Running a promotion
May 31, 2008 by Kylie Short · Leave a Comment
To celebrate the second anniversary of Tilda Virtual Services, I decided to run a special birthday promotion. For all you ‘ole timers’ out there who have been in the business longer than I, you can stop chuckling now. It was my first time and as usual I saw it as a learning experience.
- Make sure you actually tell people you are running the promotion
- Remind people to actually purchase on a regular basis up until the promotion ends
- Be prepared for more takers
So what was the promotion? It was for 10 hours prepaid to be used within 12 months for $350 AUD. That was a whopping saving of $90.
I of course sent out cards to all existing and past clients thanking them for their patronage and then as an after thought why not offer a discount for my 10 hour prepaid package and inserted a coupon. This was super successful in that I received a gift from one client (thanks Melissa!) and kudos from the rest. They recognised the achievement and took time out of their day to ring and say congratulations. We also had a few clients take up the offer.
I then thought “hmm, I didn’t really promote this, why not send an email out to my newsletter list??” and had more people take up the offer. Now I don’t profess to be an expert in marketing nor do I pretend to know all there is about marketing but I learnt from this experience. PROMOTE THYSELF!
Because it is still May 31 somewhere in the world I am going to offer the promotion to my loyal blog readers. If you’d love to work with a Virtual Assistant who is a perfectionist, self professed nerd and a classic over achiever, then click here. If not…. thanks for reading and tell a friend instead!
Australian Virtual Assistant Wins Prestigious Janet Jordan Achievement Award
May 27, 2008 by Kylie Short · 2 Comments
BATHURST NSW, Australia – Australian business owner Kylie Short, of Tilda Virtual Services, has won the Janet Jordan Achievement Award at this year’s online virtual assistant convention (OIVAC). The award honors a newcomer Virtual Assistant who has been in business for less than five years and has reached a milestone in their short career.
Tilda Virtual Services (TVS) recently reached two milestones. The first was a celebration of two years in business on May 15th 2008 and the second, moving into office space in downtown Bathurst “It’s said that it takes a village to raise a child and I firmly believe that it takes a community to raise a VA”, said Short during her acceptance speech. “A lot of what I learned, I learned from the best.”
Nominees for the award are asked to submit application packets and the materials are judged by the OIVAC Steering Committee. The winner is chosen based on a set of specific criteria and a numeric scaling system. Short’s application materials apparently earned high points with the committee. Some of the criteria include industry memberships, mentoring and volunteering.
Janet Jordan, who died in 2006, was a recognized industry leader in the virtual assistance field. Along with running her private VA practice which included clients who spanned the globe, Mrs. Jordan also trained aspiring entrepreneurs to launch their own up-to-the-minute, compelling and relevant virtual assistant practices through Virtual Assistance U. Short is following in Jordan’s footsteps volunteering time to help educate various organizations and virtual assistants on technical and Web site issues.
Reflecting on the announcement, Short said, “I was so honored to be nominated but to actually win – I feel very humble, special and excited all at the same time.”
About Kylie Short
Kylie Short, Owner of Tilda Virtual Services has 10 years experience in Office Management and Bookkeeping with considerable time spent in Small Business Management, Information Technology, Manufacturing, Child Care and the Human Resource industries. To find out more about Ms Short, visit her blog at http://www.tildavirtual.com.au/blog.
About Tilda Virtual Services
Tilda Virtual Services partners with small business owners to provide personalised, cost-effective and reliable services that support the needs of their business. Providing bookkeeping, administrative support, contact management, newsletter, website design and hosting, Tilda Virtual Services is here to assist small business owners, freeing up their time and reducing their to-do lists. For more information visit the Web site at http://www.tildavirtual.com.au.
I won I won!!!!!
May 17, 2008 by Kylie Short · 4 Comments
To have been nominated for the Janet Jordan Achievement award was just mind boggling. To be grouped with a fantastic group of successful Virtual Assistants was an absolute honour, but to actually win the award……. I don’t know how to describe my feelings right now. I’ve been given this award by my peers for being who I am. What can I say except THANK YOU!!
If you haven’t been by the OIVAC, you should head over there now. It’s too late to register but there are open networking events, sponsor presentations where you can attend for free. Later you’ll be able to purchase and download the recordings.
When Word goes ‘bad’
May 16, 2008 by Kylie Short · 1 Comment
It’s been a marathon but we solved it. What did we solve? A good friend of mine and Associate VA went to open a Word document I sent to her for a client task. Only problem was that when she went to open it, she got an error message and Word refused to respond.
My Associate had looming deadlines including coursework for her PhD, my client task and her own client tasks. Word not working = very upset and stressed out VA.
She persevered for hours before grabbing me on Skype where we Googled, troubleshooting to no avail. Three hours after we started working on solving it together, my codemonkey husband came home. Another three and a half hours later (now 4am for my stressed out VA) Codemonkey solved the problem. He used an article from Geekswithblogs and thank goodness the article was there.
Troubleshooting more often than not is simply a case of trying multiple solutions until you find the right one. In this case there was a huge number of solutions we attempted until we found the right one. Why did this happen? Who knows.. what I do know is that my lovely VA can now go to sleep, has recovered her documents and all is well with her laptop.
So you want to be a Virtual Assistant
May 16, 2008 by Kylie Short · Leave a Comment
If you’ve ever wanted to learn about becoming a Virtual Assistant or want to connect with other VAs, come check out the OIVAC - Online International Virtual Assistant Convention.
With a huge variety of topics, great speakers - you’ll learn something new!