Times to work / blogging

Hi guys,

I met with a very interesting lady today, who also works for herself although not in the field that we work in, and among the many interesting things we discussed was when is the best time to work.

Like me, she likes working at night ... I thought, sometimes, that I'm the only one driven nuts by the entire 8 - 5 thing ... sometimes, I just find those hours so hard to work in because the phone is ringing, (usually clients), email is going mad, skype going mad, or the school decides to shut at an odd hour, ...

ONe of the toughest things is working until 3am when you KNOW the phone is going to go mental from 08:00 onwards or you need to be up to let the maid or gardener in at 07:30 ... but often I still find I get a lot more done at night than I do during the day.

Your thoughts?

We also discussed the importance of the discipline of marketing and having a marketing plan. This doesn't just mean okay Friday I'll write a blog post. It means that for a month before hand, know the different subject blog posts you're going to write about and sit down and prepare them. Know where your target market is going to be, know what type of marketing approaches you want to take.

Times to work / blogging

Hi guys,

I met with a very interesting lady today, who also works for herself although not in the field that we work in, and among the many interesting things we discussed was when is the best time to work.

Like me, she likes working at night ... I thought, sometimes, that I'm the only one driven nuts by the entire 8 - 5 thing ... sometimes, I just find those hours so hard to work in because the phone is ringing, (usually clients), email is going mad, skype going mad, or the school decides to shut at an odd hour, ...

ONe of the toughest things is working until 3am when you KNOW the phone is going to go mental from 08:00 onwards or you need to be up to let the maid or gardener in at 07:30 ... but often I still find I get a lot more done at night than I do during the day.

Your thoughts?

We also discussed the importance of the discipline of marketing and having a marketing plan. This doesn't just mean okay Friday I'll write a blog post. It means that for a month before hand, know the different subject blog posts you're going to write about and sit down and prepare them. Know where your target market is going to be, know what type of marketing approaches you want to take.

Minute Taker

TAVASA is looking for a minute taker to work in Pretoria on Monday 31 May. Apply to me gaynorpay@gmail.com. You MUST have minute taking experience and preferably shorthand.

How do you combat loneliness?

Hi everyone. It's been some time since I've blogged and I wanted to come back with a fresh blog post that might make people sit back and think a bit. I didn't want to blog about something that has been blogged about a thousand times before. It crossed my mind that the reason why my blogging has taken a little bit of a back seat lately is because I have been networking in a different way - a way which is very meaningful to me and that is what this blog post will be about.

Making friends, building a community garden.

By the very nature of our businesses, we as virtual assistants have a different work set up to office workers. We don't have a knock off time, we must find our own work, and ... we don't have the social setting of office colleagues around us.

There are several ways which we can combat this if loneliness begins affecting us.
We can join groups such as TAVASA , we can build up our contacts on Skype and other instant messaging systems, or - and it's this third that I want to discuss in further detail - we can join community assistance organisations for the areas where we live such as the I Love Kensington Assocation

I didn't join I Love Kensington for business purposes and that's not why I'm a part of it now. I joined because I could see the area around me, where I live and where my children live, sinking - and I wanted to see what I could do to help. What I found was a band of dedicated, committed people crying out for voluntary help on projects that they were doing - a handful of people working to enrich the living area, and lives, of 5,000.

So I joined them - and I soon found that in between getting stuck into all of the wonderfully rewarding community projects that I Love Kensington are involved in, firm and fast friendships are formed between like minded people. I have been able to assist with the upliftment of our community by assisting newbie Virtual Assistants in our area, using and referring service providers that I would have had to call from miles away in the past ... and I find it's reciprocated, with two transcription jobs having come my way from this source in the last few months. Winner all round!

How do you combat loneliness in your business?

Hi guys,
It's been quite a while since I've blogged and I wanted to come back to my blog with a fresh idea, something which may not have been blogged about much in the past.

We virtual workers have a different set up to the office worker in many ways in that we don't have a knock off time, we don't commute, and we don't have many coworkers - some of us may miss the social aspet that an office affords. How do you combat the loneliness that working by yourself might bring about?

There are several ways we can do this:
1) We can sign up with groups such as TAVASA

2) We can build up a network of contacts on Skype and other instant messaging services.
3) We can become involved in community activities.

It's this third that I want to talk about in more detail, as the first two have been blogged about extensively, and it's the second that I've more recently become involved in.

Getting involved in community activities has numerous benefits - it leads to making numerous friends and thereby reducing the loneliness, particularly when you end up involved in activities such as teaparties, walks and community garden planting initiatives. An added benefit is networking - you get to know what others in your area, and others get to know what you are doing. Although making money is not my primary objective of community assistance, through being involved with the I Love Kensington Association I have obtained two clients and also been able to assist a Virtual Assistant who also wants to start up in the business. We have been able to accomplish some pretty amazing things, too - see pic of the community garden we planted. My life was pretty full before, with kids and work - now it's full to the brim and I'm finding I also have a bit of a social life - the loneliness factor does not intrude much now.

Have a good week, guys!