Don’t Forget The Little Things

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So the other night I was watching television and I turned to my cable company’s ‘on demand’ channel to watch a movie. I was pleasantly surprised to find that they have made another upgrade to their service (which they do fairly often, actually). They have reinstated a service that they removed with the last upgrade … the timeline of the movie. For several months now we have not been able to see how much time was left in a movie when we rented it. A small thing, but really frustrating. When you are used to something being there and it gets taken away, it can be irritating. So now we have it back! High fives all around in my house.

Little Things

This reminded me of working with my clients, and how it’s important to continue to offer them the little things they grow accustomed to through working with you. It made me think about the little things that I could be doing for them, to let them know that they are still very important to me.

When you start working with a client and your relationship is in the honeymoon phase, you may go that little extra mile and do something special for them – whether it’s providing an extra report or staying five more minutes on the phone with them. As time moves on, and the relationship is not so new, sometimes it’s possible to take them for granted more often, and maybe you let those little extras slip. Maybe you are now only giving those little extras to your new clients.

It’s a great reminder of how nice it feels to get those little things back if they have gone by the wayside. And I plan to implement my own advice too – the little extras are what make me a proactive Virtual Assistant for my clients, and a great mentor for my students.

Think about what you can do for your clients to make them feel just a bit more special – send them a card, schedule a phone call with them as a strategy session, put together a new report for them – there are all kinds of things you can do to make them feel special and to let them know that you value them.

Sometimes the little things can even count more than the big ones! Try it, I guarantee you’ll get a good reaction and you will make your client’s day too!

Are You Working With a Virtual Assistant Yet?

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For many small business owners and solopreneurs, working with a Virtual Assistant (VA) is becoming more common. Do you have a VA yet? If you do, congratulations on making a great business move! If not, what are you waiting for?

When you run your own business, it can be easy to fall into the trap of ‘doing it all’ yourself. But remember that by outsourcing those tasks that you don’t do well, or that you don’t want to do, you will be freeing up your time to do the things that you are an expert at doing.

Actually there are only 2 things you should be doing in your business : you should be working with clients (the thing you are an expert at!), or you should be doing specific marketing tasks to grow or manage your business (meeting and getting to know prospective clients!). All the rest should be outsourced to appropriate people.

In my networking circles, I am always talking about the merits of finding a VA who is a good fit for you … but up until last month I didn’t follow my own advice! I just hired my own VA last month and am already realizing how much more organized I am … how much more time I actually have to ‘be’ in my business.

It is amazing when you get those little things off your plate that you really shouldn’t be doing anyway, how much more organized you can be and how you can actually save money by spending money – by freeing up your time to do client work, networking or marketing.

So if you haven’t started working with a VA yet, what are you waiting for? I can honestly say I wish I did this a long time ago (and you will too!)

3 Easy Ways To Build Your Mailing List

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Building your mailing list is one of the most important things that you need to do in order to have a successful online business.

Your list is the key to selling your services or products, because it is a list of people who has already expressed an interest in what you have to offer.

It is easy to set up a mailing list, but then you have to promote it in order to grow it. It is not enough to just put an opt in box on your website and wait. There are so many ways that you can promote it, but here are three that are sure to get you some success:

1. Provide them with an incentive. If you have an opt in box on your website and you are not getting very many new leads signed up for your newsletter, it’s probably because people (in general) want free stuff in exchange for giving you their email address. If you write a report about something you know about that is interesting or important to them, that is an incentive for them to sign up for your list. At the same time, they are opting in for your newsletter, so once you have them on board, you will be able to market to them. A free offering has to be valuable to them, but it doesn’t have to be so detailed that they don’t need your services anymore. For instance: 3 Easy Ways to Build Your Mailing List could easily be turned into a free report! I could format it nicely, call it a report or an ebook, and then ask people to opt in for it. Be sure to use your social networks to direct people to your free report and you will see your mailing list start to grow.

2. Put your opt in box everywhere! If you only have your opt in box on one page of your website, then you are not giving it enough real estate. Your opt in should be on every page of your site, in a conspicuous spot – like the top right or the top left, so no one can miss it. You never know which page of your website someone is going to land on in a Google search, so it is important to put the opportunity in front of them on all of your pages. You should also have your opt in box on your social network profiles. If you have a profile on Facebook or one of the other countless social networking sites, be sure to add your opt in code to your profile page. You never know where your ideal client is going to find you! By giving your opt in box the real estate it deserves, it will work harder for you every day!

3. Take part in a joint venture. A joint venture (JV) is a project two or more people undertake for the success of their own goals. One JV idea is an Amazon book launch, which uses a marketing strategy to have a lot of people buy a new book from Amazon on the same day, pushing the book up the bestseller list. To do this, people ‘JV’ with as many people as they can, so that the joint venture partners (JVPs) will promote the book launch to their lists and encourage them to buy the book that day. In exchange, the JVPs provide a bonus gift for the launch that anyone who buys the book will receive. This means that by providing a bonus gift, I can potentially grow my list because of the amount of traffic going to the book launch – if they pick up my bonus gift, I now have them on my list (without even looking for them!) It’s a joint venture because everyone benefits: the book launch person gets their bestseller status, the JVPs get more prospects on their lists, and the people who purchase the book get all kinds of amazing bonus gifts without spending an extra dime. It’s win-win-win, and a great strategy to build your list (give away that free product you made in #2 above and get involved in a JV!)

There are many more ways you can build your list quickly, but these three ways are guaranteed winners! See what they can do for you!

Your VA Mentor is Starting!

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Whew. Where have I been the last few weeks? Just when I thought I was getting organized, I went and dreamed up a new idea.

Your VA Mentor is here! I have put together a training and mentor program for new Virtual Assistants, to help them get set up for success.

I am extremely proud of the course materials I have been putting together over the last few weeks (truthfully they have been coming together in bits and pieces over the last several years … it is so great to be able to pull them together and polish them!), and I know that my students are going to get some amazing information in this course – not to mention the bonuses I have planned for them!

You can get more information about the program itself (and me!) at my website: www.yourvamentor.com.

I feel very fortunate to have a very successful VA business, and I am happy that I can share my knowledge of the VA industry with people who are just starting out. I am excited to share my tips and tools and guide them through the process of getting set up in a professional manner so they can sign those clients!

My business has boomed in the last year and I now take new clients only by referral. I have hired team members to help me get it all done. I have developed systems and procedures for everything I do so that I can be sure that my clients are getting the best support they deserve, and so that my team feels confident as they work on new projects.

I am looking forward to sharing my strategies and how I built my business with my Your VA  Mentor students. The first class starts tomorrow night (Wed May 19) and registration is still open until noon tomorrow. You can choose to pay all at once or choose our convenient payment plan. Another session will be scheduled soon, but act fast, because the early bird price will not be available much longer!

(If you are an established VA, ask us about our affiliate program … you can earn great commissions for referring people to us!)

Best Place to Live in Canada

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I came across an article today that made me feel good! It was a study by MoneySense that concluded that Ottawa-Gatineau is the best place to live in Canada.

Ottawa, OntarioSeeing as I live in Osgoode, which is in the greater Ottawa area, I take this as a great compliment! (mind you I’d rather live in Osgoode, in the country than in the city, but I get it!)

Last year apparently we came in second though I could not figure out who was first last year. Apparently we scored 73.5 out of a possible 105 points. That’s pretty cool.

Anyway, I’m very proud to live in Ottawa. The statistics are certainly an interesting read.  Check out your city and see where you placed!

Are You at the Bottom of Your List?

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In a recent conversation with my business coaches, I was talking about the fact that I keep my clients’ needs at the top of my list. I have regular calls and emails with them, I ensure that we have a list of things that we are working on each week, and I let them know what’s going on all the time as we navigate their Internet marketing and social media needs.

This sounds good, but I was, in fact, lamenting that although I do all of these things for my clients, I do not do pay enough attention to them for my own business.  Do you know what they said?

Stop Putting Yourself At The Bottom Of Your List!

They were right. The fact is that I constantly tell my clients how important it is to keep their service offerings current, their clients and their ‘tribe’ informed and in touch, and their networking contacts fresh. I tell them these things because they are TRUE! But I always let this area of my own business lapse. I focus on it for a while and then I get too busy and let it go again. Instead of keeping on top of it, I am always playing catch up.

I have decided that it’s time to take my own advice, and so as you know I am building my very first team of subcontractors, after working alone for about 13 years. I have decided that my business is just as important as my clients’ businesses. We are not apples and oranges (now you get it!). We all deserve the same attention.

The fact is, my client load right now is full. I have a waiting list for work in June and July. So really the attention needs to turn to my own business in order for me to be able to grow, and for me to be able to grow with my clients too!

Look for an exciting announcement from me early next week about a new program I am launching. It’s going to be great, and finally I am looking after my own business the way it deserves! (and thanks to my wonderful team members, it will get the TLC that I show my clients!)

Why Learn Something New?

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Every morning I get a daily inspirational message via email from www.dailyom.com. I try to take a moment each day just to read it and take whatever inspiration I can from it.

This morning’s email reminded me of  my last blog post so I thought I would do a mini blog post just to share it with you because I really love the message it presents.

Try to learn something new this week. This keeps our energy active which affects not only us, but those around us too.

The whole article is called The Mind Follows No Timeline and you can find it here. I hope you enjoy it as much as I did!

Lessons from the Ski Hill

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Over the March Break, we were lucky enough to get together with family at Mont Tremblant in Quebec, which is about 2 hours or so from our house. My son had gone skiing on a couple of school trips this year, and his cousins and uncles were anxious to get him out on a ‘real’ hill before the end of the season, so we popped up Saturday afternoon. 

As I stood at the bottom of the covered gondola watching him go waaayyyyy up to the top of the hill, I was both excited and nervous. The next time I saw him was over an hour later, and he was beaming. I’m happy to report that he had an awesome time. He skied for several hours, and did very well by all reports. He is definitely hooked, and is primed and ready for next season! We are even going to ski with him next year.

So now that the snow is definitely gone here, I have been reflecting on that trip (daydreaming of a longer holiday soon, no doubt!).

I always think that the simple things in life teach us great lessons. The lesson that I am taking from that ski trip is definitely simple:

  • Learn something new (a new skill or service)
  • Practice it often to perfect your technique
  • Start slowly but don’t be afraid to push yourself
  • If you LOVE it, be sure to find opportunities to keep doing it

And if you stop loving it and it stops challenging you for some reason, then it’s time to learn something new.

That’s not to say that you should move along everytime something gets boring, but it’s important to keep challenging yourself to keep your work interesting. One of my favourite quotes (I have it hanging in my office) is from Aristotle, “Pleasure in the job puts perfection in the work.”

If you love what you do, then you will love to go to work everyday. So if there is a task you don’t love to do anymore, outsource it! If there is a client who doesn’t fit with your vision anymore, refer them to someone new. If there is a procedure that you are using that isn’t working like it used to, explore new options.

The idea is to keep things fresh – spring is a great time to take a look at various parts of your business and make changes where necessary!

Transition Stages: Hiring a Team

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So here I am, still transitioning my business to the beautiful vision that it is inside my head! I am making space in my day, making space in my business, for new clients and more business from existing clients.

There is much to do, and as long as I am breaking it down into manageable chunks, it is really not a difficult process. Each day I have put aside time to do ‘something’ for my business that will help me learn and grow. Last week I submitted an RFP to VAClassroom to get some new people on my team (how Tim Ferriss of me, huh?).

Teamwork

I have a few people that already help me out with overflow and special types of work that I do not do (read: graphics and design!) but now I am expanding to have more VAs work with me on a regular basis to take care of the growing list of tasks that my clients need.

I constantly tell my clients that it’s important to build a support team around them so that they can focus mainly on their clients and what they LOVE to do in their business. So the more I can take off their plates, the more time they will have to concentrate on just what they want to do.

By putting a team in place that can handle a larger workload, that means that I can spend more time planning for my clients, and we can get our initiatives in social media or just marketing working harder for them.

I am looking forward to this new transition in my business, too. I look forward to being more productive, and learning as much from my team members as I hope they learn from me!

Transition Stages: Clearing Clutter

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I spent most of last weekend cleaning my office and my filing system and my computer of unnecessary files and emails and programs that I rarely used. It’s nice to be able to sit down and get that done  but it sure takes a long time!

I use Laurie Bornstein’s philosophy about clearing clutter when I need to get things like this done:

  1. Start small – tackle one small thing at a time and you will get more done in a shorter period of time.
  2. Clear out one full item (whether that is a desk drawer, shelf, email folder, computer folder, etc.) and then only put back the things you need. Decide where the other items belong and get rid of what is unnecessary.
  3. Move on to the next item and repeat the procedure!

It’s really simple and it really does work. It breaks the task down into manageable chunks and it helps you to keep focused on the task at hand. I cleaned up one whole computer and moved a number of items from a second computer to my laptop.

When you work from home it can very easy to get distracted by things that are not work-related, or are non-billable time. I have mentioned in my previous posts that I am getting back to my perpetual learning mode, and it can be a distraction to have course material on my work computer, so I moved it so I can’t access it during business hours.

Little things like this can really go a long way to helping you focus on the task at hand when you are working virtually.

Take the time to clear the clutter out of your way, and be prepared to be more productive!