Like most industries, raising your rates is a delicate process that many virtual assistants and small business owners fear. While understanding what prospects are willing to pay for your particular product or service is key to growing and maintaining your business, sometimes it’s as easy as learning that you need to generate a certain amount of [...]

Last week we talked about getting a friend to keep us accountable; making sure we stay positive about achieving our goal, and to make it public to keep us on track. We close out this week with our final two strategies to realize our goals.   Chart your goal’s progress.   I’ve already shared with [...]

I recently watched the plight of newly hatched sea turtles, slowly and methodically making their way to the ocean. They faced all sorts of outside forces that turned hundreds of hatchlings into a mere 30-40 living specimens who actually made it to the ocean. Once there, they quickly learn how to manage life around their sea-based [...]

Last time we discussed the top five mistakes to avoid when marketing your business, here are the final five!  6.   Your message isn’t clear. Always test it out on current clients, peers, or family/friends to be sure it’s not confusing or misses the point you’re trying to make. 7.     Untimely message. If you’re looking to build some [...]

Without marketing your business could stagnate, or even worse, close. Identifying and correcting some basic marketing mistakes will help you to promote and grow your business.   Here are my Top Ten Marketing Mistakes   1.     Your message is too general. While some of you may think that EVERYONE could use your product or service, if you [...]

 Are You On Track To Grow Your Business in 2011? When I started my VA practice in 1998, the only experience I had in running a business was managing someone else’s. The company I had been working for was not the most ethical company around, and as a salesperson you were provided with quarterly goals to [...]

Many of you broke into a sweat after reading the title, didn’t you? Most Virtual Assistants I work with don’t have a plan because they believe it’s too hard, too time consuming, or they just don’t know where to start. Creating a good marketing plan doesn’t have to be overwhelming, or costly, but it will save [...]

Few social networks sum up public discourse more effectively than Twitter. Thanks to its short-form nature and enormous audience, a single topic of discussion can often evolve into a completely natural case study for marketers. Be it immense disapproval or the immense success of a single principle, Twitter offers a unique look into conversation. But [...]

As we have touched on previously, you are totally in charge of, and responsible for, everything that happens in your business. So what are your expectations? What do you hope to achieve? What do you do to stay current with the industry? Do you know or understand where the industry is headed? In order for us to have great [...]

I know some of you are not going to believe this, but for the first seven years I was in business, I got up every morning and put on business attire whether I had a meeting outside the office, or not. This may seem silly, but I believe it allowed me to walk the walk. If I [...]