Patience is a Virtue
As a business owner many of us struggle with the patience required to be a successful business owner …
- We open our virtual doors and wonder where the clients are!
- We send out marketing letters and wonder why the phone hasn’t started ringing
- We ask for help and wonder why we haven’t received the work back immediately
- We try a new marketing approach and wonder why it hasn’t yielded any results
- We attend a networking event and wonder why no one requests our services immediately upon hearing our reply
It is hard some days to have the patience that is needed to let our efforts begin to work. It is like my good friend says “We plant the seeds and expect a flower overnight”!! I thought that maybe some of you could benefit from how patience has developed in my business and some of the lessons that I have learned along the way!!
When I opened my virtual doors I had a full client load within a month … at the time I was told that this is very unusual for a virtual assistant business!! Well as we all experience in business, I lost one of my clients and this client was a very large client on a 75 hour retainer per month. I lost the client not through any fault of my own, but because he sold his business and the new owner wanted someone on site full-time to answer the phones and provide a physical presence. So there I was left with the task of going and getting new clients … it took hard work, but now I have the best clients in the world and absolutely love the clients I do have … the advantage too is that I now have several smaller clients so that if one should happen to leave i won’t feel the huge crunch. I spoke with some other virtual assistants as I was building my business and learned that it is not unusual to take upwards of 3 years to obtain a solid client base!!
Here is the biggest thing I learned about marketing letters …. they need follow up. The latest client I just signed was from a marketing letter that I had sent out when I first started my business 2.5 years ago. That client told me that originally they had thrown my letter in the garbage, but when I telephoned to follow up and because I was so nice about it on the phone (I told them I understood they weren’t in a position to work with me at that time, but when (notice I didn’t use if) they grew, which I was confident they would, to remember me and contact me at that time. Because of this conversation they took my letter from the garbage and put it in a file. Their business did in fact grow because they were about to hire someone to help them on a part-time basis and then remembered me and all the advantages of working with a Virtual Assistant I had told them about!! There is no way I could have imagined that it would take 2.5 years for that marketing campaign to pay for itself.
The best way to market a Virtual Assistant business is through word of mouth and referrals. The thing to remember is that it can take time to establish a relationship with a person to the point they can know, like and trust you enough to tell others about you. I have been networking for over two years and the really good referrals are just now starting to come!! Don’t give up on your efforts … stick it out and I am sure you will reap the benefits.
I hope that some of these lessons I have learned along the way and some of my thoughts on why patience is important can offer some of you struggling in the beginning stages of your business to see it through. Having your own business can bring you the biggest satisfactions and rewards!!
Do it, Delegate it, Delete it!!
For us, as Virtual Assistants, it is so easy to become overwhelmed by the mounds of work that comes into our office, especially via E-mail. I know that I myself have easily fallen victim to the trap of letting my in-box become overwhelming. A great deal of our time is wasted having to empty out an overwhelming inbox. Many times we might read the same email several times thinking “I don’t have time, I’ll deal with that later” and before we know it our inbox becomes so overwhelming that it takes an entire day to sort through it. As we work our way through it we soon begin to find things that should have been dealt with or that have been overlooked and undoubtably the stress begins to build.
This quarter I am taking on a new strategy with respect to my email and I am inviting each of you to join with me. I am developing the 3 D’s strategy for keeping email messages under control: Do it, Delete it or Delegate it.
Each and every email I read from here on out will be handled in one of 3 ways:
- DO IT - These are the emails that will require an action by me. If it isn’t something I can answer immediately or act upon immediately, I have also set up two folders and one is “To Read” and one is “To Do”. When it falls under one of these categories I will move it to those folders for later action. I have now also worked into my schedule a half hour at the end of each day and a half hour at the beginning of each day to go through the “To Do” folder and make sure that it is completed each day.
- DELETE IT -Let’s face it we are inundated with emails, several of which are not something we ever plan to act on. We also receive several emails where a conversation is ended by the other party that should be deleted. Also, once you have answered an email and for which you are not waiting for a reply, you should delete it. By removing it from your inbox, it will tell you that it no longer requires anything to be done.
- DELEGATE IT - Finally if I am unable to handle something in an email and it needs to be handled by someone else I “delegate it” to them and forward that email.
My final piece of advice is to create a folder entitled “Waiting for a reply”. This will be for all those emails that you have acted on and you are waiting for a response from someone else. These are those emails that you don’t want to delete just yet for fear of forgetting that you are waiting for something before being able to “Do It”, but that clutter your in-box nonetheless. By moving these from your in-box or your “To Do” files they will not clutter these spaces and cause you to read them several times. Always be sure, however, to make it a point of checking your “waiting for a reply” daily and deleting those that you have received a reply on.
I hope that by implementing these tips you will soon find that checking your emails is not taking up huge chunks of time in your day. With any luck, the next time you hear “you have mail” you will not want to jump under your desk and hide.
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”.
Mapping Out Your Day
How do you get anywhere new without utilizing a map or asking for directions? Do you just pile the kids in the car and hope that by driving around aimlessly for hours you will eventually find the place? If you didn’t have such things as the address and a general vicinity it would make your job even harder. Similarly how can you have a successful day without mapping out where you need to go?
Like the map which provides directions, so too does a daily task list (or to do list, if you rather) provide you a direction for your day. The tasks that you list are small tools that help you to make sure that you stay on the road to success. I guarantee you that if you take the time to write out your list daily of all the things you need to accomplish you will be on the track to having a successful and thriving business.
Better yet, why not prepare your task list the night before? That’s right … This is when you are likely best to remember all the things you need to do the next day that were not accomplished in a particular day. Then it is easier for you in the morning to just jump right in and get a great start to your day.
For myself and my business, I take the time each and every night to map out what I need to accomplish the next day so that nothing is ever forgotten. I have found for myself because I do have a busy business, that by setting this out each day I am more productive and I no longer feel lost!!
Good luck!!
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?
What Are You Doing To Give Your Virtual Assistant Business Immortality?
I was so excited when Heather and Becki asked for people to join in helping out at the REV blog. I can honestly say that I owe the success of my business to two things:
- A lot of really hard work on my behalf
- The support and information I have received from my REV membership
A number of my successes have come from the encouragement I have received from the REV members to “go out on a limb” and try things that are outside of my comfort zone. If someone had told me before I joined the REV that I would be an author and a Success Partner with CVAN I would have probably laughed in their face, but it all happened.
When I post on the REV blog, I will be providing you, the VA, with lots of tidbits and information on how to have a thriving VA Business. The first in my series of articles is one that I have already written, but from here on out, I am hoping to have fresh content which you will read first on the REV blog!!
So here is the article:
If something disastrous were to happen to you tomorrow, what plans do you have in place to make sure your Virtual Assistant business continues to operate? The motto “Be Prepared” may be used by the Boy Scouts, but it is just as important in our daily lives as it is in our businesses. Should a disaster occur, by creating contingency plans for your business, you eliminate the worry and stress caused by trying to come up with a solution in the thick of the situation.
Before a Virtual Assistant can truly figure out how they would handle an obstacle thrown in their path, it is important to take a step back and think about what possible disasters could occur. This is a very unsettling task for many Virtual Assistants, but for those who have taken the time to map out how an emergency would be handled; the success rate of overcoming that emergency relatively unscathed is much higher. The biggest hurdle for most in writing contingency plans is determining which areas are most important. Perhaps rather than trying to look at the whole picture and trying to think about every conceivable “what if”, the best way to handle this almost impossible task may be to break it down into 4 main considerations – political, economical, sociological and technological.
Consideration #1 – Political Considerations
Political considerations include such things as legislation and how these changes might affect your VA business as well as the businesses of your target market. For example, what impact would there be on your business if tomorrow your municipality decided that you could no longer run your business from home? If you decide that you want to hire employees, what employment laws are applicable? By determining the impact each possible change might have in your business you can take precautions to plan for these changes.
Consideration #2 – Economical Considerations
The economy plays a large role in business. Will a recession negatively impact your Virtual Assistant business or do you think that it will encourage other business owners to utilize Virtual Assistants more as they downsize their workforce?
Consideration #3 – Sociological Considerations
Today’s marketplace is affected just as much by our political and economic culture as it is by fads. As society ages, people are becoming more technologically savvy, what impact will this have on your Virtual Assistant business.
Consideration #4 – Technological Considerations
Staying on the “cutting edge” in today’s society can sometimes be a tricky proposition. This is perhaps the biggest consideration that Virtual Assistants must be aware of and plan for. As technology advances, it will be important to remain on the “cutting edge”, not only through purchasing up to date software, but also through on-going training. Staying on top of those changes and advancements will play a huge factor in whether your business will thrive or not.
As most Virtual Assistants have started their business to allow themselves the opportunity to be there for their families, perhaps the ultimate contingency plan will include a plan to ensure if our family needs us we can drop everything to be there for them. By establishing a Procedure Manual for your business now, you will position your business to allow others to “take over” during absences to allow us to truly be there for our families. It will be then that you will have created the ultimate contingency plan. All other obstacles can be faced head on with the knowledge you have worked diligently towards creating your own thriving business.
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