Holy Smokes …. 2010 is flying by!  Can you believe we’re already into March?

My objective this year is to become much more comfortable with creating videos to use in my business. So here’s my official welcome message video for this edition of the V-Scoop.

It’s been a crazy few months!  Just last month Tina Forsyth ran her Online Business Manager training program — a comprehensive 3 days that included a TON of  information as well as appearances by Andrea Lee.   I think there was Twitter overload as many participants continuously tweeted what they were learning and words of wisdom that hit close to home for them.  I made note of so many quotes myself ….here’s just a few:

“The thing that drives you the most crazy about your clients is the thing they need you for the most.”

“The OBM is the coach for the business, not the coach for the business owner.”

“You don’t need to know everything but you need to know where to find the answers!“

ahhh … so well said!

I’m super excited for this issue of the V-Scoop … want to know why?

Because we’re re-launching an updated version of the “101 Ways to Boost Business With a VA” document to the “200+ Ways to Boost Business With a Virtual Assistant“. Click through to get your hands on it.

Have you heard about everything that’s coming up for us here at VirtuallySuccessful?  There’s always something going on … we can’t stop!   Hopefully you received our “keep the date” email last week … if you haven’t already, you really do want to keep the dates of April 12 to 16th in your calendar for the “Virtually Successful Telesummit“  More information to come soon!

Also, the Ecommerce Specialist Training Program will be starting on Monday, March 23rd.  This is our ‘flagship’ program at HotSkillsVATraining.com and really is imperative for all VAs who want to work with any business owner – whether ones that do business online, or the traditional businesses that will be forced to start to build online in the near future.  Check out the details
website for details.

Next week we’re all going to be gathering in Vancouver at Andrea Lee’s Event - The Wealthy Thought Leader. I know the information that will be shared is going to be exquisite … combined with meeting people face-to-face that I’ve been only talking to via phone for years is even more awesome.   Interested in joining us?

Enjoy!

– Cindy, Tina and Andrea

Got something you want to share or request for future issues? Let us know… email
us at news@virtuallysuccessful.com.

As you may already know, the HotSkillsVATraining.com “Ecommerce Specialty” training program is coming up soon.  Starting on Monday, March 23rd, we’ll be connecting with a select group of Virtual Assistants who have invested in themselves to learn and become experts in the area of ecommerce.

I’ve been thinking a lot about ecommerce lately and how it affects both the VA community as well as the business community.

Here’s the reality:

Online based businesses can’t not thrive (or survive) without ecommerce.

And traditional businesses that will be moving to the online world in the future, will require ecommerce.

So … as a Virtual Assistant … you’re kidding yourself if you don’t think you need to know about ecommerce. 

There’s still room to join us for this training.  Over the course of 12 sessions (over 6 weeks), you’ll learn everything you need to educate, implement and manage the ecommerce side of a client’s business.

Will you join us?

>>YES I want to learn more about the ‘Ecommerce Specialty” Training Program!

It was a couple of years ago that Tina and Andrea emailed me saying “Cindy, we need something from you that business owners can use to help identify how they can build their business with the help of a Virtual Assistant.  And by the way … we need it tomorrow because we’re leaving for the live conference in the evening.”

Anyone that knows me even just a little bit knows that I work best (unfortunately) under a little bit of pressure.

Off I went … within 3 hours, I had a list of just over 100 ways business owners could boost business with a Virtual Assistant.

The report was a huge success … both business owners and Virtual Assistants requested to use it in their own work.

Well guess what … it’s been updated and now includes 200+ ways that Virtual Assistants can help business owners.  Remember, business owners, really can’t make it all happen and achieve success without all of us and our expertise!

Curious what’s in there?  Take a second to fill out the form below and download it immediately.

Now there’s a cautionary note I’d like to add.  While these are all ways Virtual Assistants CAN help clients, in no way is it to set the expectation that as a Virtual Assistant you need to know how to do ALL these things.  Don’t let yourself get overwhelmed with feeling you need to do it all.

While I love to share this with you … there are two things I’d like to have you share with me in the comments section of this blog post:

1. Your feedback on the updated report “200+ Ways to Boost Business With a Virtual Assistant” and
2. Your thoughts on additional tasks that can be added to this document. 

Can we get it to 500+ ways or even 1000+ ways?  I’d love and could use your help.  I’ll take care of updating the document, if you provide me with your insight.

Just post your comments/additions at the bottom of this blog post … can’t wait to hear from you!

>>> Download the newly revised “200+ Ways to Boost Business With a Virtual Assistant” by completing the form below:

It’s coming … and it’s going to be GREAT!  The Virtually Successful Telesummit is about a month away and we couldn’t be more excited about it!  We have a fantastic line up and can’t
wait to share more. 

Be sure to save the dates April 12 to April 16th in your calendar … you’ll be sorry if you don’t!

Stay tuned for more information coming up soon.

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

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.

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”

“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”

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?