A Day in the Life of a VA

One of my Clients starts work early!

I'm opening up shop on a bright sunny morning. I had heard my phone ring before beginning work today, but that's okay: my client, an early riser, knows one of the first things I do is check my voicemail and e-mail. If she was up late last evening, I know there will be e-mail messages waiting for me too. I'm glad I had lined up the work I needed for our current project: the call was all about the next issue of her e-zine. It doesn't hurt that I'm a touch typist either! Sounds like a lot of editing and layout work are headed my way!

After listening and responding to the more urgent voicemail and e-mail messages, I go over my outstanding work; prioritizing along the way. I'm fortunate in that our household, and hence my business, has three fairly new computers. All have broadband Internet connections, and all are packed with the latest software. I discovered some time ago that buying more power in a computer than is currently needed pays off in the long-run.

Time to review the files I need to work on. Deadlines sometimes change and things move from the back to the front burner very quickly indeed. I need to remember (and I do) one of the things a friend of mine says and believes in: "go with the flow'. I know, it sounds like a dated cliché. But boy does it work when something gets moved to the critical, must-do-now stage!

Online shopping carts and "intuitive" websites

Two of my clients put me to the test on different Internet-related fronts. One offers workshops (in-person and via teleconference), and needed to get her contact list into 1ShoppingCart.com, then set up auto responders. I was able to help her do some of this, but even for a computer geek, it was daunting at times. Thanks to my membership in The Shopping Cart Queen's club, I'm beginning to get a better idea of how this all works. Like everything new, it took a little research and head scratching at first. One of my earlier clients took me into the world of intuitive website interfaces one day. I had to update some of her clients' information; things like adding articles, creating meta tag sets, shuffling content around and so forth. While I'm a trained webmaster, I had to step back and re-evaluate what I knew to get through the first bits. Why? Because, frankly, I was working too hard! Heather makes it very easy.

E-mail accounts are all different

The question of configuring e-mail accounts comes up frequently.

On this particular day, one of my clients (who himself had significant e-mail forwarding issues, which I was able to partly rectify for him) referred me to one of his clients. The person concerned had apparently lost her contact list in Outlook®. Two things went through my mind: the first was that I'd have to do a little research on this one. The second was, while I don't normally take on project work, I was wiling to do it because it was important to my client, and he had recommended me in good faith.

I'd start my search with Microsoft's Knowledge Bases (KB's). Also, I'd have to scope comments from people who had experienced similar problems in Outlook, but who were not 'connected' with Microsoft. In the end, I was able to help my client's client in the address/contact department.

Event planning is an art form

How can a virtual assistant help plan an event? In many ways! Having done my share of event planning in the corporate and not-for-profit worlds, I actually came to enjoy organizing and executing the hundreds of things I might have to do for a single event. I know how to source venues, arrange catering and A/V, handle registration, etc.  For a smaller event, like the one I did for my very first client, my contributions took several forms. I did the e-mail distribution/notice. I received and acknowledged RRSP's or regrets. And I took the rare step–because the event was local–of actually being there. I enjoyed every bit of what I did and was thankful to have been invited!

You want me to do what?

The day I got this call, I tried to figure out how many years it had been since I'd worked with a dot-matrix printer? So the question was: could I create a document or form that would print only the data entered on a preprinted, multi-part form? Sure ... Actually, I was sure I could do it. I'd done something very much like that in the past. I began the process by sourcing dot-matrix printers, and comparing their specifications to the specifications my client provided me with. I was surprised: there were actually quite a few printers that could do the job. But then the snag [I thought]: the price for any one of those behemoths was more than Delphian's new colour laser printer! Yikes. In the end, my client assured me that the cost benefit in the long run far exceeded the printer's cost (or several of them, or the hours I charged). I got on with the job, beginning by mapping out form fields using Word. Having the printer in my home office for a couple of weeks was a trip down memory lane, and it reminded me that not only was there still a demand for these things, they could still be put to good use.

Notching up PowerPoint

I use PowerPoint for all the classes I teach (I teach first year college students basic computer skills, in Fashion Arts and Accounting diploma programs), and I also teach it as a subject. Because of my connection with educational textbook suppliers, whose books one of the colleges had adopted, I was asked to test a set of Microsoft® Office PowerPoint® 2007 instructions, and to annotate the results of the tests using Adobe® Acrobat®. I learned a few things I didn't know about PowerPoint, and how to keep annotations to up to spec so that future teachers of the program could use it and learn from what I'd encountered.

What's going to happen tomorrow?

Hopefully, it's something you have in mind! I'm always learning something new, and always interested in stretching ... this is especially true if it's something that can help grow your business. And oh yes, if you've seen my Recent Activities page, you'll know I'm interested in working with clients in the entertainment industry.