Blog – Page 9 – Virtual Assistant Success Strategies

Wil Hart on October 28, 2011

How to Position Yourself as a Partner, NOT an Employee

partner vs employee You have decided to start your own business as a Virtual Assistant. Awesome! 🙂 So, you set up shop, started marketing your solutions and enroll your first few clients. Excellent!

As you start working with clients, you may find that some of them think that a Virtual Assistant is tantamount to “employee”. How did they come to feel that way? How do you feel about being an employee even though you are a business owner? What do you need to do in order to correct such thinking?

This thinking promotes dis-ease. If you are uncomfortable because of feeling this way, rest assured that there is a cure. The cure however, must be targeted toward the root cause – YOU! Your clients will view your business the way that you view it. If you have not stepped away from the employee mentality, it will show up in every aspect of your business. And that mindset will permeate your client relationships and thus, how they treat you.

YOU – The Entrepreneur

YOU are a fabulous Assistant! You know it and I know it. When you were in the corporate world, you likely did not receive the full credit that you deserved. The compensation that the company thought suited you well was a pittance to say the least. You added value in the corporate world and you most certainly add value to your clients today.

When you start working with a new client, you should set the tone so that you both are clear on how you will work together. Expectations must be set as defined by you and the boundaries you have established for your company. (Of course, your client will have their own set of expectations. Making sure your work styles and expectations fit is part of the interview process.) There are many aspects to consider but five key areas to outline are :

Your hours of operation
Payment terms
Expected deliverables
How the two of you will communicate
Expected turnaround times

In most situations, if a client relationship begins to crumble it is because there was a lack of clarity, miscommunication or mistake made in one of these areas.

If you set clear boundaries and expectations at the VERY beginning of your client relationships, you will avoid feelings of stress and frustration in your business. Also important to remember is that once clear boundaries are established you MUST honor them. If you don’t, your clients won’t either, which will ultimately undermine your relationship with them.

By implementing the simple tips shared in this article, you will be respected as a business owner and thus acknowledged as a true partner with your clients. “Be” the entrepreneur that you desire. After all, that is why you started your own company.

This is the cure for the dis-ease of being viewed and treated like an employee. You are wonderful. You are strong. You are the entrepreneur with whom others want to partner. Don’t ever let anyone (including yourself!) tell you differently.

Wil Hart on October 14, 2011

Educate Your Way to Success

adult learning At EA to VA, we constantly encourage you as a Virtual Assistant to define what success means to you. When you have a clear vision it is much easier to shoot for the target and hit the bulls-eye.

One thing is for sure when it comes to reaching your definition of success. Education is a key factor that will get you there.

Have you ever heard the phrase, ‘the more you know the more you grow’? How true for a Virtual Assistant who has left her corporate career and has decided to use her knowledge and skill to create her own business.

Always remember that what got you here, won’t get you there. The knowledge that helped you to reach this point in your business will not necessarily take you to the place of success for which you are aiming. What will help you to get there?

New knowledge will certainly bridge the gap between where you are now and the goal that you are seeking to attain. What are the best ways to educate yourself as an entrepreneur? Consider first, what your learning style might be.

How do you best learn, retain and apply information? Your learning style may be one of the following:

Visual – learn from seeing techniques and images
Auditory – learn through listening
Reading/Writing – learn from books
Kinesthetic or tactile – learn by doing

If you understand the best way for you to take in and apply knowledge, you can equip yourself with the right tools that will help you to build your business. For instance, if your learning style is through reading, there are hundreds of books that detail how to be successful as an entrepreneur. With video being so popular these days, you can certainly satisfy your visual and auditory learning styles.

I encourage you to be clear and specific about your business goals. Remember, there are only a few things that you need to bridge the gap between where you stand and where you want to be or what you want to accomplish.

Knowledge is a major factor in that process. Figure out what you need to learn to grow your business. Decide the best method to learn that information so that you can retain what you learn. Do whatever you need to do to invest in yourself and gain access to the training you need. Then apply that newfound knowledge and enjoy the success that you seek!

Wil Hart on October 13, 2011

Getting Clients When Working Full-Time

We received this question on the LinkedIn group recently:

When a VA is working full-time and starting her business at the same time, what is the best way to follow-up and/or get leads (clients)? Also, how do you convince future clients that you can still do the work, just at a different time in the day?

Excellent question and if you are facing a similar challenge, here’s is the first part of my answer: Continue Reading>>

Wil Hart on October 7, 2011

How to NOT Become Obsolete

Your knowledge, skill set and the tools you use can make you a force to be reckoned with OR make you obsolete.

How so?

Because your clients are looking for solutions. They are not looking for a Virtual Assistant. They seek your assistance because they are struggling with a particular problem and no longer want to handle it on their own. By increasing your knowledge, skills and tools to solve their problems, you will stake your claim in your marketplace.

On the other hand a lack of knowledge, skills and tools can make your business OBSOLETE!

Where do you stand? Are you a ‘go-to’ Virtual Assistant? Do clients and other Virtual Assistants look to you when a particular skill is needed? If you learn about the popular technologies and skills that are needed in your marketplace, you can quickly build your business.

Supply and demand is still the order of the day. Are your knowledge, skills and tools needed in your market? If you find that you need to make improvements in this area. Don’t fret about it. Do something about it! 🙂 Start by doing your research to see what your target market is looking for in a Virtual Assistant.

Here are a few skills that many entrepreneurs need help with today:

Client management
Customer service
Shopping cart management
Video editing
Email marketing management
Social media management
Copywriting and proofreading
Product and program launches
… much more!

Your service offerings must meet the needs of your marketplace. Every type of business has to have some market share. Be sure to get your share by enhancing your knowledge, skills and tools.

Protect your business from becoming obsolete by investing in yourself and presenting solutions that your target market is looking for.

Wil Hart on October 6, 2011

CURE FEAR!

Has anyone ever told you, “fear is only in your mind“? That is not true. Especially when you are a Virtual Assistant who is trying to build a successful business but haven’t quite reached your goals.

Fear comes when you are working hard and still thirsting for new clients and income. Fear comes when you are looking at your bills and trying to make your income meet those needs.

Fear is a real feeling. BUT, there is a cure for fear. Sometimes, this feeling is all in the mind, but when it is a reality it needs to be dealt with. For instance, having a fear of flying because you think that the plane will crash is all in your mind. There is more chance of you dying in a car crash than in a plane crash. That is an example of F.E.A.R (False Evidence Appearing Real).

What I’m am talking about is the real fear from real matters that you have experienced before, like NOT having enough income to satisfy creditors and vendors.

The Cure? ACTION!

When you take action, you overcome and annihilate fear.

If however, you prefer to fertilize fear simply procrastinate, hesitate and practice indecision. Your fears as a business owner will grow.

To cure fear do not hide from it. Acknowledge your fear with a laser beam focus and start looking for answer to defeat it. As you learn of possible answers and resolutions, get your feet moving and take massive action. Watch the fear dissipate and retreat into it’s dark room. So, if you are worried about wear your next client will come from, look for the marketing strategies that will get you clients the quickest.

Fear is success enemy number one. Action will dominate fear 100% of the time!

Act now.

Wil Hart on October 4, 2011

Marketing Strategy

Do you have a marketing strategy? How can you systematically market your business so that you never become thirsty for clients. Do you need clients right now? If you are struggling at all to enroll new clients into your business follow the advice in this blog post.

Analyze your previous marketing

Take a look at the marketing strategies that you have implemented in the past. Which of these strategies yielded the most fruitage for your efforts. It is a good thing to look at your past to see what direction you should take in the future. By analyzing what strategies have been a success or a failure will give you a gauge as to how you can move forward. In other words, keep doing what works.

Schedule time for marketing

After deciding which strategies have been successful, you will want to repeat that same process to get even better results. The key, however, is to be consistent with your marketing. Therefore, you will want to look at your calendar for the month of October. Schedule a block of time for each of your marketing strategies.

Think of it this way, the less time you spend with clients the more time you need to spend marketing. So, if there are hours of free time during your week, that needs to be your marketing time.

Take the strategies that you plan to use, put them on your calendar and implement the work that needs to be done. I suggest that you treat your business as your #1 client. Give it the marketing attention that it needs in order for it to thrive.

If you have three strategies that you are going to focus on decide which day of the week you will have time to work on that

Wil Hart on September 30, 2011

Got Gas?

Have you ever taken a road trip? You know that one of the first things to do before you set out is to check the gas gauge. By reading your gas gauge you can determine how far you can go before you will need to fill up.

Managing your Virtual Assistance company is similar to a road trip. It is an enjoyable journey that has beauty, challenges and a destination. In order to stay on that journey, gas or fuel is a very important component. What is the gas that you need for your Virtual company?

Marketing is the key asset that will keep your business moving at a steady clip. Without marketing you may find your gas gauge at the “E” for empty stage. This will leave you broken down on the roadside calling for assistance. Remember this, it is normally more expensive to get a repair done, than it invest in routine maintenance. What can you do to make sure that your marketing gauge never hits “E” and you find yourself scrambling for new clients and new sources of income?

You will want to be consistent with your marketing strategies. Pick two or three strategies that you both enjoy and have found previously successful. Marketing cannot be stressed enough to those who want to have a successful entrepreneurial journey. It is the fuel that keeps the business running from a financial perspective. Here are a few strategies that will ensure that you keep clients lined up a your door:

Networking – There are so many ways to go about networking. The point is to be focused, strategic and consistent. Networking is simply sharing what you know and whom you know. It also involves being a connector of others. Expand your network by helping more people to get what they want.
Speaking – This is a really good way to reach out to many people at the same time. As a Virtual Assistant, you can either host or be a guest on a teleseminar, webinar, or in person speaking engagement.
Referrals – There are two ways that you can make great use of referrals. 1) Give good referrals to other people. Remember to help other people to get what they want. 2) Ask for referrals. When you have a delighted client, always remember to ask her if she knows of anyone else who needs help with solving the same problems that you resolved for her.
Follow Up – Yes! Following up on interest is a form of marketing. Whenever you make initial contact with a prospective client or referral partner, it is your duty to do all that you can to deepen the relationship. If you take personal ownership of the follow up process, you will find growth for both your network and your client base.

You have set out on a beautiful journey as a business owner. Now, take a look at your marketing gauge. Do you have enough gas to keep your business going to reach your definition of success? You already know if you are doing enough marketing or not. Do not allow yourself to get to “E”. That is the point where you will be thirsting for fuel and desperate for assistance. Make sure that you have enough gas to avoid breakdown. You want to have an enjoyable and successful road trip.

Wil Hart on September 25, 2011

Goal Setting

Goals are the vehicle by which we measure the achievements of our lives. At this moment, we live with one of the following feelings:

1. Satisfaction of achievement

2. Lack of fulfillment

Are there more feelings that you have at this time? Of course! But, when you think the life that you desire and the life that you experience, the evidence proves whether or not you have accomplished your goals. Even if you have not set one goal in your life, there is a negative affect that floating along poses on your mind.

Where do you want to be in the important aspects of your business by the end of this year? How will you feel when you accomplish your goals? How will the accomplishment of your goals change your business and your life? To be sure, your goals must be S.M.A.R.T!

Specific – goals that are specific leave not room for ambiguity. You know exactly what will result from reaching this goal.

Measurable- clearly outline the steps that need to be taken. Include start and end dates. Also, include important milestones.

Achieveble – unreachable goals will put you in a state of inertia. You will lack the motivation and desire to accomplish them.

Realistic – means that you can outline the steps with real milestones and see the end in site.

Time sensitive – attach a date to any goal and it automatically fills you with a zest for life and getting things done!

There isn’t much more that needs to be said about goal setting other than this: know what you want, map out the step and get results!

Wil Hart on September 24, 2011

Go Get’em!

Remember this simple yet profound notion: If you are not where you want to be, you have not done what you need to do.

When you entertained the idea of running your own Virtual Assistance company, you likely enjoyed the dream of firing your boss, making your own schedule and getting paid what you actually deserve. You, of course had even grander hopes than the few things mentioned. My question to you is, have you reached your potential. As you reflect on the time that has passed from whence you entertained the thought of creating your own definition of success until TODAY, what type of results have you developed?

If you are not where you want to be, you have not done what you need to do. There are not enough excuses in the world that can negate that fact. Some roadblocks may have come up. But a roadblock does not have to be a deal breaker unless you allow it to crush your dreams. Track back to when you first began to dream big about starting your own successful Virtual Assistance company. If you have already created your business but have not yet reached your definition of success, do not give up.

Figure out the steps that you have not yet taken, and go to work on accomplishing those tasks. Armed with your goals, never stop pursuing them until you have reached them.

GO GET’EM!

Wil Hart on September 23, 2011

Increase Your Effectiveness as a Virtual Assistant

Do you have the tools that you need in order to serve your clients at a high level? Take a look around at your office set up? It does not matter if you work out of your bedroom or in a living room nook. Your technology needs to support your peak performance.

Are you comfortable in your workspace? Is your computer screen large enough? Are you set up for mobilization if you travel often? Technology in this sense does not mean computer hardware and software. In this article, technology will pertain to tools that you need to deliver the solutions your clients are looking for.

Let’s take inventory of your workspace. What do you need in order to be comfortable, equipped and effective as a Virtual Assistant?

Comfort: Do you work from a laptop or a desktop? This will greatly affect your comfort level. If you are looking downward at a laptop screen all day, the strain on your neck, shoulders and back may become unbearable, undermining your efforts to serve your clients and grow your business. What can you do to improve this situation?

Acquire a large monitor to connect to your laptop. This will allow your work to be closer to eye level and relieve the stress that you currently place on your neck and shoulders.

Do you have a chair that properly supports your body while you work at your desk? If you have soreness in your lower back and or hips, it is not likely that you have an appropriate sitting position. An ergonomic chair may be all that you need to solve this problem.

Equipment: It is important for you to use tools that help you in accomplishing your work quickly and efficiently. For instance, do you do a lot of proofreading? Would having two computer monitors help you to get through your reading faster?

How fast is your Internet connection? Is it serving you well? (Please do NOT use Wi-Fi for your business. Your client and business info need to be kept safe at all times!) Do you need an upgrade in order to serve your clients better?

Do you have a business phone number that is separate from the family phone line? You want to show up in a BIG and professional way as a business owner.

Effectiveness: As you take inventory of your virtual tools and your comfort level, does your situation enable you to be the MOST effective business owner that you can be? If you are not proficient in actually working virtually, this needs to be addressed immediately. Consider what specific solutions your prospects and clients are looking for. Then research the tools you need to work with them and serve their needs. Invest in the training you need to become a top-notch Virtual Assistant.

As an entrepreneur, it should be your goal to grow your business. As your business grows, you will need to grow with it. That means upgrading your technology at every opportunity. Doing so will allow you to really make a difference in your client’s lives and create a profitable, successful business for yourself.

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