Where in the World am I?

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Event Management

For those who are wondering what I do all day, let’s do a quick update.

 

(Full day) Virtual Assistant for the Western Cape Network on Disability Find us on Facebook as Provincial Co-ordinator, including attending meetings and all related Secretarial duties.

 

(Evenings) Virtual Assistant  for Retina SA Western Cape Find us on Facebook as temporary Branch Administrator and Events Co-ordinator. We have three big events coming up: AGM on 4 August 2018, High Tea 2018 fundraiser on 9 August 2018 and Ripped Genes 2018 Music Concert fundraiser on 28 November 2018.

 

Event Management

Fundraiser

Evenings are broken down even further working as Project Manager on special projects for a private company broken down into a certain amount of hours per week.

 

I’m also an Executive Board member (not paid) for a non-profit organisation called Institute for the Promotion of Disabled Manpower (IPDM) which requires me to do loads of reading amongst other things

Home

 

Last year (2017) I was approached by WordPress South Africa to assist them with their annual WordCamp Cape Town event as an Accessibility Wrangler (help them ensure that the venue for WordCamp Cape Town 2018 is accessible to persons with disabilities (not paid).

 

WordCamp is a conference that focuses on everything WordPress.

WordCamps are informal, community-organized events that are put together by WordPress users. Everyone from casual users to core developers participate, share ideas, and get to know each other.

With an estimated 250+ attendees, this 2-day conference will have 2 tracks, 20 speakers and more than 20 volunteers making it the ultimate event for WordPress users, developers and enthusiasts in Cape Town. More details regarding this event will follow as soon as we’ve finalised the details.

Pencil 1 and 2 November 2018 (Save the Date) into your diaries in the meantime.

Behind the Scenes – what have I been doing all this time?

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Hi everyone

You must be wondering what on earth has happened to me? It’s been a while since I’ve been on my site and this has purely been as a result of working way too hard on everybody else’s business except my own.

I’ve just completed another successful event being a High Tea Fundraiser for Retina SA Western Cape Branch.

Have a look at the pictures here to see what’s kept me so busy – Click here: http://

The next event in the pipeline (also for Retina SA Western Cape branch) is their annual Ripped Genes Music Concert Fundraiser where we source local Artists and Performers willing to show off their talents Pro Bono to raise funds for finding a cure for genetic retinal blindness.

This concert was a huge success last year and we are looking forward to building this year’s concert into a bigger and better event.

The next few months leading up to the end of the year is going to be really busy but when you’re doing what you love it doesn’t even seem like work at all.

Hope to chat again soon.

BUILD A COMMUNITY (E-mail Marketing Guide)

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sea star and shells on the sandy beach

Here are eight basic steps to follow when building a list of contacts by collecting e-mail addresses.

  1. Use an e-mail marketing programme like Aweber (good) but Infusionsoft (better)
  2. Get a programme to create an opt-in-page. For example: LeadPages.com (good) but Kajabi (better)
  3. Create an added-value deliverable such as a free report, template, E-book, audio or video training so people will happily provide an e-mail address in exchange for the value you provide.
  4. Ask your community about their desires. Send an email to your community with the link to a survey (use a free service like SurveyMonkey.com) asking what they want or need help with in the area of value you’ve identified. Ask open-ended questions to help you later brainstorm or offer multiple choices if you’ve already thought about what you can provide.
  5. Create a solution: After receiving responses to your survey, get to work and create the solution(s). This could be a physical or digital product (a book, audio or video, written training programme, workbook, E-book etc), or a service (dog grooming, babysitting, coaching, consulting, speaking or training)
  6. Plan the launch: Turn the launch into an event. Build anticipation months in advance – make people WANT to buy your product or service. Read the book: “Launch” by Jeff Walker for more tips.
  7. Find a mentor: Find people who have already achieved what you want and copy their behaviour and make it your own. You could either have a relationship with a face-to-face human mentor, hire a coach, read a book or articles by an expert or do web research.
  8. Schedule time to begin implementing these steps, one at a time and within months you can be enjoying the benefits.

 

Was this information helpful?

Let me know how this helped you. I’m waiting to hear from you.

How to make the most out of a Virtual Assistant

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A Virtual Assistant is able to free up at least two hours of your time every day. You can choose to spend those two hours or more on more important business tasks or activities that actually produce some income and progress.

 

Here are seven of the most recurring and time-consuming tasks you can leave to your Virtual Assistant to do.

 

  • Calendar Management.Managing your calendar yourself will not only take up a lot of time, but due to an overloaded mind, you might forget to schedule one or two meetings. There are several free online calendar tools such as Google Calendar where you can put your VA in charge of keeping your schedules and appointments updated.
  • Social Media Management.You might not have the time to regularly create engaging Facebook or Twitter posts to attract more customers, so why not give the task to your VA? A large percentage of your customers/clients are scrolling through Facebook or Twitter at least once a day. Therefore, do not pass up the business opportunity just because you were too busy.
  • Email Management.Emails will just keep piling up as your business grows, and some of those emails may be useless spam or an actual inquiry. Of course, you do not have the time to sort through absolutely every single email flooding into your inbox, so let the VA handle that.
  • Blog Writing and Posting.Regular (but not spammy) blog postings on your website is important for search engine rankings, and for giving customers the information they need. You can have the VA do the proofreading and posting after you have written the blog, or your VA can do everything from writing to posting.
  • The busier you get, the harder it may be to monitor your bill due dates, cash flow, expenses, sales, invoices, etc. This is something that needs someone’s full and undivided attention, which you can have your VA give since you obviously have too much on your mind as a business owner.
  • Customer Support.The best way to keep customers happy is to give them the attention they need and deserve, even if you are neck-deep into tasks. However, if you cannot immediately attend to your customers yourself, having your VA step in and represent you is a great idea. It is a whole lot better than completely ignoring the customer’s concern/email and getting back to them quite late.
  • Email Marketing.Properly informing consumers of promos, sales, new products, etc. can involve sending out a lot of emails. Again, this is a time-consuming task, but VAs can use tools like Mailchimp to make the bulk emailing a lot easier and faster to do.

 

 

Are you having meetings at the wrong time?

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Meme10_Eat a live frog first thing in the morning

 

 

Here are 5 reasons why you’re possibly meeting at the wrong time . . . every time.

Early morning or end of day – You’re meeting at the beginning or end of the day. 9am meetings are just asking for latecomers, and at 4pm, people are tired and are more likely to leave early.

End of or beginning of week – You’re meeting before or after the weekend. Mondays and Fridays are common days for workers to take off to turn a weekend into a long weekend or work from home (or they could be distracted by weekend plans).

Lunchtime – you’re meeting when everyone’s hungry. Even 11am meetings can run into lunchtime, so plan more time around the hour of growling stomachs.

Afternoon slump – you’re meeting during the afternoon slump. Afternoon slumps start around 2pm. Give employees/colleagues more time to get their second burst of energy.

Afternoon brainstorm – you’re meeting to brainstorm in the afternoon. Studies show creative thinking peaks earlier in the day, so consider the type of meeting you’re having besides considering the time of the meeting.