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If you’re a business owner I’m sure that you’re busy running your business. It takes a lot to operate a successful business. There’s the day-to-day client work, tons of e-mails to read, phone calls to make and return, marketing, and the list goes on. You have to really manage your time in order to get everything accomplished. With all of this going on it can be easy to not know what’s going on around you in your industry and the business world. However, it’s very important to keep abreast of the happenings within your industry. Many things can change that can affect your business. You may find yourself behind the times in your fees and the marketing tactics that are currently being used. All of these things can harm the growth of your business. Even though you are busy, you should find some time to stay on top of what’s going on. Below are some ways that you can stay in the game:

• Join industry associations and participate in their online message boards and follow them on Twitter.
• Invest in courses and workshops related to your industry
• Attend business conferences
• Find the top people in your industry and become friends with them on Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter
• Read books on marketing, sales, business growth, and any titles related to your industry, etc.
• Find blogs with topics that related to your industry and small business Continue Reading »

A service professional’s main goal should be to anticipate a client’s needs and to provide the very best service possible. Below are several examples of how you can go the extra mile and provide excellent service.

Scenario 1
If you have an important message to relay to a client, give them a call. Don’t send an e-mail. The client may not have their e-mail account open and therefore, may not see your message until it’s too late. Messages of urgency should be delivered via phone if possible.

Scenario 2
If a client asks you to do something for them, take every measure to complete the request. For example, if he or she asks you to change an airline seat and you go online and see that there are no seats available or that you can’t make changes to a seat until check in, don’t stop there. You should also try and call the airline to try and make the change.

Scenario 3
A client asks you to make a reservation at a particular restaurant for a certain number of people for a specific time. You contact the restaurant only to find out that they can’t accommodate that many people and don’t have the time available that the client wants. The simple thing to do is to let the client know this, but you can also do some research for similar restaurants and check with them to see if they can handle the client’s request. You may just find a restaurant that can handle the client’s requests and the client will love you for taking the initiative to find another restaurant. Continue Reading »

I’ve been told that I have high standards when it comes to the service that I provide and that no service provider that works with me can meet those standards. I thought this quite odd to hear. After all, I do operate a service based business. In my opinion, my clients deserve to get the best possible service. I don’t believe in doing things half-heartedly, but that they should be done correctly. Don’t get me wrong, I know that people are human and mistakes are bound to happen, but I also believe that you should put measures in place to prevent them at all costs.

Below are some measures that you can put in place to ensure that you provide the best quality service that you can to your clients:

• Respond to e-mails. It’s imperative to respond to e-mails in a timely fashion. Be sure and respond to e-mails from your clients to let them know that you received their e-mail and that you will begin working on the task.
• Let your client know when to expect the completion of their project. Make sure that you communicate to the client the time frame in which you will complete their assigned task, and most importantly, meet that deadline. Continue Reading »

As a small business owner, I’m sure that you’ve struggled with not having enough hours in the day. In the beginning of your business, you probably had plenty of time to get everything done because most of your time was more than likely allocated to marketing. As your marketing efforts began to pay off and clients were rolling in, I’m sure that your days began to become shorter in terms of time. Any successful growing business has gone through this. What usually happens is, as your business grows and your client base grows, you find yourself only able to service your clients throughout each day. The things that you could once get done, such as your marketing, bookkeeping, and general administrative tasks, all fall by the wayside. This is not healthy for your business. It can continue on like this, but only for a while before it really begins to take its toll on your overall business growth. The solution to this problem, yep, you guessed it, delegation.

I know that it’s hard to trust and let go. After all, your business is your baby. You’ve nourished it from its infancy to what it is today. You know all about it, every little detail. How could you possibly trust it in the hands of someone else, right? This is all fine and dandy if you’re okay with continuing to run your business all by yourself. However, if you’re tired of working very long hours and would like to grow your business revenues, my suggestion is to learn to delegate. Continue Reading »

When you initially began your business you probably didn’t have clients. You spent most of your time marketing your business in order to find new clients. It may have taken some time, but slowly but surely your marketing efforts began to pay off, and as a result you began to pick up a client here and there.

I can identify with the above scenario in the beginning stage of my business. I started my day at 8 a.m. and usually went until 5 p.m., working on my newsletter, my advertising, responding to RFPs, etc. I truly enjoyed doing these things, so I didn’t mind spending my day doing them. After a few months, I finally landed a client, and then another, and then another, until one day I realized that I had more business than I could actually handle. I’d heard of people saying that they had more business than they could handle, and I’d think to myself, “Wow, I can’t imagine being in that situation, but it would be awesome.” Well, there I was, in that situation, but it wasn’t fun. Continue Reading »

As virtual assistants, we have to continuously keep abreast of the latest tools and technology. Back when I started in 2001, you could do well just providing general administrative services, and to be honest there just weren’t that many cool tools to utilize like there are today. Don’t get me wrong, you still need to have great administrative skills and there are clients out there who only need this type of support. My largest clients are what I call, “general admin clients.” However, I encounter aspiring virtual assistants who want to become a VA, but don’t have any experience with Internet technologies. In my opinion, I strongly believe that in order to compete in today’s virtual assistant industry you need to obtain training and become skilled in the various Internet technologies. 

The technology tools that I’m speaking of are widely used in many online businesses today. Clients utilize these tools to market their businesses on a daily basis. Most of these tools require some sort of daily maintenance and clients are more than willing to delegate these day-to-day tasks to a savvy VA. 

I listened to a recorded call that had a panel of several business owners who had all worked with a Virtual Assistant. The one thing that they all shared in common when asked what they were seeking in a good VA was that he/she have a strong technical background. 

If you’re thinking of become a Virtual Assistant, below are some online tools that you should have some experience with or obtain knowledge in: 

1ShoppingCart, Constant Contact, Aweber set up/maintenance. Clients use this tool to send ezines. It’s also used to sell products, keep in contact with customers and potential customers via autoresponder. 1ShoppingCart even has an affiliate feature. You would be responsible for getting their shopping cart set up and maintaining all of these features for them. 

Article Submission. Clients can have you submit the articles that they write to various article submission websites. This helps them market themselves by showcasing their expertise through their writing. 

Teleseminar set up. Clients utilize teleseminars to hold courses. You would be responsible for obtaining the bridgeline, getting the word out about the teleseminar, and all of the various details for getting the call set up. 

Blog set up/maintenance. You could set up the client’s blog, if it isn’t set up. You would also be responsible for posting the posts, creating categories and tags as well as marketing the blog. 

Social Media account maintenance. You could schedule the client’s tweets in advance; create their fan page or group, etc. There are many things that you could do to assist them with their social media marketing. 

Having the above mentioned skill set will get your business off to a great start. Stay tuned as I will cover these skills individually in the coming weeks.

I began my virtual assistant business in the summer of 2001. My have things changed since then. I remember telling people what I did and receiving a confused expression on their faces. I spent a lot of time explaining what a virtual assistant was. 

Fast forward to today and I believe that just about everyone knows what a virtual assistant is and what we do. The industry has also grown tremendously with new virtual assistants. You probably don’t have to explain what you do, but you now more than likely encounter many people who already have a virtual assistant. 

Some of the things that have changed are service offerings. Back then, you could pretty much offer general administrative services. Nowadays, you have to be pretty tech savvy in order to stay competitive. Clients are seeking virtual assistants who can help them manage their businesses and assist them with the latest online marketing tools. 

I believe that the virtual assistant industry is definitely here to stay and will continue to evolve in the coming years.