From the Desk of Janet Barclay

According to Wikipedia, a standard operating procedure is “a set of instructions having the force of a directive, covering those features of operations that lend themselves to a definite or standardized procedure without loss of effectiveness.” Exciting stuff, eh? Maybe not, but it’s something we need to know about.

It’s been two years since I took a teleclass with Yvonne Weld, author of The Ultimate Guide to Creating a Thriving Business, and learned that standard operating procedures, or SOP, are just as important for one-person, home-based businesses as they are for large organizations. Even if you are the only person carrying out the work, if you don’t document it, how do you know you’ll do it the same way each and every time, ensuring consistency of service? And how will you remember how to do it if several months go by before you do that particular task again? Most importantly, how will someone else know what has to happen in the event that you’re unable to work?

Creating standard operating procedures for my business has been on my “someday list” ever since I took that teleclass, and now that there are two of us, it has become increasingly important to have a procedures manual. For that reason, when I saw that one of the workshops at the recent Forum on Virtual Assistance (FoVA) was Standard Operating Procedures - the Who, What, Where & Why you should have one for your Virtual Business, I was eager to attend.

The workshop was facilitated by Kristi Pavlik, who is known in VA circles as the Systems Chick. (Kristi appears in the above photo with her very own Systems Chick which was presented to her at FoVA.) She explained that an SOP has two main components: a system, which is the overall picture, and the process documents, which provide the specific instructions for each task.

To illustrate a system, Kristi supplied us with a copy of the mind map she uses for her business. The business name goes in the middle, and each broad area of the business goes in a bubble around it. Next to each bubble is a list of specific activities related to that business area. Each bubble then gets its own mind map. As I began to fill mine out, I was pleasantly surprised at how easy it actually was. Furthermore, I realized that creating a procedures manual for my business is not all that different than the procedures manuals I created in my past jobs.

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Janet:  Thanks for stopping by, Vanessa. It’s great to meet you.

Vanessa:  Thank you, Janet! I’ve been a fan of yours for a long time. I’m honored to be here.

J:  Thank you. That’s nice to hear. Why don’t you give my readers an overview of your e-book series?

V:  I’d love to! The Adventures of Vanessa Andruz, Virtual Assistant series is a collaborative effort between me and my writing partner, Melodee Patterson of Short-term Solutions. I knew nothing about the Virtual Assistance industry when I left the SafeRight Insurance Company after being the President’s Executive Assistant for a number of years. But after doing some Internet research on the subject - which I discuss in the first e-book - I decided becoming a Virtual Assistant was the perfect solution for me.

I did tons of research on all aspects of becoming a VA - such as what kind of business structure was best for me, how to set up my home office, how to determine my rates, the best ways to market my business, getting over my fear of networking, and how to blog. It was hard work and took a lot of time!

J:  So you decided to share your findings with other prospective Virtual Assistants?

V:  Yes, exactly! Melodee and I wanted to save other VAs the time and frustration of plowing through all that information themselves. We used my research notes and the forms I created for my own business as a blueprint for the series.

J:  I understand you had some interesting adventures while starting your company. What happened?

V:  Oh, Lordy. For one thing, my mother - she reads auras for a living - was bound and determined to “help” me. You wouldn’t believe the things she mailed me from Sedona, Arizona! And then there’s my ex-husband who had the nerve to tell me I couldn’t possibly start my own business without his help! Luckily, my friend Marci was very supportive and helped me through the rough patches. Anyway, it’s all in the e-books. I wanted prospective Virtual Assistants to know that life may throw some roadblocks their way, but becoming a VA is worth the effort.

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On June 29^th, I’ll be hosting Vanessa Andruz as she travels through cyberspace on her Virtual E-book Tour.

Vanessa Andruz is a Virtual Assistant and owner of Andruz Business Solutions LLC. She was an Executive Assistant for many years, but after turning 50, she became tired of corporate politics and decided it was time for a change. After researching different career moves, she became a Virtual Assistant. She had some challenges while setting up her business - her mother insisted on “helping” and her ex-husband gave her grief about quitting her job - but she persevered and now has a successful Virtual Assistance business.

With the help of Melodee Patterson of Short-term Solutions, she has created a series of e-books (The Adventures of Vanessa Andruz, Virtual Assistant) which chronicle her VA journey - ex-husband and all. The series provides timely information on discovering your company name, setting up your home office, determining your services and rates, becoming a marketing maven, and much, much more.  If you’re thinking of joining the fast-growing Virtual Assistance industry or any home-based business, you won’t want to miss my interview with Vanessa.

The second workshop I attended at the Forum on Virtual Assistance (FoVA) was Creating a Marketing Budget & Plan to Help Your Business Grow. The session was presented by Jeannine Clontz, the recipient of this year’s Thomas Leonard International Virtual Assistant of Distinction Award.

A week or so prior to the conference, I received a marketing budget worksheet which I was to fill out before attending, so I suspected this wasn’t going to be one of those sessions where you just sit and listen to the speaker - and I was right. In fact, the budget was only one of seven sections of the worksheet which we completed with Jeannine’s guidance. The others were:

• Developing your Ideal Client Profile
• Locating your Target Market
• Listing what problems our prospects have and how we can solve them
• Listing the different marketing media we will use
• Creating a detailed plan for each medium
• Drafting response e-mails for different scenarios

The whole exercise was quite eye-opening, and I was able to come up with some great new ideas as well as expanding on those I already had.

Since having a documented plan makes it a lot easier to make decisions when various marketing opportunities arise and to respond to inquiries on a timely basis, it tied in very nicely with the workshop on Standard Operating Procedures which I attended next, and which I’ll blog about in an upcoming post.

In addition to the exercises, some of the interesting things Jeannine covered in the workshop were:

• You should plan to spend 5 to 10% of your sales goal on marketing.
• The best testimonials describe measurable results.
• Most clients prefer to pay for individual services or packages rather than an hourly rate, so they’ll know exactly what they’re getting and how much it will cost.

To learn how to create your own marketing plan and lots more about starting and growing a home-based business, check out Jeannine’s book, Enterpreneurial Freedom.

As I mentioned previously, I had the opportunity to give a Lunch & Learn session on Personality Type and Organizing Style to my peers at FoVA 2009, and one of the people who attended was Tawnya Sutherland, Founder of VAnetworking.com. I didn’t know it at the time, but Tawnya was making plans for another great learning opportunity for virtual assistants this summer, and I’ve been invited to do a repeat performance as part of that program, which has just been announced.

Called VA Virtuosos, it’s going to be an exciting summer workshop series of 28 educational eSeminars to benefit all virtual assistants worldwide. What is most amazing is the price - it’s only $27.00 for the whole series - that’s less than it costs for most individual classes!

Furthermore, it’s a fantastic opportunity to learn from such experts as Kathie Thomas, Cristina Favreau, Tina Forsyth, and far too many others to mention here. There are only 100 spots, so be sure to sign up today!

My seminar, The Power of Personality Type is scheduled for Tuesday, July 14, at 1:00 pm Eastern time. It’s the first time I’ve spoken about personality type by teleclass or webinar, so if you’ve been unable to attend any of my live presentations, you won’t want to miss it!

And speaking of personality type, you can read the first review of my new e-book, Organizing Your Life, Your Way! at Melodee’s Virtual Assistant Blog.