Tag: Administrative Assistant

14 Opportunities and Ideas to Help Add Additional Income During the Pandemic

Hello loves!  I wanted to share some information that may be helpful for those that recently were laid off and/or you are looking to supplement your income during and beyond the Convid-19 Pandemic. Like many online business owners,  I have a unique birdseye view because of the work that I do and the business I run. None of it is a secret or a ninja trick, and much of it you already have likely heard about, so most of it is just a re-iteration.  

I have compiled a list of 14 opportunities and ideas to help add additional income during the pandemic for yourself and your family in these times of uncertainty.  

As we start to do more and more delivery and curbside shopping, eating and etc… we will see that we simply do not have the force to support it.  Here are places that you can look into if you are looking for work.

1) Grocery stores are hiring and their services are in high demand.  Check into Clicklist and Instacart shoppers particularly

2) Doordash and Uber Eat Drivers – Even Pizza Delivery as well

3) Talk to your local marijuana dispensers and liquor stores – See about helping them with their curbside services…and in some cases delivery options

4) Amazon warehouses are hiring as well as drivers and customer service agents.  Amazon alone is providing over 100k jobs

5) Become a secret shopper.  I know that times are different right now, but there are many online secret shopping opportunities, for instance, customer service secret shopping with Expedia.  The restaurant and retail store options won’t be available (unless they pivot) is my guess, but there are other opportunities. Let me preface that this is NOT a huge moneymaker, but it is great for supplemental income. https://www.bestmark.com/  I always had fun with secret shopping and I think you could too.

If you are looking at making some extra money in the online sphere here are some pretty great options. 

6) For online work look into https://jobs.sykes.com/ , these are customer service jobs that you can do from home.  You must have a dedicated phone line (not a cell phone) and highspeed internet. 

7) Working Solutions is another home-based customer service opportunity as well – www.workingsolutions.com/

8) United Health Care for those that work in more of a medical field, they are hiring to help with the influx of calls that are coming in.  

9) If you have a special craft, like content writing, graphic design, etc… you can look into www.upwork.com  or www.guru.com and if you make and sell your own goods, look at facebook market place, www.etsy.com and www.ebay.com.   

10) I realize that the stock market is a pretty scary place right now, but it also offers a lot of opportunities.  Stocks are at a record low right now. The market will not be this unstable forever and it is guaranteed that there will be a boom (just don’t know when).  The beauty of that is if you can get in at a cheap buy-in, like now, it could provide a huge return in 6-months. Only look into this if you feel empowered to do so.  You can start up through Robinhood, which is a free platform for buying and selling stocks in the stock market. It is pretty intuitive and if you use this link you can earn free stock to start your journey with. Truly investing in stock (if you have the means) now might set you up for life. It could be like buying Amazon in 1997 if you get my drift!  For Robinhood, though, it doesn’t require any investment right now, just sign up, get your free stock and start dabbling. Use this link to get your free stock >>> https://bit.ly/freerobinhoodstock-jg 

11) For those that are toying with taking their business or ideas to Facebook, I have a free mini-training “8 Ways to Revive your Facebook Business Page Organic Reach” that you can take. It is a tiny bit outdated, but the content is still very relevant. www.va.alpinesbsolutions.com  

12) If you are looking to take your vision into an online setting and getting serious about taking this time to pivot instead of panic, I would like to offer up some of my time to help you brainstorm. While I do have limited time,  I still would like to offer up my own time as a resource. I am offering free 30 minute consults for a limited amount of folks (no strings attached, just value, value, value) the rest of the month. Private message me if you are interested.  

13) I am also working on some additional free training and webinars to help people with making supplemental income online or to finally start your own online business journey.  If you have a topic you would like me to touch on or have someone in the community talk about, please private message me or put your request below.

14) Lastly (for now), I would love to create a container for those interested to network together and join in on the opportunity to join think tanks, masterminds, engagement circles, and other self-promotion threads so we can all build each other up, stay connected, and love one another.

Do you have things to share or add to my list, please do? The more the merrier. The more information we can put out there the better.  I will continue to harvest more ideas around this as the days and weeks unfold.  

For those that are in a position to help, please help people, offer your time and what resources you can. This is a time to band together, practice impeccable hygiene, be compassionate and remember we are all in this together.  Do not lead in fear…keep being amazing and I am rooting for those that are having a hard time. Please share with someone that you think might benefit from this information as well. I love you!

How to Set Work Hours Working From Home as a Virtual Assistant

The ability for a virtual assistant to design their own work schedule is a double-edged sword. It’s great not feeling chained to your desk for the arbitrary 9-5 grind.

But it’s also easy to avoid ever setting a schedule. Before you know it, you’re always either working or thinking about work. It’s increasingly difficult to leave work at work. Projects that could be done in an hour end up taking longer.

The irony of the “I don’t need to abide by a set schedule” virtual assistant life is that we often function better when we create a schedule.

The Benefit of Setting Work Hours

Many work-from-home virtual assistants resist setting work hours like the plague. One huge appeal of being your own boss is the freedom that comes with control over your schedule right?

But the reality of failing to set work hours tells a different story. Not sticking to a work schedule ends up hurting you in the long wrong in different ways.

  1. It’s hard to leave work at work as a virtual assistant. When work stops at 5, it’s easier to stop thinking about work at 5. When there is no firm end to the work day, it’s so much harder to transition from “work mode” to “living your life mode.” You feel guilty watching TV and wonder if you should go get that one article done. You daydream thinking of your to-do list. You always feel “on,” making it difficult to give yourself the rest you need.
  2. You waste precious mental energy. Each day you wake up without a firm schedule. Each day, you waste time and energy deciding how much you will work and when. It’s the element of decision fatigue. The more decisions we make each day, the more drained we become. It’s why superstars like Steve Jobs wore the same outfit every day. One less decision to make meant a bit more energy for more important matters.
  3. Tasks take longer than they should. Parkinson’s Law basically states however long a task can take is usually how long it will. Maybe you wake up and know, if needed, you could log a 10-hour day today to get that big project done. What ends up happening? You tend to work that 10-hour day. The beauty of the set work schedule is work is only allowed to fill those hours. Usually, everything always gets done.

These problems can be tackled (or at least minimized) by setting a consistent work schedule. The initial constraint of work hours ends up giving you more free time and freedom to enjoy your time outside work guilt free.

Setting an Optimized Work Schedule

Here is where you get to enjoy the freedom of being a virtual assistant. Maybe your peak creativity hours are early morning and early evening. In the middle of the day, you suffer from the afternoon slump. So work in the peak hours and go workout or run errands when your brain power dips.

A virtual assistant work schedule does not mean you must bow down at the altar of the 9-5 work week. Those hours are not ideal anyway! In fact, with the right productivity tactics you may get 8 hours of work done in 7 or 6. All a work schedule means is setting strict work hours and strict non-work hours. If you can accomplish you work between 10-4, that’s great!

You can even set a different work schedule for different days of the week. Maybe you are a work-from-home parent taking advantage of a babysitting co-op. On Tuesday mornings, you get to wrangle the group’s kiddos to the library activity. So on Tuesdays, your work day starts a few hours later.

It doesn’t matter what type of schedule you make. What matters is knowing going into the day which hours you work. Designated work hours protect your “non-work” time.

Once you create a schedule, protect it fiercely. Don’t check your email outside of work hours. Let your clients know what hours they can expect to reach you by phone…and don’t pick up if it’s outside of those (or work into your contract it’s a $75 fee every time they do). When you are done for the day, be done. Don’t fall into the trap of well I could get one more thing done. Allow yourself to rest and relax!

Working from home can be the ideal set up. Setting optimized work hours helps you be the ideal worker and live a balanced life. It’s a win-win!

If you want assistance on setting hours that work for you or need help getting all your work done in the allotted time,the Virtual Assistant Roadmap is here for you! Just shoot us an email to get started.