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 [...]

Unfortunately, not every goal is a good goal. Goal-setting is a skill which can be broken down into three easily defined, concrete steps: Brainstorm your big objective.   What are you trying to accomplish professionally or personally? Create a new product line? Streamline a process? Outsource some of your tasks? At this step, we’re trying [...]

 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 [...]

I met Louise Crooks the Keys to Clarity Coach on Twitter and it turned into a wonderful and fun interview (podcast) about how coaches can find the right Virtual Assistant. Enjoy! http://bit.ly/b2Fa2v      

Both my husband and daughter struggle with this one. They are both very stubborn and when their mind is set they refuse to let go. Having your own business does allow you to be the one and only decision-maker, however, you do have to interact with clients, prospects and peers, all of whom have different opinions, personalities, [...]

This to me is HUGE. So many of the VAs I work with who don’t stay in business, or whose business stagnates, are those with low self-esteem, or negative attitudes. Remember earlier when we discussed surrounding yourself with positive and supportive people? You have to be positive and supportive, too. When I started, I didn’t have extremely low [...]