Horkey HandBook

Find or become a kickass virtual assistant today!

Blog

Can a Man Be a Virtual Assistant?

By 2 Comments

This post is brought to you by serendipity. How so? Well, on the one hand, the question in the title (Can a man be a virtual assistant?) lands in our inboxes regularly. On the other hand, when we opened our latest call-for-pitches to our community, we received three pitches on the topic. Clearly, that’s a question on people’s minds.

So our guest this week, Steve Young, is here to share his story as a “man virtual assistant” (for lack of a better term).

Take it away, Steve!

Hi, my name is Steve. I’m a guy, and I’m a virtual assistant. I’m not sure if you’ve ever heard the question posed in the title, but for me, that was a hurdle I had to get over.

Perhaps it relates to you, or someone you know.

How I Decided to Become a Virtual Assistant

It was my wife who first told me about Gina Horkey and her 30 Days or Less to Freelance Writing Success course. I thought, “Well, I’ve written several books. I think I could become a freelance writer,” so I worked through the course on my own. I never really acted on it though.

Then last year, I wrote a book about how to start your own business. It started out as a list of items for my son-in-law to learn before buying my car detailing business.

As I wrote that book, I thought, “Wow, my life experience has given me a lot of helpful skills and information. Others could really benefit from the things I learned by trial and error, and the school of Trying Really Hard!”

I could relate to other business owners in a way many others could not. I knew the juggling that a small-business owner must do to get all the business tasks completed for his clients, employees, Uncle Sam, and future clients!

Being aware of these difficulties, or “pain points,” is a step in the right direction for a business owner. They must then intentionally take action to resolve the pain points, otherwise these might grow exponentially, and could eventually kill the business.

Continue Reading

How I Used My Disadvantage as a Deaf Person to My Advantage in My Freelance Business

By 6 Comments

How I Used My Disadvantage as a Deaf Person to My Advantage in My Freelance BusinessWhat happens when you’re born with a disadvantage that puts you at a severe risk of unemployment and underemployment?

What happens when potential employers misjudge your abilities before they even give you a chance to prove how good you are?

This was the position that Jessica was in, as a Deaf person, in a job market that overemphasizes verbal communication. Jessica is here to share today how she used her disadvantage to her advantage to launch a business that supports and empowers the community of Deaf entrepreneurs.

Thanks for sharing your story with us, Jessica.

Imagine living your life in a soundless world.

The beep of the alarm goes unheard.

A friendly voice saying, “Hello, how are you?” does not quite go through.

A video online plays, resembling the popular silent films from back in the 1910s, except there is no text to explain what’s happening on screen. Education and wisdom carried by sound waves fly by undetected due to missing hair cells in the cochlea of the ear.

This is the life I live daily as a Deaf person.

Hi, I’m Jessica, and I’m the founder of Bellewood Virtual Assistant. I was born Deaf, and I communicate with American Sign Language.

I completed the 30 Days or Less to Virtual Assistant Success course in December 2017, and built my business from scratch. I developed and created my logo, website, and service packages in less than 30 days, and launched on January 1st, 2018. I landed a total of four clients in the first month of my business, and am already past halfway to my goal of working full-time.

But, as a Deaf person, I have a major “disadvantage” in career opportunities.  

Continue Reading

Want to Keep Clients Happy? 8 Simple Tips to Improve Client Experience

By Leave a Comment

What makes a good client stick around?

The reality is that keeping a client takes just as much work as landing a client. And we’re not talking about just doing the job that you’re paid to do – that’s implied. We’re talking about going above and beyond to make your clients happy.

Rae is here to offer a few tips on how to improve the client experience in your business.

There are probably dozens (if not hundreds) of other freelancers who provide similar services that your clients could have hired. The truth is that you’re not the only person in your niche. However, you can stand out by making your services the best out there.

One way to make your clients fall in love with you is provide the best client experience possible. Happy clients often lead to long-term relationships (and referrals).

Want to get good reviews? Have raving testimonials on your website, LinkedIn, Facebook page, etc.? Make your clients feel extra special and make things easy for them.

Here are a few simple tips to improve client experience:

1. Gifts and Thank You Notes

Your clients will smile when they receive a small gift or thank you note. In the age of e-mail and junk mail, your clients will be pleasantly surprised to find a letter or package in good ‘ole fashioned snail mail form

Starting out with gift or thank you note is a tangible way to show how much you care about your clients. Ending a client relationship with a gift or thank you note will help you leave on good terms, too. Gift don’t need to be extravagant or expensive to make an impact. Remember, it’s the thought that counts.

Continue Reading

Student Success Story: Mallory Underwood

By 7 Comments

Happy International Women’s Day! For this month’s Student Success Story, we’re featuring yet another amazing solopreneur working hard to built a career around their life (not the other way around).

We’re publishing these interviews because we want to feature people who took Gina’s 30 Days or Less courses and actually got serious about working on their freelance career. Every story in the series is a little bit different from the others, but there are always little nuggets of wisdom to take away.

Today’s guest, Mallory, is as positive as they come. She is inspired by people going out and making their purpose a lifestyle because of the vulnerability, courage and resilience this takes. And by following her passion and putting herself and her business out there, she has joined the ranks of those she admires.

Take it away, Mallory!

Name: Mallory Harte Underwood

Website: hartewood.com

Course enrollment date: July 28, 2017

Business launch date: September 10, 2017

Date hired by first client: November 27, 2017

Hours worked per week: 15

Average monthly income: $2,500

Top three services: Customer service, Project management/Operations, and Email marketing management

Hi, Mallory! Tell us a bit about yourself.

I am a 30-something mother of two little souls and a wife to one not-so-little soul. I love travel and wine, books and wine, human connection and wine … pretty much anything with wine. I also enjoy yoga and an active, “raw” lifestyle.

What about your business?

I believe human connection is one of the pillars of happiness in both personal and professional settings. I also believe quality customer experiences are the key to creating and fostering those connections.

Exceptional interactions with clients should challenge the status quo and become the norm. This goes for those we work with as well as the customers we engage with on their behalf.

I applaud and am inspired by those going out and making their purpose a lifestyle. It takes vulnerability, courage and resilience, and these are all truly admirable traits.

I’m striving to work with entrepreneurs and small businesses who share those beliefs by supporting them with my virtual assistant services.

A fun fact about my business name – Hartewood is a combination of my maiden name (Harte) and my married name (Underwood).

Continue Reading

How to Develop the 5 Most Important Business Relationships for a Writer

By 3 Comments

I made it one of my 2018 resolutions to seek out other local writers and meet them for coffee to talk shop. I’ve been working solely by myself for a few years now, so lately I’ve been feeling the need for some in-person chats with people who already understand what I do for a living. It turns out, I’m not the only writer who’s thinking about creating connections, whether we’re talking business relationships or friendships.

Vanessa is here to share the five most important business relationships that she’s nurturing as a freelance writer.

Here’s Vanessa!

As a freelance writer, it can sometimes feel like you’re on a deserted island.

You may work from home and be isolated from In Real Life (IRL) human contact. It doesn’t have to be that way, and if you want to build your business, I recommend developing intentional relationships with the people you interact with online.

The most important relationships – the ones that make up the foundation of my freelance writing business – are the editors, other writers, public relations (PR) companies, interviewees and readers I come in contact with almost every day.

I didn’t start my business with the realization that I needed to spend time building relationships with these folks; it happened by chance.

Now, it’s part of my business model.

Here’s what it looks like for me:

Continue Reading

9 Essential Elements of a Virtual Assistant Website that Attracts Clients

By 1 Comment

In our private Facebook group for virtual assistants, it’s rare for a week to go by when someone doesn’t ask for feedback on their soon to be launched website.

No matter how you slice it, launching version 1.0 of your website can be nerve-wracking and time-consuming — especially if you’re new to WordPress.

The temptation to find an “easier” platform can be great but as a general rule, your hard work will be rewarded.

We know that making your website live is an exciting step in the process of launching your new VA biz. It’s that point in time when your business transitions from being just an idea to something much more real — you’re actually putting yourself and your service out there in front of potential clients.

And this can be a scary thought because with that, comes the realization that potential clients will begin assessing whether or not they should consider hiring you based on your online presence. If they like what they see, there’s a chance that they’ll reach out and establish contact with you.

Where Web Design Usually Goes Wrong

Before we begin discussing the essential elements of a website that attracts new clients, let’s start by quickly taking a look at where things often go wrong:

Your overarching goal for your website is to attract new clients.

That’s it.

Continue Reading

Find Your Ideal Virtual Assistant Niche: Bookkeeping

By Leave a Comment

It’s time for another deep-dive into virtual assistant niche selection.

We’re stoked about this series of posts because we see this as one of the biggest challenges that new virtual assistants need to overcome when first launching their business.

Honestly, rarely does a week go by where we don’t have someone email or post a question in the Facebook group surrounding the topic of niche selection.

Yeah, it’s definitely a major struggling point.

To help you work through the process of selecting a niche we came up with the idea of creating a detailed breakdown of some of the most popular niches. We wanted to answer the same key questions across a variety of niches so you could make an educated and confident decision without wasting a lot of time.

We’re going to get things rolling with a niche that you’re probably familiar with: Bookkeeping.

Is Bookkeeping The Right Niche for You?

Selecting a target market that balances passion and profit is part art, part science.

Too much of one and not enough of the other virtually guarantees you’ll need to make changes down the road — to the type of clients you’re working with, how you structure your services or even your niche in general.

Continue Reading

The Safest Way to Share Passwords With Your Virtual Assistant

By 1 Comment

Share Your Passwords with a VAWorking with a virtual assistant is a huge step when you’re a business owner, but it also brings up a lot of questions. One of the first questions that comes up for anyone who has considered hiring an assistant is all about how to share passwords with your VA.

Passwords are sensitive information, after all.

And not only that, but many times a password opens the door to accounts that have sensitive financial information. The idea of sharing passwords with someone who is essentially a complete stranger over the internet is off-putting, if not downright scary.

Plus, how do you go about actually sharing the password safely?

How to Share Passwords With Your Virtual Assistant

Fortunately, the problem of password-sharing is one that has been solved effectively.

There are online tools you can use to share passwords that won’t compromise the safety of your information.

In fact, it’s entirely possible to give someone your login credentials for any website without the other person even seeing what your password is.

Continue Reading