How to Ask Your Boss to Work from Home (and how to get them to agree)
DON’T EVEN THINK ABOUT SENDING AN EMAIL TO YOUR BOSS ASKING TO WORK FROM HOME UNTIL YOU’VE READ THIS!
Below are 10 steps you need to take before you ask if you can work from home. These steps are proven to be successful => they have been tried and tested and they work. If you want to get your boss to agree to you working from home, start with these 10 simple steps to ensure your success.
#1 Be clear about the reason you want to work from home. Knowing your “why” is what will give you the determination to ask the work from home question.
#2 Get to know what’s really involved first! Get a thorough understanding of what’s involved with working from home. Do you know all the positives as well as the negatives associated with working from home? Read the rest of this entry »
Virtual Assistants <– 9 OBVIOUS Things You Should be doing To Find and Keep Clients
Are these 9 actions included in your virtual
assistant business plan?
If they are, then you likely have a healthy, growing and profitable virtual assistant business.
BUT if you’re missing just one of these strategies in your virtual assistant business plan, then you’re likely struggling to get new clients, and a steady income >>
Getting Started In Your Virtual Assistant Business
If you’re sick and tired of the commuting, the office politics and your boss – I’m telling ya – you’ve got to start and build your own Virtual Assistant Business!
If you’re eager to join the ranks, here’s a crash course of what you need to get started:
1. It all starts with the right ATTITUDE and your COMMITTMENT to working from home
If you’ve made the decision to “sack the boss” then that’s the first step. From there, it’s going to take some planning and action. I’ll be honest with you. It’s a lot of fun and there are many tips and tricks that I’ll share with you to make it quicker and easier to build your business, but believe me you need to commit to this. You can’t just wave a magic wand and your business will appear. You need to stick to your decision to make it work. It takes time and effort.
Ask yourself: How many hours are you willing to put in, to get your business started? If you’re breaking away from a full-time job, are you willing to do extra hours to deliver what you promise to a new client? Are you willing to invest in your business to make sure you reach your goal? Read the rest of this entry »
Want To Work From Home? >> Important Goals That Should Be Included In Your Plan
If you want to have a successful work-from-home business you need to be setting goals. If you need to get somewhere you plot out the way before you head off to make sure you don’t get lost. Your business and life are the same. You have to know where you’re going so you can get there.
Most people wanting to start working from home, or wanting to start a new virtual assistant business are wanting to do so because they are looking for a certain lifestyle. What about you? Do you want to travel and work at the same time? Do you want the freedom to be home for your kids, while still earning an income? Is it just that you’re sick of working for someone else?
Whatever your reason is for wanting to work from home there are some things you need to do to make sure it’s not just a dream. To actually make it happen you need to plan, prepare, get good advice and set goals. Read the rest of this entry »
Outsourcing and Offshoring Jobs to India >> Should YOU or Shouldn’t YOU?
Have you ever wondered about expanding your virtual team by outsourcing some of your jobs to contractors in India? Perhaps you want to expand your virtual team offshore while keeping costs low?
It was about 7 years ago when we engaged our first online contractor from India and I’m delighted to say that he is still working with us today. That’s not to say every outsourcing story of ours has a happy ending 
But from our experience, we have found that with the right online hiring methods, the right virtual team tools, and the right online interview techniques you can have success and profit from your virtual team.
Here are 9 virtual team tips to help you outsource some of your virtual team jobs to India ….
#1 Where possible use a recommended contractor
#2 If it’s your first-time outsourcing offshore, consider using an online outsourcing website like … www.elance.com or www.odesk.com
#3 Ask to see 3 real life samples of their work. If they don’t provide you samples don’t be tempted to short-list them just because they are cheap and say they can do the work.
#4 Look at the feedback, comments and testimonies of past clients. Check their overall rating and how the contractor has responded to negative feedback (if any).
Virtual Assistants >> Are you acting like a real business owner?
Do you ever feel that you’re too busy offering your virtual services that you don’t have time to expand your own business?
Have you ever complained that a client is treating you more like an employee than a virtual business partner?
Does your profit go up and down every month because most of your virtual assistant clients are project based?
Do you find yourself working hours that you don’t want to?
If any of those situations sound familiar to you, it could be that you’re not treating your virtual assistant business as a real business. It’s easy to get caught in this trap when you start offering services virtually. Many people take the skills they have from past jobs and start working from home offering secretarial services, website services, IT support from home, organisation services etc…The only thing is, that same “job” mentality you had when you were working for a boss, can stay with you. Unless of course you start acting and treating yourself like a business owner.
To help you jump from the “job working from home” camp to virtual business owner here are 8 questions to ask yourself… Read the rest of this entry »
Tricky Top 5 Online Interview Tips for Virtual Team Managers
Virtual Team Managers face an extra special set of challenges. Are you leading or growing a virtual team? Don’t YOU know it! Connecting at a personal level, developing loyalty and trust, maintaining virtual team morale are all aspects of a virtual team that can present challenges to you that perhaps you’ve never faced before.
One of the first things to determine with a new virtual team member is their suitability to work virtually, within your virtual team. So growing the right virtual team that will support you and your business starts with hiring the right people. There we are presented with one of your first special challenges as an online virtual team leader…and that is interviewing online applicants hoping to join your expanding virtual team.
If your potential team member lives close to your locality, then of course you can interview face-to-face in person. BUT what about Carol’s example below (perhaps you’ve found yourself in a similar situation) … Read the rest of this entry »
Do you have a big enough REASON to work from home?
As I sit in this wonderful hotel lobby by the beach, I thought to myself how great it is to have a business where I can work online or work from home. Then I started thinking of the many obstacles and challenges we faced in building our virtual business and how we overcame them.
That is why I am asking you the question “Do you have a big enough REASON to work from home?”. We call it THE WHY. Do you have a big enough WHY. Others call it your goals or dreams, etc.
Isn’t it funny, we have goals for just about everything. If we have a meeting / deadline, if we are going on vacation, if we are having a party – whatever it may be we have goals and desired outcomes attached to those goals. BUT when it comes to our life course – we think “Ahh that’s mumbo jumbo”.
What have you done this week to improve your skills to Work From Home?
I always have a giggle when friends say they are unhappy with their jobs and I ask them what they want to do and they say “I want to do what you do”.
I don’t laugh because to be mean, I believe everyone can and has a right to work from home or work online. I laugh because many people make it sound like putting on a pair of socks. The truth is many family and friends don’t actually understand what we do, but whatever it is it’s easy in their minds.
The truth is, Karletta and I have worked hard to acquire the many new skills we need to operate our online virtual business, and that is why I ask the question above. You see if you want to earn good money online, you need to have specialist niche skills that people need. If you need specialist skills to start or expand your virtual online business, you need to start getting them now.
3 Tips on How to Lead and Build Your Virtual Team
Being an effective Leader or Manager has its fair share of challenges. This can be even greater in the Virtual environment. Leading a team requires lots of minor adjustments, unless your team is in bad shape of course, then a major overhaul is in order.
As I was sitting here thinking about the areas I need to improve when it comes to leading our Virtual Team I thought I would share what came to mind.
Here are some things that you can think about, I would love to have a dialogue with you so feel free to share it and comment.