It’s a tough decision to make … but once you actually do it, it makes a HUGE difference in the growth of your business.  Before you even think of saying “I can work with all kinds of business owners, why would I want to limit myself by selecting a specific market?”, hear me out.

When I started my own VA business in 2003, I didn’t have a target market.  When I heard anything related to the importance of selecting a target market, I turned away and thought “I Do NOT need a target market …. anyone and everyone can benefit from my services.”

It’s true.  Virtually ANY kind of business can benefit by working with a Virtual Assistant.  But what I was missing was this - by not selecting a target market, I was marketing to every business owner.  How do you possibly do that and get someone’s attention? 

Here’s another example I’m hoping you can relate to. 

Scenario #1

A Virtual Assistant who has not selected a target market, attends a Chamber of Commerce networking event.  The VA offers great services and is ready to work with any business owner who is willing to consider her.  She tells people she’s a Virtual Assistant and shares a little about the services she offers. 

In some cases, people have never heard of the term Virtual Assistant and while they may be interested in learning more, they are not captivated by the VA and her services and move along to connect with others at the event. 

Scenario #2

A VA who has identified her target market attends a networking event that she knows her target market will also be attending.  She knows exactly what kind of challenges her target market is faced with and so when she connects with new contacts, she shares what she does — using specific words that relate to the target market and the kind of help they need.  The new contacts are captivated by the VA, want to learn more, are eager to continue the discussion and a new relationship, which may turn into a paying client, is born.

These scenarios are very general, however my goal is to emphasize the difference in response when you have selected and understand a target market. 

Take a look at the article below “Virtual Assistant Tips to Identifying Your Target Market” and take some time to answer the 5 questions included. 

What will you do differently moving forward?  Share with us by commenting below.

Identifying your target market is essential in the success of a Virtual Assistant business. It doesn’t matter if you have a fabulous website, brochure and business card, if you have not identified your target market, all your marketing efforts can be a waste of your time, money and energy.

Selecting a specific target market can be somewhat of a daunting task for those in the Virtual Assistant industry. Quite often one may think that absolutely anyone in business can benefit from the services of a Virtual Assistant – right? Not necessarily.

Many Virtual Assistants (VAs) feel that if they select a specific target market, they are limiting the potential number of clients that come to them for assistance. The reality is that by not targeting and promoting your VA services within a specific market, you are actually limiting yourself and preventing your Virtual Assistant business from growing.

These 5 questions will help you determine your target market for your virtual assistant business.

1. What kind of work do you enjoy? What tasks/projects excite you? If you could create your own job description, what would it include? If you enjoy what you do, then you are more likely to express enthusiasm and demonstrate your best work. This is an important factor – if you don’t enjoy a specific type of work, then stay away from the professionals who may need that kind of support.
2. Who do you enjoy working with? This may an obvious question but it is one few Virtual Assistants consider. Do you prefer to work with men or women? What age group? Do you work best with people that are older or younger than you?
3. What does your ideal client look like? Is your ideal client a well-known professional with a large business, and making seven figures? Do you prefer small or start-up businesses? If you have family, do you want to work with someone who may also have a family and understands the flexibility required in your Virtual Assistant business?
4. What professions interest you and which do not? This is important. Just like question #1 above, it’s important to enjoy and be enthusiastic about the work you do. If you dread a specific profession, then there’s no use in attempting to work with that profession. For example, I personally have no interest in the financial industry so working with a financial planner or accounting business would not be in my best interest or in the best interest of a potential client.
5. What skills/knowledge/expertise do you offer? If you offer great skills, knowledge and expertise in a certain area, consider which professions are in dire need of this kind of support. For example, if you offer expertise and enjoy working with online technology, to support the automation, product delivery and marketing of a business, which type of industry would benefit and be willing to pay for this support? If an industry does not need your expertise or are not willing to pay for it, you may be better off finding another industry that does.

The five questions above may seem obvious, however Virtual Assistants are not taking the time to consider these questions, and many others, to help in selecting a target market.

If you want to build a Virtual Assistant business with great clients, you must select a target market. With a target market selected, you can market and speak directly to those who you want to attract to your business. And then your virtual assistant business will grow like you always imagined it would.

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”

It’s no surprise to hear us say that Virtual Assistants must provide SOLUTIONS to their clients. If you don’t provide your clients with solutions via your support and services, then you’re not doing your ‘job’.

So when I came across Tina’s blog post (yes, I do check out her blog frequently!) and saw the post about “Providing Solutions, Not Just Options”, I thought it would a great one to share.

This post was written for Online Business Managers, however I believe the message in it will demonstrate just one more way of telling our clients “what they don’t know” (if you haven’t heard the story about this phrase, let me know and I’ll share it in a future issue of the V-Scoop.)

Our clients are busy. They know their expertise. In most cases, they know very little about the technology and the steps that WE take to implement and complete a project. The onus is on us, as Virtual Assistants, to provide, research and demonstrate as much as we can, without making them work too hard.

So, check out this post and ask yourself … are you providing solutions? Are you making your client(s) work too hard? Are you demonstrating your expertise, mindset and initiative?

>> Read the blog post “Providing Solutions, Not Just Options”

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”

As you may know, earlier this year we made some changes to our virtual assistant service at MultipleStreamsTeam.com. Since 2005 we had been providing top-notch support services to business owners creating their own multiple streams based business, as based on the model originally taught by Andrea J. Lee in her book Multiple Streams of Coaching Income.

After taking a look at the changes in the marketplace and how we ourselves could do our best work in this industry, this past spring we decided to close the Multiple Streams Team in order to be able to pursue other projects (such as this very ezine!)

But the thing is - after years of talking about the Multiple Streams Team and promoting it via various channels and partners, we still have LOTS of traffic coming to this site - business owners looking for help - and since we are no longer offering these services ourselves all of this traffic is essentially going to waste.

Now you know us… when we see an opportunity like this we have to ask ourselves -

“What can we do here to connect these business owners the help they need?”

The answer was quite simple really…

We’ve decided to revise the MultipleStreamsTeam.com site and are in the process of updating it to become a simple ‘job posting’ system. We are creating a new request for proposal (RFP) system for business owners to post their needs, which we will then be sent out to our list of fabulous VAs who are looking for clients.

Care to join our list and get sent real hiring
opportunities as they arise?

This is a free service for both business owners and virtual assistants - there is no cost to join. We simply want to provide a way to connect you with the business owners that are coming to the site looking for support.

>> Click here to join the VA job notification list… and spread the word to other VAs who may want to join.

Note that as of the time of sending you won’t see these changes reflected yet on the homepage at www.multiplestreamsteam.com. We are working on revising the site and expect to officially ‘go live’ next week… but in the meantime we wanted to give you a sneak peek and the opportunity to get on the VA list early.

Musings from Cindy Greenway

If you’ve been on any teleclasses or training with us, you’ll know that we talk a LOT about Mindset …. Marketing Mindset and Business Mindset. Well today I’d like to share something with you that somewhat empowered me over the last few weeks …. a different kind of mindset.

I’m sharing this with you because I hope it will impact you as positively as it impacted me and it also somewhat relates to this week’s ‘Future of Virtual Assistance’ topic. Remember, I too have my own VA business supporting clients and I love to share the things that I find helpful for me and my business.

Something ‘clicked’ for me this week. I’ve been taking things ‘easy’ over the summer months - working a little here and there - but focusing mostly on having fun in the sun.

Anyways, I listened in on a teleclass recently, hosted by one of my clients,
Katrina Sawa. While listening to the call I found myself super motivated by the discussion, and started writing down all the goals I wanted to accomplish this year and into next year.

I *think* what prompted this for me was the discussion around the qualities that 6, 7, and 8-figure business owners have in common. Here’s what they were:

• Ability to make decisions - swiftly and confidently
• Take big leaps of faith - having faith that everything will fall into place and be ok
• Invest in ourselves - attend training, conferences, networking events
• Believe in ourselves - the belief that everything will work out

This sparked something for me and gave me the kick-in-the-behind I needed! Turn on my ‘thinking big’ mindset and really got me excited.

Do you have these qualities?

Do you believe in your business?

Share with us below …. what are your goals for your business — for the remainder of 2009 and also into 2010?

A Word from our Sponsor

(advertisement)
The costs associated with preparing, editing and distributing the Virtually Successful Scoop ezine are covered 100% by our sponsors.  If you’re curious about becoming a sponsor and reaching 1500+ virtual professionals send an email to sponsor@virtuallysuccessful.com.

Just in Time Learning for VAs - the skills you need when you need them!

• Your client just asked you to help setup a membership site - but you don’t know where to start!
• Your client REALLY wants to do video or possibly a podcast and wants your help.
• You are tired of having to rely on someone else to do simple website updates for your client - and wish you could do it yourself.

Get instant access to these skills (and many more) when you need them with our new self-study training!

Since October 2007, Hot Skills VA Training has offered a variety of training programs designed to help Virtual Assistants get the ‘hot skills’ that we know clients are eager to pay for. Until now all of our programs have been offered ‘live’ - so if you missed the date, you would need to wait for the next program to start!

No need to wait anymore… the following Hot Skills VA Training programs are now available in self-study format!

Self-Study Specialty Skills Training

• Website and Blog Specialist
• Podcasting and Video Specialist
• Membership Specialist

Self-Study Business Building Programs

• 3 Clients in 30 Days Challenge
• Managing Multiple Clients

As soon as you register for any of these programs you will receive instant access to the exclusive member only training area and can dive into your training right away!

Get started now - remember, you have until the end of August to claim your savings.

>> Check it out — www.HotSkillsVATraining.com

We’re having a blast with your comments on all of the “VAs Do It On Their Laptops” items.

We recently heard from Ana Lucia Novak - she purchased a few of the “VAs Do It On Their Laptops” items - namely the clock and journal — and she loved them! So we asked her if she would share a picture with us - we were curious to see how it all looked!

Seeing the big smile on Ana Lucia’s face with these items put a big smile on our faces too! How fun but yet so great for our profession at the same time!

There’s still time for you to get your own items - Check out the full store!

What do you really think of the “VAs Do It On Their Laptops”? Comment below.