Bend it like Beckham

Before you start your Virtual Assistant business you need to have a good idea of what you want to achieve and to do that you have to set your goals. Have you written down just one?

If not - PLEASE - think hard about the most awful thing you can think of and then think of the opposite.

So if the most awful is being homeless, the most wonderful is being mortgage free and having a huge house.

Sometimes this method makes setting goals easier. If you still have no idea where to start, please read the previous blog entry and download the free e-book from the link supplied.

It is much easier to get going on your business plan if you know what you want. You need to aim high, the lower you set your sights the less you will achieve. I really got going when I started to enter Business competitions. I did not think for one moment a sole Virtual Assistant would win, but I would never know if I did not set my sights on the prize and enter - and win I did and more than once.

Short and sweet as this is the weekend, I hope you all have a good one, Di Chapman

It is all down to the planning

Well two days out of the office - but all in a good cause. My husband was 60 today and we had lunch out. Yesterday we picked up friends from the local airport which is near a large industrial area so also managed to get a lot of things we cannot get locally.

Now what has all this to do with being a Virtual Assistant - well planning.

I have planned cover for my business - organised and all the clients know.

Jobs that come in to be done when I am back at work get printed off with a to-do sheet, per client, stapled to the front and each new item gets written on it and the mail filed. That is just my way of planning.

My husband planned the last two days as he plans everything, in writing, as a list and ticks it off as he does it. He leaves early so make sure he arrives on time and as he is project managing our build keeps records of everything.

Goal setting and planning are so important - you MUST get into the habit of doing both. If you would like a free copy of Setting Goals 2006, please go to http://www.iceni-it.co.uk/free_downloads/SettingGoals2006.pdf

This is typical of the free resources we give away with our newsletter on a regular basis, so if you would like to go to http://www.iceni-it.co.uk and register for our newsletter, the next download will be a free months 'fun' and quizzes game to help you develop your business mind-set whilst enjoying yourself.

Di Chapman - who has her goals written on a white board where she can see them all day while she sits at her desk - yes I practice what I preach.

Become a Virtual Assistant

I get posts on an almost daily basis asking how to become a Virtual Assistant or VA. Having been in the business since 2000 it obviously cannot be condensed into one e-mail and there are so many types of VA - ie people who are self employed and work via the Internet that it is a huge subject. The aim of this blog is to give new and those thinking of becoming a VA what life is really like.

I have to own up and say that my office is in a partly converted barn high in the French hills so I am not even the average Virtual Assistant but then that is good because to succeed in this business you need to be far more than average - the average only normally last a year.

If you have any comments on this blog or anything you would like to see covered, please mail me at chapman.di@gmail.com and I will try to cover and answer your questions.

Di Chapman