Technology is great – until it goes wrong!

How many times have we heard that old saying?  And just what do you do when it does go wrong?

I recently experienced being without electricity, due to our washing machine breaking down and tripping out the rest of the electrics.  This was very unfortunate, as my job as a VA means that my whole business is internet based.  So what did I do?  I decamped to my in-laws house and logged onto their Wi-fi so that I could at least see my emails, if nothing else.  But it got me thinking…what did we used to do before all this modern technology was invented and how did people manage?

Well, years ago you couldn’t just “Google” something – if you didn’t know something, you just didn’t know.  Or you went to a library to read about it in an actual book!

There used to be paper maps, rather than SatNav and you had to wait sometimes to get the latest news.  Before the internet, news sources were the TV, radio and the daily morning paper.

Since the 1990s the internet has had a huge impact on business and we have seen the rise of instant communication through email, VoIP, Skype and cloud based technology (such as Dropbox, Evernote, etc…), social networking and online shopping.

The internet has changed things forever for people who are able to access information and share things in a way that was not possible in a previous generation.

So what do you think?  Is life better or worse since the invention of the internet and modern technology?  I would love to hear from you!

Could your small business benefit from a Virtual Secretary?

Name(required)

Email(required)

Website

Comment(required)

Submit

Δ

Virtual Secretaries/Assistants are becoming increasingly popular, with many small businesses choosing to hire one. Some business owners find that they need assistance with their office admin but can’t afford to employ a full-time secretary in their office; a virtual secretary can fill in the gaps by providing ad-hoc assistance and it’s cost effective too, as you only pay for the time that you use.

If you are a small business owner and find yourself in the following situations, then it may be time to look at hiring a virtual secretary to help you:

You miss deadlines to follow up
You’re tied up with the day-to-day running of your business
You regularly work evenings and weekends to keep up with routine administrative tasks
You have routine admin tasks that you don’t like performing and these take time away from running your business and generating money

There are many tasks that are suitable for delegating and outsourcing to a virtual secretary. If you’re looking to hire one, but not sure what they could help with, this list can give you some ideas:-

Diary and E-mail management
Appointment bookings
Database building
Internet research
Typing & audio transcription (transcribing podcasts, webinars etc)
Social media management
Proof-reading
Invoicing
Tender proposals
Document Editing and Formatting

This is obviously not exhaustive and you can identify which tasks of your own you can outsource by finding ones that you dislike performing such as invoicing, blogging, tweeting, etc…These are ideal projects to hand over to a virtual secretary.

So, what do you think? Do you have experience of hiring, or working with a virtual secretary/assistant? I would love to hear your comments…

So what exactly is a Virtual Secretary?

I’m asked this question quite a lot, so I thought I would go into more detail in this blog post. 

A Virtual Secretary is an independent self-employed professional who works remotely from their own home office, for clients, on a contract basis.

So what tasks am I asked to perform for my clients?  I have carried out internet research, proof-reading, audio transcription, social media updates and stationery ordering to name just a few.

When I first started my business I couldn’t decide what to call myself – Virtual Assistant or Freelance Secretary?  I thought people might not know what a ‘Virtual Assistant’ was and I would end up having to explain myself over and over again at networking events so I decided on ‘Freelance Secretary’.  I felt this spoke for itself – the clue is in the title!  However, as my business progressed, I was surprised to discover that lots of people are familiar with the term and so I decided that ‘Freelance Secretary’ sounded a bit old fashioned and I decided to change my job title to ‘Virtual Secretary’. 

Or so I thought! The term may be familiar to people, but I was still getting lots of enquiries of “so what is a virtual secretary?  What do you actually do?”  So I thought I would explain in my blog – and now you know!