To identify your boundaries, think about what you are and are not prepared to do.

To give you some ideas, ask yourself these questions:

Will you offer round-the-clock service?
If you do, you should have systems in place to be able to accept and complete work 24 hours a day. Some VAs make this their unique selling point (USP), which sets them apart from others.

Will you speak to family and friends if they call during the day?
Family and friends can be the worst offenders for distraction to those who work at home. They may feel that, as you work at home, they can call you any time for a chat or pop in for a coffee. Tell people what your working hours are, and explain that you cannot speak to them if they call during those times.

Will you be working only certain hours?
When you have decided what your business hours are, make sure that you inform all prospective clients. Some clients might call five minutes before your designated finishing time, asking you to do work for them the following day. Provided that you can fit the work in, advise them that you will start the work as early as possible the next day.

What will your work turnaround time be?
You need to decide in advance what turnaround time you work towards for routine tasks so that you can inform all prospective clients. For example, I say that I will respond to all email correspondence within 24 hours and all routine work will be completed within 48 hours.

Will you be working 52 weeks a year?
Decide in advance whether you want to take a holiday. If so, let your clients know that you will not be available during those weeks, or that their work will be passed to an associate while you are away.

Do you want a ‘term-time only’ business?
If you have a family, you may choose to work only during term time and spend the school holidays with your children. Again, should inform your clients in advance that you will be unavailable, or that their work will be passed to an associate during school holidays.

By establishing your boundaries early on, you can inform new clients and make it clear to friends and family how you operate.

You must remember that you are the boss of your own business and it is your prerogative to say, ‘No’.
 

One of the best ways of keeping up with the information hungry, without extending our working day, is to reprint articles others have written. There are two golden rules here: you must never reproduce an article without permission, and you must always include the original writers author tag or resources box when you are allowed to reproduce them. This is the information at the end of the article that usually links back to the writer’s website.

At the VA Success Group, nice people that we are, we have written a load of articles for you. You are free to use them in your own newsletters, blogs and websites, provided that you leave any links intact and include the author tag at the end.

What are you waiting for? Get yours here:

http://vasuccessgroup.co.uk/virtual-assistant-freebies/

Your can work with Associates in one of two ways, or indeed, a combination of both.

Firstly you can retain all the client contact so that he/she never knows that the work they are sending you has been completed by a third party.

The plus side here is that you will never have to worry about unscruplious associates who may attempt to take the client from you, or underhand clients who think they may save a pound or two if they cut you out of the equasion and work directly with your associate.

The downside is there will be inevitable delays as you send work back and forth, and you will have to be not only very aware of every peace of work as you will have to discuss it with the client where necessary, you will have to double check everything that goes out. All this additional admin can become very time consuming.

The second way to work with an associate is to effectively pass the client over to them and allow direct communication.

This frees up much more of your time as all discussions about the tasks performed are direct between the client and the associate. However, do make sure that you have very solid contracts in place with both your associate and your client to prevent them working directly together.

Also bear in mind that associates will not be with you forever so make sure you keep yourself up to speed with the clients account information, that you have access to all their files and the work completed by the associate, and that you maintain a relationship wit them have contacting them regularly to check in and see how things are going.

It’s imperative to have an Associate Agreement in pace so that everyone understand the boundaries of the relationship. For more information and a selection of templates you can download and adapt for your own business go to: http://vasuccessgroup.co.uk/virtual-assistant-document-templates/
 

Unsubscribe from newsletters
Think about all the newsletters that you have subscribed to and never read. If you haven’t read a newsletter within a month, you are never going to read it – why not unsubscribe.

Simple Email filing system
You need to make sure that your inbox doesn’t get cluttered. Again, this should mirror your paper and electronic filing system.

For more free advice from two of the UKs leading virtual assistants, visit: http://vasuccessgroup.co.uk/virtual-assistant-freebies/
 

1.    Define your audience.
Have a good think about who you want to be reading your blog. This is easier if you have a niche market because you will have a clear idea of who your customers are. If you don’t have a particular niche, think about what your clients have in common.

2.    Define your content.
Once you have decided who you want to reach, think about what information they would be interested in. Your blog is not a platform for you to continually trumpet about your services and how great you are, it is an opportunity to provide useful information for your readers.

For the remaining tips in this series visit: http://vasuccessgroup.co.uk/virtual-assistant-freebies/10-step-downloads/
 

1. Offer a telephone or face to face consultation.
By referring to this initial two-way meeting as a consultation, you immediately remove the employer/employee interview scenario and present yourself as a professional
business owner. You can also advertise this as a ‘Free Consultation’ which will attract those who want to find out more before committing to anything.

2. Set a specific time.
Whether you are advertising this as a free service or not, make sure you arrange a preset time for your consultation as it will instil in your prospect a certain amount of
respect for your time. It may be a free consultation but you are busy and have to schedule it into your day.

To download the remainder of these tips visit: http://vasuccessgroup.co.uk/virtual-assistant-freebies/10-step-downloads/

Co-founder of the VA Success Group and chair of the UK Association of Virtual Assistants Justine Curtis will be part of an expert panel discussing the virtual assistant industry on Radio 4′s Womens Hour next week.

The discussion will take place on Tuesday 12th January between 10am and 10.45.

I hope you can tune in then.