maybe you heard about the industry from “Dr. Phil”, through the Reader’s Digest, or Entrepreneur magazine. Could be that you have a friend that has been making you jealous talking about how their own virtual assistant has improved their quality of life. It doesn’t really matter where you heard about VAs, we would like to tell you what a virtual assistant actually is.

We, at VAnetworking.com, like the following definition:

“A Virtual Assistant (VA) is a highly-trained independent entrepreneur who provides a myriad of business support services virtually via phone, fax and internet based technology to support and meet the growing needs of businesses worldwide.