Should Virtual Assistants (Who are WAHMS) Market Themselves as WAHMS?

If you're new here, you may want to subscribe to my RSS feed. Thanks for visiting!

Last night I was watching a very thought provoking (and potentially controversial) video from the WAHM blog site, YummyMummy! Scott Stratten from un-marketing.com offered a interesting tip and challenge for Work at Home Moms.

He shared that WAHMS should NOT market themselves to their clients as a WAHM, but rather as a skilled and savvy business owner! He felt that promoting your WAHM status on your site would not serve any real purpose in building your business, unless of course your target audience is WAHMS! From a Virtual Assistant perspective, he felt it might not look favorable to a new client to think of kids hanging off of you while you complete his/her pertinent project!!

From my perspective, while I don't think you need to hide the fact that you are a WAHM with your clients, I don't believe it needs to be emphasized on your site or blog. Now your role as a WAHM might come more into play in your interactions with your peers and those moms who aspire to work from home in Twitter and other Social Networks.

Again, this is coming from a WAHD's perspective who understands the freedom and flexbiility of working from home. I can also talk more about it at VAClassroom since a good percentage of my target audience is in fact WAHMs!

The many Virtual Assistants and Online Professionals I know definitely market their skills and experience first and not necessarily their role as a WAHM (or WAHD for that matter).

So, take a watch of this video at the YummyMommy site - I would love to get your thoughts and feedback on this interesting topic!

The Fast Growing Business of Blogging!

Just the other day, I was reading some stats on the WordPress site and was blown away by the massive growth of  WordPress Blogs over the last 24 months!

Here are some 2008 stats shared by the WordPress founder, Matt Mullenweg:

• Page Views grew from 1.5 million to 6.5 million per month
• 2 million new blogs created for the year
• 35 million new blog posts in 2008

In January 2009 alone there were 372,519 WP blogs created!

It is clear that not only is blogging growing at a rapid rate, but it is also evolving in some new and exciting ways.  This excerpt from WordPress.com puts it best:

Blogging is growing both in the US and especially internationally. Tens of thousands of new WordPress blogs are created every day – by regular bloggers, companies, large media publishers, and many others. In addition, we seeing a trend that’s potentially even bigger than blogging: Publishers are starting to use WordPress as a platform to create all kinds of sites beyond blogs – large and small company sites, online magazines, social networks, travel sites, scrapbooking sites, contact managers, startups, multimedia archives, video sites, sports sites.

Isn't this cool? Ten of thousands of blogs being created DAILY! Businesses are using blogging technology to create company websites, social networks, video sites, membership sites and so much more.

The sad reality is that a good portion of these blog sites won't last more than a year as they are lacking some key success strategies and tools for optimizing and marketing their blogs.

This is ONE of the key reasons we have created our newest mini-course called, Blog Marketing Tips, Tools & Tactics.  We want to provide blogsite owners as well as Virtual Assistants (who operate and manage blog sites) with some advanced marketing and optimization strategies for increasing blog traffic and visibility.

There are excellent opportunities right now for Virtual Assistants and Online Professionals to offer "in-demand" blog marketing services to this fast growing base of blogsite owners.

Our newest blog marketing training program starts on August 10th. Check it out!

Do you really need a Virtual Assistant Certification?

Is there really value in having some sort of Virtual Assistant Certification? Would this VA Certification lead to better clients, better work opportunities and better money? At the end of the day, do you really need it?

While I am sure there are some varying opinions and answers to this question, since this is MY BLOG, you have the distinct privilege (or NOT:)) of hearing my 2 cents on the topic of Virtual Assistant Certification.

First of all, I do NOT think anyone NEEDS a VA Certification to build a thriving, profitable Virtual Assistance Business. While there are success stories on both sides of the fence, I do know and work with a number of great Professional Virtual Assistants that are not certified. On the flip side, there are great VAs whose participation in certain training certification programs served as an ideal launching pad for their Virtual Assistant careers.

I think the important element here is not that you have a multitude of certifications (eventhough that can be beneficial), but that you are a "PASSIONATE LEARNER" and committed to continually improving and enhancing your existing skill sets. A couple Virtual Assistants I work with don't have specific VA Certifications, but they have attended a ton of skill-based webinars, conferences, coaching series and read many ebooks, newsletters and blogs to keep their skills sharp and knowledge as current as can be! The key factor here is to NEVER stop learning and to invest time and money into regular Professional Development!

So, do you need a Virtual Assistant Certification to be successful? No, probably not! But, the interesting thing is that MOST people (Not all) still like to get certifications or designations behind their name. While our Virtual Assistant Training Center, VAClassroom, is not an Accredited Training Program with any State Education Board, many of our members still love to get the Internet Marketing VA Certified Logo that they can showcase on their sites and share with prospective clients! It validates the new services they are offering and provides clients whom are looking for these services with more confidence that they can deliver quality work.

Intrinsically speaking... I think Certifications or designations do give us a sense of accomplishment and recognition. I have a number of Virtual Business friends that hang their certifications and degrees on the wall of their home offices. Is it to impress their clients? Well, probably not, considering none come to their office:). Those certifications represents a marker of accomplishment and validates the work they are doing.

My oldest daughter is now in the first grade. When she comes home with a certificate from school, her face is beaming and she is thrilled to show me what she had accomplished. You might be saying.. "But, Craig come on...... This is just a child, we are adults and don't really need certificates to feel accomplished and good about ourselves!" Really - do you think that is true? Again, this is my own "un-tested" theory that most people simply like to receive certifications - I still do:)

The well known Marketing Training Firm, Marketing Sherpa offers three day skill-training workshops in such areas as Email Marketing. At the end of the training time they provide a flashy Certificate of Completion. For those working in this field, this paper represents another accomplishment that further validates the work they do for clients in this area and will likely give them an additional competitive edge.

So, while you likely don't NEED a Virtual Assistant Certification, or a blog design certification, or a Affiliate Manager Certification, or a Web Analytics Certification or whatever type of certification that relates to your field in order to experience good success, I think intrinsically we still like to receive them and do believe that they provide a tangible representation of our own Professional and Personal Development.

I would love to get your feedback on this one. Am I out to lunch? Do you agree with this - please share!

Train to be a Three Dimensional Virtual Assistant

I was recently reflecting on my previous educational pathway. I did 6 years of University education - 4 for my undergrad and two graduate. While those years were "life-transforming" and matured me as a person, I have to say that I did not necessarily acquire those "hard skills" that directly translated well to work! Of course, I did my graduate studies in Counselling and those skills will likely be put to good use when my three girls become teenagers:)

Now, I look at my training regime over the last 5 years (as an Internet Busines Owner) which has included a regular dose of ebooks, webinars, coaching programs, online communities and conferences. I have in-turn been able to hone my "hard skills" at a fairly rapid rate!

Now, in considering your own Virtual Assistant Practice, how are you currently developing your skills and knowledge? Are you investing regular time during the week to train, learn and grow?

The bigger question.... Are you training to be a Three Dimensional Virtual Assistant (or Entrepreneur for that matter)?

Here are three dimensions of learning to consider as you seek to grow your Virtual Business to new heights...

1. Dimension 1: "Hard Skills Training"

There are certain "Hard Skills" that your clients are requiring you to have to help them take their businesses to the next level! These might be skills in:

- Teleclass and Webinar Coordination

- Shopping Cart Set-up

- Email List Management

- Social Networking Set-up and Profile management

- Affiliate Management

The list goes on...... As you blink, there are new skills and services being added to this list - the industry is moving "crazy fast" and it is important to build a plan for continously developing your "Hard Skills" for your business. Of course, our training center, VAClassroom, specializes in "hard skills" training particularly in the area of Internet Marketing. But, there are other great programs out there. I have been really impressed with the Skills Training offered by Cindy Greenway and Tina Forsyth in their Hot Skills VA Training Program. There are lots of great avenues to hone your skills - the important thing is to make room in your schedule for this kind of continual learning.

Dimension #2: Networking / Marketing Training

In this dimension, you learn new techniques for networking with clients, increasing the traffic and exposure to your business website, building relationships with ideal clients in Social networks and other online communities. While you might already have a "Marketing Plan" in place for your Virtual Assistant practice, it is important to continue to incorporate and test out new strategies for better connecting with your clients and making your business known on the web! This kind of training may involve digesting Internet Marketing ebooks and taking webinars and other marketing training through such avenues as MarketingExperiments and of course the VAClassroom Training Program. Wow that is two plugs for our program in one blog post - that is borderline scandalous:)

The bottom line is that "the one who markets the best wins" (most of the time), so you want to be regularly implementing innovative strategies for promoting your Virtual Assistant Business.

Dimension #3: Self Training

Do you know who is the hardest person on the face of the earth to lead and manage? Any guesses?????

YOU!

Self Leadership is one of the most crucial skills to develop for any Entrepreneur! Self Leadership might refer to how you manage crisis, stress, your daily schedule, your prioirities, your commitments, your productivity, your relationships with others,  your LIFE! The reality is that if your life is in chaos, then it will inevitably have an impact on your success as a Virtual Business Owner.

This is an area that I actually allot a fair amount of time for training. I read books on productivity and self leadership to help me to be more effective in my work life and personal life and be able to strike that harmonious balance between the two! For example; I read "Getting Things Done" by Management Consultant, David Allen a while ago to help me further enhance my productivity and reduce my stress levels - it helped!

The three dimensional Virtual Assistant and Entrepreneur for that matter will be highly committed and disciplined in developing their hard skills, marketing know-how, and most importantly learning how to lead themselves in a more effective and healthy way.

This is how I structure my training regime - I am slowly but surely morphing into a three dimensional business owner. How about you?