Alex Wilkinson Virtual Assistant

12/10/2021

This article is all about Me-strengths and We-strengths and how identifying them can help move your business forward. But it is identifying the Me-Strengths that will help you answer the question I often hear: "what can a VA help me with"?

Answer these questions below and you will remember why you started your business! And everything that is left you could consider outsourcing to a VA....

1. What do you know you enjoy doing but haven’t done yet?

2. What sorts of activities do you finish and think “I’m really looking forward to doing that again”?

3. What do you see on your calendar that you’re excited about?

4. Tell me about a time when you were doing an activity and you became so absorbed that you didn’t notice how much time had passed.

5. On your very best workday, the day you think you have the best job in the world — what did you do that day?

You should praise an employee’s we-strengths — strengths that move the whole team forward — and their me-strengths — strengths that make a person stronger. Here’s why,…

01/09/2021

I've recently been recommended this small business conference, Atomicon. It takes place in November and has a wealth of great speakers, also hosted by Deborah Meaden of Dragon's Den fame - it can be attended in person in Newcastle or virtually (with access to recorded sessions).

Its aimed at:
Designers
Marketers
Small Agency Owners
Solopreneurs
Accountants
Freelancers
Consultants
Trainers
Product Based Businesses
Coaches
Virtual Assistants
Social Media Managers
Photographers
E-Commerce Stores
Copywriters
Website Designers
Course Creators

I reckon its excellent value given the number and quality of speakers. Have a look at their site to see some of the topics that will be included, it might be just what you need to boost your business mindset as we come out of Summer:

Join us in-person or virtually on: 9th November 2021 | Newcastle-upon-Tyne, UK Attend The UK’s Biggest and Most Epic Conference for Small Business Owners and Learn from the World’s Best Business Minds How to Get an Avalanche of Sales EARLY BIRD TICKETS NOW ON SALE GET YOUR DISCOUNTED TICKETS HEA...

05/05/2021

If you find yourself going to the same place for free images, here is a fantastic summary of a load of sites you may not have come across yet. A few sites that are more geared to corporate images are definitely going to be added to my list.

There’s more to Medium than Pexels and Unsplash

12/04/2021

An interesting move forward from Facebook on the way. Group admins will have the ability to "slow comments" and introduce a 5 min barrier between comments when discussions get heated.

I can't think of any clients that have posts that generate high-tempered discussions, but there are certainly situations on local community pages where I imagine this will be very useful! Anything that makes people pause before posting is a good thing I reckon....

Facebook's added a new option which enables group admins to slow down comments in a group. which could help to ease tension and angst.

06/04/2021

Do you eat the frog?

I totally do, and during lockdown was really surprised to find out my husband does not (although actually I'm not really surprised).

If you are confused, eating the frog is a way to avoid procrastination: do the thing you want to do least, first. Get it out of the way and

a) you realise it wasn't as onerous as you thought it would be
b) you have freed yourself of any worry/stress/guilt for the rest of the day

Try it now!

04/03/2021

If you ever need to find that perfect emoji for your newsletters or emails (the plain truth is they are proven click-bait 🖱️) - this is a free resource you can use to copy and paste:

Copy and paste every emoji with 👍 no apps required. 😊🥺😉😍😘😚😜😂😝😳😁😣😢😭😰🥰

03/03/2021

Do you create private groups in Facebook? If so, you may well be used to creating Units to organise your group - well Facebook have made a little sneaky change of the word Units....to Guides. Just to confuse us all! Summary of how to use Guides is here:

https://www.facebook.com/help/184985882229224/?helpref=search&query=guides%20in%20groups&search_session_id=51c7312296cbe4c01ecad7e168efd808&sr=0

15/02/2021

Here are some helpful keyboard short cuts for some of those more obscure business symbols:

Copyright sign ©
Alt + Ctrl + C

Registered Trademark sign ®
Alt + Ctrl + R

Trademark symbol ™
Alt + Ctrl + T

11/11/2020

Usually an avid reader, this year has been weird. I've flitted between not being able to focus, or devouring novels. But buying a new book always cheers me up (the anticipation of reading it, even if I don't look at it for a while) and now we have an opportunity to do so in a positive way rather than defaulting to Amazon.

Originally launched in the US, this site supports UK independent book shops and they've already raised over £100k for local stores.

You can buy online through https://uk.bookshop.org/

And you can read more about it here:

https://www.theguardian.com/books/2020/nov/02/this-is-revolutionary-new-online-bookshop-unites-indies-to-rival-amazon

09/11/2020

If you regularly create videos for your business this tool might be of interest. Extremely simple drag and drop interface so you can up the game on your social media. Bit like a Canva for videos!

Use drag and drop professionally designed text animations, captions and motion graphic templates to make captivating videos in a few minutes. Create image slideshows and videos with your favourite music and publish them in square and mobile formats for social media.