SellingBooks.com has posted an interview with Melodee about my ebook: The Adventures of Vanessa Andruz, Virtual Assistant!

Personally, I think they should have asked me to do the interview, but I’m just a fictional character…what do I know!

Anyway, if you’re an aspiring author, or just thinking about writing a book or ebook, SellingBooks.com has articles to answer all your questions.

So – I’ve decided to take over this blog. I’ve even changed the name of the blog to Vanessa’s Virtual Assistant Blog. (How long do you think it will take Melodee to notice that?)

I’m Vanessa Andruz. I’m a Baby Boomer, Virtual Assistant, daughter and ex-wife.

My clients tend to be women entrepreneurs who take their business seriously. I love to help them create and maintain their websites, ezines, autoresponders, shopping carts and lots of other “techie” stuff.

I think Virtual Assistance is a calling, as well as a business. Helping a client grow their business is what I love to do!

If you feel the same way, subscribe by RSS feed or email. I’m going to be making some changes to this blog over the next few weeks - do you have questions about Virtual Assistance that you’d like answered? Just leave them as a comment or, heck, just email them to me (I took over Melodee’s “Send me an email” in the sidebar, too!).

It’s time to be bold! It’s time to feel the fear and do it anyway! (Hmmm…that sounds suspiciously like a book title…)
It’s time to grow your business!

I’ve combined my previous ebook series, plus two more info-packed sections, into one comprehensive “How To” ebook for all you aspiring VAs out there.

Here’s what you’ll read about in The Adventures of Vanessa Andruz, Virtual Assistant:

• deciding on a business structure
• choosing a company name
• setting up a home office
• discovering your niche
• determining the services you’ll provide
• setting your rates
• branding your business
• selecting a web host
• designing your website
• removing the fear of networking

Want to know more? Check out my website: www.VanessaAndruz.com.

Another way to learn more about starting a VA business, is to sign up for Jessica Maes’ F*R*E*E teleclass being held on Wednesday, June 23rd, 2010.

Jessica  launched Maes Consulting, Inc. as a Virtual Assistance practice in 2005. In addition to working as VA, she also teaches and consults about Virtual Assistance. She’s written a book explaining Virtual Assistance titled: Exploring A Career As A Virtual Assistant, as well as a home study program titled: Launch Your Virtual Assistant Business In 30 Days (OR LESS!).

She’ll be discussing the ups, downs, ins and outs of starting and running a Virtual Assistance business!

And Melodee will be part of the teleclass, talking about her VA business. She’ll also be telling everyone about my adventures–unfortunately, I won’t be able to make the call.

Sign up for Jessica’s F*R*E*E teleclass here. (Even if you can’t make the actual call, you’ll be given access to a recording of the call–but you have to be signed up to receive it!)

Don’t tell Melodee that I told you . . . but she & Jessica are offering a fantastic ebooks discount to those signed up for this teleclass . . . Shhhhhhh!

I want to thank everyone who participated in my Name My Company Contest. Some wonderful names were entered, but for one reason or another (mainly because the domain names weren’t available) I didn’t choose any of them. Instead, I put everyone’s name into a hat (a baseball cap, actually) and …drumroll, please… the winner of 25% off a custom-designed website is Becky Nelson of Becky Nelson Ink! Congratulations, Becky!

Now – to the real reason for this post. A special VA friend of mine, Jessica Maes, has taken her experience in teaching her clients how to delegate and launched Delegate or BUST! The System to Find You the Assistant You Need. If you know of a business owner who’s trying to do it all themselves, send them to Jessica’s site today. She has a fantastic 22-page Special Report that will get them delegating in no time

Jessica has also started a radio show on Blog Talk Radio, discussing delegation with a special guest. On Thursday, November 19th, that special guest will be me! Jessica and I will be talking about using WordPress websites, the special theme that’s changing the future of website-building (Headway), and why busy business owners should delegate this task to a company that can take care of all the details. (Of course, I’m talking about the Home Page Construction Company. *blatant plug*)

Hope you can listen in:

Conversations About Delegation
11/19/2009
12pm CST

Gone are the days of paying webmasters thousands of dollars for a custom-designed, search engine optimized website with a matching blog. With state-of-the-art WordPress themes, it’s never been easier or more affordable to create a website/blog combination (or blogsite).

I’m not talking about your run-of-the-mill WordPress theme, but a special foundation-type theme on which to build your blogsite. With easy-to-use design options, your blogsite can be built quickly and with much less need for HTML coding and custom css files.

The best part? If you can maintain a blog, you can maintain your own blogsite. Yourself. No more calls to your “web person” to change a few words. No waiting to fix the typo your client found on your home page. Fix it yourself in minutes!

I’m putting together a blogsite creation team that will provide it all – 5 custom-designed pages; SEO that search engines will love; plug-ins to automatically back-up your site, control spam, and supply RSS feeds; plus WordPress training so you can take over the maintenance of your own site.

All for an extremely affordable $849.

Sounds great, right? Just one problem – I don’t have a name for this wonderful blogsite creation company and I’m too busy setting up my team to think about it right now.

Would you like to help? Email me your catchy company name idea and if I choose it, you’ll win 25% OFF your own custom-designed blogsite! (If you don’t need a blogsite, give your discount to a friend or client – they’ll love you for it!)

Fine print: If more than one person emails the same name, the first email will be entered. If I end up not using any suggested names, I’ll choose the winner the old-fashioned way – pulling a contestant’s name out of a hat. You can suggest up to 5 names, but each needs to be in a separate email. I reserve the right to change any and all of these rules at any time.

Interested in learning more about blogsite creation even if you don’t want to enter my Name My Company Contest? Just email me to get more information!

This information can also be seen at www.short-termsolutions.com/NewCompanyNameContest.htm so feel free to email that link to a friend

Sue L Canfield recently released her book, The Commonsense Virtual Assistant – Becoming an Entrepreneur, Not an Employee. Today, she’s stopped by my blog.

Why did you write this book?
My husband, Joel D Canfield, and I co-authored the book to help newer and aspiring virtual assistants understand what it takes to run a successful business. Over the last two years, I found that many newer and aspiring virtual assistants were asking for and following my advice on how to run their business. Though they had the skills to be a virtual assistant, many had no idea how to run a business, write a business or marketing plan, how to market, and other basic business skills. Since my husband had already written a book for small business owners on how to be the best foundation for their business, we decided to add to the material and focus on the virtual assistant industry in our new book.

Tell me about yourself
I’ve worked as an administrative assistant for over 25 years and began my virtual assistant business in 2005 before I even knew there was such a thing. This past year I added virtual assistant coaching to my services to help newer virtual assistants succeed in their businesses. My husband and I work together from home along with our five-year old daughter in Roseville, California.
 
What qualifies you to write this book?
Joel and I have more than 50 years of combined experience supporting and operating small businesses. My success as a virtual assistant is in large part due to the advice I received from Joel. Our success in our businesses provides testimony to our qualifications.

What is the book about?
The book helps virtual assistants to understand that they are now business owners, entrepreneurs, no longer employees. Successful business owners need good business sense and a good understanding of what it takes to run a successful business. The book provides basic, commonsense information every entrepreneur needs to know along with advice specific to virtual assistants.

What do you want the readers to get out of the book?
The most important concept I would like my readers to understand is that they are now business owners and what that means. After reading the book, readers will have a clear understanding of how to set rates, manage their time, and market their business.

How can the readers contact you if they want further information?
Joel and I can be reached toll-free at 877.771.7746 or by email at Contact@BizBa6.com. They can also visit our website at http://www.bizba6.com.

How much does your book cost?
$19.95.

Where can the readers purchase your e-book?
They can visit our website at www.bizba6.com.

Sue, thank you for stopping by my blog.
You are very welcome. Thank you for having me.

About the Authors:
Joel and Sue have more than 50 years of combined experience supporting and operating small businesses. They operate BizBa6 Small Business Support Services and love not only their work but the life it allows them to live. This book (Joel’s third business book, Sue’s first) shares how they think about business–it’s a ‘why to’, not a ‘how-to’ because it focuses on how people think and what they want–not just your clients, but you, too.

Book Summary:
So, you want to be a virtual assistant. The virtual assistant industry is growing rapidly. Just about anyone can say they are a virtual assistant. You have a computer, internet access, and the desire to work from home. Voila! You’re a virtual assistant. But is that enough to succeed as a virtual assistant? Do you have what it takes to run a business? Yes, a virtual assistant is a business owner. Successful business owners need to have good business sense. As a business owner, you, the virtual assistant, need to understand what it takes to run a business. Pick up your copy for $19.95 at http://www.bizba6.com.

The first one is called QuickJump and that’s the perfect name for it cuz that’s exactly what it does. With a few keystrokes, the QuickJump screen pops open, you enter in a few letters of the folder you want to get to, hit enter and voila!- you’re there! 

And it works for “File Open” and “Save As” windows in any application. I’ve just started using it and it’s saved me a bunch of time all ready! It’s especially useful if you’ve got an organized hard drive, which I’m sure my favorite organizer, Janet Barclay, has.

Laurie, from TechHit, was nice enough to give me a link so you can save 20% off the regular low price of QuickJump. This offer only lasts until October 5th, so go here and check it out!  

The next tool I’m lovin’ these days is Toggl. Finding a timer that let me keep track of client’s projects/tasks easily and on my desktop has been a quest of mine for a few years, but I never found the right product until now. Toggl is perfect! I can have as many clients/projects/tasks as I want – it’s a web-based tool but has a cool pop-out timer that I can have sitting on my desktop – I can print out each day’s report with a click of my mouse – and it’s FREE! It doesn’t get much better than that. Try it out yourself – here.

(These are not affiliate products – but I may add them to the “My Favorites” list in the sidebar which are my affiliate links. I only become an affiliate to products that I use and recommend to my clients.)

Vanessa Andruz and I are excited! Book 4 of “The Adventures of Vanessa Andruz, Virtual Assistant” is now available. And it’s a doozy!

Ever wonder what types of services Virtual Assistants can provide? Or how to find your niche? Or, and this is the BIG question for most VAs – how to decide what to charge for your services?

Vanessa had those same questions when she was starting her VA business. Each VA is different – there’s no absolute answer that will apply to all, but reading how Vanessa answered those questions may give you some help in answering them for own business.

Not only does Vanessa Determines Her Services, Niche and Rates include a listing of 300 services that VAs can provide (with the appropriate training, of course), but she’s also included a template of her Client Contract – ready for you to use with your own clients (after checking with your lawyer, of course).

It wouldn’t be a Vanessa e-book without her suffering some angst over her family. You’ll never guess the niche her mother suggests Vanessa pursue! Or, maybe you can guess, if you’ve read the first three e-books in the series.

Anyway, it’s fun – it’s informative – and it’s a great buy. That reminds me – it’s also on sale! Through September 30, 2009, Vanessa is giving a 10% discount on your total order of her e-books. So get them now and save!

Gwen Orwiler of Discover Your Dharma, is a life coach for Boomer Women seeking their ENCORE career path. As many of you know, I’ve had a few ENCORE career paths, but I think my career changes would have gone smoother if Gwen had been steering me along the way. She’s very passionate and enthusiastic about everything she does. And I don’t think I’ve ever met anyone who laughs as much as she does

Gwen got in touch with me a couple of months ago because she was looking for success stories to include in her free report: TOP 10 SENSATIONAL REASONS Why NOW is the Perfect Time for Boomer Women To Discover their Life Purpose & plan for an ENCORE career that they Love! (Isn’t that a great title!?) Somehow, I convinced her I actually am a successful Boomer woman, and she put my bio into her report.

I’m not telling you about this free report (that you can download here) just because I’m in it! Well…OK…that’s part of the reason, but the other part is that it’s funny and inspiring. Read and enjoy!

I love oatmeal. I love Quaker Old Fashioned Rolled Oats…with brown sugar and cinnamon and vanilla extract. I put the oats into the cold water so it cooks up nice and creamy. I’ll usually throw in some golden raisins, or Craisins right away, too, so they’ll be nice and plump when the oatmeal is done.

I know others put different ingredients into their oatmeal. A waitress in Arizona talked me into trying peanut butter in it, but I can’t say that I was impressed.

And I’ve heard that some people add sliced bananas or blueberries and I’ve considered trying those, but I had a real epiphany yesterday when I happened across Quaker’s website. They have a page dedicated to toppings for oatmeal that anyone can add to! By the time I worked my way down the page through over 200 topping ideas, I was famished. I couldn’t wait to get up this morning to try out what I think is the best oatmeal topping ever conceived in the whole history of mankind.

Here’s a sample of the ideas you’ll find on the website. See if you can pick out the one I tried this morning

• blackstrap molasses, cinnamon, ginger and nutmeg
• orange marmalade
• oatmeal cookies
• trail mix
• chopped apple and pumpkin pie spice
• peaches, brown sugar, cinnamon and nutmeg
• pumpkin puree, walnuts and maple syrup
• 1 perfect piece of Dove Dark Chocolate

You guessed it! Who would have thought that chocolate and oatmeal would compliment each other so well? Some other great ingredients were cocoa and chocolate milk. Yum!

Of course, there’s always some weirdos in the crowd:

• chopped peppers, ginger, coriander leaves and plain yogurt
• salsa
• soy sauce and chopped green onions
• and my favorite: Tabasco sauce and bread & butter pickles

Don’t those sound yummy?

Come on! What’s your favorite oatmeal topping?