Archive for the ‘Online Seminars’ 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.

————————————–

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

Last month I attended the Third Wednesday meetup in Halifax at the Foggy Goggle – people from the area interested in and using social media. It’s a group that gets together monthly to discuss and share. At this meet the group was discussing how social media is affecting print media.

There were a few first timers there, including myself,a few others and also Dan Legere  from the Halifax’s Chronicle Herald newspaper. The Herald has been in the news lately itself, due to cutbacks and a few layoffs. But it was great to see someone there listening to ideas of others.  And listen he must have.

Today, I see that the Herald is hosting a live chat on social media.  They want to hear directly from people how they can change.  How can print media translate itself into something new, innovative and cost-effective?

If you have any ideas to help them make changes that will keep print media devloping audiences, please join in.  I will be and am very interested to see how it goes and what people have to say. More importantly, what will happen in the future.

Technorati Tags: cost effective, newspaper, Nova Scotia, Social Media, twitter

My VAnetworking seminar this week was a presentation by Jill Jordan of Smart Women’s Coaching, the topic was Personal Branding.  She gave a great talk, and really got me thinking…especially when she asked us all to write down what made us different from others in our line of business. It’s a big part of the process to help you brand yourself.

Through all my classes and workshops with CEED, I have done a Strength and Weakness list a  few times, but I found myself stumped when asked this question directly.

What makes me different and unique…hmmm let’s see.  Well… I have 15 years administrative experience, I like to learn new things, I am fairly organized, and motivated to work, but how do I translate all this into a one liner?   It surprised me that I couldn’t quickly give an answer to this other than “I don’t know, can I get back to you?”  I wonder if other people find this as difficult as I do.

Now I have some “homework” for the next week – because I am determined to find an answer to this question – What makes you different?

Technorati Tags: branding, seminars, starting business, VAnetworking, virtual assistant

Many fellow Virtual Assistants probably run into this same situation; I have several times lately while networking and discussing my line of work with others.

Recently, when talking to someone about how she can investigate becoming a virtual assistant (VA) herself, I referred her to the online group, VAnetworking.  Once she had a chance to look it over, we talked – and she told me she didn’t understand why I would belong to it.

My answer was simple… support!  Then I added to it; access to loads of information, meeting other VAs, and learning tips and tricks from them during the weekly networking sessions were a few of the first things out of my mouth. After giving some specific examples, she understood better my reasons. Read the rest of this entry »

Technorati Tags: home office, networking, starting business, VAnetworking, virtual assistant

I never really started any serious volunteering until my first child started school. And when I started, boy did I go at it! Why not, I wasn’t working and it kept me busy, not that my three kids plus the other three I was babysitting didn’t… but it was different. It involved connecting with other adults and meetings at night where I could say “See you” to my husband and kids and get away for a while.

It wasn’t until about 5 years later when I went to re-enter the workforce, that I realized I was not worried about having a gap in the employment section of my résumé – I didn’t consider there to be a gap. Why? Well… let’s see what did my years of volunteering get me…? Read the rest of this entry »

Technorati Tags: resumes, VAnetworking, volunteer, work experience