To simplify, “Time Management refers to making the best possible use of available time”.
Top 3 Qualities Your VA Must Have!
You must have a lot in mind thinking of your first VA on what and how they should be. But however you list down your job description, here are my top three qualities your VA must-haves.
So I suggest you rate and choose according to your interview questions narrowing down and leaning towards identifying how they pass these qualifications below.
RELIABILITY is the most essential quality that a virtual assistant must have. While most credentials would show you great attributes, former related work experiences, and certifications, this is one of the most important one because sadly it seems to be the most common taken for granted characteristic. A lot of clients that have shared horror stories with their previous VA(s) and why they had to look for another just falls under 2 things. Either they wont meet the deadline, or wont deliver at all.
COMMUNICATION SKILLS means connection between people or the act of imparting or exchanging of information or news. It does not necessarily mean you should be fluent in a certain dialect or a language, instead it means from point to point, A VA must be able to communicate any progress on how their work is going. The clients has every right to be informed and updated on what is going on and what is to be expected as a result without even following up. Fluency is a bonus but clarity and being able to communicate what exactly is happening is mostly efficient.
RESOURCEFUL AND WILLINGNESS TO LEARN is what a great virtual assistant should be. Many times you will ask them to do things they have never done before. They should know where to look for answers. Know that there is YouTube, Google, Pinterest, forums, even Facebook, Twitter, Linkedin, and a lot more online places they can get answers from and help them. The main point of getting a VA is to help their clients make their lives easier ad bot be a burden. It’s ok to ask but not for the obviously can be answered by those mentioned.
Why is Intellectual Property Filing Important?
Intellectual property in general refers to creations of the mind. Things like inventions, your brand name, your logo or symbols, your artistic works, your images and your designs are all examples of an intellectual property. Sadly, these can also be robbed from you easily nowadays. In the world where people are so smart and intelligent, while you strive hard to make your own brand and product, do all your research and brainstorm for days just to have that identity, there are others that are just others who wait and keep looking for ideas that they can copy.
There are mainly 3 ways you can protect your Intellectual property. It is through patent, trademark, and copyright.
The Trademark, which is a word, a sound, or a design or a combination of these used to give you the identity of the goods and the services that you offer and which will also that will set you apart from the others ( or in this case the competitors ). It is also a tool to help the public distinguish you, your product and your services.
Copyright pertains to architectural works, literary works, music, movies, paintings and other works, including computer programs. The owner of a copyright gets to decide who can legally make copies of that work. It is illegal to copy large sections of someone else’s copyrighted work without permission, even if you give the original author credit.
While Patent is a government grant giving an inventor the right to exclude others from making, using or selling an invention. It covers new inventions like process, machine, manufacture, composition of matter or any new and useful innovation and improvement to an existing invention
Why do I need to do it early?
Intellectual property rights are so important but easily get taken for granted. For most business owners and entrepreneurs that I’ve met and spoken with, they all in general have told me that they have thought of it but setting that aside until the business grow big and abundant while a small chunk has lack of knowledge that they can protect their brand.
It is the only way that you can protect yourself from someone stealing your idea and hard work. It also can set your business apart from competitors. It can be sold or licensed in which if you miss this part, you are losing yourself the chance to make an eventual revenue stream.
Let me give you some scenarios:
First Scenario:
Henry created a company for a motorcycle gear shop and named his shop “Camp Jaguar”. It sells camp gears, automotive gears, helmets, car accesories and the likes. He went on registered his business and did everything he could to make the business grow. He is happy with how all things are going and now also started to be known. He is now ready to own his brand and file for an intellectual property owning his brand name and logo.
Jaguar ( Luxury vehicles company ) contested the claim and did not allow him to own his name “Camp Jaguar” because they already have intellectual property rights for the name “Jaguar” and the classification of his products are similar to them. We all did not know that Jaguar also sells automotive gears, car accessories, and the likes. So Henry had no choice but to change his brand name and strive even harder to get known again.
What do you think had happened if Henry did intellectual property filing a lot earlier than he did? He may not have owned the brand “camp jaguar” as his business name but he could have all started it right instead of changing his name eventually.
Another Scenario:
Gloria made an innovation for tech financing. She made an app that helps business owners to file loan at the tip of their hands. She made it real big, it went well and gave her well-off profits. A lot copied the platform, the concept, the idea, the process, had their logo almost similar to Gloria’s and made their brand name almost the same as hers. The second company who was just supposedly a copycat went on and filed for intellectual property rights. For the app, the logo and the brand name and had it. They can now sue Gloria for having the same app as theirs if they want and they will eventually win because they already have the rights for it.
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I hope I am able to convey the importance of IPF here. If you have a book, a brand name, a logo, a product or service that you wish to protect, Or a business that has been running for over 5 years or so without the Intellectual property rights, Now is the time. In this digital world, everything can now be easily copied. If you don’t get the law with you, someone else will.
Thanks for reading and if you need more help in doing this or for a free consultation, please feel free to hit contact us and message me.
Cheers!
When to Hire a Virtual Assistant
I am sure at this point you have read a lot of articles on how a virtual assistant can help you. You must already by now have a lot of things on your mind to take off your plate and give to your (soon to be) built-in accountability partner. Now you are sure that you need help but let me stop you from there. Allow me to help you outline some thoughts that you need to ponder on before jumping into hiring one. I am a VA myself and I am hoping that in this blog I can achieve to help both the potential clients and the aspiring applicants and let them lead to a successful business relationship.
TRAINING YOUR VA – We are naturally resourceful and skillful. But to ensure that we work according to your needs, please take time to conduct pieces of training with us. Do you have time to do this? Is this something that you are willing to invest on? Yes, you do have to train them. They are humans and not robots that are programmed to do the tasks that you need them to do right away. An investment of your time to building a relationship with your virtual assistant will give you a lot of benefits in the long run.
- Expect a lot of questions from us too for at least a maximum of two weeks. Be readily available to answer the questions as much as possible cause even if we understood things, we want to make sure that we are doing it right. We don’t want to mess up with your files and processes as we want to work as efficient and as effective to make your lives easier.
- I would also suggest video tutorial for the tasks that you want to be done. As much as possible, in the video tutorial, please answer all of the possible scenarios and questions that may be asked. That way, we do not have to keep on messaging you and or asking questions. If you do not know how to do it. Simply download loom chrome extension and record how you are doing it yourself so we can follow.
- If you already have a process map or tasks guidelines, please feel free to share. It will also be a big help if you will introduce to your VA what exactly do you do on your business and what are the goals to achieve. Mold us to think like you and be your third hand.
- Do not ever assume that the person you hired or will hire already knows the terms and policies of your business. Even if the person said that they are well experienced or that they have done it in the past, please ask or at least make sure that you are both on the same page. This is a new person you are meeting and it is easy to pretend or fake it till you make it so better ask and trust your instinct if the person is telling you the truth and nothing but the truth.
- It’s a bonus if you can create a system yourself first. Time yourself for the average time handling of the task you are asking to be done. This way, you can also gauge the productivity and be more realistic on your expectation or target.
ONLY HIRE WHEN YOU ARE READY – I’ve had a couple of clients who hired me as their VA and then eventually have nothing for me to do. Either will give me the simplest short-term tasks leaving me idle and waiting for next instructions or I will not have anything at all to do.
- Identify your goal. Are you looking to expand and want to have more focus on more important matters rather than doing most of the administrative tasks of your business that is eating up your time which is becoming a hindrance to your business growth or you simply just want a day off.
- Are you prepared to hand off and entrust some of your business confidential info like plans and contacts, etc. to someone virtually.
- Have a clear idea of what are the tasks that you want to outsource. Those repetitive tasks that are eating up your time and that you are sure that can easily be passed on to the right person.
I’m cutting my blog short for now. I will update this as soon as I can think of things I can add on. Please feel free to comment down below if you want me to add a point I have not discussed.
Cheers!!!
What’s the key ingredient to a successful marriage?
During the early stage of our married life, this is one thing for sure we asked ourselves. We all want a successful marriage, don’t we? We do not want to be one of those friends or relatives we know who had failed marriage and ended up searching and looking for another partner in life.
Being married for over 12 years now does not exempt me from asking this question still. There is always a thin line between security and commitment. Are you sure you are on the same page? Are you both sharing the same goal? I am not an expert and I do not have a perfect life but if someone will ask me this question, I will gladly answer it with the word “contentment”.
But when do we say we are contented? How does one not ask for more than what they have? How can one not compare their life to others?
There’s one tip that I can give you. If you see yourself being sad about what’s happening with your married life and how your partner is treating you, look for the positive traits that he or she has. And compare your situation to other couples but on a reverse method. Count your blessings and look at how lucky you could be with the one that you gave yourself into. Be thankful for all the countless blessings that God is giving you and see all the beauty in life that others may not have.
That’s all for tonight. I wish I was able to give you some thoughts to ponder on.
Have a good one everyone! Cheers!
Thinking about how to become an Amazon product researcher after you read my last post? That’s a good sign that this could be your niche then.
Now I want to talk more about what you should be or the traits that you must have to be effective in this niche. I want you to not only look at what it could give you but also look within you and help yourselves identify if this is really something that you want to do. You can’t make a pork taste like beef no matter how such a good cook you are (I just made that up but I like it haha).
Now I am listing below those that are on top of my head and you can always feel free to add at the comment section if you want to add and think more traits that are very important for this niche.
- INTERESTED – In all of the niche for a work from home career there may be, this is the main characteristic that one must have. Are you interested? Does this personally interest you? Ask yourself and you can stop right away if the answer is NO, or go further and start moving forward if your answer is YES.
- CURIOUS – Yes there is a very big difference between the first characteristic and this. You may be interested but you are not curious to learn, explore, study and absorb. There is a saying that goes, “curiosity kills the cat”, but not applicable to what we are talking about. So many things to learn and so many aspects to consider when you start doing research. Don’t be settled for things that look ok. You have to be curious to know the reason why the product is a good listing or not.
- IDEA / CREATIVE THINKING – everything around you that is a non-living thing can give you ideas on what product to research. With millions of items available online to search and check if it will be profitable, you have to have ideas on what are those that would sell and what are those that won’t. For example, when you are in your house kitchen, you start looking around you and from there you will already see what are the items that are saleable. What most likely will be hot trends? What are the products that are useful? Do you have things in mind you think that are good finds?
- SELF MOTIVATED – This is a tough job. It may sound easy because it gives you the freedom to work anytime, anywhere. It allows you to earn without lifting a telephone or speaking to customers first hand. But believe me, the challenges are just right ahead as soon as you start searching. You will be fighting your own self if you choose this niche so you must be prepared with your right mindset and focus on your goal. You must be well motivated to finish the task and give quality results. Are you ready to work on your, with minimal to no supervision and still exceed your client’s expectation?
- DECISION MAKER – You must also be an identifier with keen attention to details. Only you see the items and products you are looking at. Your client will only see what you want them to see. You must be able to be an analytical thinker to identify what are those that are worth buying and selling. Your client will decide what is to be bought and what goes to their Amazon store, but you decide on what would be their options.
I’m sure there’s a lot more on traits that a product researcher should have. But these are my top 5 and if you say you have all of these, I suggest you learn this niche some more.
I am also offering coaching and training to become an Amazon product researcher. Feel free to reach out so I can help. Best of luck mommies!
Quick Guide – Be An Amazing Amazon Product Researcher!
You’re probably here because you realize that an Amazon product researcher looks like quite a good niche as a virtual assistant in the freelancing world.
You are actually right. This is not only in demand, this is also a learning that will only give you nothing but huge opportunities and long-term work ahead. I created a quick presentation guide to those mommies like me who are thinking what an Amazon product researcher does and how to be one. This article aims to let you know what you needed to learn and study may you want to do it on your own or pay for services that can let your knowledge grow in this niche.
Please enjoy the slides!
Meet the Amazon Website!
On the next slides, I want to show and introduce you to the tools that you will need to know and understand to equip you to be efficient in this line of job.
Lastly, I want to show you the list of the basic terms and things you need to know and understand to give you and your prospective client the confidence on hiring you as their product researcher.
Once you ‘ve all learned and understand the basics, you can now start to look for a client and start building yourself growing knowledge and expertise if this has become your chosen niche!
When and How to say NO – for additional workload
Today I want to talk about task and time management in connection with when should you accept some more on your plate or say that you’re already full.
Being a Filipino worker could have so much effect on our work ethics in general. Filipino culture tends to live by the “hospitality” characteristic and mostly being overdone.
For most of us, saying no doesn’t come naturally. We are too afraid to say NO even if we don’t want to and also too shy to ask even if we did not understand. There is no scientific explanation I know to expand more on this idea but this is the reality and this is happening all the time.
I thought of writing this because of one recent interview I had from one of my prospective clients. So I asked, “did you have any Filipino workers working for you now?” and he said “yes!”. I followed up with a question: “Are they all doing pretty well and gave you great impressions on us?” and he went silent…
Then he exclaimed, “Filipinos are great workers but not really great when communicating. They work so hard to impress but not too upfront about how they feel and what they think. And I think that it is the reason why in so many ways efforts are becoming useless and unnecessary”.
So here I am listing things you need to know, which are all based on my personal opinions and observations, and the perfect approach on how you can say No or how to ask help when you need one.
1. Make sure that you have a file where all of your tasks, duties, and responsibilities are all listed.
Having this handy is always your best tool not only for this purpose of what we are talking about but also for your self-assessment and awareness on your productivity and how well you are plated. It is also a great effort to have an average time information in handling each task. This way, you can identify right away if you can still accommodate further requests. In most cases, your words are all rants without basis if you don’t show numbers. Best practice will always be monitoring and tracking your productivity.
2. Assess
Before you wave off your hand and ready to look like a jerk, prepared to say NO to the request. Assess and ask yourself how interesting, engaging, and exciting the opportunity is. Asses if it is a job that you are supposed to do or a task that is completely a different person should be handling. Do not say no until you are really sure that you can no longer handle it given your full plate. Estimate the timeline it needs to be done. If it is a long-term additional task or a one time help they need. May it is for a client, a co-worker or your manager… you can also seek help to evaluate the scope and the scale.
3. Be straightforward
Now that you have the figures and data to support how full plated you are and you have already assessed that you are not interested, do not want to engage and you see no opportunity ahead given the additional workload or assignment, you now have to say it upfront.
One common scenario I see is telling the entire office first that you do not want or cannot do that anymore as if they can help. As if you are expecting the rumors to do the job for you and eventually will not be given the workload to you because everybody knew you are all worked up.
Go straight to the right channel. To your manager, to your boss, or to the person asking you the favor for additional workload and tell nicely why you cannot do it. A proper example will be, “I would really want to do that for you but my other jobs might suffer. I might not be the perfect person to do a good job for that task”.
4. Try before you say no
If you do have an extra on your plate it is always best to give it a shot first. Best to do is learn the task and understand the process. Make a productivity tracker and study the average handling time for the task and the procedures on how it’s done. When you do that you don’t only help yourself, but also the future person that will do those tasks. You will be able to identify how many people should be working on that and how long it would take to be done. Your report and monitoring will help you and your company to grow as you do not want to commit the same mistake and work redundancy over and over again.
I hope I somehow was able to help you with these. Next time I will write something about “What characteristics will a client look for as his/her VA” stay tuned and follow so you get it straight while it’s hot.
Work From Home – How Possible Can It Be?
Most and specially moms like me are always dreaming of an online career and ways to earn for a living at the comfort of our homes. Flexible working hours and the luxury of having a quality time that can be spent with your family and loved ones that are mostly lost due to dramatic traffic and travel hours are just some of the factors that appeal to those that are thinking of a work from home career.
But can working from home really be possible to replace your corporate job income? Is it really going to be worth it? Would you ever regret if you make that decision? To answer these questions, let me help and show you what it takes to pursue a career online. You can then think more about the decision you’re about to be making.
KNOW YOURSELF, YOUR SKILLS AND YOUR PRODUCTS
Entering into the online career world does not necessarily mean Virtual Assistance only. It can be a specific skill like graphic designing, content writing, web development and many more. Knowing yourself, your skills and what you can offer is the main factor. Identifying your products lets you plan ahead on your next steps and actions to take. I’ve seen a lot of neophytes who enter into the world of online career without knowing what their products are. Thus, this actually get them burnt out eventually for they thought they have to learn all of the skills and offer everybody else is offering well in fact they just have to choose where they are really good at and showcase it like nobody else can.
Ask yourself these 3 questions:
Where and What am I good at?
Who are the people that would most likely want to get the services that I offer?
How much they would most likely want to spend for the services that I offer?
Once you’ve figured out the answers to these questions, you will now know where to focus your efforts and learn to design your profile and approach tailor fitting your products and personality.
DISCIPLINE AND TIME MANAGEMENT
While many are thinking that working from home is very ideal, working from home is not for everybody. Working on your own and being at home are two different factors that can lead to so many distractions. For example if you are planning on putting up an online store, you have to be the CEO,COO, do the marketing, the sourcing, buying and the fulfillment while your family are no one near to the knowledge on how busy you are. Some of the family members would even think that you are not doing anything because you are only sitting over 10 hours in front of your laptop. As a mother it is also your job to look after you kids as you work while they want to play. Once you are more established you might be able to delegate these responsibilities. But, the fact of the matter is that you need to possess the right mindset in the beginning.
Not having colleagues around who does the same thing and can help you if there are struggles is a one thing you probably thought you wouldn’t miss when you leave your office job.
You have to know how to manage your time accordingly and learn how to stick with it to make sure that you hit your goals at the set target time. Many professional portals state that if you are able to adhere to strict working hours , then you will be able to complete your tasks. If this suits your lifestyle, you are on the right track.
DO NOT DOUBT YOURSELF! IT’S ALL ABOUT CONFIDENCE!
Would Thomas Edison have invented the incandescent bulb if he doubted his abilities? Would we have ever heard of Elon Musk and the Tesla car if he’d been unsure of his success? Confidence is the key! It is the bedrock of any online career. Of course, there will be setbacks along the way and failures are inevitable. These need to be looked at as building blocks and rooms for opportunities on improvement, as opposed to viewing them as enemies. Confidence will enable you to rise from the ashes and follow your dream to its fruition.
So, with determination, some hard graft and a bold attitude, you could easily make a living online. As the saying goes, a rough road leads to the stars!
My Top 5 – Benefits of Working From Home
After 8 years of working from one field to another, I discovered working from home 5 months ago and it has now opened my eyes to the wide range of all of the things I can do to earn while at home.
So now I decided to list my top 5 benefits of working from home.
- “No travels means No Traffic”
Yes, that is right. I’m sure everyone will agree that this is the number one benefit of working from home. Especially in our country that the road can become a chaos. Working from home is not only saving yourself being frustrated stuck in traffic almost every day in your life but also helping the entire community for being one of those that stay at home instead of running around with them chasing seats in public transportation.
- “Safety”
This is one of the main factors I love working from home aside from the “No travels means No Traffic” bullet point. I feel safe at home more than when I had to travel around and leave my kids at home alone while I was at work. I am happy to be able to have a peace of mind while I am working knowing that my kids are safe and sound. All the plugs are pulled when no one’s using and that no one is playing fire to create a tragedy (I may be exaggerating but yes I admittedly have a lot of my paranoia).
- “Watching over my kids while I am at work”
This is really a bonus! I never thought I could have this luxury of watching over my kids while I am at work but working as a virtual assistant does magic and it does allow me to do things I never thought I could. Being a mom of 3 is really a tough job and watching them grow is a challenge to all of us. Trying to make sure they grow to be a person we want them to be and making sure they share good values in life. I am happy to be able to kiss them and hug them whenever I like. I know for sure they will not be forever babies so I love treasuring the moments as I still can.
- “Quality Time with my family ”
Working from home is just a term. But you can literally work from anywhere as long as there is a good internet connection and you have your equipment with you. I get to enjoy with my family, join outings and some family gatherings with no worries on filing leaves and worrying if I will be granted permission. I even find buying groceries with my kids as part of our quality time as we get to spend laughing and giggling at random stuff. Eating meals together and speaking heart to heart talk about their crushes and soon to be girlfriends. I am so in love with working from home.
- “Side Hustling”
Like many other moms like me. Earning from one bucket is fine but having extra income will always be better. When you work from home no one can stop you from thinking and as long as your time and workload permits, you can choose to have other jobs or extra activities that can help you give extra income. It’s all about time management and priorities.
Thanks for reading my top 5 list of benefits from working from home. Thanks and I am looking forward to more articles soon. I am planning to write at least once a week. Stick with me and I will stick with you. Thanks!
Your talented va 