I now have a Business Coach!!

Due to a pretty random and fortuitous set of circumstances I now have a wonderful Business Coach called Liz Archer. I have my first proper session with her tomorrow and this has made me think about RRVA in more detail than I have for quite some time.

I decided it would be good to work with someone who will make me stay focused, who will question my goals, my dedication and mostly my methods of how I'm going to achieve these targets I have set myself. It is not that I do not believe I can succeed ( I really do think I am well on the way to that) but that I am aware that I can be too easily sidetracked by interesting ideas and that I NEED someone to keep me motivated. I also think that it is a good thing that the person who does this is not a member of my family or one of my friends. I need a dispassionate and businesslike viewpoint on what I am doing to grow and maintain my business.

This has led me to evaluate the business goals I set myself in January 2009 when I first started conceiving of RRVA, I actually set it up in April 2009, before I go and meet her for the first time. I have been in business for nearly a year now and upon reflection I have achieved the 3 of my original 4 goals that I set myself for my first year and I'm rather pleased about that. I have also achieved 1 of the goals I set myself for my second year which is going full time as a creative VA! 

I hope she thinks well of this and helps me realise new successes and areas to work on as I approach my second year in business.
 

My current top 5 favourite web resources

When reviewing my blog and its purpose I realised I wasn't posting very much that you, my readers, may find helpful. I thought I'd kick off my renewed focus on my blog by listing my current top 5 favourite resources on the web:

Number 1 is: FreeDigitalPhotos.net Which is a brilliant resource for royalty free pictures to use on your blog. Just make sure you do put on the acknowledgement!

Number 2 is: Wordle.net You are probably aware of my love of the wordle if you've read this blog before!!!

Number 3 is: MailChimp a free and easy way to create and distribute fabulous email newsletters and marketing.


Number 4 is: a perennially favourite resources of the ever useful Googledocs. Just a fantastic way of working on and sharing documents with your clients whilst maintaining version control. 


An finally this time Number 5 is: 1001FreeFonts.com which is currently feeding my font habit when it comes to finding just the right font for a client.


I intend to make this a regular monthly post so I hope you find it helpful.

Christmas hours at RRVA

I like to convince myself that people really do read my blog, especially some of my clients,  so firstly I'd like to wish all of you a very Merry Christmas.

Secondly to note that RRVA will be closing for Christmas on the 24th December and reopening on the 4th January 2010. 


Our hours of opening will then be 9.00am to 3.00pm Monday to Friday.

This Month's Wordle...

This month's wordle highlights the focus of RRVA I think well even though I've had FTP issues which have restricted my updating of the blog. 

I see Look, Leicester, Interesting, Creative which I think sums things up nicely!!!

 

Loughborough Creative Network - very first meeting

The first ever meeting of the Loughborough Creative Network, supported by Creative Leicestershire, took place on Thursday 10th December at 6pm. The meeting was born out of a realisation at an event at the LCB Depot in Leicester that there were quite a few people travelling from Loughborough so why not have our own event?

Well I went along, being based in Mountsorrel, and I have to say that it was a great event! Small enough to talk to everyone really well but large enough to be a viable group. It was held in the Orange Tree pub with its great atmosphere and selection of art on the walls and I thoroughly enjoyed it! I even got to talk about my own (admittedly limited currently) artistic practice as well as establishing a relationship with a new client so a win all round!!

When's the next one??????

A little video of RRVA HQ

A little tour of where it all happens and the important staff here at RRVA!

RRVA 1st video with Flip Camera from Rebekah Harriman on Vimeo.

The VASG first ever get together!

Here it is my little movie of when some of the Virtual Assistant Support Group met .......

The VASG get together - Birmingham Dec 09 from Rebekah Harriman on Vimeo.

Back office support pages - Creative Leicestershire

Yes people, my advert is now up on the Creative Leicestershire, Back Office support pages.......

Take a look here.

News update on RRVA

Quite a lot has happened at RRVA since my ftp issues meant I couldn't post for ages! Apart from the fact that I'm sadly proud of my inner geek for sorting the problem out myself (yay me!) I have also started to run the Leicester Hub of Creative Boom - an online magazine for creatives - that I urge you all to read regularly!! Not because I try to keep the Leicester part relevant but also because the wonderful Katy Cowan who runs the main site has it jammed packed full of interesting and useful articles that concern the creative industries!

I have attended the Cafe Creatif at the LCB Depot for the first time on Thursday 19th November and met some really interesting people. Incidentally I also was interviewed and filmed for Global Entrepreneurship Week which I hope doesn't look too embarrassing when it becomes available!!! I'll post a link when it does but please promise not to laugh. I am also now in discussion with Enterprise UK about several opportunities, as a result of this event, but that's all hush hush until something actually comes of it!

Phoenix Square, the new Digital Media Centre, in Leicester also launched on Thursday 19th November and I went to have a look around. Its a very impressive building with some very interesting and exciting exhibitions on at the moment. I will be there again tomorrow as I head to Creative Coffee Club at 10am in it's new home. So onwards and upwards here at RRVA!

Oh and MOST importantly look out for me wearing a pair of these at an event near you soon !!!!

October's Wordle for A Little Bit of R&R

Here is October's Wordle. I think it highlights what I have been talking about for the last month really well. The words that pop out at me are Think, Women, Business, Twitter and Best. To me these say that RRVA is thinking about women in business, who use twitter and are the best at what they do....or am I just talking about myself???!!! You decide!

Next month I hop that Networking shows up too as I intend to be doing more of it and talking more about it too.

Car Vinyls for RRVA

Yep, I've decided to do it! I've stickered up my car!!!

I used to think this was annoying, driving along whilst the car in front had some logo or slogan and phone number emblazoned all over it. How naff I thought! But then I realised...I'd read it all hadn't I!!!!! I started to think, ooh I hope I see that window cleaners van on the way home again I need to get their number!!!
I posted mid point pictures of the process yesterday on my Facebook Fanpage, so head there if any of you are interested.

And here it is.... courtesy of Darryl at Exposed Graphics.

Great visualisation tool

This is today's Wordle for this very blog!!!!

Wordle is a wonderful visualisation tool that I have been using for a little while. It creates beautiful word clouds from any web page or text that you want. The more prominent the word the more often it has been mentioned.

It's a great, visual way to check whether you are on topic and staying focused on what you're blogging about and I think my key words of work, business, VA and people are bang on topic....although I may have to work on not saying 'just' quite so often...and maybe shoes too. I do a wordle every month to make sure I'm just about in the right area which I will be posting on my Facebook fanpage here, if you'd like to check up in me! Please let me know if you think I ramble too much!!

Think I'll check my Twitter stream too now although I'm not entirely sure what that will throw up!!!!

Help!! Need more clients to feed my shoe habit!!!!

Those of you who follow me on Twitter will already be aware of my..um...slight shoe problem. Its starting to border on an obsession! Firstly there were these

then

and the latest edition is these amazing creations from Irregular Choice...


Now they're not cheap and I have to pay the tax man too. Plus I have 2 children to clothe and feed so I should start reminding myself why I became a VA in the first place...and it wasn't to buy shoes!!!! (Well, not really anyway!).

I became a VA so I could work with people who are as passionate about the arts, good design and creativitiy as me. To have flexibility to work around my children and to utilise my expertise and organisational abilities and learn new skills. To be more in control of my own destiny and earn some money whilst I'm about it all.

But the shoes are sooooo lovely!!!!!

I need more clients so I can justify more shoes! Can you recommend me to anyone, really....please??? You see I have my eye on these....

Facebook business page

I'm just in the process of setting up my R&R VA Services Facebook fan page. Won't be in time to get enough followers to get my vanity facebook url but it will be good for business!!!

I'll let you know when it's up and finished and you can all come and massage my ego by becoming my fans hehehe!! I can always create one for you too!