“Everyone wants to have a good day, but not many people know what a good day looks like – much less how to create one. And even fewer people understand how the way you live today impacts your tomorrow.” John C Maxwell

That is why Today Matters!

John Maxwell wrote in his book, Today Matters that you can create success in your life by focusing on what you do TODAY. Unfotunately, most of the time we miss that success, because we . . .

• Over-exaggerate yesterday – we dwell in the past and constantly think about the things we did or could have done better;
• Overestimate tomorrow – we expect things to be better in future;

….and then we underestimate the importance of today.

What we need to do is to take advantage of today, because the secret of your success is determined by your daily agenda. It’s about what you do today!

Seth Godin, author of Permission Marketing, said: “You don’t win an Olympic gold medal with a few weeks of intensive training. There’s no such thing as an overnight opera sensation…. Every great company, every great brand, and every great career has been built in exactly the same way: bit by bit, step by step, little by little.”

So, there is no magic solution to success. It just starts by what you do today, because your decisions and actions today have a profound impact on your success tomorrow….

Here are a few tips:

Preparation today will give you confidence for tomorrow. Preparation includes having a plan, having goals, having a purpose. Following your plan today, achieving your goals and living your purpose today will instill confidence to grow and achieve even more successes tomorrow.

Good decisions today will give you a better tomorrow. Decisions are not always simple, but they are necessary for success. When opportunity knocks, do not procrastinate. Make the decision today because tomorrow might be too late.

The disciplines you practice today will create a better tomorrow. You can make all the good decisions in life, but if you are not practicing good discipline, you will not reap the success. For example if you want clients; be disciplined, create time on a daily basis to plan and market your services persistently. Practice what you have decided to do and then do it diligently today.

I believe that everyone has the power to impact the outcome of his life. The way to do it is to focus on today. If you are willing to implement small positive changes into your business today, you will create more options to grab opportunity tomorrow when it knocks at your door.

The VAImpact Award is about acknowledging you as a small business owner.

The awards are created to reward Virtual Assistants in Africa to keep up their good work and to encourage them to continuously grow the VA industry in Africa.

So, What are you waiting for, visit VAimpact Rewards to nominate someone / sign up.

Deadline is  31 May, 2011.

Also see last year’s winners

Deadline is fast approaching so take action today.

-the average small business owner spends up to 40% of their time on routine administrative tasks

What an excellent opportunity to build your virtual assistant business and clientele.   Go and Google ‘small business directory’ and search for small business owners that fit your niche.  I was amazed to find a directory with 196 small businesses listed in the Vaal Triangle on one of the 5+ business directories for our area.

-potential clients don’t know where to find you

I read a blog post the other day where a guy raved about his virtual assistant.  He surely did a good job  because one of the comments was:  “Sounds like a great idea. How do you go about finding a good one?”  His answer was:  “Look on virtual assistant directories.”  So … is your business listed on virtual assistant directories?  Make sure potential clients find you.

-there are more than 1.7 million South Africans on Facebook  … and that was a year ago

Do you have a Facebook business/fan page?  With a significant 40% plus of Facebook users over age 35 (CheckFaceBook) the idea that Facebook is just for college kids was put to rest long ago.  Get involved in social media and start to build relationships.  Get yourself on Facebook and start mingling with others because if you don’t have a “facebook footprint” you are losing out.   Oh, and while we are on the subject, become a fan of Be-VA-Wise and receive valuable updates about the virtual assistant industry.

-more and more CEOs will use social media in future

Two recent posts by Mashable highlighted how ‘up to date’ CEOs use social media for business exposure and that “business leaders of tomorrow will be versed in social media”.  Another excellent opportunity often overlooked because we tend to think virtual assistants only do normal admin tasks. If you’re interested in social media and have the necessary experience and knowledge, this might be an excellent niche to consider.  The business leaders of tomorrow might not have enough time at hand to spend on social media and a virtual assistant might be their answer to social media involvement.

The virtual assistant industry is surely gaining momentum in South Africa … ensure you are on the forefront to pick the best of the crop when small business owners are looking for virtual assistants.

We are proud to announce that the founders of Be Virtual Assistant Wise, Francis van Wyk and Marietjie Steyn were nominated for 3 of the 4 categories namely:

Above and Beyond Award: This VAimpact award is for an individual who has worked creatively beyond the expectation of Virtual Assistants in a short period of time in the VA industry.

Achievement Award: This VAimpact award is given to individuals for outstanding contribution over significant period of time in the VA industry.

Regional Award: This VAimpact award is a standing ovation award for an individual or association with strong business understanding and development with incomparable business management.

We were quite humbled to learn that we won the Business Regional VAimpact Award. It is an important achievement, not only for our organisation, but also for every person associated with BeVAWise.

We sincerely want to thank everyone who are part of our community for your involvement and participation and helping us to reach this important milestone.

This award makes each of you a winner as well, since WE cannot exist without YOU!

Winning the regional award as the best VA organisation in South Africa surely motivates and inspires us to grow the industry further to the benefit of all our members.

We also would like to congratulate the winners of the other awards:

Annemarie Robbertse for winning the Above and Beyond Award and

Alison Fourie for winning the Achievement Award.

You can read all about the winners and their profiles here.

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Thanks to African Virtual Assistants Network™ (AFRIVAN) founded by Topsie Egbetokun, for taking the initiative and establishing a business and professional support network specifically for all Virtual Assistants and online professionals in Africa.

Virtual communication is in my eyes a bit different from eye to eye communication because you cannot see or interpret the body language of your clients. That’s why virtual assistants should not only communicate with their clients, they should connect with them.

I don’t know  if  you still remember those black, roundish sweets called nickerballs.  They consisted of several layers and were so hard you could not just bite them; you had to suck through the hard black liquorice shell and the different coloured layers to eventually reach the core of the nickerball.

Communication is like a nickerball.  You have to figuratively suck through the hard shell and the different coloured layers to eventually reach the core essentials of what is needed to connect with your clients.

But …

You cannot connect with your clients if you do not listen to them.  Active listening is the most important ingredient of effective communication and an essential part of the virtual assistance puzzle.  Make it your motto to:

1.      Listen with concentration

 Listening is the key ingredient of effective communication and it is imperative to improve this skill.  When your clients talk to you, listen and concentrate to make sure you hear what they are saying.  Good listeners are not passive and they do not drift away with thoughts of their own, they concentrate on what is being said.

2.      Listen without interruption

 The purpose of listening is to understand the message.  Although you might think you know and understand what your clients want to say, avoid the urge to interrupt or finish their sentences.  Be polite, listen carefully and always “put your brain into gear before you put your mouth into motion”.

3.     Listen with the mindset to discuss

 Effective listening is not a one way street.  Make notes of what is being said, ask questions and discuss the facts with your clients to make sure you leave no room for misunderstandings.   The secret weapon to effective communication is to ask the right questions.

Remember, communication is like a nickerball … you cannot just bite through it to reach the centre; you have to suck through the layers in order to reach the core. 

Don’t just communicate with your clients, connect with them.   Listen actively and carefully, don’t interrupt when they are talking, make notes and ask the right questions in order to reach the core of their message, their needs and their expectations.

or

What comes to your mind when you have to meet with a new client?  Is it … “What are the odds of me getting this job?”

or

What is your reaction when you have to do marketing?  Is it … “Why am I wasting my time it never pays off?”

Well, there is a reason why it’s going to be a horrible day, or why you are not getting the job and why marketing never pays off   and that reason is your companion!! 

When looking at successful people one may wonder what their secret to success is.

When talking to successful people you sooner or later discover their “secret”.  They’ve made the decision to choose the right companion.

Every human being has a companion or “mental chatter”. This companion sticks with you, closer than your shadow and never leaves you.  It opens its eyes with you in the morning and accompanies you until you fall asleep at night.

No wonder successful people are very conscious when they choose their mental chatters.

Bob Proctor, a philosopher, author and personal coach says the law of attraction is the secret to success.  He says:  “Everything that’s coming into your life you are attracting into your life … it’s all about what you’re thinking.”

John Assaraf an entrepreneur and moneymaking expert goes a bit further.  He says:  “The simplest way for me to look at the law of attraction is if I think of myself as a magnet, and I know that a magnet will attract to it.”

Looking at the above it seems to me that our mental chatter is a powerful magnet and we should be very careful what we feed into our minds.  Jim Rohn has the saying:  “Garbage in, garbage out” and I tend to agree with him.

Decide today to choose your companion to be your positive mental chatter. Instead of hitting the alarm clock with a hammer, jump out of bed in the morning, fill your thoughts with positivity and use your mental chatter to attract to you whatever you want to have and achieve.

Albert Einstein said:  “Imagination is everything.  It is the preview of life’s coming attractions.”

Spoil yourself and read “the Secret” by Rhonda Byrne

If something is important, we normally schedule some time in our daily calendar to fit it in. These appointments can be anything from a business meeting with an important client or that dreaded appointment at the dentist to some “coffee time” with a trusted friend.

By making an appointment you know it embeds the following basic benefits…

• It makes the event important in your mind. Then, when the day and time comes, you will remember that you have an appointment.
• You know that you have committed the time, and you cannot accommodate any other appointments or meetings in that same time slot without disrupting your original appointment.
• It helps you plan your day and activities around that appointment

Because of the diversity of a Virtual Assistant’s work schedule it often happens that one can become lost within all the different tasks such as delivering services, client management, marketing, financial and strategic planning and on top of that managing kids and family. It is therefore important that VAs acquire the skill of FOCUS (I wrote about it in one of my previous posts. You can read more about it here). But, just knowing you need to focus on the important stuff, is not enough. You need to make some time to focus. But don’t just set aside a few minutes – MAKE AN APPOINTMENT.

I recently fell into the trap of having so many things on my mind and many more to do, that I lost focus. We moved from South Africa to the Middle East and between running a business without letting something slip, setting up a new home, helping my child to adjust in the new school while I’m still finding my own feet and on top of that… nursing a sick kitten, things just started to spin a bit out of control, until I took some of my own advice to get my focus back.

I start making appointments for the important things in my life.

I physically made appointments with myself in the mornings and set up reminders on my PC to ensure there is time to focus on important business matters one-by-one. During these times, all interruptions were turned off and suddenly the huge To Do pile started to shrink.

I also made an appointment with my daughter to give her my undivided attention and help her with her homework instead of trying to get some work done in the afternoons with frequent interruptions of “Mommy please help me with this.” Now we are getting through the homework much quicker and I still have enough time to focus on work issues.

As Virtual Assistants, we like to think of ourselves as great multitaskers, but in reality we’re not.  Multitaskers cannot Focus – they need to do a lot of things simultaneously and devote tiny slices of time to several tasks at hand.  Research however suggests that it takes as long as 20min or more to really get into a task. By multitasking on a number of things, we tend to take longer to complete all tasks than just focusing on them one-by-one and getting it done.

The bottom is this: If something is important and needs your attention, make an appointment with yourself. Focus and Get it Done!

View of our Villa

Living in the Middle East can be peaceful, mysterious, breathtaking, intimidating and exciting all at the same time and in only a week, I’ve already experience all of these emotions.

Qatar is quite an interesting country with a few unspoken laws of do’s and don’ts. For example

women should dress modestly and cover their shoulders when in public. It is also not strange when a handshake from a woman is refused by members of the opposite sex as most Qatari people have a strict traditional culture and strong religious views.  Western influences however are slowly changing the culture and make it more accommodating for expat living.

The diversity of different cultures moving into Qatar to work as expatriates is phenomenal – for example, in my daughter’s school there are children from over 60 different nationalities.

Other things to get use to is that all the street- and shop names are in Arabic (which is quite different from English). Luckily most of the time the English name is displayed as well, so one can actually easily find your way.

Shopping is another experience when you “loose” yourself between the new and ‘never-heard-off” brands – but, with an adventurous spirit the best way to “learn” is to test and try everything.

Well, my first impressions of Doha are quite positive – I think I will be able to stay here for a while.

The best of all however is that relocating to another country will have absolutely no impact on my business as a Virtual Assistant. Being virtual and communicating with clients via the internet enables me to just carry on where I left off a week ago while I was still in South Africa.

There are certainly many benefits of becoming a Virtual Assistant, but having the world as your office is certainly one of the greatest advantages.

Don’t you just love being a VA!!

What do you consider as the biggest benefit of being a Virtual Assistant?

With January already good on its way … I’m wondering, how many of you have kept your New Year’s resolutions so far?

I must admit that I’ve already had a few mishaps on some of my personal ones – such as keeping a lid on my food intake. But then again – losing weight is one of the most broken New Year’s Resolutions ever.

So, what is the magic recipe it one wants to keep a New Year’s resolution

If you listen to the gurus, they will tell you that New Year’s resolutions do not last and that you rather need to set goals. But really, it does not matter how you look at it, it is in actual fact pretty much the same thing. The gurus will also tell you to set SMART goals – to make it specific, measurable, attainable, realistic and timely – and this usually works for most successful business people.

So, if you take this SMART principle of setting goals and shuffle it around, you can come up with another SMART way of keeping that important goals.

My SMART Way to Keep New Year’s Resolutions

S –Small steps. Break the main goal into smaller steps. Create a few mini-goals that you know you can achieve and that will slowly but surely take you to where you want to be.

M – Map your progress. Keep a journal, a spreadsheet or a few notes visible where you can write down these mini goals. Put some timelines next to each one and tick off any achievements. Try to stick to the plan.

A –Achievements should be rewarded! Give yourself a small reward whenever you achieve a mini-goal to maintain motivation and a sense of progress.

R – Remind yourself constantly of the benefits. Reaping the benefits when completing the main goal can be a strong motivator to actually achieve it.

T – Tell family and friends about you goal. They can help and support you to reach it faster. Furthermore, the knowledge that other people know about it will give you the motivation to succeed. Nobody wants to fail and be embarrassed. Either way, do not keep your resolution and goal to yourself.

However, do not go overboard with lots and lots of New Year’s resolution. Only choose a few things that you really want to accomplish this year. If you do not achieve all of them, don’t worry. As long as you move forward and accomplish some of those goals, you can be satisfied.