If I were to start my Virtual Assistant business all over again, there’s one BIG thing I would do differently.

I share the mistake, why it was so important and how my business changed when I corrected this mistake.

Selecting a target market and how to find out EVERYTHING you need to know about a target market will be covered in great detail in the upcoming ‘How Do I Find Clients‘ Clinic on Thursday, January 19th.

Check out the details >> www.VirtualAssistantClinic.com.

Avoid the mistake that’s costing you all kinds of great clients!

Can you relate? Please share your thoughts, feedback and comments below.

It's no secret ... you've heard me say it and you've heard business owners say it too:

Business owners want to make money while they sleep.

True Story:
I remember a client calling me one morning.  She was literally shouting with excitement when I picked up the phone.

I had recently helped her implement all kinds of technology; one being a shopping cart system so she could sell her coaching programs and two products.

I looked after everything for her - connecting the technology to her website, ensuring a secure and professional environment for her customers to go to from her website to entering their credit card details, to getting additional details via a branded webpage and finally an email with even more valuable information.

This client was beyond excited because she turned on her computer in the morning and saw an order had come in overnight.  She was so appreciative of everything I had done. I felt pretty darn good about the value I had provided her.

If you, as a virtual support professional, don't know how to provide this kind of value, you need to consider the eCommerce Specialist Training program.  Check it out -- http://www.HotSkillsVATraining.com/ecommerce

Learn more about the "Magic Behind the Buy Now Button" in the video below:

If I could help you with ANYTHING ... what would it be?

Please include your comments below.  I can't wait to hear from you.

Thank you!
Cindy

Virtual Assistants ... are you frustrated with the results you're getting from your marketing efforts?

I've put together a video series on the top 7 Marketing Mistakes in the Virtual Assistant industry.  I'll talk about the mistake and give you a few tips around how to avoid this mistake in your business (each video will be only approximately4 minutes).

Interested in being notified when the videos are ready?

The series launched Wednesday, July 27.  Sign up below  to immediately watch the first video in the series, "Changing Your Perspective" and to be notified when each additional video is ready.

This is one of my most favorite things to talk about …. I can go on and on and on on this topic!

Marketing Mindset …. What is this??

Marketing Mindset is defined as the ability to look ahead and understand a task so you can apply the appropriate technology or initiative, ask the appropriate questions, tell your client how you can help and take care of the rest. This is probably the #1 quality business owners look for in a Virtual Assistant.

“I want a Virtual Assistant who will understand my business, think ahead of me and who applies their initiative to take care of things so I don’t have to.”   This is one of the most common request we have heard from business owners.

Applying the Marketing Mindset is what has built my business. I had no idea what it was … I couldn’t figure out why my client’s kept telling me I was different …… I honestly thought EVERYONE was doing exactly the same as I.

But they were not!

Now there are some things that YOU must do in order to appropriately apply your Marketing Mindset. You need to take inventory – that’s what we’re going to talk about tomorrow. But essentially if you listen and gather details, you can turn around, apply your mindsets, understand the various pieces to a task and tell your client how you can support them and what pieces you need them to do themselves.

Consider these two scenarios:

(1) You’re working with a client. They tell you they want to finish an ebook and start selling it on their website within the next month. You say “Great!”, make a note of it in your own notes and promise to check in a few weeks to see how close they are to completion.

(2) You’re working with a client. They tell you they want to finish an ebook and start selling it on their website within the next month. You say “Great!” … do you have a shopping cart in place at this time or a Merchant account? You know that in order for your client to sell items on their website, they do need to have some form or accepting payment … perhaps they’ll use PayPal. You ask questions in order to determine what exactly you need to think about in order to help them achieve their goal of selling this ebook. You create a plan to keep them accountable and finish the ebook on time. You ask questions such as:

- Is someone assisting you already with the graphic designed of the ebook cover?

- Do you have someone in place to review/proofread and format the ebook? (many VAs can offer this service)

- Do you have a payment processing service in place?

- We should consider using autoresponders – here’s why (list reasons).

- I’ll check in with you every 4-5 days to see how you’re doing on getting the ebook done sound good? Or I’ll book time out of your schedule so you can work on your ebook and get it done.

- Let’s talk about how we’re going to promote the ebook …..

So you can see what I mean about applying Marketing Mindset in example #2. You ask questions, think about what you can do, confirm what they have in place and then you’re going to TELL them what needs to be put in to place.

Do you apply your Marketing Mindset?

Think about how you can apply your Marketing Mindset with your current clients and any potential ones.

It's been about 18 months since we last touched this topic ... based on conversations lately, I thought it would be a great time to revisit this.

This checklist is designed to help potential small business clients see the benefit of working with a virtual team. The point is to make you, the virtual support professional, look great, save you time and more effortlessly attract the right clients to you.  It's a took that you can print and use cleanly with your clients (pdf format is available at the link below).

May I suggest that you answer these questions as the business owner of your own business.  Maybe it's time you hired your own help?

Instructions:  Circle the number of statements that are true.  If more than 5 statements are true, working with a virtual assistant specializing in small business may be the perfect solution.

1. I am working long hours each day and still can't get caught up.

2. I'm working mostly in my business instead of on my business.

3. If I wasn't here, the place would fall apart within a month.

4. I want to delegate more so I have more time to pursue new revenue streams.

5. I'm doing tasks that I do not like or am not very good at.

6. Sometimes I wonder if I'm spending too much mo'ney doing everything myself

7. Our customers aren't getting quality service and we're losing money as a re'sult.

8. I have family members helping in my business and they are unhappy about it.

9. I want to take more time off with family without guilt or str'ess.

10. Unnecessary chaos in the company makes it hard to build a team.

11. I have ideas for growing the business but I just don't have time to pursue them.

12. Paperwork and organization often fall behind and costs m'oney in penalties or fees.

13. The joy of owning a business is eclipsed by the stre;ss of running it.

14. I can't turn my business brain off and my sleep and health are suffering as a re'sult

15. Profitability isn't where it could be.

16. I miss or drop opportunities to partner with others to expand the business.

17. The technology that could streamline my business overwhelms me so I tend to ignore it.

18. The business lags behind in online marketing which I'm sure means lost business.

19. The technology that could streamline my business overwhelms me so I tend to ignore it.

20. The business lags behind in online marketing which I'm sure means lost business.

21. I'm uncertain where my expenses are and if they can be streamlined to sa-ve money.

22. I find myself missing or being late for appointments more than once a week.

© 2009 VirtuallySuccessful.com inspired by and based on the Entrepreneurs Reality Check by the School of Small Business Coaching at Coachville.com  Reproduction permitted with full attribution.

Tell us below how you've helped your clients with claiming back their Sanity!

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:

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!

It's been so inspiring to see various people proclaim the goals, inspirations and excitement for this new year.  I personally (Cindy talking here) think it's going to be a fantastic business year and I'm looking forward to great things that are in the works.

What do you have planned for 2010?  If you publically declare your goals, you are more likely to achieve them.  We would love to hear from you ... please use the comment box below to share anything and everything that you truly want to make happen this year.

Here at VirtuallySuccessful.com our goal is to provide you with cutting edge ideas, tools and programs to you create the business you really want in 2010.  Remember to let us know if there is anything we can help you with.

"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"