November 2012 – Virtual Assistant Success Strategies

Wil Hart on November 30, 2012

4 Keys to A Lifestyle Focused Business

Your “Take Action” Plan for This Week:

Define what success means to you How much do you work and with whom? What is your weekly/monthly/annual revenue? What does your personal life look like? The more specific you are the easier it will be to create this reality. (YES, you DO deserve this. ☺)
Do an honest self-evaluation and determine what adjustments you need to make in your mindset and habits. Do you need to switch from an “I could never…” attitude to a “This is what I’m going to do…” approach? Do you need to get organized? Be more efficient? Be honest?.
Consider how you can adjust your business model so that you serve your clients, do your best work AND support your lifestyle. Open your mind to the possibilities and don’t sensor yourself. (If you want some help brainstorming ideas, I’d be happy to help you. Just let me know.)
Review your weekly activities to see where your infrastructure needs improvement. Are your systems M.I.A. or out of date? Make a list of what needs to be upgraded and then commit to focusing on key areas in a specific timeframe (such as one per week or one per month
Based on the activities you hate to do or aren’t good at, research options for outsourcing and building a team. Look into hiring a Virtual Assistant or an intern if you’re just starting out.

Wil Hart on November 28, 2012

The VA Success Cafe: Episode 4

Your Virtual Assistance business can be compared to building of a house. That is why your business foundation needs to be solid and sturdy. In this audio, you will learn about a few holes that may be in your foundation and how to fix those holes. Let me know if you have any questions and post them below.

Wil Hart on November 21, 2012

The VA Success Cafe: Episode 3

Technology is the friend of the successful virtual entrepreneur. In this episode of The VA Success Cafe, we cover just a few tools that will be helpful to building your business. Special Note: We discussed Highrise. There is a free version if you follow these instructions: 1) Click this link www.EAtoVA.com/Highrise/ 2) Click, See Highrise Plans and Pricing. 3) Under the 3 options you will see a link for ‘free plan”. 4) Click that link. Voila! You have access to the free version of Highrise.

Wil Hart on November 20, 2012

Take Your Next Step Now

At this time today, as you read this blog post, you have a set of actions that you need to take at some point. Your action steps are related to building your Virtual Assistance business, improving your skill, increasing your knowledge or a host of other activities.

My question to you is, “What is holding you back?”

In order for you to make progress you have to take the next action step. So, look at your list of things that you need to accomplish this week. Take out a pen and write down the very next progressive step in each important activity.

There is a caveat to this simple instruction of taking the next progressive step. Try hard, I mean really hard to not live in the past. If you have a long list of to-do’s that you know should have already been completed, don’t stress about it. They are not done, but you still need to get them finished. Start where you stand! Take the next progressive step.

After you have taking the next step, be clear on the subsequent actions that need to be taken so that you can continue to make progress towards accomplishing your goals. Develop the ‘what-is-my-next-step’ attitude. Clarify the next action step and then get involved and complete it. What is your next progressive action step for your most important activities? Share them with us below.

Wil Hart on November 19, 2012

How to Face Your Fears and Defeat Them

Fear is a natural part of our emotional make up. It is even helpful at times. For without fear, we’d certainly walk into many unnecessary dangers. When it comes to being successful in your Virtual Assistance business, you may have many fears that hold you back from making the progress that you deserve.

Do you find yourself ignoring your fears in hopes that they will go away and never return? That is one method of feeding your fears so that they will never be eliminated.

So, what are some of the fears that you have? Is it the fear of failure? Could it be the fear of rejection? Some fears actually stem from the fear of success. Imagine that!

Here is a formula for facing your fears and dealing with them appropriately.

Acknowledge the fear that you have. Say out loud, “Yes, I’m afraid.”
Isolate the fear. Determine exactly what that fear is.
Take some action to eliminate the fear.

Now, we are going to make this practical and applicable.

You are trying to build a successful business. However, one of the obstacles that holds you back is a fear of meeting people. Do you remember what step one is? Say to yourself, “Yes, I’m afraid.” Next, you want to pinpoint the fear. The fear is meeting new people. The last step is to take some action towards eliminating the fear.

There are several things that you can do in this regard and they don’t all need to be business related. It could be something as simple as introducing yourself to a neighbor that you have never met before. Meet someone at the grocery store or at your child’s daycare. The more people you put forth effort to meet, the easier it will become. That particular fear will become a thing of the past.

If you face each of your business fears with this process, you will soon become a habitual ‘fear crusher’. Remember this, indecision and procrastination fertilizes fear. Action cures fear.

Do you believe that these steps will help you in your business?

Wil Hart on November 14, 2012

The VA Success Cafe: Episode 2

You already possess the knowledge and skills that prospective clients are willing to pay for. In this audio, you will hear a discussion of why many entrepreneurs need your expertise to solve their problems. Check out the audio and post your thoughts and questions below.

Wil Hart on November 8, 2012

Social Media – Helpful or Hindering?

Social media as a whole is an excellent tool for networking, brand building and many other facets of growing a successful Virtual Assistance company. But the question is, “Are you allowing social media to help you or hinder your success?”

Valid indeed is that question which may need to be answered on a daily basis. So, lets list a few ways that social media can both help and hinder your business success.

Hinderance:

Unfocused usage of social medial causes you to waste countless hours during the week.
Reading and “Liking” comments and discussions that have no bearing on building your business.
Surfing and “hoping”. Surfing the web and hoping that you will stumble upon a successful idea keeps you from working hard to accomplish your business goals.

Helpful:

Joining and participating in groups that are organized to help you succeed in business.
Posting questions that are related to your business.
Making beneficial connections that are helpful to you or helpful to others that you meet.
Adding value to the lives of people to whom you are connected.
Spend short, focused amounts of time to obtain specific goals.

Likely, you can think of many other ways to use social media to either help or hinder your business success. The key is to acknowledge how you are utilizing this wonderful tool and make sure that it is helpful to you.

I’d love to hear your comments on how your social media usage is affecting your business. Post your thoughts below.

Wil Hart on November 7, 2012

The VA Success Cafe: Episode 1

Henry Ford said, “Whether you think you can or whether you think you can, you are right.” It is imperative for you as a Virtual Assistant to believe that you will succeed in business. There are a few things that you can do to develop the success mindset. In this audio, you will learn what you need to do to avoid feelings of failure and cultivate a healthy, successful mindset.

Wil Hart on November 6, 2012

Successful Thinking for Virtual Assistants

Do you find it hard to believe that you can create or accomplish anything that you want? I used to have that problem. When growing up, I was very shy. My shyness stemmed from feelings of inadequacy. I always thought, “I’m not good enough, smart enough, strong enough, fast enough…” etc.

What needed to change? Just a few things needed to change. The most important was the way that I viewed myself and what was possible in life. The same goes for you if you think that you cannot accomplish whatever you so desire. Therefore, I invite you to ask this very important question, “What is possible?” If you ask that question enough, you will find an endless supply of possibilities in any field of endeavor. My goal is to help you realize the possibilities for your Virtual Assistance business.

Your success starts with the way you think about yourself and what you can accomplish. I have 2 guarantees for you. 1) If you think you cannot succeed, you won’t. 2) If you believe you will be successful, you WILL.

Is it that easy? Think about it, for a moment. When a person says that they cannot do a thing, they immediately cancel out the ability to succeed. However, when an individual believes that he will succeed, he will stop at nothing to fully realize what he is after.

Having a successful mindset requires ongoing maintenance and reassurance. Here are a few thoughts that may be helpful to you in developing and maintaining a successful mindset:

“Success is stumbling from failure to failure without losing enthusiasm.” ~ Winston Churchill

“Whatever the mind can conceive and believe, it can achieve.” ~ Napoleon Hill

“Character cannot be developed in ease and quiet. Only through experience of trial and suffering can the soul be strengthened, ambition inspired, and success achieved.” ~ Helen Keller

“In order to succeed, your desire for success should be greater than your fear of failure.” ~ Bill Cosby

You determine what success means for you. Your thinking will move you towards realizing that success. Will you be a successful Virtual Assistant?

Wil Hart on November 5, 2012

FREE VA Success Strategy Calls

I have something very special and exciting for YOU! One of my favorite past times is to sit in a nice coffee shop, enjoy a nice brew and have good conversation with good friends. So, we have decided to do more of that in a virtual sort-of-way.

Over the past 7 years, Sydni and I have been working with entrepreneurs to help them build lucrative businesses. In the process we have started 4 different companies. One of them being EAtoVA.

You might be asking, “Wil, I thought you said that you had something for me?” And you are correct.

We are taking ALL of the knowledge that we’ve used to build our businesses and share it with you EVERY week. That’s exciting for a few specific reasons:

We will get to know you by talking on the phone regularly.
For 10 minutes I will share with you business-building strategies.
For 20 minutes you will be able to ask questions and we can brainstorm business solutions for you.
NO selling, NO pitches, NO tricks. We are having a friendly conversation and getting to learn more about one another.
These calls will be FREE, forever! Isn’t that cool? I really look forward to getting on the phone with you.

CLICK HERE to accept the invitation

Every Tuesday, we’ll discuss a specific topic. Check out the line up for November:

Nov 06: How to develop a success mindset.
Nov 13: Skill sets prospective clients are looking for.
Nov 20: What technologies are successful VAs using?
Nov 27: Fixing holes in your business foundation.

These are just 4 of the MANY topics that you and I will be discussing. Don’t worry, if you cannot join us live, I will post the recordings here on the blog! We are going to have an awesome time each week!

CLICK HERE to accept the invitation