Hi everyone

I just had to repost this from an email Kathie Thomas sent to the Virtual Assistants Forum a couple of weeks ago. How many of these can you relate to hearing before?

• The Marathon Message: The extremely long voicemail that never ends.
• The Death March: Leaving a phone number at the end of a long voicemail. If you missed it, you then have to listen to the entire message again just to get the phone number.
• The Screaming Eagle: The voicemail left in a noisy bar or as a fire truck is passing by.
• The Drunken Dispatch: The drunk dial voicemail.
• Voicemail Interruptus: As the person is leaving the voicemail, they stop in the middle to have a conversation with someone else or answer another call before they return to finish the message.
• The Misguided Message: A person or telemarketer leaves a message for you that was actually intended for someone else.
• Voicemail Incognito: The anonymous voicemail.
• One Way Wonder: When the person thinks they are speaking to you when they are actually talking to your voicemail.
• The Pocket Dialer: The person that accidentally calls you because the phone is in their pocket or bag and isn’t locked, leading to an endless soundtrack of them walking down the street, driving or having a conversation with someone else.
• And, worst of all, the person who rattles off their telephone number at lightening speed, causing you to have to repeatedly go back over the entire message to try and decipher the digits.

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There has been recent attention in the media given to offshore outsourcing to VA’s in India and similar countries. Most recently was a story on the “Today” show on Channel 9 in Australia. The theme seems to be that it is a cheap option for business owners to save them money.

Most of these advocates pushing the “cheap” option don’t realise or just ignore the fact that we have a thriving Virtual Assistance industry in Australia, an industry filled with experienced, skilled, educated and professional VA’s. Going for the ‘cheap’ option in India may just prove to be a false economy - often English is not the first language and it can be tricky for someone to pick up the nuances of Australian English if they are not from here. I have heard first hand of businesses outsourcing their transcription to someone in India, only to have it returned in such bad shape, they then have to spend hours going over it themselves to make sense of it, or pay someone in Australia to tidy it up or re-transcribe it. Where is the cost saving in that? Or time saving for that matter?
I am sure that there are professionals in India just like there are in any other country (in fact I have dealt with a couple myself who were IT specialists and very, very good at what they do) but the advocates of this cheap option seem to be pushing the unskilled, non-professional workers as “VA”s which is misleading and gives our professional industry a tarnished image.

I firmly believe you get what you pay for - if you pay peanuts, you quite often get monkeys.

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I thought I would write about an event that occurred this week that got me thinking about the power of positive thinking, letting go and the power of alignment.

A client that owed me money paid me today. I had chased the client for a couple of weeks, sending several emails and today the payment was made without me having to resort to debt collection or court action. I made a deliberate decision when I began my business (and after a sour experience with a non paying client - more on this in a minute) to embrace the power of positive thinking and alignment. That is, my thoughts should be in alignment with my actions. This has always become most evident when being paid by clients. I have only ever NOT been paid once in the four years I have been operating my practice. It was only a relatively small amount (under $100) and because I was so new in the business, I failed to put in place an Agreement between the client and myself and ask for progress payments (it was a big ongoing job entering information onto a website shopping cart). I did pursue the client but he ended up disappearing and left a few other VA’s out of pocket also. About a year after that, I encountered another potential non-paying client. It was at this stage that I started getting really stressed out about the possibility of not being paid and nearly threw it all away at that point. I then decided to “let go”. I was tired of investing so much energy and stress into the situation and I thought “She is either going to pay me or she isn’t and the outcome is beyond my control. I’m going to give this one up to the Universe and just let go” - and she paid me the next day!

I now ensure I always have in place Agreements with all my clients, and make sure that my thoughts are aligned with my actions - I do everything I can on my side to ensure a positive outcome (i.e. delivering a quality service on time, and being paid for it!). If I do encounter a difficult payer, I have a 3 step procedure I follow before it gets to debt collection and as I mentioned, I have always been paid eventually. I also “let it go” - it keeps me from being so invested in the outcome and stressing out, when really that outcome will happen regardless of how upset I get about it.  It is very liberating and at the end of the day, I know I can sleep at night.

I would be interested in hearing other comments about how other business owners deal with situations such as this.

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I got tagged by Kathie Thomas at VA Directory - thanks Kathie!

Before I get started, here are the rules:

1. Link to the person’s blog who tagged you.
2. Post these rules on your blog.
3. List seven random and/or weird facts about yourself.
4. Tag seven random people at the end of your post and include links to their blogs.
5. Let each person know that they have been tagged by posting a comment on their blog.

Now for the fun stuff …

Weird fact #1: I am an Ebay addict! I now have two accounts on Ebay, one for personal and one for business transactions (funnily enough called “NetAuction” in keeping with the “Net” theme I have going in businesses!). I always check Ebay for goods before I go to a bricks and mortar shop, no matter what it is. I’m not sure if it’s the thrill of receiving parcels in the mail or the generally cheaper prices and better variety on Ebay - probably a bit of both.

Weird fact #2: I always warm the milk in the microwave before pouring it on my Weetbix.

Weird fact #3: I really, really would like to live in New York, at least for a year or two.

Weird fact #4: I have contemplated moving to London to live and work, again at least for a year or two, as my grandfather was born in Manchester and I am able to get an ancestry visa. I would also like to explore my heritage in Manchester.

Weird fact #5: As you can see by Facts 3 and 4, I am a travel nut and have taken my young son on lots of adventures with me, so he too is addicted.

Weird fact #6: When I was 6 years old, the Adelaide News did a story on gifted children and featured a large photo of me in the newspaper playing a quiz game and with a pencil stuck in my mouth, looking thoughtful!

Weird fact #7: I have hyperextensible knees (my legs bow out at the back in an arc when I am standing up if I don’t check myself).

Now that I’ve told you 7 weird things about me, you’ll probably see me in a different light - sorry. I’ll tag 7 others and ask them to do the same. So ladies and gent … tag, you’re it!

Ingrid Cliff

Erin Blaskie

Danielle Keister

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Today is a very exciting day in the history of Net Secretary. I received confirmation from the Australian Achiever Awards that I scored a 98.09% for customer relations and service in the SA Office Services and Supplies category. Anything above 80% is considered exceptional, so I am stoked. The winner in the category will be announced later in the year but in the interim, I have a “Highly Recommended” recognition that I can proudly promote to my clients, existing and new. Net Secretary’s details have been added to the Australian Achievers website as a business who is committed to customer service.

I believe awards are an important recognition of achievement in any business, big or small, and add to the business credibility in the eyes of clients.

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Recently a client asked Net Secretary to undertake the compilation of a database. This entailed telephoning a number (100+) of government and hospitality contacts gleaned from the internet and asking for permission to place their HR manager on the mailing list to receive emailed information about a seminar the client is providing. For the most part, I would say 90% of respondents agreed to be placed on the list and were therefore emailed the information.

In effect, I believed this was cold calling and therefore fell under the auspices of telemarketing. After an exhausting few days fulfilling this request, I advised the client that we could no longer provide the service as VA’s are not sales people or telemarketers and we did not have expertise in this area. I felt strongly that we didn’t want to waste the clients time or money, given that none of my other VA contacts were willing to undertake this work in a subcontract capacity (the original subcontractor was called away on urgent family matters). They all pointed out that it was telemarketing and not within their scope of services.

I have no such issue with calling a client’s customer and confirming an appointment for the day or following up on outstanding work, unpaid invoice or whatever. However, I believe that Virtual Assistants should concentrate on what they do best and that is providing administration support. To me, asking a VA to undertake telemarketing is like asking an accountant to give legal advice. They may have some knowledge of the matter but they are by no means an expert and are likely to give misleading or just totally incorrect advice, therefore wasting the client’s time and money when it could be better spent on an expert in that field to give them results they want and deserve.

I would be interested to hear any other opinions or thoughts.

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I have been both impressed and frustrated this week with my new VOIP phone and broadband telephony service. I specifically bought the phone and phone service so that I could receive calls for clients with relative simplicity and without the prohibitive expense of installing additional landlines. For the most part, things are working well. I can make calls out, receive calls in and the sound quality is excellent. BUT … my voice mail for the phone line is not working. I can access it via my landline but it won’t accept my password. My VOIP line can’t access it at all. I have logged a service call with my VOIP telephony service provider but they are taking an interminably long time to respond. There is some urgency to this as I’ll be receiving a clients calls beginning this week and I would like the voicemail to capture any that come through when the office is unattended. Technology is awesome when it is working as it should but when there are hiccups, it can be a nightmare in frustration. Here’s hoping I get a speedy resolution to this small but significant problem asap.

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Recently one of my VA colleagues wrote about her shock and sadness at finding out someone in a different state had registered the same business name as her. She has been in business for 4 years and the other person registered the same name last April. It was a huge lesson for her as she had assumed that once registered, no one else could register it but that is not the case in Australia - unless you trademark or set up a Pty Ltd. Different people in different states can register the same business name. She is in the process of seeking legal advice to see where she stands and where to from here.

It prompted me to have another think about Net Secretary and how much it has become part of my identity over the past four years. It defines exactly what I do (an Internet Secretary or Virtual Assistant) and I am proud that I dreamed up the name and tag line myself. I have done a few searches over the years and no one has yet registered the name in any other state that I am aware of. I have also explored the path of trademarking but I think I need to engage the services of an experienced IP solicitor to do this for me as I think it is more complicated than simply applying. I believe you have to have a case as back-up. So this is something I am seriously thinking about again.

I am certainly not an expert when it comes to registering a business name  but probably a good idea to do your homework and research.

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I am finally moved into my new office, with the grand opening taking place on January 14, 2008. I have been there two weeks and I am loving it. It is a different experience to working from home. One has to be “on show” a little more in a shopfront where the public can walk in at any time. So make up and hair done every day with respectable attire but its a small price to pay for the sheer professionalism one feels in one’s own office. There have been a few teething problems to begin with, including the security alarm going off for no reason and the bathroom being unusable (having to regulate one’s toilet breaks is interesting to say the least!).

I have picked up 3 new clients in the past two weeks, two of whom are locals so people are getting to know me and where I’m located. I’m pleased I still have my virtual work to keep me going as well, so the best of both worlds as it were.

Come visit our new digs at 9 Randell Street, Mannum, South Australia.

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Happy New Year! I love the start of a fresh new year, with the anticipation of what the year will bring and thinking about what needs refreshing or changing in my business and indeed my life. One thing I love to do at the start of each year is review my goals for the previous year, see which ones I have achieved and which ones I still need to work towards. I also like to set myself new goals. I believe goal setting is very important, in life generally but particularly in business. Not setting goals is a bit like trying to steer a boat without a rudder - you’ll just end up going around in circles and not moving very far at all. I am about to implement one of my business goals for this year and that is to move Net Secretary into business premises. My other goals will revolve around growing the business, expanding services, doing things better, implementing systems and learning new skills.

To be effective, goals must be specific, measurable and achievable. It is a must to write your goals down to make them ‘real’ and it is always handy to have your goals placed somewhere prominent so that you can see them often. It is very satisfying to be able to cross your goals off the list as you achieve them, something which helps me to aspire to even loftier heights! What goals are you setting yourself this year? Feel free to comment!

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