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Questions About Baby Boomer Retirement
Filed Under Baby Boomers
Are you really ready to retire? Or are you just tired of the commute, the office politics, the endless meetings, and not having a say in how you spend your day? Do you enjoy working but would like to take a day off without having to ask for permission? Do you need to feel like your contributions are valued? Would you like to travel occasionally and take your job with you?
Baby Boomers are either hitting or getting close to retirement age, but they aren’t ready to be sent out to pasture just yet. As Entrepreneur.com notes, Baby Boomers are quickly becoming an entrepreneurial tour de force.
Virtual Assistance is one home based entrepreneurial choice that you can make. Take your expertise in any of a number of niches (real estate, administrative support, marketing, writing, etc.) and become your own boss. And since your business is mainly virtual, your computer becomes a traveling office that allows you to visit your children and grandchildren in another state while keeping your business on track.
Stop in here each week or better yet, grab my RSS feed cause I’ll be talking about how you can set up your Virtual Assistant business, where to find clients, and how to enjoy this great time of life!
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My Favorite Virtual Assistant Blogs
Filed Under VA Blogs
One way to learn how to write a blog is to look at the blogs of others in your field. Here are a few of my favorite blogs written by Virtual Assistants.
- Virtual Assistant: THE Blog about Our Industry
Kathie Thomas is an award winning VA based in Australia. She always provides great information – check out her “Essential Tools for VAs” for some helpful tips! - From the Desk of Janet Barclay
Janet Barclay is a Professional Organizer and brings those talents and many others to her VA business in Ontario. Her blog will provide you with many new ideas for your business. - The Coach Virtual Assistant
Becki Noles has been blogging for a few years now and has an interesting list of categories! I especially enjoyed reading her “How to MANIFEST All the Clients You Need” post. Check it out. - Rescue Desk
Rachel Rasmussen is a VA and friend from Madison, Wisconsin. Her experience in media, print and electronic publishing, communications, marketing and project management enhances her blog with variety and expertise. - Home Office Warrior
Here’s a top-notch website with a multitude of tips for those working from home-based offices – not just VAs. You can subscribe to different departments: Virtual Assistants, Financial Planning, Gadgets/Technology, Health, and Tutorials.
What VA blogs do you read on a weekly basis? Are you a VA with an informative blog that I haven’t discovered yet? Leave a comment with a link to your blog so I can add you to my list.
Don’t forget to subscribe to your favorite blogs (including mine) by RSS feed. It’s the easiest way to keep all those great posts downloading into your mail reader so you don’t have to remember to check each site. Just click on the RSS graphic 
in the sidebar and start to learn about this exciting VA industry!
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The 5 Best Reasons to Become a Virtual Assistant
Filed Under Virtual Assistance
- You love working 60 hours a week. OK, I might be exaggerating here, but I can assure you that when you become your own boss, you will be working more hours than you imagined. For every hour of billable time you put in, you’ll need an hour of set-up, billing, marketing, and networking.
- You don’t fall apart when you don’t have work for days or weeks at a time. Virtual Assistance can be a rollercoaster ride – lots of work one week and nothing the next, especially when you’re first starting out. Use those down times to work on your marketing ideas and blog, and don’t forget to relax and enjoy having the time to go to lunch with friends and family. Part of the fun of being a VA is having the ability to do those things you didn’t have time for when you were confined to a cubicle all day.
- You live to learn. You may start your business providing services that you know well, but eventually one of your clients will ask if you can “help me set up my projects in Outlook” or “create a pdf of an oversized poster”. You’ll either have to say “No” and lose the work (and the money it would bring in), pass it on to someone who CAN do the work (so they can reap the benefits), or…. you can swallow your fear, do your research, and learn to do it yourself. The third option is a lot more fun, by the way.
- Your motto is “Variety is the spice of life”. On Monday you’ll be adding contacts to a client database; Tuesday you’ll create a PowerPoint presentation and go to a networking event; Wednesday is the day you write your blog posts for the following week; Thursday finds you designing and distributing an e-zine; Friday you’ll be creating Excel graphs; and on the weekend you’ll be doing your billing and creating marketing pieces. You definitely won’t be bored!
- You enjoy surprises. Being a virtual assistant means not always knowing exactly what the day will bring. You start out with your to-do list, all nice and organized with plenty of time to get all your tasks completed. You sign on to your client’s computer to update their contact database, and your internet provider goes down. Surprise! So you gather up the business cards from your client and run to the nearest coffee shop that provides free Wi-Fi. You finish that up and start the newsletter that is suppose to be done by tomorrow when your cell phone rings. It’s the school saying your son sick and could you pick him up? Surprise! You run and get the little darling, get him tucked in bed with a comic book and a barf bucket, and start working on the newsletter, not realizing that a major client that you’ve been courting for weeks has just emailed you (that darn internet connection is still down!) that they have a rush job – call now and you’ll have their undying gratitude and lots more work. Surprise!
Of course, these are just a few reasons to become a VA – there’s a lot more. What did you find was your best reason for becoming a VA?
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New Virtual Assistant Blog – Tips, Tricks, and Baby Boomers
Filed Under VA Blogs
I’ve been a Virtual Assistant for over a year now and I’m having a great time! I’m looking forward to sharing what I’ve learned (and keep learning) about this fabulous industry in this blog. Watch for tips, tricks of the trade, and innovative e-books for those of you who are thinking about becoming Virtual Assistants.
The majority of what I’ll be sharing will apply to VAs of any age but I will be gearing some posts toward those in my own age group – those fantastic baby boomers! Most of the VAs I’ve met and read about are mothers wanting to be home with their children. It’s a great way for them to mix work and home life, but it’s also an alternative for those of us who have worked in the corporate arena for many years and are ready to be our own boss. I don’t know that I could sit in a cubicle for eight hours a day anymore 
I love the feeling of accomplishment, the flexible hours, all the new things I’m learning, and the ability to travel if I want while still keeping up with my commitments. I won’t have to worry about being forced to retire, either. I can keep on having fun for as long as I can keep helping my clients. Doesn’t get much better than that!
So, grab an RSS feed or hook up with your email address and come along for the ride!
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