Well, my article on “How to choose a VA” is proving popular, not only has it been published on Fresh Business.com but also on Bytestart.co.uk click here to read it.! If you would like to receive a copy of the guide on how to choose a VA please let me know and I can email you a copy.

Let’s hope this glorious weather stays as we roll into the weekend!

Well, I’m very excited as I’ve written an article on “How to choose a VA” which has been published on Fresh Business.com

Click here to read it!

If you would like to receive a copy of the guide on how to choose a VA please let me know and I can email you a copy.

It is not unusual for people working in offices to send and receive over 50 emails a day (in some companies that figure can be multiplied by four). And, ooh it can be infuriating to see the same discourteous text over and over again.

If only people could demonstrate email etiquette, life would be a lot more pleasant for us all. Here’s just a few of the most annoying email faux-pas:

You get an email inviting you and a bunch of other people to an event/meeting/rebirthing ceremony. You’re not sure you can make it – you have to pick up your child from ballet class/football/detention centre. You want to email back and let them know, possibly adding a witty comment, suggestions for a different time and details of what you’ll be bringing on the day. Without thinking, you hit the Reply To All button. Do you think that everyone else wants to know all your details and thoughts? No. Do you want to know all of their reasons why they can’t make it, or even that they can – they’ll be thrilled! etc.? No. It’s quite simple – just DON’T CLICK ON REPLY TO ALL. Click on Reply to Sender instead.
USING ALL CAPITAL LETTERS IN EMAILS LOOKS LIKE YOU’RE SHOUTING AT THE RECIPIENT! And red text looks just as rude and angry. Is it really necessary? There are occasions when you will need to highlight something with capital letters or coloured text. Trust me, these occasions are few and far between. Only use them when you really need to and don’t forget how it will ‘sound’ to your recipients before you hit ‘Send’.

Are you using the best form of communication? Email is not always the most appropriate medium for messages. For example, if you have something to say that is highly personal, scary, sad, angry, tragic, shocking or any combination of these, email will fail to translate the importance and emotion. Most news of this ilk is best delivered in person, or at a push by telephone or letter.

Now, are you sitting comfortably? Then I’ll begin…Once upon a time, many moons ago, excitement spread across the land. Life was never going to be the same again. Where there was chaos, there would be order; where there was mess there would be tidiness, where there were overflowing in-trays there would be a beautiful pot-plant. For this was a new era of emails and electronic documents. This was the era of…THE PAPERLESS OFFICE.

Yeah, right. Perhaps in a parallel universe this exists, along with robots doing all the housework (just like they described on Tomorrow’s World). Is it me, or are we using, and wasting, even more paper than ever before? We are certainly squandering precious energy resources, dumping more waste and overspending unnecessarily. So how can we give this story a happier ending?

Making paper from recycled pulp uses less energy and requires less bleach and chemicals than paper manufactured from virgin fibres. Reduce your usage, re-use and recycle your paper and close the recycling loop by using recycled paper. This will also reduce the volume of waste going to landfill/incineration and pressure on natural habitats as demand for new timber decreases. The key environmental impacts associated with paper production and use are:

Loss of natural habitat intensive free farming
Pollution from manufacture, e.g. bleaching agents, effluent and additives
Energy usage
Waste disposal; landfill and incineration

REDUCE

Register with the Fax Preference Service to stop junk faxes.
Register with the Mail Preference Service to stop junk mail

RE-USE

Always open envelopes carefully and either re-use them internally as files or for internal mail, or use labels to re-use envelopes back through the post.
Make pads out of scrap paper, for example, to use to take telephone messages, notes, etc

RECYCLE

Do not throw paper away; recycle it.
Make it easy for your staff to recycle paper, for example, put extra bins in key areas such as copier and print rooms.

In spite of the fluctuations in the paper market, paper recycling schemes are still cost-effective because they reduce waste to landfill and therefore waste disposal costs.
In small offices, the volume of waste paper may be low and it may be difficult to find a contractor willing to collect material for recycling. Storage may also be a difficult due to limited storage space. One solution is to reduce the waste at source or if you are an office in a multi-tenanted building, you should approach other tenants and landlords to create joint recycling schemes.

When I tell people I am a VA, they generally look confused (and one time I was patted on the shoulder and given a very sympathetic look). So, to clarify: VA stands for Virtual Assistant and here is the International Virtual Assistants Association’s (IVAA) definition of what is a VA:
“A Virtual Assistant (VA) is an independent entrepreneur providing administrative, creative and/or technical services. Utilizing advanced technological modes of communication and data delivery, a professional VA assists clients in his/her area of expertise from his/her own office on a contractual basis.”

Partnering with a VA reduces stress, protects cash flow, eliminates administrative hassles, and enables business people to find the success they originally set out to achieve.

So there you go – we’re a pretty dynamic lot making a big splash in an International growth industry. Hope that clears that up.