Archive for the ‘motivation’ Category

I realized the other day after finishing a consultation with a new client, that my business has grown almost 40% since completing a certification course this past April.  It was kind of a wake up call on how important training is to growing your business.

Of course training is always beneficial in that you gain new knowledge and skills. As small business owners,  we sometimes forget that it is these very items that make us more valuable to our clients.

Bringing in new ideas and abilities helps clients, and in my line of business the primary goal with any client is to help them get their work done, no matter the task and doing so in a way that saves them time and money.  For most the goal of having a virtual assistant is to free up time to devote to generating more revenue or in some cases to having more time for family and life.

What training did I complete? A Certification course for Social Media Marketing. The course from VAclassroom gave me deeper insight into this type of work. Social Media Marketing is quickly turning into my niche, or niche, as some people say (…sorry, I couldn’t help that, so many people pronounce that word differently!)

This training taught me how to focus on my clients, their targets and goals; creating a strategic plan for them.  It helped me clarify and define a process and system with my work in social media. I discovered how to be as efficient as possible for my clients and to be always thinking of new ways to use social media in order to help my clients grow their business.

Will I stop at this course? No way, as more opportunities to learn arise, I will sign on! This past year I have taken a bookkeeping course, have taken weekly seminars at VAnetworking and joined in many other courses that saw me making improvements in how I  manage my own business or work for my clients.  I’m even going to lead a class myself on July 16th as part of a Summer Speaker Series. I will be teaching others – exciting and scary at the same time!

There is always more to learn to improve yourself, your work and your business – and by doing so you will  grow and prosper your business.

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If you’d like to partake of 28 Seminars for $27 this summer, please check out the VAvirtuosos site. The topics are varied and very applicable to many types of businesses.

If you are interested in taking VAclassroom’s Social Marketing Training, it is a self study and open to anyone. If you use the coupon code SUMMER09, you can save $100 off the course.

Technorati Tags: efficient business, Small business, Social Media, social networking, virtual assistant

Well… here it is Tuesday and I am all packed and ready to go to my first ever conference with fellow virtual assistants.

I am heading to Niagara Falls, Canada for the Forum on Virtual Assistance (FoVA) to learn and share and connect with many people in the VA industry.

I have been networking online for almost a year now at VAnetworking, CVAC and several other places. I have also been working with, or creating friendships with, other VAs that I met online.

Networking online can be scary for some people but I love it.  In fact, in my banking days, I had several jobs that had me connecting with others via telephone – and really it is the same principle, even if it was in the days before cell phones or email. I encountered these people daily in my job, but never face to face.  I met my husband from a  friend I worked with ‘virtually’ in 1988.  She and I finally met, a friendship was created that still exists today; and her fiancé introduced me to my husband. If I had never taken the time to meet her at the bank function for all the departments, my life would have been very different.

My favourite aspect of online or telephone networking is when the time comes that you finally have an opportunity to meet those people in person – face-to-face. I find this really solidifies any online or remote relationship and takes it to another level.

So, my bags are ready, the family is kicking off school early to drive me to the airport and I cannot wait to get there and meet all my ‘friends’.

Watch out FoVA here I come!

Technorati Tags: event, forum, networking, virtual assistant

FOVA (Forum on Virtual Assistance) is only 5 weeks away, and I CAN’T wait! I’m ready to learn and network and this conference is a perfect place to do both.

I think I am most anticipating all the people I know I will be meeting. Since last summer I have been very active with my online networking (primarily at VAnetworking, CVAC and VAClassroom) and I am going to meet several of these people face to face.  I love connecting a face with a name or a voice!

Generally you don’t attend any conference unless you have an interest in the topic and there are always many sessions available to learn new skills, ideas or trends and more.  The agenda that Barb Lang and her organizers have prepared is chock full of great topics and speakers from all over the world, and topics that will help us Virtual Assistants in our daily work. However, in my humble opinion, the biggest benefit you get from a conference is the networking aspect of it.

So many opportunities are available at conferences to meet and talk with new people, to match a face to a name, or connect with old friends. Being virtual, a large part of our daily work is done online and by phone, Instant Messenging chat or email. To be able to meet in person all the “usernames” I deal with on a regular basis, really adds another foundation block to our relationship.

I almost feel like I need to make a list of all the people I anticipate meeting in order to ensure that I don’t miss them as to me that would be a tragedy.

No matter what your line of work, and especially if you work from home, I urge you to find a conference in your industry and attend it every year.  You’ll return rejuvenated and having met many new contacts and with a brain full of new information relevant to your work.  ALL of this will help you excel in your job and your life.

Technorati Tags: conference, event, networking, seminars, Small business, virtual assistant

This post was inspired by an action taken by a colleague of mine.  We have been working together for 6 months now and out of the blue the other day she sent me an email with a little testimonial for me!  It was a nice surprise and very flattering that she took the time to write it down and send it off.

Testimonials are something many businesses use, especially ones on the internet, and they can be very helpful additions to your website content.  Potential clients can see what others have to say about you and how you work with, and for, others.  It also allows to link back and forth to each other, which is great when you have a website! It’s like a direct referral system.

Linked In uses recommendations, and even prompts you to  “return the favour” by sending one back to the other person.  This is great, except the process never gets started unless one party takes the time to send a testimonial or one party “asks” for a testimonial.

That’s the part about testimonials that gets awkward, the need to ask.  It is for that reason that people should take time to send testimonials without having been asked.  Really, it follows the same principals outlined in a post here about Comment Cards, which in a nutshell is:  Take the time to say “Good Job” to someone.  The hard part isn’t writing it down, it is remembering to do so and send it off!

Technorati Tags: motivation, networking, recommendations, testimonials

Everyone has them,  it’s hard to always be inspired to blog. January has been busy for me and I have been stumped this past week.  Trying to find my inspiration today, I  came across a great article from a fellow virtual assistant, Karri Flatla, and recommend it to anyone who is having their own dry spell.  She has some great tips in there.

This is a short post… as I am off to work on the 12 step program Karri details in her article.

Technorati Tags: Blogging, motivation, virtual assistant