Leadership Call w/ Bea Fields, Michael E. Gerber, Dave Buck and More
Mega Teleclass: The Future of Business From the Minds of Ten Top Professionals
Date: Monday, July 14, 2008 from 7:00-8:00 p.m. Eastern
What happens when you get ten top professionals on a call together to discuss the future of business and leadership? You walk away inspired to change the way you think, live and operate in business. Join Bea Fields as she shares this open call with her partners from EDGE: A Leadership Story for a call you don’t want to miss. Fields will be joined by Michael Gerber, Michael Port, Corey Blake, Dave Buck, Carol Dickson-Carr, Eva Silva-Travers, Kimberly George, and Roger Dewitt. Each professional will be asked a question they have never been asked before about the future of business, and you don’t want to miss their answers. This is BIG!
Learn about the presenters here.
Your Elevator Speech
You’re driving down the road. You’ve been talking to yourself all the way. You’ve been telling yourself you can do this. You keep running your “elevator speech” through your head. You keep saying “I can talk to these people. I can explain my business if they ask me what I do. I can walk up to people and introduce myself.”
Then, you get to your destination. You’re pumped and ready to go! You walk in the room and there’s 50 other people there. You either freeze and wait to see if someone comes up to you, look around to see if you know someone so you’re a little more comfortable, or you give up and leave. Why?
Don’t you chit-chat with people when you’re waiting in line at the grocery store? Do you “pipe in” a conversation at a store if you know you have the answer to what someone is asking? Why, then, can’t we talk to 50 other people about our business? Is it because it’s 50 people we don’t know or because we’re just not sure what we should say?
Put a smile on your face and feel confident. You are good at what you do and your business is worthwhile. Be excited about that! Don’t be afraid. If you show your afraid or have a problem explaining what your Virtual Assistant business is about, it will show. Clients aren’t going to come knocking on your door or calling you if you show you’re afraid and can’t explain your business to them. They want to give their business to people that are confident so feel confident.
When they ask you about your business, explain to them what you can do….PowerPoint presentations, spreadsheets, Websites, SEO, newsletters, article submissions, press release submissions, article and/or press release writing, logo’s, cold-calling, etc. Whatever it is, tell them. Hold your head up high when you tell them too. Don’t mumble.
Just remember that it’s up to you. If you think positive and show them you can assist their business, they will call. They will beat down your door to be your next client. They will, in turn, recommend you to others. If you fumble with your words or freeze at the door, how are they going to know you and your business? How are you going to gain those clients?
It’s your decision. It’s your destiny. It’s your choice as to which fork in the road you’re going to take.
Taking Advantage of a Poor Economy
So many talk these days is of how the US economy is suffering. People are losing their houses, companies are downsizing and the stock markets are struggling. However, as Virtual Assistants we should be rejoicing and excited about this prospect.
While many people are worrying about the poor economy and how it will effect them negatively, as a VA we should be seeing how this can effect us positively. Utilizing the poor economy to our advantage is a great way to grow your Virtual Assistant business. As many small businesses struggle to stay afloat and begin to let their employees go, we can promote the value of a Virtual Assistant. These companies would value a VA’s expertise and skills while at the same time realizing that there are so many advantages. It is time to review your marketing materials and have them reflect the world around us. Utilizing swings in the economy is just one of the several ways to turn your business into a thriving business.
How you use these downswings will allow you to stand out from others. If you can make sure that the clients that you gain see the financial values in having a VA vs. an in-house assistant during tough economic times and grow to depend on you and your skills, then during a boom they will also see the advantage of continuing your relationship.
The Secrets Revealed to Having a Successful Virtual Assistant Business
As a Virtual Assistant, we all know that there are specific things that those that succeed are doing that are setting them apart from the other Virtual Assistants. These success stories are taking specific actions to develop their ideas into a prosperous Virtual Assistant business. Ask any of these successful VAs and they will all tell you that the recipe for success takes three simple ingredients; finding the right clients, offering the right skill set specific to the individual and having the motivation and desire to do what it takes to succeed. However, even armed with this knowledge, many Virtual Assistants struggle to find the success they so desire.
The biggest challenge as a Virtual Assistant is motivating yourself to take some important steps on a consistent basis. Many are held back by their fears; fears of success, fears of failure, fears of the unknown … But, facing these fears head on, even eliminating them is crucial to making your big dreams come true and enjoying the success these successful VAs are having. I am here to tell you what those important steps are.
· Pick a target market – someone that you feel comfortable working with and will enjoy working with.
· Work within a skillset that you possess and have an expertise
· Find the balance between work and home and be sure of the boundaries
· Set and review your goals
· Follow up with each and every lead until the lead has been exhausted
· Set aside time to work on your own business at least weekly
· Be thankful for your successes and learn from your mistakes
· Have a strong support system and avoid negativity in your life
The problem that will stop a Virtual Assistant from ever achieving any level of success lies in that the knowledge alone will rarely translate into the action habits that will transform your life and your business. You must take steps to enjoy these successes. There are no guarantees and no easy answers and each and every day and each and every client deserves honest hard work.
If you’re to enjoy the things that successful VAs do, you must share their beliefs and attitudes, which create the emotions that drive them. Even if you don’t feel that you are a success, simply believing you are and allowing yourself to become a success can be just the tool you need to truly create your own thriving Virtual Assistant business. As a great friend of mine once said, “Fake it Until You Make It”.
Is Your Business a Thriving Business or Just a “Job”?
When I started my business I did so with the assistance of a program called the SEB program (Self - Employment Benefit). The biggest part of this program was to get the participants to think “outside of the box”. We were all expected to create a business plan that would show that our business idea was plausible and would be a profitable venture for us. I was so proud of my business plan when I handed it in, but that all changed the minute that my advisor reviewed it and sent it back to me with his comments …
In particular, my business advisor told me that my business plan was solid and would make a successful “JOB”, but he wanted to know what I was going to do to make it a thriving Business? I was really setback by this and offended. In my opinion this was a business … if I wanted a job then I would go get a job from someone else. So I challenged his comments and I can tell you that this was the best thing that I ever did.
His comment was that there was absolutely nothing wrong with what I had handed in, but from just speaking to me he could tell that I would never settle for having a Virtual Assistant business that would peak at 120 billable hours per month and never take that next step. What he wanted to see from me was that “next step” … what was I going to do to make this a really thriving and booming business? That he said is what would set me aside from all the other Virtual Assistants.
So, that’s what I did, I set out to be more … I set out to grow my business into something that no other Virtual Assistant had done … I had (and still have) big dreams for my business and I am so thankful to my business advisor for that push.
My challenge to you is this … what are you doing to make your Virtual Assistant business stand out, reach the next level and become the thriving business it can be? What are you doing to revolutionize your business?
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