VA Secrets Revealed! The Blog

Secret #4: Fire Away

Once you recognize that every client is not your ideal client, another key understanding is that you are never stuck working with a client if the relationship goes sour, the scope of work changes, or if you no longer enjoy working them. You can terminate your contract with a client, just as they can decide to no longer work with you. Here are some signs that it may be time to cut ties with a client.

• You dread interacting with them.
• The client's work no longer fits with your business goals.
• The work flow from the client is shrinking.
• The time and resources you put in are not proportional to the money you are earning.

And if you are a professional working with a virtual assistant, you are not stuck in the relationship either. Check the independent contractor agreement the VA drafted; there should be a termination clause with details on how to end the relationship. Don't be turned off by virtual assistance if your first relationship doesn't work out. Many business owners try out several virtual assistant relationships before they find the one that is a keeper for them.

It's a normal course of business for people and needs to change throughout a working relationship. The important thing is to recognize it early, before it becomes a drain on your business, and handle it professionally. Most people are appreciative of an honest re-assessment...and if not, all the more reason to move on!

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This post is expanded from Chapter 6: My Top 20 Secrets for Success in the book, VA Secrets Revealed! An Insider's Guide to Being a Successful Virtual Assistant. Grab a copy and follow along as I blog chapter-by-chapter!

Involving Your Children When You Work From Home

Part of the reason many parents make the decision to work from home is so they can be with their children every day. As a work-at-home mom, there will inevitably be a great deal of time when you need to focus on work without your kids' participation. But occasionally letting your kids join you in the office can be a great experience for everyone.

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You Gotta Appreciate Your Clients

As you build your business and begin to form relationships with your clients, make sure you are treating your clients well. And I don't mean doing the work well and calling it a day. If you are serious about cultivating relationships that will last a long time, you need to do more.  Here are some things you can do to keep the relationship going in the right direction:

• Exceed expectations - Go above and beyond what is expected…every single time.
• Be ultra responsive - Don’t make your clients wait to hear from you. Even if you aren’t able to respond in detail or do the work immediately, shoot them an e-mail so they aren’t left hanging.
• Listen - Truly listen to what your clients are saying. You may realize there is a better way to do something for them, or you may discover new areas where they could use your support.
• Be willing to make suggestions - Every client relationship should be a partnership. If you think a new process or system might make them more efficient and productive, speak up!
• Make them look good - Do your work well consistently.
• Be honest - If you’re not comfortable with a certain project or feel like it might be out of your area of expertise, talk about it.
• Communicate well - However you communicate -- e-mail, phone, face-to-face -- be clear, coherent and professional.

At the end of the day, make sure your clients know you appreciate them. A note or informal e-mail, a holiday gift, or an unexpected phone call to let them know they are valuable to you can go a long way in developing a long-term relationship. Once you get a hold of a good client, do not to let them go!

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This is expanded from Chapter 4: Finding and Keeping Clients | Make 'Em Stick in the book, "VA Secrets Revealed! An Insider's Guide to Being a Successful Virtual Assistant." Grab a copy and follow along as I blog chapter-by-chapter!

How to Supplement Your Income When Working from Home

Whether you're a business owner, freelancer or telecommuter, when you work from home, you may find you're in a great position to explore supplementing your income. Perhaps what you're making now is not quite what it was when you worked out of the home full-time, or maybe you're saving up for the holidays, a vacation or just want to make some extra money.

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A Babysitter Can Be a WAHM's Best Friend

If you are a successful WAHM, trying to find a way to take care of young children and run a growing business can be stressful. Knowing when to call in reinforcements is essential. A babysitter, a nanny, a mother's helper, even daycare can help you keep your sanity.

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Secret #1: Hi, My Name Is...

Networking is one of the most important things you can do for your business. Everyone you meet can potentially be a candidate for your client base, or they may know someone who would be.

At its core, networking is all about communication -- in person, online, on the phone, etc. It's about forming relationships with people on a business and personal level, being memorable, likeable, approachable, and perhaps most importantly, genuine.

Networking can be very challenging for those of us who are introverts. How do you overcome the shyness and go so far out of your comfort zone? Here are some things that have worked for me:

• Plan Ahead -- Anticipate the most common questions you may be asked and have answers ready. Prepare your 30-second elevator speech on what you do and practice it.
• Be Confident -- Keep reminding yourself that you're good at what you do!
• Keep it in Perspective -- As scary as it may be, think about the worst that could happen.  Rest assured, because it probably won't. And the payoff for taking the risk can be enormous.
• Breathe -- Slow down and take a deep breath. Visualize yourself somewhere you love and try to relax.

Once you are out there, stay calm and don't let yourself get overwhelmed. Keep in mind that everyone you're talking to is a person, too…and they probably have their own set of insecurities.

Here are some networking tips to help you get off on the right foot:

• Be the first to introduce yourself
• Be friendly and welcoming
• Sum up what you do quickly
• Be professional
• Listen to what others are saying
• Ask relevant questions
• Have business cards on-hand
• Be yourself

Start with a small group or event and go from there. The more you network, the better at it you'll become and eventually it will become second nature. Before you know it, you'll find yourself looking forward to your next big networking event!

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This is Secret #1 from the book, "VA Secrets Revealed! An Insider's Guide to Being a Successful Virtual Assistant." Grab a copy and follow along as I blog chapter-by-chapter!

Marketing Your Business on a Budget

So, we know that marketing your small business doesn't have to cost a lot of money. But if you are a virtual assistant or any business owner providing products and services in a virtual setting, where do you start?

There is a tremendous amount of power in word-of-mouth marketing. Many of my clients have found me through other clients, friends and family just talking about what I do. Of course, it is imperative to do great work and go above expectations so people want to talk about you! But this type of marketing has huge potential.

In fact, a recent survey conducted by the Virtual Assistant Networking Association, found that an astounding 93.7% of the 750+ virtual assistants surveyed stated that their clients had been found through word of mouth referrals. It's easy, it's free and it works!

Here are a few more of my favorite free or low-cost ways to market your business:

• Write press releases and submit them to online distribution services
• Submit your information to online business directories
• Participate in online networking through business sites and social networking sites, such as Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn
• Join your local chamber of commerce
• Join professional organizations
• Volunteer
• Leave business cards behind at restaurants, stores, doctor’s offices, etc.
• Network with other professionals in your field

For more small business marketing tips, check out VA Secrets Revealed!

Secret #11: Stay in the Lines

This secret from the book is all about boundaries. All home-based business owners, including virtual assistants, have to figure out what their boundaries are for managing work and family life, and then stick to them. And this can be a major challenge, especially for those of us with children.

I have two kids under the age of two, so I know how hard it can be to separate work from family when you work from home. And then try to find enough time to do everything else! Here are some of my secrets to time management and keeping a work/life balance:

• Prioritize -- As much as we may wish, we just can't do everything. I have learned that the expectations for getting absolutely everything done are self-imposed...everyone else is much more forgiving.

• Be Flexible -- You may have scheduled a specific block of time for work, and then a family emergency throws a wrench in things. Your day, as you planned it, is completely thrown off. Being able to readjust and accept change will help you keep the small things, like a disrupted schedule, in check.

• Stay Focused -- If you have an hour to focus on work, don't get caught up in reading and responding to personal e-mails, tweeting, browsing for those shoes you saw last week, or organizing your photos. Get to work!

• Write It Down -- If you're anything like me, you may have 100 random thoughts about things you need to do, buy or check running through your head at any given time. I have found that I always forget things (usually the most important ones) if I don't write them down immediately. I am regularly e-mailing myself reminders from my BlackBerry throughout the day. They sit in my inbox until the end of the day when I transfer them to my task list.

• Switch Gears Quickly -- Working from home when you have kids may mean playing with Play-Doh one minute and jumping on a conference call the next. Being able to switch gears from family to work at the drop of a hat will make you much more productive and efficient.

• Be Mobile -- With my BlackBerry and laptop, I can be setup and working from anywhere, literally, in a matter of minutes. If your situation does not allow you to be working from one static location for long periods of time, create a mobile office so you can work on the fly.

• Enlist Help -- As your business grows, you will likely need to get some help during the day. Consider hiring a babysitter, a nanny, a mother's helper or even daycare.

Above all, take time to regroup! Even 10 minutes of calm will refresh your outlook...and keep you sane.

Secret #14: Make it Personal

Secret #14 in the book was a tough one for me. I have always been a private person. I'm an introvert by nature, and it can be very hard for me to share personal details about myself. It takes me a long time to warm up and trust people, and even with people I am closest too, I sometimes still struggle with it. I guess you could say it's one of my [few :-)] character flaws.

This never caused any big problems in my life…until I started my business.  As a new business owner, I was adamant about keeping my business and personal lives separate, across the board, no exceptions.  I had it in my mind that if clients got a whiff of something personal, they would exploit it and use it against me in some way. 

Actually, that did happen to me, and I'll fill you in on another post (I know, I know, more suspense). But even with that bad experience, I have learned that there is tremendous value in being personal in a virtual business setting. You have to be true to yourself, you have to be sincere and show an interest in your clients' lives, and you have to show your human side if you want to be in relationships with your clients that will grow and develop.

Over the past few weeks as I've started to explore social media, I have "met" a number of people on sites like Twitter and Facebook. It really opened my eyes even more to the power of being genuine, honest and always being yourself.  It was a huge hurdle for me to start to post personal updates, but I quickly realized that really there is no point to social media if you're not going to be "social." And that means letting it get personal. Not only is it freeing, but it really opens up a multitude of opportunities that may not otherwise be there.

The lesson is that most people just like to know that the person they are working with or talking to virtually is a real person with a real life making real mistakes. By allowing myself to open up and share some details of my life outside of work, I have found my client relationships to be much richer and more fulfilling, and my network of friends and colleagues growing on a daily basis. It really is amazing what can happen when you let people get a peek at the real you.

Being skinny is so in!

I've gotten a lot of questions about a term I use in the book: “Skinny Marketing.” People want to know where it came from and what exactly it means. So, I'm going to answer those questions today.

As I was writing VA Secrets Revealed!, I was thinking about the whole process of marketing and how there are so many ways you can go about it. One hot topic I have discussed with other virtual assistants is the cost and how you never know if your marketing dollars will really do what you intend them to do until you’ve already spent them.

As small businesses, our marketing budgets are never really as extensive as we may like, so it comes down to balancing the investment you make with the marketing activities you are doing. Basically, doing cheap, or free, marketing activities and trying to get the biggest bang for your buck -- i.e. Skinny Marketing.

Here is how I define the term in the book:

Skinny Marketing is a process based on completing a set of activities that when taken as a whole gives your business the strongest positive impact achievable for the least amount of investment. The idea is that a well-planned and successfully executed targeted marketing campaign can be relatively quick and inexpensive.

The key to successfully executing a Skinny Marketing campaign is knowing who you are targeting and what activities have the most potential before you begin. That means you have to be prepared. Before you spend even $1 on marketing, you need to do a few things:

1. Identify your target audience
2. Get to know your target audience (not just who they are but why they do what they do)
3. Analyze your competitors
4. Develop a list of possible activities
5. Set your budget
6. Create a marketing plan (should include specific activities and a timeline for completing them)

Most of these activities are pretty self explanatory and most likely you have already done some of them as a part of your initial business planning. However, to make this work, you may need to go back to your original plan, drill down even further and get even more specific. This part of the process can be time consuming, but it will pay off!

So what are some things you can do as a part of your Skinny Marketing campaign? Stay tuned for my next marketing post which will list some specific activities.