Today Impacts Tomorrow’s Successes

“Everyone wants to have a good day, but not many people know what a good day looks like – much less how to create one. And even fewer people understand how the way you live today impacts your tomorrow.” John C Maxwell

That is why Today Matters!

John Maxwell wrote in his book, Today Matters that you can create success in your life by focusing on what you do TODAY. Unfotunately, most of the time we miss that success, because we . . .

• Over-exaggerate yesterday – we dwell in the past and constantly think about the things we did or could have done better;
• Overestimate tomorrow – we expect things to be better in future;

….and then we underestimate the importance of today.

What we need to do is to Read more »

Increase Your Profits This Year With Clarity And Action

Increasing your income significantly, getting more clients and enjoying a thriving business, doesn’t always require a major overhaul. Sometimes it only requires two simple things:

Clarity AND Action!

It is all about getting crystal clear on your goals and what you want from your business and your clients, and then taking action to achieve it.

Read more »

Grow Your Business With Service Excellence

A business that attracts lots of clients is a business that focuses on service excellence.

Any VA can give a service and find some clients, but a Virtual Assistant who focuses on service excellence, will have a business that prosper and will attract clients into long-term relationships.

Now the question is: what is service excellence and how can you ensure your business delivers it?

Well, service excellence is about having:

• Solid beliefs in what you do and how it can benefit your clients;
• Exceptional behaviours and applying those to your client relationships.
• A great attitude;

Service excellence is all about finding ways to make your clients feel good about your services, your business and themselves because they simply feel good when dealing with you.

Here are some great ways to create service excellence in your business: Read more »

Do Your Clients Know, Like and Trust You?

Getting long-term clients in a Virtual Assistant business is very much dependent on the following 3 key elements:

1. Clients first knowing about you
2. Then liking you enough to work with you and also
3. Trusting that you will be able to do the work.

This is what I call the “know, like and trust” factor.

Building a Virtual Assistant business and getting clients to fill your business has a lot to do with building solid business relationships. When you “sell” a service it usually brings a more personal dimension into your business (since you work more closely with a client) than when you purely sell a product. Thus relationships with people become a key aspect of your success. Read more »

Setting Goals – The Most Powerful Way to Get What You Want From Your Virtual Assistant Business

I always find goal setting fascinating because one of the turning points in my life was when I discovered the power of setting goals. Without really knowing what I was doing, I sat down and made a list of 10 things I wanted to accomplish in the foreseeable future.

I put the little sticky note containing my goals next to my PC and about 30 days later, my whole life had changed. Almost every goal on my list had already been achieved or partially achieved. It was a total eye opener.

I thought by myself, “Wow, can it be this easy to achieve what you want to achieve?” and the answer is a resounding YES.

Setting goals is the most powerful way of getting what you want out of life and out of your business… Read more »

Focus On Your Strengths To Grow Your Virtual Assistant Business

Do you know what your strengths are?

Do you know what you’re REALLY good at, what makes you unique and how you can USE that to add more value to your own business as well as those of your clients?

Many of us are pretty good talking about our weaknesses, but what about our strengths?

How much do you really know about your strengths and how to make the most of them?

Well, I believe all of us have something special. Each one of us was given unique abilities, unique talents and unique strengths that nobody else has, and everything we do, we do in our own special way.

Another thing I believe is Read more »

Do you Operate Your Business With The Right Mindset?

When starting your VA business, evolving from a 9-5 employee (where you don’t make the decisions and merely react to orders from your boss), into an independent business owner (where you make the decisions and give the orders) is sometimes a difficult thing to do.

Successfully crossing this barrier often separates successful VAs from less successful VAs.

I believe it all boils down to how you think about yourself and your business. In other words, it all boils down to your mindset.

Do you operate your business with an employee mindset or a business mindset? Read more »

Skills Are The Most Valuable Asset In Your Virtual Assistant Business

Working in a virtual services environment, is extremely satisfying because you can create your own destiny and work your dream career.

Creating this dream career however, all starts with identifying what skills you already have or want to obtain. Then translating that skills into specific services you can offer to solve the problems and frustrations of your clients.

Your skills inventory (those things you can do and are good at) is therefore the most valuable asset you have in your business!

Because the better you Read more »

The best kept secret to more clients and having a growing business

Whether you are just starting out, or being in business for quite some time, one of the biggest problems we all run into at some point is …

….“running out of time”.

If you are a solo-preneur, working alone on your business, there are so many different things that needs to be taken care off on a daily basis and sometimes the most important things like building your business and getting clients just slip through the cracks.

Working with many VAs in the past few years, it is sad to hear when they tell me that they work so hard on client related work and keeping their clients happy, that they don’t have time to work on their own businesses. The reality however is that even when you are overloaded with client work, you cannot afford to lose sight of your own business. Read more »

Telephone Etiquette – Build or Break Your Business

OK, I want to tell you a story that actually happened and that inspired this post about telephone etiquette.

For a while now I am struggling with some technical integrations on my website and at last decided I need some help. So I phoned a lady who came highly recommended – i.e. a friend told me about her and explained in detail how brilliant this person is.

Because I received this highly positive, personal recommendation, I already formed a picture in my head of the “fantastic, professional individual” who can literally do any technical, web-related thing you require.

So, I picked up the phone, make the call and was ready for the (in my mind) professional / technical discussion to see if she will be able to help me.

The phone started ringing and eventually I started to count …. one, two, three, four … eight … and just before I put the phone down I heard:  “Jellooo!!”

Just  “Jelloooo!” – with the last syllable a long singing sound.  No name to introduce her.  No business name.  Nothing.

I kept my cool and after I eventually established that it is indeed the “highly recommended individual” on the other side of the phone line, I started to introduce myself and begin to state the reason for my call.

Huge was my surprise when she interrupted me to ask if I could please phone her back in ½ an hour since her neighbor is at the door!

Her neighbor!

Well, perhaps she didn’t need new business or it was a “life-or-death” situation with the neighbor.

It however goes without saying that I didn’t phone back and I found someone else to help me.

So, the question I want to reflect on today is:

Does the way you answer your phone build or break your business relationships?

Isn’t it funny (or actually very scary) that people sometimes drop all professionalism when they work from home?

In business, first impressions always count and we have to do everything in our power to make a good impression – even over the phone. “Hi” or “hallo” or worse “jellooo” is certainly not the correct way to do it – not if you are a Virtual Assistant or any other service professional for that matter.  And to ask a potential client to call back… well, I’m speechless about this one.

The telephone is not just a communication tool. In a virtual world it is also the image projector of your business.

We as service professionals rely on a telephone for business. We can therefor never let our guard down because the next caller can just as well be a potential client.

So, to build business relationships when answering your phone the professional way, here are some excellent tips and techniques on telephone etiquette.

PS: Have you ever experienced a similar situation? Why not share it with us in the comment box below