Head and Heart in the Cloud yet?

Do you work in the cloud?  Well, if you have handled any ‘work’  by email for the past few years, you were sort of working in the Cloud of the Internet…not having your work feet on solid ground.

Tools at various places, but most particularly available at Google docs permits someone to build content documents,  spread sheets, slide presentations and site/wiki projects online.  There are Google Docs templates for time sheets, invoices, resumes, party invitations and more The tools are user friendly if you dig around to learn how things are done differently than the office software you have used to put your production on autopilot.  The Cloud offers some good collaboration aspects that are more clunky using email to send files around for review and change.

Google docs is available to anyone with a Gmail account.  Setting up Google Apps takes a little more effort, but it is not impossible.

On @Bar JD Virtual Professionals and at Particularly Virtual,  I wrote more about working in the Cloud.  I learned about the first Cloud tools through other virtual assistants’ sharing of information at VAnetworking.com.  I’ve developed my philosophy about the tools and made my decisions regarding their use.

Do yourself a favor and check out the tools and opportunities to create and even publish at Google and other places in the Cloud.

Check out the Virtual Assistance eBooks at VAnetworking.com

JudyAnn Lorenz of Bar JD Communications wrote a post in @Bar JD Communications today, VAnetworking.com has eBooks for Virtual Assistants that expands on the availability of a valuable series of eBooks from VAnetworking.com.

The series has some free eBooks and others which are very reasonably priced.  There are some that specifically address the needs of clients in choosing a virtual assistant or writing an RFP to virtual assistants.   Others help virtual assistants in beginning business decisions and planning.

This set of eBooks is a very good investment for clients who are just beginning to think about hiring a virtual assistant.  Or, sadly, if a business has had a poor experience with a VA, the eBooks contain information that might have offered options to avoid a poor experience.   Information that would have value in future relationships with a VA.

There is unquestionable value to people who are investigating the field of virtual assistance as a possible career move.

Virtual Assistants use Focus & Pace for Better Business

A post at Virtually @ Bar JD Virtual Professionals, entitled Focus and Pace can be Common Virtues for Virtual Assistants is about the benefits of focusing, self discipline and “PACING” your self and your virtual assistant business contains advice about the benefits of a paced working policy. The post was written in response and support of a post made by Ruth Martin of Maplewood Virtual Assistance entitled Got the Right Focus? made at Partnering with a Virtual Assistant the official blog for Vanetworking.com.

If you are sitting on internet and computer skills while looking for a place to land profitably, consider marketing these skills and working virtually!

Both posts discuss the benefits of focusing on Your Self to the benefit of the clients, the business, the family and YOUR SELF!

Time is MONEY for a Business & a Virtual Assistant

 At Virtually @ Eight Twenty-Two, blog for Bar JD Communications you can read discussion about a Cost Comparison between an full time employee and a virtual assistant which is presented by VAnetworking.com.

When businesses are looking at their budget, yet needing tasks to be accomplished, the decisions can be   frustrating to consider. 

 The budget doesn’t contain the volume for a professional in house employee. That is a FACT.  Yet, if this work isn’t accomplished, the business will be in even deeper budget trouble.  That is the TRUTH.

 

A virtual professional who is a member of VAnetworking.com at all levels, including Vainsiders, brings a network to the business that would not be available under typical circumstances.  In a matter of seconds, there is always a sample of the more than 10,000 members available to answer questions, share information and skills or subcontract to make sure the business has a tip-top end result.

 

Read the entire post at Often a Matter of Time = Virtual Assistant Appeal

Virtual Assistant Network for You Where You Are!

According a post at Virtually @ Eight Twenty-Two, blog for Bar JD Communications, recently, Ana Maria Pineyra of El Teleasistente Web was awarded the Vaccolade acknowledgement from her peers at VAnetworking.com.  Ana provides services in Venezuela.

This blog is read largely by people in the USA and in the Ozarks Mountains. I just want to encourage readers with thisVAnetworking.com is truly an international network with members on every continent.  Readers can consider the potential for the virtual assistance field and the potential for learning from people all over the planet.  I value my connections with peole on other continents and other regions.

The technology is very much the same for virtual assistants no matter where the base location.

The issues can be the same or extremely different depending upon the local resources. Frequently, personal issues are shared over land and sea with support coming from the network along with potential solutions. For anyone considering working from their own entrepreneurial office using technical and business skills as a base for services, a network is essential in today’s market.

One of the most beautiful things about VAnetworking.com is the entry price. There is enough information available at no charge to give a good view of the potential and fit of virtual assistance as a future move.

No matter where you are located, if you are skilled and looking, you can benefit from becoming a part of a network over 10,000 strong

Virtual Assistants can Take the Lead to Help Clients Rescue “Dead” Customers

 A post on Virtually @ Eight Twenty-two (http://barjdcommunications.com/virtualblog) talks about another post at Partner with a Virtual Assistant regarding the way business people can work with professional virtual assistants to resuscitate customer relationships that aren’t down the tubes or even revive those that might have looked dead.

 

Business people who are eager to push their business can check at VAnetworking.com to tap a network of virtual professionals who are capable of helping with this so important project.

 

The customer who has been satisfied with doing business with you, Mr./Ms Client is ‘way too valuable to neglect.  It looks as if you don’t have time because you have new product to develop and new clients to romance…after all your business thrives on a certain volume level.  What is often missed, though preached and preached by business counselors such as John Jantsch at DuctTape Marketing, these satisfied customers will ‘bird dog’  a beautiful customer base for you.  A base that you might have overlooked.  Meanwhile, you can concentrate on being the best business for them.

 

Virtual assistants who are already working with clients have a responsibility to be ready to suggest customer care to their clients.  No time to dawdle during this business climate.  Be the early bird and thrive.

Dirty Little Secret about Virtual Assistance Number 3

When someone owns a computer and has an internet connection, the view of working online makes a great deal of sense and is easy to ’see’.

It would follow that the easiest way to learn the ropes would be to work under someone else who has already begun their business.   Frequently newly converted virtual assistants will wave their flag that they are now ready to work under someone else and wonder why they aren’t immediately picked up. 

In the multiple VA groups with which I am acquainted, the subcontractors’ best way to build the relationship with primary contractors besides waving their flags is to network on the VA group, such as VAnetworking.com.  Sharing information, asking questions, building the status of being REAL and professional all become part of the foundation of trust that permits primary VAs to recognize that this particularl person would be a good subcontractor. 

The work will simply not fall from the sky.  As a newbie, VAnetworking.com is a good fit because there is a great deal to learn there without cash cost until the new Virtual Assistant is in a position to invest further.

Networking to Avoid Virtual Solitude Slump

In other posts, I’m writing about the potential for working virtually to use your skills when going to an onsite job isn’t possible. 

It takes special discipline to work on your own. This discipline or the lack of it is some cause for distrust on the part of potential clients.  Will the virtual person work hard or bill them for time spent just staring off into space.  Or time spent watching soap operas and eating bonbons. 

Networking with peers at various online groups can give you community, information about the industry, or camadarie with people who have been in the same boat you are now trying to bailout.  

There are many fine groups, but it isn’t possible to be active in many while doing justice to your business.  I have tried a few and have found VAnetworking.com to be one of the most solid and valuable to me.  There are 10,000 members to draw on for information.  There is a free side for newbies to learn an awesome amount about the virtual assistance field, as well as a paid side with valuable downloads that cancel the cost of the membership quickly.  The downloads are only one small part of what is available. 

Best of all, there is NO discrimination between paid and non-paid in the general attitude.   Everyone gets help and answers.  Everyone is included in the FUN things and in valuable seminars or group chats.  Just last night they had an online PARTY for the holiday and to celebrate the fifth birthday of VAnetworking.com

If you are thinking about making career changes toward the virtual field, you will greatly benefit from the things you can learn IMMEDIATELY at VAnetworking.com

Economy Can Stimulate Searches for Virtual Careers

Is the working environment around you tightening?  Has it already tightened with you being one of those who were the focus of a business decision and a layoff?  Try this tip.

Think about taking your skills to the virtual world as an outsourcing option for businesses in your community or all over the planet.

If you have computer skills and the want-to, you may be in a position to start a new career.  Not a get-rich-quick career, mind you, or probably even a get-rich-ever prospect.  What being a virtual professional, or a virtual assistant offers you is a job in your own office, with your own equipment. 

If the entrepreneurial bug is biting you because you aren’t comfortable in your work environment or if you expect your work environment to dissolve around you, check out the information at VAnetworking.com.

At no expense, you can do an amazing amount of research, ask questions and learn if bein a virtual professional is for you.  When you make the ‘go for it’ decision, there are some other options that you can invest in which will jumpstart your virtual assistant future with VAinsiders or the Virtual Business Start-Up System.

Veterans Looking for a Career Change? Try Concrete!

Engrave-A-Crete, Inc, corporate headquarters located in Mansfield, Missouri has announced a business gesture towards military veterans of the Iraq, Afghanistan, and Persian Gulf conflicts.

Decorative concrete engraving has lots to recommend it.  Existing concrete becomes beautiful with engraved patterns, stain and sealers.    Engrave-A-Crete is the sole manufacturer and supplier of excellent equipment to accomplish this. Click here to visit the Engrave-A-Crete website.

Details about the offer to military Veterans can be found at PRWeb — VETERANS PROGRAM ASSISTS TRANSITION TO NEW CAREERS

Take a tip and run with it!