I am sure few of us will have forgotten the weather that greeted the first working day of the new year. The heavens opened (http://www NULL.flickr NULL.com/photos/36558156 null@null N00/6718091053/)
and the wind blew strong.

I can recall I had been out to a client and stopped at Brighton Marina on the way home to shop. The
rain was at its worst as I drove into the car park and visibility was almost nil by then. But as I came back out of the supermarket the storm had finally passed and calm was returning.

I got to thinking that maybe this was a taste of what 2012 has in store for us. Many people believe that there will be great changes begining in 2012, and in business I feel that many will fall by the wayside and only the strong will survive during the coming year.  But those that do meet 2012 head on, with focus and determination are going to find 2012 an inspirational year, moving into calmer waters in 2013.

We are now well into January so I wonder if you are feeling the storm right now?  I hope not and I hope that all who read this will be those that have that inspirational year.

(http://creativecommons NULL.org/licenses/by/2 NULL.0/) photo (http://www NULL.photodropper NULL.com/photos/) credit: Emily Baron (http://www NULL.flickr NULL.com/photos/36558156 null@null N00/6718091053/)

“Help, I’m drowning. Help! Help!”

You’ve fallen overboard: the waves are too large for you to swim against and you feel yourself sinking.  You call for help and someone rushes to your aid, throwing out a life buoy and pulling you to safety.

What relief you feel!!

OK, probably not many of you have actually fallen overboard from a boat and foundered around in the sea, needing to be rescued. But perhaps I wasn’t exactly thinking of this scenario but of your business.

Do you ever feel swamped by the overwhelming administration and more routine tasks within your business? Does it stop you working on your business and getting it to grow? Or do you hate that paperwork so much that it just sits on your desk, the pile getting higher and higher. Whatever the reason that you are feeling that you are drowning, with great waves of despair washing over you that you are never going to get through everything, you can call for a life buoy to be thrown to you by outsourcing.

Administration, social media, marketing, PR and bookkeeping are some of the easiest areas to outsource.

But as administration is my area of expertise I am focusing on that as many people don’t realise just how much a Virtual Assistant (VA) might be able to help with. So why not ask yourself these questions.

• Is my in tray overflowing?
• Can I easily find things or is that vital report often buried under a mass of other stuff?
• Is my email inbox unmanageable?
• Do I have business cards everywhere and client details stored on scraps of paper?
• Do I never manage to get two documents looking the same?
• Could I have got a better price on that flight if I’d found time to book it earlier?

OK, the list could go one but if you have answered “yes” to just one of those questions then it is probably worth speaking to a VA to see how they can help you. Why not consider a consultation session with a VA – and if they are local it can be in person. And because of the way Vas work you can consider outsourcing just one or two tasks.

If it is in other areas of your business you feel that it might be possible to outsource then ask around your contacts or on Twitter to see if anyone can be recommended.

Go on, you’ve nothing to lose and everything to gain by outsourcing and Virtual Assistants (Vas) and other freelancers/consultants are only too happy to chat with you and see how they might be able to help you.

Louise Robinson
Love the Jobs You Hate

Goodness what happened to our summer.  August seems to have just flown by and I know that I have not yet posted (http://www NULL.flickr NULL.com/photos/55109501 null@null N06/6129061858/) the first blog on my newly designed website, for which a big thank you to everyone that gave me advice and especially to Madison Solutions (http://www NULL.madisonsolutions NULL.co NULL.uk/).

For those of us dedicated to breakfast meetings, we are now getting up in the dark and likely in the next month or so to be travelling before it’s light too.

If you work at home, do you find it much harder to get motivated to start the day in the winter months? Do you find it less appealing to get out there and network or do one to one meetings? Do you have any coping strategies to help?

Or maybe you find the darker days more productive as the lure of the garden, golf or, if you are on the coast like me, the beach tend to be distracting on lovely summer days? (Not that we had all that many this year!)

Lots of questions there, so it would be interesting to hear your thoughts.

I love and honour all the seasons for what each of them offers us but for me I find it harder in the winter, solely because it’s difficult to settle down to work until I’ve walked the dogs Last year I found myself getting to my desk later so perhaps this year I should really try to re-programme my day and aim to go walkies at lunchtime instead!

But also the way we cope with the various seasons goes to highlight how we operate in different ways and as a Virtual Assistant (VA) this is always paramount in my mind when talking with clients. For example one client will just pass me work to get on with – and minimum communication about it -  while another is a great communicator and likes to talk ideas and projects through with me.  So when you are thinking about outsourcing to a Virtual Assistant (VA) make sure the one you choose is someone that can understand how you work – and remember often a Virtual Assistant (VA) will specialise in working in certain business areas. For example whilst I do sometimes work for IFAs and tradesmen, I work more with HR consultants, trainers, coaches and holistic therapists.

So I will leave you with that thought as my three hounds are up and ready for their daily walk on the cliffs.
(http://creativecommons NULL.org/licenses/by-sa/2 NULL.0/) photo (http://www NULL.photodropper NULL.com/photos/) credit: Abaconda (http://www NULL.flickr NULL.com/photos/55109501 null@null N06/6129061834/)

Louise Robinson is very proud to launch her new website.