Top Three

"What are your most-requested services?"

I'm asked this question alot. And mostly when discussing our services offering with a potential client. It's a fantastic question! It can completely open the door on delegation. Quite often people aren't sure where to start and feel overwhelmed just thinking about what to delegate. So here's our top three and they all fall under the umbrella of Online Marketing & Brand Management:

1. Social Media Management. Biznik. Facebook. LinkedIn. Ryze. Twitter. Online Forums. Message Boards.... ARGH! Don't know where to start? We do! We'll help you set up a profile and maintain it on the sites you need to have a presence on. We'll come up with a social networking strategy to make sure you're connected and communicating with your desired audience. We'll manage your online reputation to see what your customers are saying... and your competitors too! It's all about keeping OUR ears to the ground so you can focus on growing your business!


2. Public Relations. Have something press-worthy? (Believe me, whether you know it or not, YOU DO!) We'll work closely with you to create an online PR campaign to get the word out. Let's get a buzz going! Perhaps you've already received a press mention and don't know what to do with it? We're full believers in tooting your own horn; we'll work with you to leverage it to the max and get it out in front of your target market! Don't have a huge corporate PR budget? No worries... we'll create a guerrilla marketing campaign to work within your means. No problem. It's what we do. It's what we love.


3. Web presence. If you don't have a website... you need one. From the moment your business concept is but a sparkle in your eye, to the smallest of start-ups, to a well-established and functioning business, we've got you covered. We can customize a package for you tailored to where you are now, and where you want to be. We'll do it all starting with the domain name purchase and registration, to design and development of the site (via html or content management system), to writing the content and even the ongoing maintenance & updating. Hey... we'll even write your blog! On the flip side, we can also get you up and running and then train you on the upkeep. Are you breathing a sigh of relief yet?


4. Ok, so our Top Three has turned into Four. Honourable mention goes to our standard virtual assistant services (after all, we are a virtual assistant business!) Are the administrative aspects of your business not really your forté? That's where we come in! We love them (it's kinda what we do after all!) These services keep us very busy and can be quite quick and easy to delegate! Need some templates created, or contracts prepared? Fire the rough copies to us and we'll get it done in no time! Have a few ideas of what you need created or expanded on? A quick discussion of your thoughts and we can get a draft prepared for you. Need a PowerPoint presentation developed? Let's put our heads together and we'll get started!
   

What do you want to delegate today?

What is a VA?

I'm asked, all the time, "What is it you do? A VA? Virtual Assistant? What is that? So just *what* is it you do again?"

Seriously.

All. The. Time.

So here's the professional definition of a virtual assistant taken from my own homepage:

A Virtual Assistant is a professional who provides support out of their own office utilizing their own equipment to other business professionals, entrepreneurs, small business owners, etc, who have a lot of work to do but not enough time to do it. A Virtual Assistant is a business owner, just like you.

Partnering with a Virtual Assistant reduces stress, protects cash flow, eliminates administrative hassles and enables business people to find the success they originally set out to achieve. You eliminate the need to pay for vacation time, sick time, employee taxes, benefits and the high overhead associated with having an assistant in-house.

The short and sweet of it?

Whatever an administrative assistant would do in your office is what I do for you off-site.

Plus some.

There's alot of collaboration involved. Alot of proactivity. Strategizing. Planning. Executing. At Scratchpad Secretaries we not only offer Administrative services, but our Online Marketing and Brand Management services are highly sought after in this day and age of Web 2.0. And our creative and technical side is very busy with website development and maintenance. And then there's our Personal Assistant services...we really have alot to offer!

So that's a Virtual Assistant. That's what we do. And that's just a few of the offerings at Scratchpad Secretaries.

Questions, anyone?

;)

How to use your VA. Pt. 1

Have too much to do and not enough time to do it? Don't know what exactly you can clear off your plate, but know that something, anything, must be done to give you more time?

Well, here's a couple of quick tips on what you can delegate to us to help ease some of the workload:

1. Email screening. Do you have hundreds - or thousands - of emails sitting in your inbox? Let us clean it up for you! There are various programs available where we can work remotely and directly with your system to get rid of spam, unsubscribe you to lists you ended up on (or subscribe you to what interests you!), and create a filing system that automatically puts email in the folders they belong. We can also continue to manage your inbox after it's tidied up.


2. Mail screening. Believe it or not, people still get snail mail. And some people we work with get thousands of pieces weekly. Let us screen your mail. We can simply have it redirected to our offices and look after it all for you. Everything from autograph requests and endorsement inquiries to managing and screening fan mail, to simply weeding out the junk...we look after it all.


3. Calendar and schedule maintenance. Are you one of those people who finds themselves missing important meetings or trying to juggle your personal appearance schedule when you really have more important things to do? That's where we jump in! Let us look after the details - we'll even set up systems to remind you of what's coming up. We can work directly with you or with your personal assistant/management team to get you to where you're supposed to be. And on time!


4. Online reputation management. We are your eyes and ears on the Net. We'll watch for news about you and your business and strategize on response messaging.


5. Social Media Management. Twitter, Facebook, Myspace, the list goes on. Do you have a piece of real estate where your audience is? Where your fans are? Where your target market hangs out online? We'll make sure you do. We'll set up profiles in the top networking sites and can even manage on your behalf.

See? Not so hard to delegate after all. Anything else you may be wanting to let go of? Give us a jingle to discuss!

Stay tuned for part two where we discuss 5 more tasks you can easily delegate to your virtual assistant.