I am interested in researching virtual assistants. Any information about your experience using a virtual assistant and/or recommendations or cautions would be greatly appreciated.
Edi, we (the ICF Vancouver Chapter) works with Donna Paulson. Donna was recommended to us by Teresia LaRoque - a very successful coach in our community. Donna has experience working with coaches as clients, is just great to work with and has become a real asset to our team.
You can connect with her directly through our coaching community.
Hi Edi: I have used Phyllis Murphy, recommended to me by a VA who works for another coach, and have found her to be ultra responsive and very professional. Proactive, in fact. You can reach her at pharber-murphy@morethan925.com. I also have a VA bookkeeper who is equally talented. In the past, I used one of the VA consortium groups and had a bad experience. Hope that helps!
first I would like to thank everyone who has offered up suggestions or passed my request along to someone who could help me gather information. I truly appreciate the generosity of this community.
Ronald, to answer your questions...I am not completely clear on all the tasks I would give over to a VA but I do know that the admin and technical end of marketing is not my forte nor my interest - possibly writing, possibly ongoing management of my website, definately things like email marketing and managing email lists. I really am just beginning the gathering of information and finding out what VA's do.
I have been given the homework assignment from a former VA to keep a list of my daily tasks that I do not enjoy or want to do so that I can become clear on my wish list. A very good homework assignment!
thanks again to all who have contributed to this discussion. I still have some follow up to do with the recommendations so far.
Edi, I forgot about a document that Donna Paulson sent to the ICF board when we were considering hiring a VA. I've uploaded that document to the community file cabinet.
I think it's a great resource to help you think through how best to use a VA.
Those areas of marketing are my strong point (I consult on marketing once in a while), however, I'm preferring to work moreso on my business, rather than in my business, so I'd love to pass these to a VA. The challenge is whether they can do it better than me and if it's worth it to train them if they can't...
Also, I saw your ad for your front end talks for divorced women. You may be interested in pitching and exhibiting at an event I have coming up as well, Dateology on the 26th.