Tina Forsyth and I have had the priveledge of speaking to hundreds of business owners over the last several years. These discussions have lead to critical points of informaton we’ve shared with virtual support professionals to help them provide exactly the kind of support business owners are really looking for from them.  

One of the most critical components of an online based business is ECOMMERCE and it’s one of the areas that many business owners have shared concern about.   It’s absolutely essential that Virtual Assistants who work with online businesses fully understand and can implement various strategies and technology to support the ecommerce side of the business.

Unfortunately there are several key areas in the ecommerce area that are being done incorrectly and serious mistakes are being made. As a result, business owners are missing out on potential revenue, clients and overall business growth. 

How do you avoid this?  How do you know if you’re making these mistakes?

Join us on Tuesday, March 2nd at 12pm Pacific (3pm Eastern) for a FREE call and learn whether you’re making the top “7 Mistakes Virtual Assistants Make In Ecommerce”.   We’re going to share what business owners are telling us, as well as other mistakes we see are being made over and over again.

The time or date not work for you?  No problem, register anyways as we’ll be sending the mp3recording link out after the live call. 

Topic:  7 Mistakes Virtual Assistant Make in Ecommerce
Date:  Tuesday, March 2nd, 2010
Time:  12pm Pacific / 3pm Eastern

Register below to save your spot!

As you know, one of our favourite things to do is hop on a call with all of you and share/discuss all the great things about working virtually.   In turn, we hope a few things will impact you significantly enough to where you’ll implement and make positive changes for you and your business.

So for January, we’re hosting not one, but TWO fr’ee calls that I’m pretty sure you’ll be interested in:

It’s not enough to dabble in a few pieces here and there that you get from the experts out there … generating publicity requires a strategy and realistically, a VA who has received the right kind of training, CAN help their client implement the pieces to create a great plan and therefore  generate publicity.

Now, none of us at VirtuallySuccessful.com are publicity specialists, and so we’ve asked Diana Ennen, Publicity Expert, to join us for a f’ree call on Tuesday, January 19th  at 1pm Eastern / 10am Pacific to share the 7 Mistakes Virtual Assistants are Making when it comes to building publicity.  This information is relevant to your own business as well as your clients so please do make a point to attend. 

To make this even more fun, we encourage you to share your own questions or strategies you have used to support your clients in generating publicity. 

Register for your spot in the form below and please do post your comments in the section at the bottom of the page.

Call #2 - Future of Virtual Assistance Call
What Every Online Business Manager Needs to Know This Year - Top Trends for 2010
Wednesday, January 20th at 3pm Eastern / 12pm Pacific  

The role of Online Business Manager (OBM) is a natural one for many Virtual Assistants and so  that’s why we decided to focus January’s Future of Virtual Assistance call on the top 2010 trends for OBMs.

On Wednesday, January 20th, yours truly, Tina Forsyth, founder of OnlineBusinessManager.com will lead this discussion on:

• How the economy is affecting our clients and what to watch out for

• The best clients who really need your help (and there will be more of them in 2010)

• What is really important to clients right now, and what will make you stand out from the crowd

and much, much more.

>>Sign Up For Your Spot

Do you wish you knew more about how to generate publicity — both for yourself and your clients.

Have you dabbled in it here and there — submitting the odd article or press release, with no serious strategy or model?

Publicity is a critical piece to building a business, yet it’s something that often does not receive the quality attention it needs.  Why?  Because we simply don’t know enough about how to do it properly.  We may hear about a few “must do” strategies from an online expert and we take a stab at implementing the strategy … but really we don’t know what we’re doing. 

Sadly most business owners will seek out the expertise of an expensive Public Relations firm to help them …. only to spend thousands of dollars with little return.

Virtual Assistants CAN help online based business owners build publicity …. IF they know their stuff and know it well.  It’s not enough to just submit articles once in a while. That’s one mistake …

To support both Virtual Assistants and their clients, the team at VirtuallySuccessful.com has invited Publicity Specialist Diana Ennen to join us for a FREE call to share the “Top 7 Publicity Mistakes Virtual Assistants Make“. 

Here are the details:

Date:  Tuesday, January 19th, 2010
Time:  1pm Eastern / 10am Pacific
Duration:  60 minutes

Sign up below to reserve your spot.  We look forward to having you join us!

Just in case you haven’t realized it yet
… we at VirtuallySuccessful.com want you to have a fantastic 2010.

We invited virtual
professionals to join us for a f’ree teleclass on Tuesday, December 15th at noon Pacific / 3pm Eastern as we discussed how to “Get Ready for 2010″.

If you want to:

• find more (or better) clients

• make more money

• create more time to spend on other ‘non-work’ activities

• build your skills and expertise

then you will want to listen to this call.

We’ve seen this over and over and we’ve even done it ourselves (well, Cindy anyhow!), - maybe you can relate …

You get excited about the new year … you write down several goals you want to accomplish … and you’re on track for about the first 6 to 8 weeks and then .. POOOF! 

Before you know it, everything is back to where it was  - you’re busier than ever but not fulfilling what you set out to do for the year.  It’s disappointing.

So let’s make a change for this year. 

Listen to the call below — we’ll help you get going on the right foot … and stay there!

You hear us talk about it all the time … ‘taking inventory’ of your clients so you can better understand their goals and priorities. 

Well this time we want you to take your own inventory.

Every December and January, many of us make a note of goals we want to accomplish for ourselves and our business. Yet, we don’t always consider our current commitments and surroundings and what might need to change in order for us to accomplish these new goals and priorities.

Then before you know it … we continue working away, we get busy, maybe even a little overwhelmed and nothing changes.

It’s time to break the cycle and we’d like to help.

The ‘Taking Inventory’ document has been developed to assist you with:

• identifying your current business commitments  -  the number of clients you have, the number of hours you are committed to etc.
• confirming the amount of revenue you are generating each month versus the number of hours you are working
• uncovering what you really want to accomplish
• recognizing what needs to change in order for you to make the amount of money you want, work with the clients (and number of clients) you want, have the time ‘off’ that you want and still accomplish the goals that are important to you

One of the goals here at VirtuallySuccessful.com is to empower virtual professionals to step up and create the business THEY want … not just support
their clients in building the business they want.

Take a few minutes now to download the Taking Inventory document below and schedule some time in your schedule to take your own inventory.

>>> Download the “Taking Inventory” document

We can’t emphasize it enough … selecting a target market  and fully understanding that target market is ESSENTIAL when it comes to finding great new clients.

In order to really connect with a potential client and have an interactive discussion that captures their attention and makes them think “I DO need this person to help me build my business”, you must understand them and make them feel that you understand them.

How do you do this?  What should you know?

It sounds relatively simple really, but when it comes down to it, ‘knowing’ your client can seem rather daunting, especially when you first start out.   However, it really is quite simple.

To support you in getting underway, we’ve created a simple checklist that you can use to fully educate yourself on your market.  Imagine the connection they will feel when you show them that you’ve taken the time to research and get to know them better so you can best support them! 

Do you know everything you should know about your target market? 

>>> Download the “10 Things You Must Know About Your Target Market”

Let’s cut to the chase on this topic. Most of us know that responding to RFPs (Request for Proposals) via various industry networks can be a great way to connect with clients. But it can be a bit intimidating… common concerns include:

• how much information should I include?
• how long should my response be?
• should I tell them my rate?
• should I include my resume?
• do I tell them about my experience before I became a VA?

Think about this way… your response to a RFP is your first (and potentially only) opportunity to leave a lasting impression. So what do you want the business owner to remember about you? What do you want them to think as they read your response? What can you say that will make them want to talk with you … versus deleting your email?

We’ve been on the ‘client side’ of an RFP several times. As business owners ourselves and on behalf of clients we’ve sent RPFs that include specific expertise needed, questions we would like answered and general details about the opportunity.

Some of the responses are great, but sad to say that most responses aren’t very good.
This leaves us shaking our heads because (1) we know the VA is capable of much more than what they provided in their response and (2) the response did not represent the expertise of the Virtual Assistant industry as a whole.

We have also spoken with other business owners about the kind of response they have received from their RFP. In almost every situation, there are just a few responses that stand out… the others shouldn’t have bothered to responded.

We’re working on a full guide for responding to RFPs but in the meantime … here’s a quick list of the top 10
essentials you need to remember when responding to a RFP.

>>> Download the “Top 10 Essentials to Remember When Responding to a RFP”

“How Do I Find Clients” is the #1 question we receive from virtual assistants.
In fact, it’s the whole reason why Cindy wrote her book “Virtually Successful: 8 Simple Ways to Find (and Keep) Clients.”

Are you talking to potential new clients but still not getting hired? There is nothing more frustrating than connecting with a client that you KNOW needs help… and yet they still don’t take the step to actually hire you.

There are numerous reasons why you may or may not be getting hired by these business owners. Some reasons are directly related to the client’s readiness and some reasons are related to the way a VA has (or has not) demonstrated to the client that they really are the perfect person to work with.

It’s so critical that we do everything we can to fully educate ourselves about our potential client and also demonstrate our professionalism to our
potential clients. It’s about Business Mindset …. you must prove to them that you are a professional business owner who understands their business, their needs and how you can help them reach their goals.

We’ve put together a checklist for you, adapted from Cindy’s book … use it to make sure you’re doing everything in your power to eliminate obstacles that may stand in the way of you working with great clients.

>>> Download the “Top 10 Reasons You’re Not Getting Hired”

Communication …. the KEY To a Successful Virtual Relationship

We all know it - even subconsciously. Communication is the key to any relationship - virtual or not.

Ironically … although we know the importance of communication, it’s one of the main reasons behind a VA/Client break-up.

Why?

Because we often avoid discussing topics that we believe to be unimportant or slightly uncomfortable to discuss. Instead we literally wave our hand and say "it will all work out."

When it comes to a Client/VA relationship - it’s really up to us Virtual Assistants to ensure great communication with our clients.

This goes beyond a phone discussion every once in a while or emails back and forth throughout the week or instant messages throughout the day. These forms of communication are great and convenient but when it comes to creating, building and solidifying relationships with our clients, we need more than the casual connection.

Perhaps you can relate to these scenarios:

• you receive an email from your client asking you to complete a task immediately ….. you were out of the office for a few hours and it’s now ‘too’ late
• your client has expectations that are well beyond what was originally discussed….. you sense and feel frustration from the exchange of emails and feel irrate, annoyed and uneasy about the issue. How do you deal with it now?
• your client is busy and possibly difficult to connect with… in an attempt to ‘not bother them’ you don’t connect at all or perhaps send the odd email to check in yet they seems annoyed or frustrated with you

Any of these ring a bell?

One of the practices that we all (Andrea, Tina and Cindy) firmly believe in is connecting with clients every week - even for just 20 minutes at a time. The voice-to-voice connection has proved to be invaluable. By coming prepared to the meeting, ready to discuss upcoming deadlines, priorities and goals, the time is well-spent and more efficient than sending countless emails (which may be intrepreted differently) on the same topics.

After seeing the struggles that VAs and clients have faced due to ‘bad’ communication, we came up with a checklist on "How to Communicate With Your Client". This was first written a couple of years ago and recently updated to include even more information. Let us know if you have anything we can add!

Use this tool to help you effectively communicate with your prospective and current clients. Will you make any changes on how connect? Enjoy! Click here for PDF.

Think back to growing your own business … ever wish there was a tool or resource created to help you? Let us know … we’ll be happy to create something to help all Virtual Assistants. Just hit reply to put in your request.

© 2009 Virtually Successful.com. Reproduction permitted with full attribution.

The number one question we receive from Virtual Assistants is "How do I find clients?" and we’re actually tackling that challenge head on in our "3 Clients in 30 Days" Program right now! Finding clients is one part of the puzzle when it comes to building your VA business…. yet it is just as important to make sure that potential clients fit the description of your Ideal Client.

How would you describe your ideal client? Can you tell within the first 10-15 minutes of meeting with a potential client (either by phone or in person) whether they fit the description of your ideal client?

After talking to literally hundreds of business owners looking for a VA, we’ve come up with a set of criteria that allows us to know - within a quick 10-15 minute chat - whether a business owner fits the description of our ideal target market.

So to help you out - we’ve created - tada! The Ideal Client Comparison Chart for you. With the number of potential new clients out there you really should not be working with anyone other than those that you really want to work with!

The point of this chart is to help you quickly identify who is ready to work with you, who is a great match for you and those who aren’t (you know, the ones that give you that ‘pit in your stomach’ feeling.)

Use this tool to help build relationships with the RIGHT kind of clients for you. Enjoy! Click here for PDF.

Got a burning need or desire for a tool you’d like to see created, for the benefit of the Virtual Assistant industry and yourself? Just hit reply to put in your request.

© 2009 Virtually Successful.com. Adapted from the book "Virtually Successful: 8 Simple Ways to Find (and Keep) Clients" by Cindy Greenway. Reproduction permitted with full attribution.