The Australian VA Conference (AVAC) will be held in Melbourne, Friday 12 and Saturday 13 March 2010.  While it’s called The ‘Australian’ VA Conference it doesn’t mean you can’t come if you’re not Australian. It simply means it is being run in Australia and everyone is invited.

We are excited to be putting on a conference for VAs by VAs.  We promise you that the lineup will include names well known to the Virtual Assistant industry.

Co-ordinators for AVAC are Kathie M. Thomas from “A  Clayton’s Secretary” and Anita Kilkenny from AKA Virtual PA.

Early bird tickets are just $140 (inc GST) and include a choice of sessions, morning and afternoon refreshments, a networking lunch and the chance to mingle with sponsors and speakers.

If you would like to make contact with us, please click here.

Re-blogged with permission

Over the past three years I’ve used a number of different organisational tools both online and printed to best organise my time to my client’s advantage. Basecamp, Google Docs, Client Spot, Central Desktop and more. While each of these software packages made communicating with my team easier, it still made seeing the bigger picture difficult for me and that’s when I realised I needed to once again, change my systems. I’m a very visual person and what I was using just wasn’t cutting it or the Aussie dollar made it too expensive for my budget.

Three years ago I started with my humble notebook but then again, I only had 1 – 2 clients at the time. Task management and tracking was easy and there was no chance of anything falling through ‘the cracks’.

These days I have anywhere from 9 to 15  clients who all regularly use our services and I am yet to find a software package that fits all my needs. There have been a few that were very close but in the end they all lacked that certain something that made it perfect.

Currently I’m using a spreadsheet with a sheet for each client. My current system is far from perfect but I’m interested in hearing how others manage their client tasks and projects? Do you give your clients access and if so do they use it? Do you just use Outlook to manage everything?

Ask around in your online or offline community and chances are you know someone who started their business to be at home with their kids. Some of them may have even started their business while on maternity leave only to be told that they were ‘stark raving mad’. We all know how hard it is to start a new business, to write that business plan, to pay for our licences and to find that first client. But how many of us truly understand how having children and working from home will affect our businesses to the extent that it does?

I started my business 34 weeks pregnant with my third child while building our new home and studying at university for a degree in education full time. My boys were 6 and 3 and I’d been having a difficult pregnancy.  And yes, I was told that I was stark raving mad to even think about a business. My husband was extremely supportive but most of my extended family was very negative and frowned upon working when raising a family. All I knew was that my studies were less and less fulfilling as time went by. All I knew was that to be a great mum, I needed something besides child rearing. All I knew was that I wanted something more.

I applied for a job 33 weeks pregnant, started the following week working from home as a subcontractor and that’s when my entrepreneurial spirit showed itself. I stumbled upon the term Virtual Assistant and my head just about exploded with the information that was so readily available. But nothing really prepared me for working from home with small children.

Yes there were the articles about how to manage one’s time, how to work alongside your child and how to set up a play office so they could play and be with you. But nothing prepared me for what ultimately happened. I gave birth to a beautiful girl who was very sick. Instead of taking a few days off (pfft, what do people know, I can ‘pop’ out this baby and be back at the computer in no time) we had a short stay in the NICU and didn’t leave hospital for two weeks. I had systems in place, my mum became my assistant and looked after my one and only client but even then, I wasn’t prepared.

No one tells you about breastfeeding while typing one handed and talking with a client on Skype. No one tells you about how segmented your day will become. No one tells you that you’re supposed to sleep at night. And there’s no one to keep a close eye on you for post-natal depression (post partum).

The first thing you’ll need to discover is what type of schedule works best for you and then to not feel guilty about it. If you’re a morning person that’s great and if you’re a night person, that’s great too. Figure out what part of the day you are the most productive, map it against your family’s needs and try to stick to it.

The next thing is to understand that it’s ok to have nanna naps, even if there are no kids at home. If you need 10 minutes or 30 minutes to recharge, do it! It’s part and parcel of taking care of yourself so you don’t fall apart. I personally am a night person but my husband is a morning person so he gets up to the kids in the morning, feeds them, dresses them all before leaving to go to work. But I’m the one who gets up to the kids in the middle of the night and puts miss M back to bed 4 times between 1am and 4am.

Set up a default schedule where you block in everyone’s commitments including your own. Colour-code the schedule for each person in the family. One thing I have noticed with two children in school now is how busy we are. They don’t do a lot of after school activities but remembering which child has library day and which child has ICT (information communication technology – fancy pants term for information technology) is a lot easier now with the family schedule on the wall.

Create a support circle of business mums. They don’t necessarily have to be in the same industry as you or even have children the same age as yours, you just need to surround yourself with people who understand what it is like to be a mum in business for herself. Family members won’t understand and your partner may not understand. You’ll receive all sorts of advice from all corners and I promise it will all conflict with what you are trying to do. Having your circle of cheerleaders’ means you have people to share your highs and lows with.

Try to understand that running a business with a newborn is vastly different to running a business with a 9 year old or even a 19 year old. Your child has needs, wants and desires that changes, as they get older. My billing record is at an all time high that dates back to when miss M was less than 6 months old. Why? She slept a lot so I was able to put in the extra time. I was also post-natal at the time. Recognise what your family needs from you and be prepared as best you can for when it changes.

Each child is different. What works for me won’t work for you. I don’t have a play area in my office because I can’t handle the mess. I need a clear and tidy workspace to be able to work and kids are made to be messy. So we have a separate playroom for them to be messy to their heart’s content. All three of my kids are pretty independent and so I can snatch 10 or 20 minutes to make a phone call. But there are days when I can’t do that, so I don’t. We go outside instead. Listen to your kids and you’ll soon figure out what you need to do.

Trust in yourself. We all do a great job with our kids AND our businesses. While owning a thriving business and raising children is no easy thing to do, I wouldn’t trade it for anything in the world. Don’t think that one size fits all. Find the solutions that suit you and your family and you’ll notice the difference it makes to your business immediately. Your children are only young once so make the most of it.

About Kylie Short:
Kylie Short, owner of Tilda Virtual Services specialises in providing Internet Marketing Support, Administrative Support, Hosting and Website Design to coaches, consultants and small business owners working from home. Visit her website at http://www.tildavirtual.com.au

This year I’ve decided that it’s my year to set up my systems, once and for all. When I first began to build my team, I knew that I needed to write them down but due to lack of time and lack of planning on my behalf, it never happened. Big mistake.

Without systems, it made completing internal and client tasks difficult. We were wasting time and were inefficient. Not a good thing for a service provider.

Once I had my aha moment, I started the process by purchasing the “Systems of a Successful VA” ebook by Kristi Pavlik. I’ve written procedures before but seeing how Kristi has set up her procedures within her business makes a whole lot of sense. She also includes templates to help you get started.

I then signed up for an account with Lovely Charts to begin charting how information flows within my business.

It’s been a slow process but my goal is to have ALL my processes documented for both my business and for the tasks completed for our clients by the end of June 2009.

So how about it, are you going to join me and document all your processes by the end of June 2009?

The Virtual Assistant (otherwise known as Kylie) woke from her slumber and rose to eat breakfast with her young family. Afterwards code monkey assisted her in preparing each of the trainee code monkeys/Virtual Assistants for child care and school. She just knew that today would be a fantastic day. The sun was shining brightly, she loved her family and she loved her work.

As she travelled to her brand new office outside of her home, she quickly summarised what had to be done that day in her head. She’d need to check in with each of her Associates as well as complete client projects due that day.

After 5 minutes she arrived, collected her belongings from the boot and walked the last few metres to her door. “Hmm, that’s strange” she thought to herself. “Beckie is normally here by now, I bet she’s left me a text message on my phone.” And so she had. Beckie was unwell today and so the Virtual Assistant rearranged the schedule slightly and reallocated some of the client tasks scheduled for that day.

The Virtual Assistant unpacked her fourth baby (her MacBook Pro), turned it on and went to make herself a coffee with her cappachino machine. When she returned she saw that it appeared to be having trouble starting up. She did a forced quit and restarted. Still, the same thing happened again.

Nearly in tears, the Virtual Assistant called her code monkey to tell him of her troubles. “oh oh, I think we need to reinstall it” he said.

—–

Normally this is the part of the story where you read about the person being unable to meet deadlines, unable to communicate and unable to work AT ALL because they didn’t have a contingency plan for when things like this happen. Luckily I do. I simply jumped onto a PC, logged onto the network and other than the different operating system, it was like I was on my Mac. I had NO DOWNTIME!

Have you planned for contingencies?

So it’s been two months now since we moved into our new office and my family are ecstatic. It’s really forced me to be strict with my time and more productive. They know when I’m home and they know when I’m at work. On the flip side – family members who didn’t approve of me working from home are really happy to see me in an office.

Despite all the family stuff it’s been a huge change for me personally. I’ve not worked outside my home for the last 6 years. To have to been somewhere at the same time every day is a challenge for me. I can’t go with the flow anymore and just squeeze things in. I have to be a big girl and actually manage my time. I love it but I’m missing my home office too.

Have you recently made a big change to the way you do business? Perhaps you’ve recently changed your business model? If so, I’d love to hear from you.

If you’ve been thinking of attending the Business Mums Conference next month then this is the post for you. I am offering one scholarship to attend the Business Mums Network Conference in Melbourne. Why? Last year was a big year for me. My business grew very quickly, I was working all hours, irritable and generally stressed out. The I received a phone call from Melissa. She wanted to offer me a scholarship to attend the conference, was I interested?

I had a talk to my code monkey, we organised for our eldest two to go to their grandparents and we drove the 11 hours from our home town to Melbourne with Miss Matilda. Well.. I fell in love. With the city of course. But during the two day conference I began to look at my business from the outside in. Instead of working feverishly I sat back, listened to other business owners who were experts in their field and I began to make a series of decisions that have set me on my current path today.

It was an eye opening experience! I’d been working hard to get out of the employee mindset and yet I still hadn’t broken free from it. It was so hard choosing between the different workshops and I remember wanting to go to both of them.

I met some fantastic people who I’ve become close friends with. We talk about kid stuff, spouse stuff, business stuff etc.

I’m soooo glad I was able to go and this year I want to pay it forward and help someone else to go too.

If you’ve been thinking about attending and you’re not quite sure, send me an email. I’d love to hear from you and give you the opportunity to go too.

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.

1. Make sure you actually tell people you are running the promotion
2. Remind people to actually purchase on a regular basis up until the promotion ends
3. 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!

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.

When I first began my business I made a mistake. I forgot to set my boundaries and as a result my client would fax/phone me at all times of the day with ‘urgent’ requests. Everything had to be done NOW and that meant putting down my newborn bub or my toddler or my older son who wanted my attention, to do their work. I would become easily stressed and I felt that I had no time to be with my kids even though they are the reason why I decided to start working from home.

As time went by and I started to market my business, I of course started signing up new clients. My main client still didn’t understand why I wasn’t at their beck and call AND still didn’t understand what and why I was becoming stressful. They knew I had a newborn, after all they hired me despite my 34 week pregnant belly and they knew I had older children but this seemed to have no bearing on the situation for them. They had a need and I fulfilled that need. Only thing is, they were encroaching on my family time.

Eventually as I became busier and started thinking about becoming a multi-VA business, the decision had to be made. What was I going to do about the situation?

I began by reflecting on why it wasn’t working. How did the situation make me feel and how did that effect my business overall? Not setting clear boundaries with this client was holding back my growth and ability to take on new clients. It became clear that they had to be fired as a client and that is exactly what I did, despite the fact that I would be losing out on 15 hours a week billing time. A big chunk of change in anyone’s eyes.

I credit attending the Business Mums Network Conference in 2007 with making me sit up, take notice and make the decision to fire my first client. Since then I’ve gone from strength to strength. I’ve added people to my team and together we rock!! I also finally sat down and decided exactly what my boundaries were. Did I want to be constantly bombarded with chats via Skype? No I did not. Did I want to be constantly answering emails? No I did not. Did I even want to answer my own office phone? No I did not. I hired an in-house Virtual Assistant to help ME get my ‘stuff’ done and I lay down the law with my clients.

I no longer ‘chat’ on Skype unless it is something to do with my current task. I have Beckie to answer the phone and screen calls for me. The office is closed on Fridays to allow me some time to breath. I book in phone conferences in advance and try to get them done all on the one day. I return and make calls in a blocks of time instead of sporadic throughout the day and the side benefits of setting my boundaries is that I am becoming more productive in my work day.

So what did my existing client’s think? “About time, we were wondering when you would stop running yourself ragged”. I even get chastised for answering emails on a Friday or on the weekend by my clients. The amount of emails that come through are minimal because clients know to use Basecamp instead. I’m less stressed and my family loves it!

Moral to the story boys and girls is to make sure you figure out what your boundaries are. Figure out what is acceptable and not acceptable in your business. Make sure you lay down the ground rules and then stick to them. Not only will you be less stressed trying to meet everyone’s needs but your clients will thank you too.