Now before the event it is very humbling especially reading the notes on people’s back, who they are running for.  Last year I was in a very fortunate position to not really know anyone who had been affected by cancer so I just ran for everyone who had been touched by it. However this year was a very different matter, a friend of mine lost her 14 year old daughter earlier this year after a 7 year battle, she was very brave and fought very courageously during her illness and was always happy and upbeat.  Also a friend of the family passed away from Cancer at the end of last year.

As well as reading about all of the people who unfortunately did not survive this disease, there are lots that have and it was great to read message like “for my Mum who won the battle” or “Me, I am a survivor” it certainly brings tears to your eyes and makes you feel grateful for every day.

Now for my friends who know me really well will know that I hardly ever exercise and even my husband was shocked when this year I decided to go into the joggers section, this was mainly because last year it took forever to get across the start line from the walkers section.

Now I didn’t jog it all but probably managed about a third of it with breaks of power walking in between and I am pleased to say that I managed the 5k course in 44 minutes which is 10 minutes better than last year.

To date I have raised £65 for this fantastic cause and it is still not too late – if you would like to help raise money for a good cause please go to http://www.raceforlifesponsorme.org/charlotteburford

Crossing the Finish Line

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I started to look at all my options and the things I was good at.  I had been a secretary since leaving school at 17 and it was something I really enjoyed and could do standing on my head.  So I started surfing the web to see if I could become a self employed secretary.  After a bit of searching and finding lots of American sites I eventually stumbled on Society of Virtual Assistants (then known as Scottish Virtual Assistants) the more I read the posts on the forums the more I got excited.  This was something I could do, it would be hard work and I would need to be very disciplined especially with a baby but I knew I could make it work.

I plucked up the courage to talk about it with my husband and to begin with he thought I was mad, but after I showed him the research I had done he started to like the idea and was very supportive.  He helped me with my company name, buying the domain name and with my website.  Other family members were harder to convince but again as this was something I really wanted to do they were behind me (even if they felt I was a bit mad).

Now with a young baby networking was not really an option so I put myself on lots of free directories, went on forums with fellow VAs and a free line entry in the Yellow Pages and the work started to trickle through.  It took quite a while but gradually clients started to become regular rather than ad-hoc and I started to earn some money.  Then two years into the business I had baby number two.  My business was still very small so I could still do the odd day’s work (I had purposely not built it up too much for this reason).

Then last year my eldest child started school and my youngest nursery, I must admit I nearly gave it all up due to some personal problems but I told a few of my closest VA friends and they all rallied round started to outsource some of their overflow to me, this gave me the boost that I needed and I decided that if I wanted this business to be successful then I had to spend more time on it.

I joined a fantastic Skype chat with fellow Virtual Assistants called the Virtual Assistant Support Group (VASG) and as well as making some good friends I have also gained business through it as well.  I also became more active on Twitter and have gained some clients this way.

I became part of Call Team both as a Reseller and Call Handler so that I could give my clients a better all round service.

I also met the wonderful Sally Walker of Sally Walker Media Labs and Susan Odev of MumUltraprenuer who are not only fantastic clients but also wonderful friends.  They have given me the confidence to go to networking events and to promote myself more.

Since September last year my business has gone from strength to strength with more and more clients coming on board.  I was proud of what I had achieved in almost five years that I decided to enter the VA Awards.  Once a year a VA Conference is held for UK VAs where we have a day of seminars and networking with each other and you can nominate yourself for an award which is judged by a panel of fellow VAs.  I decided that this year I was going to enter and I am pleased to say that I won Runner Up Oustanding VA of the Year 2010.

I am so thrilled with my award as this shows that with a lot of hard work and determination anything is possible and what a fantastic 5th anniversary present.

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Are you like me and absolutely hate supermarket shopping?

It’s not the fact that I can’t just go in and buy a loaf of bread without having to buy a trolley full of food but the fact that I usually have my two children with me who at 5 and 2 absolutely detest shopping.

On a good day they “help” me load the trolley; I use the word “help” very loosely as this usually involves tins being thrown on top of breakables such as eggs or the bread getting squashed by the potatoes.  Not to mention the amount of extra items that seem to have appeared in my trolley by the time I reach the checkout or the fact that they have just rammed some poor old dear in the backs of the legs while helping “push”.

Now if I happen to have picked a bad day this is when the tantrums come out (usually after being told no), I am sure you have all seen the advert of the Mum lashing about on the floor in the middle of the aisle well I have almost done that myself on a few occasions and still might yet.

Now why don’t I go on my own you might ask – well quite frankly I am just too busy when they are at school/nursery, evenings there is never anything in stock and weekends is just too busy.  So I am a glutton for punishment and take them with me.

That said it helps to do the shopping in super quick time and one day, just maybe I will only purchase that one item of bread that I went in for in the first place.

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I hope all my followers had a fantastic Christmas and New Year.  I know I did. 

Well there are lots of exciting things happening on the Burford Secretarial front hence my not writing a new post for a few months.

Over the next few weeks I will be updating my website as well as moving it to WordPress, this is still in the very draft stages at the moment so please bear with me.  Also I aim to be putting together some Ebooks and a Facebook Fan Page. 

Call Team

An exciting venture that I am proud to be a part of is Call Team.  Call Team provide a call answering service to business.  By utilising Call Team, we ensure that your customers can always get in touch with you and also project a professional image.

You will not miss another call again and therefore there will be no more missed business opportunities either.

All messages taken on your behalf are emailed to you immediately to action to a time convenient to you. We can also arrange for SMS messages to be sent to your mobile while you are out of the office.

More information will be coming via my website shortly but if in the meantime you would like to find out more please go to www.callteam.co.uk or follow them on Twitter @CallTeam.

Mum Ultraprenuer

I am also very excited and proud to be providing VA support to Susan and Mark of Mum-Ultraprenuer (http://www.mum-ultrapreneur.com) who are currently putting together training workshops and teleseminars based on their book which is a guide to starting, growing and running a successful Mum based business.  You can follow Susan Twitter @MumUltrapreneur.

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Charlotte

Burford Secretarial

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First off I will start by making sure that all my filing is up to date, this includes electronic filing of documents as well as making sure that everything is backed up or deleted if necessary.  Once that task has been undertaken it is off to file my online tax return before the 31st January 2010 deadline. 

I have decided that next year I am going to write my blog posts and newsletter articles three months in advance, this will save me having to try and fit in the time to write them whilst I am busy with my clients.  The great thing about most systems such as WordPress and MailChimp is that it is so easy to schedule posts and newsletters to be sent at any time. 

My Contact Management database is also in need of a spring clean.  I have a heap of business cards that I have never had time to put onto the system so that is another job to be undertaken as well as assessing my next 12 month marketing plan. 

Burford Secretarial has recently started to offer a Call Answering service so this is something that I really want to market as it is a great benefit to my clients, the feedback so far is excellent. 

There are also lots of other plans in the pipeline that just need a bit more tweaking before they can be announced.

Is your business quiet over the Christmas period and if so are you going to take the time to plan the year ahead for your business?

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As I VA I rely a lot on technology, I have my PC etc that allow me to undertake my day to day work but I also have my Blackberry, laptop, internet dongle so that I can still access my emails and files whilst on the move. On top of this I also use internet applications such as Hootsuite, SmartSheet, Clear Books, Voipfone and Skype to name a few. My whole life is run by technology and applications.

You can only imagine my horror when a few weeks ago when things went horribly wrong. I was off to meet a new client for the first time (http://www.thehelmcreative.co.uk) who was a referral from my local Chamber of Commerce (http://kentinvictachamber.com). I had everything prepared the night before, laptop and Blackberry were charged and my internet dongle was packed in my laptop case. Everything was ready.

Then disaster struck, the roller ball on my Blackberry decided on the morning of my meeting that it would stop working. So now I could make and answer calls but could not view any new emails that arrived. Not too much of a problem I thought so I contacted the network to arrange a replacement handset and set off to my meeting.

I arrived at my client’s offices a bit early as traffic was pretty good and then called to say that I had arrived. My client had left me a message to say that she was running late and wouldn’t be available for at least another hour. Now if my Blackberry had worked in the way it should have I would have received this message and left a bit later than planned. However I was happy to wait and set up office in her reception area.

I was so pleased that I had my internet dongle with me as it meant that whilst I was waiting I could access my desktop via LogMeIn and reply to emails and undertake some work whilst I waited. Business went on as normal if in a slightly unusual way.

I was quite grateful to my Blackberry as it was a test run in case my PC ever died. It has highlighted a few areas that need a bit more work but I plan to have virtually all of my information hosted on secure online sites so if ever something did go wrong I could gain access easily at the click of a button.

What sorts of applications do you use in your business and what would you do if you found out that disaster had struck and you could no longer access your PC or laptop? Would you still be able to run your business?

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You have decided that your business needs the help of a Virtual Assistant (VA) to undertake your administration tasks so that you can concentrate on spending your valuable time on the money earning aspect of your business.  Here is a list of a few tasks that VAs can undertake:

• Arranging and managing your diary and emails
• Setting up and implementing marketing campaigns
• Web design, updates and SEO
• Social Media
• Transcription and copy typing
• Call answering
• Presentations
• Database creation and entry
• Bookkeeping
• IT support
• Research

Choosing a Virtual Assistant

With so many VAs around how do you decide who is the best one for your business?

To answer this question you need to look at your business and consider the following factors:

Locality

This should not really be too much of an issue since the main purpose is to be “virtual”, but if you do require somebody to attend your premises on the odd occasion then this could be a deciding factor.

Skill Set

There are a lot of VA’s around and we all have different skill sets.  You need to look at the type of support that your business requires and match the VA to your requirements.  However, this does not stop you working with more than one VA.  For example, you may need the services of an excellent audio typist and a web designer as well.  Now instead of trying to find the one VA that fits all, it may be of more beneficial interest to your business to work with two separate VAs who are experienced in their own separate field. 

Testimonials

We all understand that potential clients would like to view the quality of our work, however due to the confidentiality aspect most VAs will not be able to provide you with copies of previous work undertaken.  They should however be able to provide testimonials from current or previous clients.  Don’t be afraid to ask to see them. 

Price

Price is always a factor when deciding on using anybody’s services but the saying “you get what you pay for” is very relevant. VAs do have higher fees than an employee but what you have to remember is that you do not pay overheads or tax.  You only pay for the time utilised. 

Now that you know how a VA can help your business what are you waiting for?

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