Virtual Working in the Virtual Working in the 2121stst Century – Century –

for PAs and VAs alikefor PAs and VAs alikeCaroline Wylie, Caroline Wylie,

Founder of Society Of Virtual AssistantsFounder of Society Of Virtual Assistants

A little bit about me...A little bit about me...

• Background in music and advertising – worked for Sony Music and AMV:BBDO in London and Euro RSCG Riley in Glasgow.

• Lives in Glasgow with husband Craig, our toddler son Cassius, and my beautiful Burmese cat, Princess Lottie.

• Started my own VA business in 2004.• Founded societyofvirtualassistants.co.uk in 2005.• SVA is the largest UK organisation of virtual assistants.

About you...About you...

Corporate PAsCorporate PAs

• Big business 250+ employees• No influence over external departments –

finance / IT / marketing• Looking to use tools to save time

SME PASME PA

• Small business• Used to juggling many different roles• Looking to make savings for the company

VA or Aspiring VA

VA or Aspiring VA

• Escaping the rat race• Setting up own business• Looking for tools needed to run a VA

business

The aim of the game...The aim of the game...

Time is Time is moneymoney

Yours

Your employers

Your clients

How do you spend your How do you spend your time?time?

EmailChasing Accounts

WWILFing

Meetings

Being interrupted (phone/people)

Doing stuff you hate

Commuting

Average employee checks their email 36 times an hour!!!

Average commute is 41 mins (London = 71 mins)

Average number of meetings/month – 62. 31 hours spent in unproductive meetings/month

Each phone call takes 15 mins to regain the level of concentration you had before the interruption – 45 mins for a personal visit.

Internet browsing costs businesses £130 million a day in lost productivity

SMEs spend half a day each week chasing late payments

20% of people are procrastinators – we spend longer putting off the task than actually doing it!

HOW DO VAS DO IT?HOW DO VAS DO IT?Stay focused, make their time pay and juggle clients...

Remote WorkingRemote Working

☺ Have an office you can close the door on☺ Learn how to motivate yourself☺ Childcare is not optional!☺ Do get dressed every morning☺ Leave the house occasionally

ObjectionsObjections

Your house could burn down

They don’t know who else is in

your house/office/workspace

Confidential data might be stored

on your computer and not

disposed of properlyYour motherboard could melt

A river could flood your house

You could get burgled

You might send a confidential

file to another client by accident

They might be punished for

your security lapse – e.g.

Spam attack, virus, hacking

They might need a file in the middle

of the night/when you are on

holiday/when you are off sick

Who is running your cloud system?

Do they comply with UK law?

☺I have off site automated back up

☺I know what responsibilities I have under UK Data Protection Act and have systems in place

I need someone to make my coffee!!!

Remote WorkingRemote Working

• One system only which is securely backed up and which everyone has access to... Working remotely should be as easy as wondering past your desk in the office for a file!

• Get into the habit of checking in beginning and end of the day to do a handover.

• Delight your clients – pop in to say hello, post them sweeties, make sure you ask about their dog...

WITH FUNDAMENTALS IN WITH FUNDAMENTALS IN PLACE...PLACE...

What happens day to day?

Zero Inbox StrategyZero Inbox Strategy

Email ManagementEmail Management

In response to our heavy workload and an ongoing commitment to quality, e-mails are checked daily at

10am and 4pm GMT.This enables us to work efficiently for all our clients.

When a client purchases an hour’s worth of services, they get each and every one of the 3,600 seconds of it.

If your message requires urgent action, forward it to our urgent mailbox XXXX where it will be dealt with in a

timely manner.

Autoresponders

Email ManagementEmail Management

Delay delivery Calendar/task

list

Mail merge Synch with

SmartPhone

Meeting CrackerMeeting CrackerSchedule a phone call firstDiscuss what the meeting will involve and what you need to put on the agendaOffer to send information or resources via email/courierDecide if the meeting is still necessary...

Have the meeting at your premises – saves on travel timeSend agenda through in good timeDay before: check they are still comingSet up a digital recorder at the meeting – have everyone introduce themselvesKeep track of time allocated to each topic

Use Skype, GoToMeeting or other webinar/online workspace to have the meeting instead.

Post meeting, send meeting recording out to be typed onto your minutes template.Put actions into a calendar and activate email reminders.

Phone NinjaPhone Ninja

Divert to

answerphone

Use VOIP to reroute calls

Ringtones for special people

Ask people to

send an email

Autoresponder routing

TIME TRACKING CRM/ MARKETING/ PROJECT MANAGEMENT/ CALENDARS CONFERENCINGHour Guard SmartStamp online postage Go To MeetingMyhours Team Viewer shared workspace HightailMy Roster Plaxo – address book Webex – share desktop/PC screen at meetingsPaymo.Biz Capsule14 Dayz SmartSheet – Project management SURVEYSHoursTracker Zotero – research saving WooFooMinutedock Constant Contact Survey MonkeyGetharvest.com SugarSync JotformToggl Trello    Freshdesk support desk email software COMMUNICATIONSACCOUNTS TeamworkPM project management SkypeXero Google Calendar to sync with client diaries Rebtel – Cheap calls to overseasQuickbooks Asana – Teamwork without email Yahoo messengerQuickfiles Hootsuite VoipfoneExpressInvoice MailChimp IP phone forwarded to mobileCreation of own client worksheets Evernote and Evernote Premium CallagenixKashflow OneNote OutlookSage Pay BasecampWorldpay Qinec Touch – Practice management software AUDIO TYPINGGocardless – Direct Debit provider Highrise Start Stop transcription software

CleanersMate – Carpet and Upholstery Industry OlympusBACKUP TriggerApp WAVpedalNorton Zone Eline – online booking system for Property Management Turbo dictate to convert DS2 files for Express ScribeSkydrive Insightly – PM linked to Gmail NCH Doxillion Document ConverterCarbonite Boomerang – scheduling emails Express ScribeLivedrive Gantter NCH Switch Sound File ConverterCubby Hollycroft – form filling, job management, office lettersDropbox Eventbrite GRAPHICS/FILESHARE/CONFERENCINGiDrive – for PC/Mac online back up   Pdfjoin.comPrivate Virtual Network SOCIAL MEDIA Wetransfer.comSpideroak Twitonomy SharefileLogMeIn – remote access desktop Hootlet PicmonkeyGoogleDrive Bufferapp.com Animoto

Raven Tools EchoSignGADGETS FanPage Karma Adobe ProfessionalScanner MailChimp IpiccyFlex design tablet Woobox and Shortstack for Facebook tabs PresentamediaCamScanner Hootsuite and Hootsuite Pro PDF CreatoriPhone scanning app Facebook Pocket – save for later AppCreation of own templates for each client Feedly – organisation of news feeds and delivery to one placeMagnetic postcards – more effective than small business cards

Scoop.it – discover and share content LeechBlock/minutesplease.com/Productivity Owl for Chrome: Blocks or restricts access to time wasting sites.

Treadmill Desk

Tools to help...Tools to help...From UK VA

survey

Great book...Great book...• “Escape manual” for employees• Excellent time management

GET THE SLIDESGET THE SLIDESwww.societyofvirtualassistants.co.uk