Another Virtual Secretary

[christinaandrews]

Hello everyone out there,

My name is Christina and I thought me and my husband, Derek, were the only people who were doing this!.

No only joking, but we would appreciate some advice (without treading on any ones toes) about promoting our new home business.

My husband is my full-time carer and I have been unwell for some years. Although I am getting better, we need a small extra income for treats at the moment, with a view to increasing the business until my health allows us to expand.

Hope to hear from somebody with some ideas!

Christina

[Will]

Hi Christina and welcome to the forum :)

I'd love to chip in with a few ideas about how you can promote your business, but it might be useful for you to tell us a little about your own backgrounds as you may already have some useful skills you can capitalise on e.g. doesn't take "no" for an answer, has many years of experience, numerous contacts in the business world etc.

Don't worry about treading on toes! The aim of the forum isn't to maintain exclusitivity, but to bring small businesses together for mutual benefit, advice or just to chat about running a small business.

How far along are you in setting up your business? What kind of plans do you have for marketing your services?

[christinaandrews]

Dear Will,

I have a varied business background. My earliest career was starting out as a babysitter before I left school, then some other office jobs, leading up to another baby sitting job that took me abroad to America and Israel with my bosses. I then ended up as housekeeper with a middle class couple and two children in Silverdale in the Lake District for some years.

After that I held some admin type jobs, before marrying my husband.

I suppose my main attribute is that I am very organised. and conscientious.

Unfortunately I bacame quite ill and as a result lost my confidence. Although I am on the road to recovery, working from home with Derek would give me the room to regain my confidence, before stepping out on a full time basis.

My husband Derek, has always worked in admin of some kind or another. He started out in the Home Ofice in London, before being re-located to Liverpool in the 80's. He left after 14 years, to start as a free lance computer programmer followed by working for a publishing company and then starting his own publishing company for 3 to 4 years, before I took ill.

His main attributes are being quick on the uptake and thinking out of the box.

The business we are looking at is mainly to supplement our income and to look to future growth as my health improves.

I have to be realistic and admit I may never be well enough to seek full time employment outside the house and Derek will need to be with me.

Thanks for your interest,

Christina

[christinaandrews]

Dear Will,

I nearly forgot to answer your question fully.

We have placed a lineage ad in Yellow Pages and Thompsons Local. This gives a free listing on-line too.

We have contacted the local papers about display and lineage advertising, but have not yet proceeded. We are currently thinking hard about where to place our advert most cost-effectively .

We are also in touch with the Federation Of Small Businesses.

Our target market is the small or one man business who needs admin staff, but can't as yet, afford a full-time person.

Derek always had this problem, when he started his publishing company. The people he could afford to run the office, didn't have the experience and the ones he could trust, he couldn't afford at the beginning.

He usually ended up doing everything himself to start with and ended up doing everything himself at times, after the normal days work had finished.

This resulted in him getting very tired and sometimes cutting corners to the extent, that he wasn't always give his valued clients all his attention or working an eight day week to catch-up.

We hope to offer a service, where a small businessman(woman) can do what they are best at and leave the mundane day-to-day running of the office to his or her "virtual secretary".

At some point, the client may have built the business up sufficiently, to employ a "full time" real secretary and we'd be happy with that.

There may also be occasions when a full time admin staff is on long term sick or absent and we could step in for three months or more..

We feel there is a need for our service, the main problem is getting the first client cost effectively.

This note seems to have gone on for a long time, so I'll close for now.

Christina

[Will]

It sounds like Derek already has a lot of experience working for himself and managing a small business so I'd expect you've got a big head start over most other start-ups.

If you're finding virtual PA'ing a bit quiet for two people then there's always the possibility for Derek to put his programming skills to use.

If you're capable writers then another potential avenue for some extra income is writing and publishing electronic books online. I know of a lot of people who work full time just by selling informational products online. I've even done some of this myself as has another one of the forum members. The beauty of this is that once you've got an automated system set-up then you can move onto something else whilst it continues to earn for you. Passive income that isn't constrained by the number of hours in the day!

A few of our members here certainly know what it's like to work long hours and can well sympathise. I think some of us have even added a third end to our candles!

Have you tried contacting businesses directly? Do you use the Internet to promote your business at all? Do you have a unique selling proposition that can distinguish your own PA service from the countless others?

Personally, I think carrying out effective marketing campaigns is crucial to start-up success. It's making sure that people know you exist and know what you offer.

I have to admit that I'm not really sure if I could make use of a virtual PA myself. How would a small business owner in my shoes know whether or not they needed admin staff? Perhaps it could really benefit my business, but I just don't realise yet just how. I think this is where a website for your business could possibly provide that kind of education.

Just a few things to consider!

A couple of website you might find useful:

http://www.homeworking.com - lots of information about working from home as well as an active forum - I'd love to say that we could be just as active, but we just don't have the numbers (yet!)

http://www.elance.com, http://www.scriptlance.com, http://www.rentacoder.com - for the the freelancer or outsourcer - thousands of projects in a wide range of industries.

[christinaandrews]

Dear Will,

I've just been reading your info over Christinas shoulder and have taken over for a while.

The biggest hurdle is conveying to any business that it is more beneficial for them to do what they are best at, (which is finding the business) and leave the mundane run-of-the-mill stuff to someone else.

Most business-men (me included) find it hard to hand over the reigns (we tend to be control-freaks) and want to know what is happening all the time.

And of course there is the expense of having full-time staff who, at the early stage, of the business may not be paying their way, if things are quiet!

I know from experience that my biggest headache, was trusting someone enough to leave them in the office, whilst I was 'on the road'

The biggest plus we can provide, is that you don't pay us when we are not working...we pay for our own heating, lighting, coffe, tea and biccies. And we don't take paid holidays!

Of course there are the little hurdles to overcome, like supplies of stationery for us, how you like letters to be presented, building databases, etc, but is pretty much about working with the business.

We are still to get our first client, but we are in the early stages of setting-up and haven't promoted ourselves much. I agree that marketing is crucial, but I've learnt to my cost in the past that it's very easy to fall for the smooth tongue of the advertising manager of the local paper/directories. Targetting and knowing your market is much more effective, although it takes a little longer.

We are only looking for two, maybe three businesses to start with any way, so we are using our time effectively, we hope, by learning new skills. I am trying to teach myself to touch type(I haven't done this by touch-typing), and Christina is trying to get to grips with the internet. We'll both have a go at building a website, but think that is a luxury we can do without.

Thanks for your advice again, and if we can be of help in some small way, please contact us....we do work cheap.

Yours Sincerely,


Derek

[Will]

Derek,

You've made some excellent points that I can really identify with and I think a lot of other small businesses will agree with especially about the control element!

After giving it some more thought, I think I could see myself using a service like what you offer, but I don't think I'm in a position to do that right now for various reason (perhaps something for us to chat about in a more private setting ;)).

If I was to take up a virtual PA then the kind of factors that would influence me are (in order of importance):

Trust - putting important, even if mundane, processes in the hands of strangers is a daunting process as I'm sure you could imagine. I would see this as the biggest hurdle and would definitely want to meet up in person and see the operation, well, in operation!
Professionalism - obviously, with a significant part of my business in someone's hands I'd want to be reassured that they were capable of representing my business as well, if not better, than I could e.g. answering queries by email and telephone promptly, producing error-free letters, etc. Actually, I can already get a feel for your writing from what you've posted so far!
Price - the least important, but still important. If I couldn't afford you then that's that, but if I knew I wanted you and pricing was borderline then I'd probably be persuaded.


I know pricing can be a tricky subject especially when you're just starting out. You want to work as cheap as possible if only just to work and get some names on your list, but then you don't want to be earning enough just to survive!

Whether or not I or any other members of the forum take up your services, I'd be happy to try and help you. You're more than welcome to take advantage of what the forum can offer e.g. you can post details of your services in the Services Offered (http://www.businessmix.co.uk/forums/forumdisplay.php?f=11) forum for all to see.

Once you get your website up and running you can get a lot more from the forum in terms of getting visitor traffic to it. Obviously, websites are my specialist subject so feel free to pick my brains. Likewise, if you need any designs designing, print printing, copy copywritten then there are people here who can offer their services.

[christinaandrews]

Dear Will,

I've just got around to reading your reply. Sorry for the delay.

We fully understand the hurdles you mentioned...particularly the one about trust..... and trustworthiness.

We have already decided that we would only take on one or two clients to begin with as we are aware that we could be biting off more than we could chew otherwise. That is why we have decided against paid advertising at the moment, (or a website) as we would have to justify the cost in both time and money.

We have also decided that we would not take on any 'bulky' assignments that we might come across. We really want to take on a small one-man business who is just too busy to handle his own paperwork.

All that we are doing at the moment is thinking hard about how best to present ourselves and a "USP".

Yours Sincerely,



Christina

[christinaandrews]

Dear Will,

Derek & I have just had a BRAINSTORMING (Headbanging) session (actually it was a cup of cofee and a natter for two hours) but we would appreciate some feedback.

We were looking for a USP as mentioned in my last letter and have a point of disagreement....

Derek thinks we should offer an incentive to get our first client...something like FREE DATABASE set up or first three months free..... or something along those lines.

I just thing we'll get people who want something for nothing and then who will withdraw their business when it comes to paying up.

Have you thoughts on the matter of incentives.

I suppose we could give it a shot, but am worried we'll just get time-wasters!

Yours Sincerely


Christina

[Will]

Hmmm, I'm not sure that offering a free database could be viewed as a USP as that's something that any other virtual PA business could offer. However, as a loss-leader type of promotion, perhaps it could pique some interest amongst those who could benefit from such an offer.

I'm showing my ignorance here, but what exactly is a database in PA terms? What would I do with it? What would it allow my business to do?

As you've quite rightly pointed out, what if you get freebie hunters? What would be the potential cost to your business? Have you considered minimising the potential for loss e.g. by offering a free database IF they also purchase another service? How would people find out about the offer?

We've discussed the topic of difficult, late and non-payers a number of times in our meet-ups and I think the general consensus was to get payment up front of some sort. Perhaps you could withhold part of your service until a certain amount has been paid? What's the typical practice in the virtual PA industry?

[christinaandrews]

Dear Will,

A database is in simple terms a list of all your clients in one place.

Instead of the usual collection of business cards, post-it notes, scraps of paper, note books, filo-faxes, etc., everything is one place on a computer disc or 'floppy' . It is a vital but onerous repetitive task that usually gets overlooked.

But in addition, it will allow you to keep track of your business dealings (when they last bought, how much they paid, when you should see them next), but also you can use it as a basis for mailings, press releases and a myriad other things that can so easily be forgotten in the 'rush' to find new business.

At it's most basic, you would keep just names, addresses and phone/fax/email addresses.

Your "Virtual secretary" could be asked to provide you with (for example) clients who had not dealt with you for six months or more, or someone who had received a quote but had not followed it up. When you have information on a new or existing client we would simply be informed by email/fax or phone of the information to be added (or deleted) and the database would be up-dated at a cost of between 35 to 50p.

The reason behind offering a free database set-up is because that is comparatively simple for both parties and it would give the client confidence without risking too much. After the initial setting-up We would simply charge for up-dating the basic database. Once the client has used us for a while we would hope to encourage some additional business.

The 'usual' cost to set-up a new datbase would be between £15 & £30 depending on how much information is required to be tracked.

We realise that with the advent of the PDA & laptop, things are easier for the businessman, but what is your "HOURLY" rate?. And would you pay a secretary the same rate to enter information on a computer keyboard?

Thanks for your thoughts on the matter anyway.

Derek & Christina

[JAC]

In terms of hourly rate I think that should depend upon what you are doing, where you live, and of course quality of work. Most jobs that I have experience in can go for a basic or flat fee. If your planning an event then it should be hourly because you'll need to be compensated for work and time you could have been doing something else. When it comes to something like data entry or database setup you can pretty much set a flat rate because you know it won't take much time to setup the database. Maintenance is something else entirely.

[christinaandrews]

Sorry it's been such a long time since we wrote, but we've installed broadband now, so at least we can make and take calls whilst online.....however we seem to have 'lost' a lot of little utilities that were on the machine before,......like Serif photo Manager and Ashampoo(for checking files etc. ) We now seem to have a lot of files with .lnk at the end and we're not sure what has happened. It doesn't stop us working, but is more inconvenient than anything else. Any ideas about how to solve this would be welcome. Foolishly, we didn't think of backing up the 'previous' version before installing broadband.... doh!

Christina.

Merry Christmas to all our readers.

Derek & Christina

[Will]

.lnk files on Windows are shortcut files. The icons for these files usually have a little arrow in one corner to indicate that it's a shortcut to another file.

Seems a bit strange that installing broadband should cause any problems with missing files and such. Who carried out the installation? Presumably, you're using a broadband modem connected to your PC via a USB connection and you still go through a dial-up process to connect each time you want to go online?

[christinaandrews]

Dear Will,

The system has been installed for a couple of years now, but I think it has got pretty much clogged up over time. You are right, it's unlikely to be anything to do with the Broadband.

I think we will have to reboot from a floppy back-up we took about 2 months ago while things were going o.k.

I'm just trying to remember how to reboot from a floppy before I start pressing knobs and buttons.

Have lovely Christmas.

Speak to you in the New Year

Christina ( & Derek)