I’ve been thinking recently about whether the term ‘Virtual Assistant’ is really a useful one to describe what I do.

Quite a few of my colleagues feel the term is unhelpful, because potential clients don’t really understand what it means. I’ve never found that problem, but I do feel the term doesn’t do justice to the job I do. The vast majority of what I do is helping people to communicate their message to their audience.

I’ve searched around for something better and settled on ‘Communications Consultant’, which covers the work I do for others and also my freelance writing.

To be honest, I’m happy to have come to a conclusion on this question because it’s been bugging me for some time and I’ve wanted to escape from the limiting nature certain titles bring.

I’ll still use the hashtag #VirtualAssistant on Twitter because that still puts my work-related tweets into a useful category.

Do you find your job title limiting or unhelpful? Leave a comment below to share your thoughts.

I was happy with the content and had sorted slides to help get my message across. I’d practiced my delivery and was confident that I had the technology under control.

As I delivered my content, it became clear that the audience couldn’t hear me properly, so I had to pretty much start again and then there were no questions (probably because no one could hear what I was talking about), so the whole thing came to rather an abrupt end.

The recording I made of the live event was so bad that I had to re-record my content before I could send it out to the participants. I had to do it three times before the wretched thing was even remotely useable.

After the stresses of the disasters, I was frankly quite prepared to admit that delivering webinars wasn’t really for me.

In the end though, those who listened to the webinar were so very kind, both about the content and my bravery at actually having a go, that I think I probably will have another go when I find the right subject.

The reality of course, is that I disappointed myself, because however useful the content, the quality simply wasn’t up to scratch. Before I do another one I’ll have to do lots of work to make sure I’m happy with the quality of the whole experience.

What have you done that’s taken you outside your business comfort zone? Would you do it again? Leave a comment below…

We’re proud to present a selection of blog posts that give you a flavour of what it means to be a VA in the UK in 2012. So please pop over to the Blog Hop and have a look at what we do.

Image from: techno-time.blogspot.com

Today I decided to Tweet my work day. It’s a pretty typical day, though not quite as busy as some and it’ll just give you a flavour of the work I do.

If you want to follow me on twitter you can find me as @SarahCru

8.15am

Today I am going to #tweetmyworkday At the moment I’m updating the @SocietyOfVAsFacebook page at ow.ly/aQc75

8.23am

Now I’ve moved on to doing an ebook review#tweetmyworkday

9.30am

#tweetmyworkday currently working on my marketing ebook

10.00am

And for my next trick…I’m working on my blog#tweetmyworkday

12.00pm

#tweetmyworkday Off to have some lunch

2.02pm

On to some client work…Scheduling Tweets, uploading some info and writing some blog posts #tweetmyworkday

4.20pm

Client work finished for the day, so off to schedule my tweets for next week

#tweetmyworkday

17.02pm

(Slightly cheating) Having finished my tweet scheduling, I had to respond to an email from a client.

And that’s my day. I’m planning to have a nice quiet evening . I do have some client work to do over the weekend, but that’s my choice,

I hope you’ve found my day interesting. See you Monday.

I’ve discovered that it’s great for reading on, and by being not too techy at all, I can use Dropbox to transfer PDF snooks from my laptop onto the iBooks App on the iPad, which I can then read cheaply and easily in bed.

I’ve also discovered two bits of software, Flipboard – where you can send all your Facebook, Twitter and Google Reader stories (along with various categories you can pick from) – and Buffer – that you can use to schedule Flipboard stories to your Twitter and Facebook feeds. These two little gems have encouraged me to read and share so much content from the web that I otherwise profess to have ‘no time’ for reading.

I seem to remember being a little bit sniffy about using an iPad for writing too, so I can only apologise that here I am, lying in bed, typing out a blog post on – yes you’ve guessed it – my iPad!

I may just possibly have been a bit hasty at dismissing this little piece of kit, but it’s fair to say that it’s performance as an ebook/blog reading device has really bowled me over…Now, what else can it do?

An old written post from this blog turned into a video…Enjoy.

1. The view from my window…  There’s just so much going on in the park…
2. The cat…Sometimes he just potters in to say hello, but f he’s really fed up with me being ties up with work, he sits in the middle of the desk to ensure he’s the focus of my attention.
3. Stuff… Bags of stuff waiting to go to charity shops, things that ‘might come in useful’ and things that aren’t work-related but live in my office anyway.

What are your workspace distractions? Leave a comment below.

homeworkshop.com

Working from home has loads of positive benefits, but keeping your workspace up to scratch for actually working in can be a bit tricky. If you’re lucky (like me), you’ll have a room dedicated to your work, if not, it might be in a corner of the living room, or on the kitchen table.

Wherever you are though, during working hours that’s your office and it should be as comfortable and work-inducing as you can make it.

Problem Setting:- My work space has to help me be as productive as I can be, how do I achieve that?

Problem Solving:-

• Focus on what your work space is for – obviously if you don’t have a dedicated office space, you need to focus on making the space where you do spend your working hours as work-like as possible during those hours – and what you need on hand to be able to do your job.
• Keep the things you use most often closest to hand, anything else can be stored away in a box, shelf or cupboard and just be brought out when needed. Keep everything neat and tidy and leave it tidy at the end of the work day .

• Buy nice (not necessarily expensive, but stuff you enjoy) stationery and storage for your work stuff. Having equipment you enjoy, that looks good and works well can really make a difference to your productivity!
• Get the best chair you can afford! If you’re going to be working at a desk or table for long periods of time you need a comfortable and supportive chair. Nothing stunts productivity like a numb bum and sore back.
• Make it work-like – don’t have too many distractions in front of you – if you can keep the task you’re working on as your only or main focus, you’re more likely to finish it.
• At the end of your working day make sure you can close your office door or pack away your work space so that you can maintain a life/work split in your day, you want to be able to get away from the office even if it’s only 10 steps from your bed to your desk!

I hope this short article has given you some ideas for spring cleaning your work space and making it a more productive place to be, the more work-like the space, the more work you’re going to get done in it. What are the things that make your space a good place to work?

I’m really excited to be able to announce that I can now offer a Call Handling service from the fantastic Call Team!

Visit www.callteam.co.uk/sign-up to complete the sign-up form.  Use the code “Sarah Cruickshank” and you will receive an extended trial of 2 weeks (maximum of 50 calls) instead of 1 week/25 calls.

Our service is offered to clients during office hours 9am – 5pm Monday to Friday with calls out with these hours going to voicemail.  Or you can utilise our Out of Hours Service from 9am – 10pm Monday to Friday and again calls out with these hours going to voicemail.   We email messages to straightaway and can also send an SMS if required.

Our Call Packages are detailed below:

• Email Only: Standard Hours £20 per month (includes 5 free calls), thereafter £1.00 per call
• Email and SMS: Standard  Hours £20 per month (includes 5 free calls), thereafter £1.20 per call
• Email Only Out of Hours: £30 per month (includes 5 free calls), thereafter £1.00 per call until 5pm and then £1.50 per call thereafter
• Email and SMS Out of Hours: £30 per month (includes 5 free calls), thereafter £1.20 per call until 5pm and £1.70 per call thereafter
• Call Handling Packages: packages are now available, starting at 25 calls per month - http://www.callteam.co.uk/services

Calls are classed as standard up to three minutes in duration. Any calls that exceed three minutes will be charged pro rata at the rate of £20.00 per hour for any time in excess of the three minutes.

Image from: dogpartysupplies.org

Holding a Twitter party via Tweet Chat…

Last week was my first business birthday and because I work virtually, largely with people who live a long way from me, I decided a Twitter party was the way to go.

I created a hashtag for the event and shared the invitation across all my networks and my email list. I created a party bag for people to take away and used the opportunity to announce a new e-book project. So, I put a lot of work in beforehand, but was it a success?

Six people came along, only two of who weren’t clients or well known to me. A few people had sent their apologies. Actually, it was a lot of fun to organise and to host, but from a business point of view it didn’t really grow my marketing list or introduce my services to any new prospects. It certainly didn’t pay for itself if you consider time = money.

That’s not to say that I wouldn’t do a similar event again, because I would, I thought the Tweet Chat interface was very good and the giveaways I created were things I had planned to do anyway and will find their way on to the “free resources” page on my website.

And now, with the first year celebrations and a short break for Easter out of the way, it’s on with year 2!