Just a few things I learned:

• From our awesome keynote speaker, Marsha Petrie Sue,  When you run into issues and problems, you have 3 choices in life: Take it, Leave it, or Change it. So what’s your plan?
• Speaker, Karen Gridley really made me reflect on if my thoughts, feelings and actions are really aligned. How am I getting in my own way?
• Learned that I need to refine my processes, especially my lead follow up.
• I need to screen new team members carefully, or “Hire slow and fire fast” according to Donna Toothaker.
• That other VA Mommies of small children like me do not do it ALL. They get help now and then too.
• Never realized how I don’t talk very much while working at my home office. I spent the end of every day at the Summit hoarse from gabbing so much with my VA colleagues. (Sorry if I talked your ear off!)
• My friend, Dana Fortier is a total Rockstar.
• Some VAs have really awesome clients that send them really awesome cake for Administrative Professionals day.

As you can see, I had a fabulous time at the Live Summit and I came back with a motivational fire under me to set some great new things in motion. I also came back with so many new friends in the VA world. I feel so lucky to have met them and look forward to “seeing” and getting to know them in and around the social networks and forums I frequent.

One thing that made my year is that the 2011 Live Summit will be held in Portland, Oregon. I’m not sure if anyone was more excited than me, since I am originally from that area. My family will be thrilled that I have another excuse to come out and visit.

So have I convinced you yet?  Are you ready to invest in yourself and your business to take it to the next level? Then the 2011 Live Summit is one that you can not miss! And don’t use finances as an excuse, start saving! Starting now, put aside $25 per week in a “summit fund”. By the 1st of July you’ll have enough to cover your summit registration. By the 1st of November you’ll have enough saved to also buy your plane ticket. And by mid-January 2011 you should have enough to cover your hotel room too! So start saving, mark your calendars, and I will see you at next year’s Live Summit in Portland.

Tomorrow, I’m leaving on a jet plane and I couldn’t be more excited.

The past few days I have been preparing to to travel this week to Phoenix, for the IVAA’s 9th Annual Live VA Summit. I am super excited to get out of my office, drop off my little boy at grandma’s, jump on a plane, and descend upon Phoenix with 100 other Virtual Assistants to network and learn. It is giving me a chance to get out of the isolation of my own home office and to meet in person with other Virtual Assistants, many of which I have come to know and respect from my online social networks and VA forums. It’s an opportunity to be “Megan” instead of “Mommy” for a few days.

This brings me to the tremendous importance in-person networking for the Virtual Assistant. I’m talking about getting  out from behind your computer screen, and networking in person with other Virtual Assistants or small business owners. Working from your home office can feel somewhat isolating at times. You don’t have the regular in-person interaction with co-workers or customers and clients. I have my moments where I feel like I don’t have much social interaction with anyone beyond my11 month old son and my husband.

I really look forward to the times where I get to leave my home and go to one of the regular DVVAA luncheons to be in the company of other Virtual Assistants. We talk and at times, commiserate about the ups and the downs of our VA businesses, our awesome clients, and what is generally going on in our lives. I love getting together with this great group of people and it makes me feel less alone in my online business world. Not to mention, I have fun Getting out and networking is necessary for my own sanity.

I highly recommend that all Virtual Assistants get out and network, attend luncheons, chamber events, business conferences, whatever, and just get away from your computer. If you are a brand new Virtual Assistant, try looking to see if there is another VA that lives close to you and take them to lunch. Or perhaps there is a local VA networking group like mine (DVVAA) that has networking lunches or events. And last but not least, save room in your budget for attending one of the live VA conferences like IVVA’s Live Summit or VA Networking’s conference slated to happen in 2011.

And if you’re heading to Phoenix this week for #IVAA10, be sure to say hi and exchange cards.

**Contest Alert** I have a Rockstar Poken to give away to a lucky VA while I’m at the Summit in Phoenix. The first person to come up to me in person and say “I want to be a rockstar” gets the lovely rockstar Poken. What is a Poken, you ask? Check out my review of them at my other blog here.

Well this fabulous article, Seven Deadly Sins of Home Office Security, was brought to my attention by my husband and I wanted to share. The article is geared towards anyone that works from a home office, and I think it gives us VA “old-timers” a great reminder, but also is a great resource for new and emerging VAs who are just setting up their home offices. So just how secure, accident proof, fireproof, or otherwise if your office files, equipment and network?

Now, this is just my humble opinion, but I think it is a little bit of a misconception that in-person networking or marketing opportunities work better for those Virtual Assistants in “larger cities” versus smaller towns. Not everyone probably agrees with me, but I base it off my own experience.

When I started my VA business 4 years ago, I was living in a VERY small town in the middle of New Mexico. And since I had a very low budget starting out (ok, more like no budget), by using some of the in-person networking opportunities (suggested in my post) and connections I had locally, the majority of my clients came from that very small town. I didn’t even have a website yet! Some of those clients are still with me today and I have since moved many states away.

At first I was really afraid people in my small town would be apprehensive to use me because of the independent contractor rates I was charging. Some people did balk at my rates. One prospect even told me, “I could hire the neighbor girl down the street for $8/hr…”. But I kept at it and I worked hard to demonstrate my value to them. I showed them how I can I can save them a bit of money, and how much TIME I saved them from doing these tasks for them. Prospects turned into clients, who then into raving fans, and through word of mouth I signed on more clients from that very same small town.

As an aside, that person who said could hire the “neighbor girl” for $8 an hour, did so. Just few months later they came back to me and immediately signed on as client. They realized the value of my services and learned the hard way about the old saying “you get what you pay for”. They became one of my biggest fans and sent me many referrals.

Again, I base all this off of my own experience coming from a small town. Perhaps it is because I have narrowed down a niche (real estate). Some networking or marketing tactics may not work for every business, every niche, or every area. But I don’t think you should let the size of your city, township, county, etc, limit your marketing possibilities.

So I guess I what I am saying is from my own experience, I have found that in-person networking can help build your business whether you’re in a large city or small town. So I don’t you should totally count it out.

I would love to hear anyone else chime in and let me know what you think.

Here at the Virtual Perception, it is my goal to provide great resources to new and aspiring Virtual Assistants, and answer common questions about getting started and how to be successful. Today I would like to welcome Ruth Martin of Maplewood Virtual Assistance, who was kind enough to answer our Q&A With An Experienced VA series.

How did you start your VA business?

My first two clients found me nearly nine years ago. I had just ended working as a director of a non-profit organization with a 9 month old baby (who I had taken to work with me daily) and wasn’t sure what was next. In a matter of a week I had two former business acquaintances asking if I could help them with some administrative work. I knew I didn’t want to place my child in daycare so I asked if we could try my working from home and utilizing email and other online services to get their projects completed. Each was open to that and I suddenly had two clients! After doing this for seven years with the same two, I happened upon VAnetworking and realized that virtual assistance was an industry that others did, too. This emerging way of working was actually more mainstream than I realized. I, then, formalized my business – giving it a proper name and launched Maplewood Virtual Assistance in 2007.

How did you figure out what to charge for your services?

In the early days I worked with project pricing. When I formalized the business I rounded out my services with pricing plans for hourly, retainer and projects. The majority of my work today is retainer but I do enjoy the variety of meeting per project clients’ needs.

How did you find your first clients?

Once launching my business formally, my first client was a local businesswoman. I carefully selected 20 names from the Chamber of Commerce directory that I was interested in their respective businesses and thought I could add value to their services. I mailed a postcard and received a call two days later. We met two days after that and I walked out of the meeting with a signed retainer contract. Interesting enough that client was the only one I ever met in person.

How long did it take you to build your clientele?

Three months after really doing some marketing in the ways of launching a website, passing out businesses cards, telling others what I was doing, getting active on forums, and assembling some information packets for targeted mailings. From there everything snowballed and I have looked back.

How many hours per week do you usually work?

Typically, I work 35-40 hours weekly inclusive of about 5-8 hours of weekly admin time for the care and growth of my business. I maintain loose office hours of 9am-4pm weekdays. I rarely work weekends because I feel it’s very important to take care of one’s self and get out of the office. Working from home can take discipline to know when to walk away and take a break, enjoy the family, and know that all at the office will be fine until I return again.

Do you find being a VA provides you flexibility when you need it, especially family or hobbies?

Absolutely! Being a Mom who can to work her schedule around family needs has been one of the best parts to being an entrepreneur. I’ve been privileged to chaperone all of my son’s class field trips and attend each holiday party. When I served on jury duty I could easily flip my day and handle client work in the evenings without any delays. Several of my clients never realized I served jury duty as they saw no interruptions to their typical work flow.

Do you have a specific niche or specialized target market you typically provide services for? If so, what is your niche and how did you choose it?

I tend to work with those who need to boost their marketing efforts and also clients who need project management or backend administrative assistance. Serving as their online business manager is very fulfilling and I enjoy the close working relationships. My prior experiences in corporate jobs were very much in these same fields and it has been a natural transition to take these services to virtual clients.

What is your favorite thing about being a VA?

I really enjoy the variety of clients, the flexibility I can now have in my daily schedule, and knowing that I am making an impact in another’s business success. My services are having measureable impacts that cause another’s business to grow and thrive. That is very satisfying.

Do you have any advice for new VAs or those thinking about joining the VA world?

I would encourage emerging virtual assistants to get active with at least one online forum so that you can connect with others in your field who have walked ahead of you, are walking beside you, and who will look to you to see what path you’ve left behind for them. Never fear that you don’t have the experience to work virtually. Lean on those years of experience while working at a brick-and-mortar job. Those experiences haven’t left and are there to draw on. The only difference is the method of communication and delivering the finish projects. This CAN be learned. Seek out a mentor whether formally (or as an informal friendship) and get to know this person. Many times the mentor friendships can/will happen very naturally. And one more important suggestion, never return client work too quickly. Always meet your deadlines but if you finish it two hours after receiving it please don’t return it until next day. As you grow and bring on more clients your existing clients will be accustomed to your turnaround times and not complain that you’re suddenly too busy to give things back in “short” amounts of time.

So the definition of a Virtual Assistant as taken from my own website:

A Virtual Assistant (VA) is an highly skilled administrative professional who provides a wide range of business services including administrative, technical, creative, marketing & web support services to small business and entrepreneurs. A VA partners with their clients, learn about their business, and help them with your specific business needs for the long term, unlike most temps.  VA’s are independent contractors and work “virtually” out of their own office or from anywhere, and their clients can hail from all over the globe. VAs primarily communicate with their clients via internet, fax, telephone or other methods of communication.

One thing I want to stress above all that being a VA is not just another job one can get, but is a serious small business venture. You work as an independent business owner, being your own boss, setting your own hours, and finding your own clients, etc. As I’ve stated before, it isn’t always easy being a small business owner, and this is definitely not a “get rich quick” scheme at all.

Being a Virtual Assistant can be hard work, but it is a rich experience that I wouldn’t give up for the world.

Being a Virtual Assistant is not something one does on a whim or something you do for a hobby. It is not something you do to make a quick buck or something that takes little effort. Stacy is right in saying that working as an independent contractor, you ARE a business owner. And really, to be a successful VA, your endeavor needs to be taken seriously and really treated like a business. It takes some work and dedication, but you can be a successful VA if you set things up right and have the right frame of mind towards your business.

In my opinion, it is especially important to view being a VA as a business when you expect to support yourself or make your ideal income from it. Though there are the options of being a subcontracting VA or virtual “staff” for an agency, I don’t think one should ever rely on those sources alone to support your ideal income.

Since subcontracting work can be irregular or sparse at some times, waiting around for someone to hand over work to you is not going to make the money roll in. I mean as a subcontractor, you do receive the work without making the effort in marketing and securing the clients. But if you are looking for a situation to make steady income and by having work given to you without much effort, then you probably are better off getting a 9-5 job.

Successful VAs, part-time and full-time, subs and non-subs, put forth effort to set up their business properly, they market regularly, and snag clients of their own. It is a regular occurrence for a VA to sub for other VAs to help supplement their incomes while having their own clients. That is something I did that helped when I first started my business. But again, I don’t think subcontracting should be one’s sole source of VA work.

In my experience of adding Associate VA team members to my practice, I have decided that I will only accept those who are serious about their own VA business. It is a good sign to me when I see that they have some clients of their own and have their business set up properly (appropriate business filings, business name, etc.) It lets me know that they are dedicated and that they don’t view this as a hobby. If one is not passionate and working to make an effort in their own business, how can I know if they take the work I have them seriously and make a good effort?

One great idea that I have seen a few new and emerging VA’s go for is setting up their business and marketing specifically to other Virtual Assistants. If one wants to be a VA and work for other VAs, why not design your business to work with that niche?  Be a VA’s VA! Virtual Assistants need help too, and it is a great target market to get started with.

So, if you’re a new Virtual Assistant or still thinking about becoming a VA, hopefully I’ve given you some food for thought on how serious you should take the VA world.

When thinking of working from home, many think, “Oh, it’s easy” and “I can work all day in my pajamas if I wish”, or “My day is so flexible, I can do what I want, when I want.”

Though the above may be true at times, running a business from home, VA or otherwise, is not as easy as it sounds and can take a toll on your home and health if you let it.

In what I have been going through personally, I can tell you that it is very difficult to balance work, home, health and family time (and I don’t even have kids yet). With my original mentality on how nice it would be to “roll out of bed and start working”, it has taken great effort to stay focused and on task with my business, while keeping the rest of my life together.

In the beginning, I had the luxury (yes I say luxury) of not being very busy and not having many clients. I had a lot of flexible time, but the money wasn’t coming in. The first year of business was very hard and money was tight, but I was determined to go on and make my business a success. **As an aside here, I must thank my husband for his support and extreme patience, because without it, it would have made those montiarily tight months even more difficult**

After stepping up my marketing efforts (and a bit of luck) I had grown my business tremendously in it’s 2nd year and I had gotten to the point of where I could not physically handle all the client work that was coming my way plus the business development without working all hours. I was frazzled in my business, my laundry was piling up, my husband was wondering when he would get to see his wife, and I was putting on more weight.

Late 2007 I transitioned my business from a sole VA practice to the multi-VA model, and started assembling a team to help me. It did help alleviate some of my problems for a time, but not all.  And since I started delegating more client work to my team, I somehow decided to add more and more to my plate again. I could not shake the feeling that my business was running me, instead of me running my business. I was on the verge of throwing in the towel and walking away.

So recently, I’ve decided to take the reins of my life and my health and make ME a priority. I’ve joined a gym, and joined Weight Watchers and am adopting a healthier way of eating and living.  I have shortened my office hours that before had extended way beyond what they should, closing up shop to go to the gym, and focusing on spending time with my husband and doing things that are NOT work related. I’ve also added some additional ME time to my day with 5-10 minutes to reflect and write my thoughts on the day and my points of gratitude. And I have adopted versions of “law of attraction” principals and am putting to work the power of positive thinking. Already in this short few weeks, I am seeing some improvement,  a weight has been lifted off my shoulders and I am enjoying my life again. I’m not perfect, but small steps are making a difference.

So how does one not get into this small business/work at home trap? Here are some points one must consider with working from home or running a “soloprenuer” business from the get go.

1. -Make yourself and your family priority number one.  Without your family, you will have no support to fall back on.  Without your health… well it can make it really difficult to do anything.
2. -Eat Right! All the time! Working from home makes it so easy to walk to the the fridge or pantry to grab whatever you can stuff you face with. Throw out the junk and keep healthy whole foods, fruits and vegetable on had for easy snacking.
3. -Make your office hours reasonable, and stick to them! That extra reply to the email can wait until morning. It’s not life or death.
4. -Get out and away from your desk/business and do something active for 3o minutes. Whether it’s a walk, a trip to the gym, or house cleaning. Do something!
5. -Remove negative thoughts from your mind. Take out the “I can’t” “I’m not” “I’ll never” from your vocabulary and focus on want you CAN and WANT to do and what you WANT your life to look like.

The above things are what I got started with and have make the world of difference in my life so far.  I’m not perfect at it yet, but I’m setting myself up to make some healthier habits which in turn will help me have a happier life.

First, if any one tells you that working at home and starting a work at home business is easy, it is a scam or they are lying to you. Starting a business is never easy and takes persistence and a lot of hard work.

Nothing in life comes free or easy. Many of these work at home opportunities advertised on the net or heard on radio spots are not always exactly what they promise. Many times they involve you paying a fee to get their “system” that turns out to be a scheme where you turn around and sell this “system” to others.  Or have you ever heard of the vitamin or diet pill sales work at home opportunities? They offer big promises but rarely deliver.

 Many people that are hungry for a new life outside of the 9-5 grind can fall prey to schemes like these. They want something free and easy. Another sad reality is that some new Virtual Assistants that are hungry for business and new clients can also fall prey to scams.  Here are some things to look out for in work to make sure you don’t get taken advantage of.

1.  If they are selling a “proven” work at home system, but are way too ambiguous about what this “system” actually does or what it sells, that should send up warning flags.  Stray away from those and keep looking.
2. If anyone requires you pay a fee up front to get work or jobs from them, be wary of.  Many people can easily get taken advantage of by paying outlandish fees to gain access to lists of work at home jobs that never pan out, or could be fake. Get all the details BEFORE you pay.
3. Beware of places that require you to pay a fee just to get more information. Basically the “more information” consists of materials that tell you to turn around to sell the “more information” to other suckers like yourself. Again, get all the details BEFORE you pay.
4. Be wary of “check cashing” schemes.  Many VAs have fallen victim to this. If at any time someone offers you a ridiculous sum of money to receive cashiers checks, cash them and wire the money overseas, it is a scam and you should run very far away.  If you happen to cash these checks, you will later find out they were phony and you will be out the large sum of money you wired. If you get an email from Todd Mayer, hit DELETE.
5. Do not accept work that requires you to accept parcels at your address and then asks to send these packages overseas. This is another illegal scheme where items are bought with stolen credit cards sent to the victim who then ships off to an ambiguous address overseas. And in most cases the victims never actually get paid and can be on the hook for criminal charges because they are the only name they can find connected to the stolen credit card purchases.

A few sites great sites on the subject:

• The Virtual Assistant Forum Scam Library
• http://www.scambusters.org/work-at-home.html 
• http://www.fraud.org/tips/internet/workathome.htm

Through my various networking sites, the question gets asked quite often: What are some work at home opportunities that are not scams?” Business like freelance work or Virtual Assistant Businesses are not scams but are real opportunities. But opportunities that take a lot of hard work and personal time and investment.  Don’t get taken for a ride.

Recently in one of my networking groups, someoneone turned my attention to DocStoc.com and when I went to visit, I saw what this site had to offer and immediately bookmarked it into my favorites.  I think docstoc.com is so incredibly valuable and should be in the arsenal of every VA out there. Why, you ask? This site contains numerous business, financial and legal documents & templates that can be used for many business and personal situations. And the best part about it is that is shared by it’s great users and it is all FREE!

No Virtual Assistant should start working with clients without a contract, and from experience I know how much hard work it takes to draw up a new contract to cover all my bases. Instead of making up your agreements and contracts from scratch or reinventing the wheel, you can find several documents and templates to get your contracts started, get your business going, add new services, and get your business organized. I wish I would have had known of something like this when I first started 3 years ago.  It would have saved me tons of time.

Have fun!

Warmest Regards,

Megan Barber
The Virtual Perception
Barber Virtual Assisting Solutions