Six Keys to Building a Thriving Virtual Assistant Practice in 2009

Happy New Year! I definitely took a long hiatus from my blog, but have re-charged my creative batteries and am officially ready to go!

I have had the privilege of working with a whole variety of Virtual Assistants over a number of years and have been able to assess the particular traits or characteristics that make some of them  very successful. As we head into a New Year full of much promise here are six keys to building a thriving Virtual Assistant Practice in 2009:

KEY #1 - Be Active in Social Networking - I continue to hear great testimonies of some of our VAClassroom students finding new ideal clients through such popular Social Networks as Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn. They are building their network with a target audience and are finding opportunities emerge through these connections! So, one of the keys to sustaining a Thriving Virtual Assistance practice in 2009 is to become a "Master Networker" in the key social networks, forums, groups and online communities!

KEY #2 - Build a Compelling Web Presence - I have also had the opportunity to review many different VA websites and I noticed that some of them still do not market themselves super well. The page sometimes is super text heavy, with no multimedia or compelling images. As an Internet Business Owner (who currently works with 4 VAs), I love coming to site that has a YouTube Video, compelling graphics, an optin box to a free PDF guide, Twitter & Facebook Badges and possibly a blog. This shows me that this business is cutting edge and savvy! So, here's a test....

Go to your website right now and ask yourself: "If I was a prospective client, would I be drawn to my website?" Now is the best time of year to make changes!

KEY #3 - Participate in Blogging and Social Media Content Sharing - Many of you who are blogging right now know the value of being of thought leader in the VA industry and building credibility with your prospective client base - not to mention the great SEO value of regularly updating your blog! The key with your blog is to create content that would be relevant to your target client audience. For example; I saw a PDF guide that a VA was offering called "101 Reasons to Use a Virtual Assistant in 2009" - this was great and relevant content for small busineses, which certainly could pave the way to new client opportunities!

It is imperative to build your traffic and web presence through sharing content in such sites as HubPages, Squidoo and EzineArticles. This again positions you as a thought leader and drives traffic and Search Engine results back to your website!

KEY #4 - Establish a Clear Business Niche - As you know, the Virtual Assistant role is constantly in flux and means many different things to different people. Many VAs are bloggers, web-designers, social media marketers, bookkeepers, event planners, PR specialists and so much more! The most successful VAs have been able to establish the right niche at the right time to create the best opportunities for their business. For example; businesses are screaming for VAs with Social Media Marketing expertise, which is why we recently launched our Social Media Marketing Specialist Training Program.

Also, it is important to identify the niche audience you are targeting. Is your ideal client audience, Real-Estate Agents, Business Coaches, Women Entrepreneurs, Internet Marketer, Ecommerce Sites etc..?

KEY #5 - Proactive Marketing Strategies - I always love the saying "The squeaky wheel gets the grease"! Translation: A Pro-active Virtual Assistant will create the best opportunities for their business! As you know, the clients may find you on Social Networks or via your website, which is great, but for the most part, you will need to go out there and connect with your ideal client audience in creative ways. For example; One of our VAClassroom Students mentioned that she was putting on workshops for small business associations in her local area on "The Power of Social Media Marketing". Well, this served as an excellent avenue for her to position herself as an authority and build some new client opportunities.

KEY #6 - Highly Committed to Continual Learning - Of all the industries I have be apart of in my career, none has moved faster than the Internet Business. New technology and web trends are evolving at a rapid pace and 6 months is like 5-10 years in another industry! It is paramount that you are actively pursuing learning and training opportunities in your niche to ensure that you remain on the cutting edge and at the top of your game in 2009.

So, there you have it.... Six keys to building a thriving Virtual Assistant business in the New Year!

I am sure there are other "Keys" and would love to hear yours!

Planning For The Unplanned In Your Virtual Assistant Business

For those that follow my blog, you probably noticed that I have been "Missing in Action" for over a week! Well my life went into a temporary "tail spin" early last week as I needed to fly back to Canada to attend to an urgent matter. Needless to say, all my priorities and important business activities were shelved for the week!

Have you ever had one of those weeks, where you had a full plate of work priorities, tasks and deadlines only to have them to swept by the wayside as a result of an emergency or sickness?

Well, after this week, I realized that I have never really given a lot of thought to "Planning for the Unplanned". As a Solopreneur, I have built my business around "me" and so when emergencies happen, work tends to not get done as I have not put in place the proper contingency plans!

So, the million dollar question.... How can you truly plan for those "unforseen events" in your life so that your virtual business stays on track?

Well, after processing this one a bit.... here are a few principles or ideas to consider when "Planning for the Unplanned":

1. Find a "Delegation Buddy".

For those of you that own a Virtual Assistance practice, it is good to align yourself with another virtual business owner who offers some similar services as yourself so that you can "scratch each other's back" when those unplanned events surface in your lives. Yes, you might lose some earnings during that time, but the important thing is to continue to maintain a high quality service for your clients.

A "Delegation Buddy" might also come in handy during those fast-growth times in your business when your client base and projects are growing like crazy.

2. Define your Weekly Priorities.

A few weeks ago, we hosted an event with Freshbooks CEO, Mike McDerment titled, "Virtual Nirvana - How To Remain Inspired and Productive When You Work Alone". In this webinar, Mike talked about the principle of laying out your weekly priorities on Sunday Evening before the week gets going. You want to clearly define what work activities are most important and MUST get done this week. I usually like to break my work tasks up into "Must Do" and "May Do" lists. The May Do would be great to get to, but not imperative that they get done that week.

Let's say an emergency hits you on Monday (as it did with me last week)...By knowing those priorities that must get done, this helps you to know the minimum that you need to accomplish or possibly delegate to someone else. Of course, there will be times where this is not possible and you need to be honest with your clients that that the project deadlines just have to be pushed back temporarily.

3. Prep your "Emergency Email".

Now, this might come across a bit "anal-retentive", but you might want to go as far as prepping a "generic email" that basically says an "Urgent Matter" has arisen and that you will be out of the office for a specified period of time. Believe me, when a crisis or urgent matter hits you, it is hard to think and it is nice to have an email template in place to you can just copy and paste to your clients. Something to think about...

At the end of the day, emergencies and urgent matters will happen in your life, so you want to be prepared and ask yourself: "How would I keep my business moving in the right direction if I suddenly needed to step away for a week or so?"

These are things we just don't think about until unforseen circumstances surface in our life.

Food for thought....

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!

Google Tools - A Productivity Gem

I know many of you probably have a Gmail account and may use Google Alerts and track your RSS feeds with Google Reader. But are you leveraging the wide array of Google tools to maximize your productivity? I am currently having a "love affair" with Google tools as I find that the more I incorporate the web apps into my daily work activities, the more organized and productive I am.  Here is why I am loving Google these days... I am tracking my work emails with a Gmail account and have actually added my other work emails via the POP tool into Google Mail to consolidate all my mail activity into one location. I am then using Google Calendar to track my schedule, meetings, and urgent time-sensitive tasks. Google Calendar has a cool feature that delivers email alerts at 5am in the morning with your scheduled appointments and activities. From a multi-tasking standpoint, I like that I can be writing an email and then quickly jump into Google Calendar to update my schedule. I then track all my spreadsheets and work documents with Google Docs, which again is nicely integrated into the Gmail Interface. I have all the VAs and contractors I work with use Google docs which enables us to quickly share and collaborate on documents. Not to mention, you can track all RSS feeds with Google Reader, which makes it easy to review existing feeds and add new ones.. Now, I know there are many other great productivity tools and web apps on the market, but my personal opinion is that it is hard to match up against the integrated, user-friendly and easy to access elements of Google Tools. In short, Google Tools ROCKS!

Is The "Virtual Assistant" Title Really That Important Anyways?

In a "reflective moment", I was recently processing much of the dialogue spurred on by Erin Blaske's thought provoking post last week: The Future of the Virtual Assistance Industry - An Open Conversation I think these kind of discussions are great for helping you to further evaluate how you want to be known in your business. Here are a few final thoughts for what it is worth.... I know there is much discussion pertaining to the "true" definition of a Virtual Assistant. But, is the Virtual Assistant title or ANY title for that matter really important to the overall success of your business - I would say NO! I remember attending my Grad Reunion a number of years ago and fielding the common question, "What do you do?" The natural inclination for most of us might be to give your title: "I am the CEO of VAClassroom.com (Well my wife is actually:)) or I am an Internet Marketing Specialist. I think as humans, we feel the need to label ourselves as if it gives us a higher level of recognition or something. What I have come to realize on a personal level is that is does not matter what title I have in my career, but MORE importantly, what I accomplish, the integrity by which I run my business and ultimately how I positively impact others! So, if you were to ask me what I do right now, I would not say I am the CEO of VAClassroom.... I would say that I help Virtual Assistants develop new skills to grow successful VA businesses. You see, I would rather not be known for the title or position I have held but rather for what I have done or accomplished that has helped or impacted others! So my point here is that you may want to be known by your clients, not as a "Virtual Assistant", but rather as: "That person that helped them skillfully set-up and manage all their webinar and teleclasses" "That person that coordinated all their business travel plans" "That person that effectively managed all their outsourced projects." "That Person that helped them expand their business presence in the Social Networks" The list goes on.... It is the skills that you bring to the table that will be mentioned and referred on by your clients to others. "Hey, I know a great person that can set-up and manage all your email auto-responder campaigns". The important thing here is the excellence you bring to the services you provide and the integrity by which you do it! That is the hallmark of a successful "Virtual Assistant" or whatever you want to call yourself - it really doesn't matter! I also really like this "Personal Branding" expert`s commentary on the topic of a job title here: Your Personal Brand Statement is NOT a Job Title. Just a few random thoughts percolating in my brain today:)

The "Time Tracking" Challenge for Virtual Assistants

Over the past couple weeks, we have received many responses to our question (on the optin form at VAClassroom), "What is the greatest challenge facing your Virtual Assistant Business today?" We will be reviewing these common challenges in the next few posts to come. A couple subscribers admitted that one of their ongoing challenges is effectively tracking time for the different clients they work with. You might be thinking... tracking time is a piece of cake - just wear a watch, use a stop clock and you should be fine... Yes, it may seem simple, but with short Instant messenger chats, calls on your cell phone, quick email questions from clients, the tracking of time can start to become a little murky, especially if you are a busy VA with multiple clients and projects on the go simultaneously! I know with the VAs I work with, I will often "Skype" them a quick question and have a little chat - they need to keep track of these little chats, calls, emails that they do on a daily basis for many different clients. Well, here are three ideas to help manage this time tracking challenge... 1. I would recommend being upfront with your clients on your minimum time intervals for any task or inpromptu question they may have. In other words, you might set a minimum time interval of 10 minutes (or whatever you decide), so if you have a quick skype chat with a client, you will bill them at a minimum of 10 minutes of work. Again, it is important to be clear on this with client's upfront so they don't think you are padding the invoice:). In the name of building long-term relationships with clients, you might also consider not charging for that occassional quick chat - that could go a long way to keeping a happy client as along as it does not become too frequent! 2. Another strategy for managing the time tracking issue is to shut off MSN, Skype, Cell Phones, PDAs when you are working on a specific client's project in order to make your time tracking a little more cut and dry. I know this is easier said than done at times, but do you best to focus on one project or task at a time - this will help to maximize your productivity as well. 3. Invest in a Time Tracking Solution. There are a number of cool time tracking applications you can use to keep track of clients' works on a minute by minute basis. I personally like FreshBooks as it also offers the billing and payment features for managing your clients invoices and payments. FreshBooks enables you to track time across specific client tasks and projects as well as tracking the time of any staff you may have working on the same project. This is particularly useful for Multi-VA firms. I also like the accountability piece in which you can provide your client access to your Freshbooks account so they can monitor their budget and project activities. I think this adds a level of professionalism and credibility to your business efforts. If you haven't already, be sure to sign up for our "VA Business PowerPack Contest" at VAClassroom.com as we have included a one year subscription to Freshbooks!