This may be unexpected to the virual assistants ‘in the crowd’… but clients are telling us on a regular basis that there is a serious shortage of virtual assistants right now.

It’s not that there aren’t any VAs out there - I know there are more and more people joining this exciting industry on a daily basis.

The issue is that they are having trouble finding a virtual assistant who has the skills and expertise that they are looking for. In particular someone who understands ‘online business’ and knows how to use the various systems that are required to successfully build an online business.

If you are an asprining VA or would like to look at expanding your services to work with these kinds of clients, I invite you to join me and Cindy Greenway for a free call next Wednesday.

• want from a Virtual Assistant
• will and want to pay you money for
• are saying in general about the Virtual Assistants they’re meeting
• why they’re not hiring the Virtual Assistants they’re connecting with

… and much more.

We’ll include specific scenarios and key details that will make a difference the next time you connect with a potential (and even a current) client.

>> You can join the class at: www.HotSkillsVATraining.com

Filed under: Build Your Team, Recommended Resources | Add a Comment »

Received this update from a fellow coach/business owner the other day… we had recently done a few coaching sessions on creating products for their business.

You asked about products. Well, to be honest, we aren’t working on any, mainly because we felt like we were forcing ourselves into a box that we didn’t want to pursue. We took a long, hard look at our progress (and lack of it in several areas) and our challenges over the past year and we realized that we really are a consulting organization, rather than a product / training organization. …You were extremely helpful in getting us to see we were simply on the wrong path.

Once we let go of the mold we were trying to force ourselves into, more opportunities showed up for us. We’re excited and really engaged with the new opportunities and they are a helluva lot more profitable than the original plan we had in place. So far, we’ve got two organizations who are keeping us busy for the entire first half of 2008 – we never had that type of commitment from clients… And we have other opportunities coming in that we didn’t expect.

I just loved this email… as it really reminded me of the importance of Just Saying No…

Especially at this time of year, when it seems we are all feeling the pressure to set our goals and ‘new years resolutions’ for 2008. This reminds me of one of my favorite chapters from our book Money, Meaning and Beyond (co-written by moi and my biz partner Andrea Lee).

What is your fastest path to money?

I invite you to stop and really consider this question… put another way:

If you had to make money TODAY, what could you do *right now* that would bring money to your door asap?

In the example above, these guys felt like they should be creating products… and started down the road of doing so. But in reality, the opportunities knocking on their door were consulting based and not product based. So they ditched the product idea and responded to the opportunities coming naturally… and now these opportunties are turning into profit for them.

So I ask you - What is your fastest path to money?

What are you striving (struggling?) towards that you may need to let go of?

Business is meant to be a challenge, not a struggle… and sometimes the struggle can be an indication of trying to force yourself in a direction that you or your business isn’t ready for. It may be time to just say no.

Filed under: Life & Such, General Biz | Add a Comment »

Saw this press release today, and just had to raise my glass to Laura. I’ve always thought that online work would be an excellent fit for teens/college students… may have to send some work her way.

—

Daughter of Founder of Virtual Assistant Industry Follows in Mother’s Footsteps, Spreading Telework in “Millennials” GenerationWoodstock, CT (PRWEB) December 5, 2007 - Laura Durst, a 16-year old honors student from rural Woodstock, Ct., announced today the launch of WorkInMyRoom.com (www.workinmyroom.com), the first website to offer screened telework jobs and projects for high school and college students. The site, which Durst plans to continue to develop as she completes high school and enters college, includes paid survey taking, modeling and event staffing, voice work, writing, artwork sales, blogging, and other types of work. Some jobs are open to teens as young as 13, while others require a minimum age of 18. Durst personally screens all companies, and plans to add new opportunities regularly as schoolwork permits. Finding a job that doesn’t interfere with after school activities, studying, and social activities can be extremely challenging. Throw transportation issues and competition for limited positions into the mix and it can seem almost impossible. Durst says she was inspired in large part by her mother, Christine Durst, who is credited with founding the Virtual Assistant industry in the early 1990s. “My mom was a pioneer in virtual work, and is the CEO of Staffcentrix, which does virtual-career training for the US Department of State and Armed Forces and owns a teleworker site at RatRaceRebellion.com. I grew up in a home where working from home was the norm, and developing an entrepreneurial attitude was as likely as learning to feed or dress myself.” WorkInMyRoom.com, whose revenue will be based on advertising, includes polls of visitors’ interests, and in the current poll 19% of respondents say that tuition is the top reason they want to earn money. Also high on the list are money for an automobile (18%), wardrobe and electronic items (tied at 14% each), and funds for dates/socializing (12%). Durst counts herself among the 19% who are saving for college. “Finding a job that doesn’t interfere with after school activities, studying, and social activities can be extremely challenging. Throw transportation issues and competition for limited positions into the mix and it can seem almost impossible.” Durst adds, “I have some exciting plans for the site, and I think my visitors will find WorkInMyRoom.com enjoyable as well as informative. Since my income is based on advertising, come visit it often!”

Filed under: General Biz | Add a Comment »

Some of you may already be familiar with the One Laptop Per Child Initiative at XOGiving.com.

The brainchild of MIT Professor Nicholas Negroponte, the mission of One Laptop Per Child (OLPC) is to provide a means for learning, self-expression, and exploration to the nearly two billion children of the developing world with little or no access to education. To do so they’ve created the XO Laptop… a specially designed, durable, energy-efficient and just plain fun looking little device. They are designed with children in mind, with a variety of games, tools, internet access and more.

Some of the critics of this project have had the same initial response as I did… should we be giving laptops to these communities when quite often they don’t even have enough of the basics? Food, water, etc…

And then I really remembered why I love the internet so much - the opportunity to connect. For me the internet has become a vital part of how I live and work… some of my best relationships (business and personal) have been forged online. And the amount of opportunity that has come to me over the past few years has all been made possible by these connections.

Plus it is easy to forget at times how we truly can access ‘anything we want at anytime’ online. Knowledge is a powerful thing that may be easy for those of us in the ‘developed’ countries to take for granted. I’ve been fortunate enough to be born in Canada, and have been brought up in a world of knowing the opportunities and options available to me in life. Without that first essential step of knowledge, would I be where I am today? Doubtful…

One of the stories I read on this project talked about how one child was looking up the price of rice, so he can turn around and have an ‘educated conversation’ with the buyers… setting a good price for the rice they sell so his family isn’t getting ripped off because they don’t know any better. How cool is that?

 Needless to say i’m a fan… and for $200 you can donate a laptop to the project at any time. Between November 12th - 26th you also have the option of Give One Get One… for $399 you can buy 2 laptops and get one for yourself if you like, with the other being donated to the project. Being the nosy kinda gal that I am I had to go for this, as I really want to check one of these out for myself and to have for my daughter when she’s a bit older.

Check it out at XOGiving.com.

Filed under: Life & Such, General Biz | 3 Comments »

The reason may not be what you think it is…

Over the last 2 years, we’ve talked to over 375 business owners - they let us know there is a severe shortage of VAs with the skills they want and the skills they’re willing to pay for. 

Here’s just a sample of what they have shared with us:

“I’m having trouble finding a VA who is going to think ahead of me and take care of details so I don’t have to worry about them.” 

“I want a VA who is familiar with and can strategically use the common online systems I need to automate and build my business.” 

“Please help me find a VA who will use her initiative, brainstorm with me and ultimately be my partner.  I’ll reward him or her handsomely!”

So the issue isn’t a lack of work for VAs, there are LOTS of clients that are desperate to hire.

The issue is that many VAs have yet to develop the ‘hot online skills’ that these clients are looking to hire.

My partner Cindy and I have been in the Virtual Assistant industry a combined 10+ years and our businesses are full. We are constantly approached by clients looking to hire, and are tired of having to turn these people away with no one to refer them to.

We know that there are so many great VAs out there, who with a bit of training in these ‘hot online skills’ will have exactly what clients are looking to hire for. So we decided it was time to put our heads together and offer a program with the skills these business owners want from Virtual Assistants.

The Grow Your VA Biz ’Hot Virtual Skills Training’
www.GrowYourVABiz.com/training

This training isn’t for everyone.  If you want to work with coaches, consultants, speakers, authors, information marketers and online based retail businesses, AND you have a technical “knack” and enjoyment of working online, then you are the right candidate.

The program topics include:

1. Developing Your Marketing Mindset
   Clients want to hire a VA who is willing to take initiative and play more of a ‘partner’ role vs. simply taking care of administrative tasks. Learn how to develop your Marketing Mindset so you attract and retain these high-level clients.
2. Setting up the Shopping Cart
   Learn how to setup a shopping cart system from scratch, including client preferences, merchant accounts, and customizing the look/feel.
3. Creating and Using Autoresponders
   A key element of any online business strategy, learn how to create an autoresponder and post the ’sign-up form’ to the clients website.
4. Setting up Products/Programs for Sale
   The magic ‘behind the buy button’. Learn how to setup a product in the shopping cart, including specifics on how to setup shipping costs, taxes and more.

…….. and much, much more. 

With these skills in hand, there is literally a plethora of eager clients ready and waiting to hire you, literally, today. We see it regularly each and every month - VAs with these skills not only get busy but quickly start to have to turn business down on a regular basis. 

Would you like to experience this kind of support and these results also?
Visit www.GrowYourVABiz.com/training now to reserve your seat!

Filed under: Build Your Team, Automate Your Business | Add a Comment »

I was saddened this week to learn that Anita Roddick, founder of The Body Shop, passed away just a couple of days ago at the age of 64.

I hadn’t thought of her in quite some time, other than buying some goodies at The Body Shop just last week. But when I heard of her death, I was surprisingly affected.

Anita Roddick is one of the reasons i’m in business for myself… her book Body and Soul was a HUGE inspiration to me after graduating from college back in the 90s. Her story of how she got started, along with her business sense and ideals, really expanded my concept of what business can be in the world. For example, her policy of ‘Trade not Aid’… rather than giving aid/money to people in less fortunate countries, she instead *employs* these people to create the products that she sells in her stores.

That example in itself speaks volumes to me, of how even a business that sells ‘cosmetics and such’ can be so much more than just a retailer… they can also provide an environment for others to create prosperity and happiness in their own lives. Very cool.

Which of course makes me pause here today… what am I doing in my business to affect the ‘world at large’? How can I take what I do already and create prosperity and opportunity for others? Not too sound too cheesy, but how can I make the world a better place? (k, thats a bit cheesy

Something for me to ponder, as I look at some new directions here in my business and life.

Who inspires you in your business? And what can you do to celebrate what they have taught you? Feel free to share.

Filed under: General Biz | 4 Comments »

Really great article by Eban Pagan of GetAltitude.com… i’m going to make this required reading for anyone looking to build their team. Enjoy!

You can successfully delegate almost EVERYTHING in your business.

Really.

And I can teach you exactly how to do it… in a way that will truly free up your time and energy to focus on higher and higher value efforts.

But if you get “addicted” to delegating things, or you delegate ONE thing that you shouldn’t, you can find yourself in a very expensive situation.

You see, we entrepreneurs who have started our own businesses just LOVE the idea of having others “working for us”… so that we can sit behind our desk and let the money just flow into our bank accounts.

It’s a great, inspiring image.

I’d like to teach you five things that you should NEVER delegate (not entirely, anyway).

Delegate these at your own risk and peril.

  (more…)

Filed under: Build Your Team, General Biz | 2 Comments »

Received this question from Casey Truffo this morning:

Hi Tina

We had our host tell us that too many aol people had called us spammers and I ended up having to move my email stuff (Autoresponse
Plus) to another server because my current host told me that I had to delete all my aol people. (I have a membership program so that didn’t seem like an option.)

I have also noticed that my open rates are much lower than they used to be so I think it may be time to clean the list. I have never cleaned it. My list is about 4800 and those have come over 5 years.

Do you have suggestions? How to do that? Have you guys done it?
Wondering what I’d use for a subject line to get them to opt-in again… I haven’t sent out any newsletters in about 6 weeks now - I was kind of scared to after that happened.

I am considering double-opt-in …right now I have single opt-in but I am not sure that would make a big difference to the people who (I imagine later) call me a spammer.

Anyone who has an ezine knows the challenges of getting blacklisted these days… my answer to Casey:

Who is your host? It seems odd that they would tell you to ‘get rid of aol or else’ sorta thing. Most hosting companies these days have someone who is pretty much working f/t to get themselves off any blacklists… ie: we are with Hostgator and whenever we get ‘blacklisted’ by an ISP we just tell them and they do their thing to get it fixed. This is so common these days, I don’t think there is any such thing as not getting blacklisted from time to time. Tis the reality of hosting…

As for cleaning your list, honestly I don’t think I would worry too much about it. If you ask people to re-opt into your list it is pretty much a guarantee that you will lose half your list if not more (much more in many cases). Regardless of a good subject line asking people to re-opt, those emails will go astray or people will miss them for whatever reason… I’ve seen it happen many times. There are people who may not read your emails everytime, but still want to be on your list… those are the ones who will miss the re-opt in request for sure.

Does your broadcast system have a way to track bounces at all? If yes, you could set it to track bounces (invalid email addresses, returned emails, etc) and get those off your list. We use ListMailPro for all our ezines which has that feature… you can say ‘if an address bounces x times remove it from the list’ and it does a clean up that way. So a cleanup would be based on actual undeliverables, and not requiring someone else to re-opt in to your list (take out the human element! hehe).

Filed under: Automate Your Business | 1 Comment »

Received this email the other day from Vicky White of LifeDesignStrategies.com and wanted to share:

I do really well participating in programs - get way more done than most people - and there’s a program I’m considering doing for the rest of this year which will support me in that. But what I really need is help with strategy in my business. I’m very action orientated, and very detail oriented, but can’t see the big picture so easily.

I’m looking at options for coaching or a program - may end up doing the one I’m considering but want to be open to other possibilities too.

I know I need to do things differently if I want different results - and I’d like to create a strategy that will support my vision of incorporating traveling and just maintaining my business from where I am - rather that working the hours I work at home.

Anything come to mind?

My answer to her, which you may find helpful as well…

One thing that comes to mind Vicky while reading your email is the thought of ‘training yourself out of your business’… making your business as automated as possible (via online tools, shopping carts, fulfillment services, etc) and building a great team to take care of the rest.

I’m not sure what your business looks like right now, but the toughest part of this process is usually getting ourselves in the headspace for this. As small business owners we tend to do so much of everything ourselves, by necessity in the beginning and then by habit as our business grows. Which of course creates a business tied to us, even when we want to escape at times!

One thing I like to do is start asking myself a question during my day to day biz activities - Am I the only person who can do this?

Ask yourself this question throughout the day, whether you are coaching or marketing a class or picking up your mail… the key is to get in the habit of asking, and then of course to keep track of your answers.

There are some obvious answers, such as say bookkeeping… for most of us this is a big NO and we look to hire someone to manage our books.

There may also be some ‘not so obvious’ answers… say with coaching. For a lot of coaches they think that they are the only ones who can do the actual coaching in their businesses. At face value this is true, but really…
hiring associate coaches could be an option for a business. Maybe not tomorrow, but it can be something to work towards in the future and to just keep in mind for now.

Pay special attention as well to those spots where ego may be getting in the way… we all have certain things that we know we are ‘the best at!’ in our businesses. And really, it may be true that we are the best at those things… but is ‘the best’ necessary for all things? Maybe if you passed something off to someone who does it ‘almost as well’ it is still a job well done AND then off your plate.

When you get in the habit of asking that question, you start to build a list of things that you can remove yourself from. It may take a few months or even years to really remove yourself from the equation, but having a list gives you something to work towards.

Interested in expanding your business team?

Join me for July’s Advanced Coaching Group on the topic of:
Increasing Your Biz Capacity | Hiring, Managing and Retaining Your Core Team

Whether you are making your first hire, or looking to expand your existing team… we will be taking a good look at:

- how to decide what elements of your business to hire for, and what to keep doing yourself
- where to find the best people to hire for your business
- how to get new team members trained quickly and efficiently
- the key to managing your core team, including the Who’s the Boss of You material
- ensuring that your team members stick around, and keeping them motivated

A pretty meaty topic, but oh so essential for your business growth. If you are interested in joining us for this topic click here to register.

Filed under: Build Your Team, Automate Your Business, General Biz | Add a Comment »

Hiring a virtual assistant is a pretty big step for folks. It can be hard to know how to choose a VA, especially if you are:

a) hiring your very first VA, and new to the whole process
b) hiring another VA after having been burned the first time around by a bad experience or
c) hiring to replace a current VA, who has had to quit or move on leaving you with a need to fill quickly!

There’s a few little things I recommend paying attention to that can tell you alot about a potential hire, before you even have a conversation! I use these tips all the time in hiring VAs for the Multiple Streams Team (MST), and those who fail simply don’t join our team.

• How fast do they respond to my email?
  In most cases your first contact with a potential VA will be through email, so take notice of how fast they respond. Is it within a day? Or does it take them days to get back to you? If it takes them longer than 24 hours that raises a red flag for me (weekends excluded of course).Being that VAs work virtually they need to be on the ball with email correspondance, and if they can’t reply in a timely manner before you hire chances are it will become an issue after you hire.
• What kind of response do they send?
  What is the style of writing in their emails? Do they have a ‘good’ voice and a complete response? Or are they sending you incomplete or sloppy responses?Let’s say i’m sending an email request to book a time to chat about working with us and have provided some days/times we could chat. A VA who replies and says “Thanks for the opportunity, yes I would love to chat. The best time that works for me is X, etc…” is just the type of response im looking for. Vs. someone who says “sure, call me sometime next week”. In that case I wonder if they even read my email?
• Do they show up for your scheduled phone call?
  I’m honestly surprised how many people do *not* show up for a scheduled phone call… this happened to me again just today. When someone is a no-show, I will pop them an email to say “hey, I thought we were scheduled to chat today… want to reschedule?”If I get a response that says “hey, let’s talk now instead” or one of my all time favorites “i was out walking my dogs, can we talk tomorrow?”… that person is immediately crossed off my list. This says that they don’t respect my time and our agreement, which reflects what a working relationship could be like.

  If someone responds and says “oh my goodness, i’m so sorry! i totally forgot to put this in my computer” or “my apologies tina, i had to go pick up my son from school cause he was sick”… if it is a good reason or they truly apologize i’m willing to reschedule a call (but just once!

• Send them a little ‘get to know you’ reading project
  Required reading to join our team is to read Andrea Lee’s book Multiple Streams of Coaching Income. This is what I call our ‘get to know us’ project, just to make sure we are a fit for each other. Once i’ve talked to a potential VA who looks like a fit I will send them a PDF copy of the book to read along with a ‘mini-quiz’ to ensure they understand the concepts.Be sure to give them a deadline, a week or so depending on your timeline and the length/depth of what you are sending them. If it’s an article a day or two is plenty of time. If it’s a full size book (such as MSOCI which is over 300 pages) a week or so is reasonable.

  Do they meet the deadline you agreed on? Or better yet, do they finish early? We’ve had some people read the book within a day of our initial conversation, which shows some great initiative! Of course, if they miss the deadline without a good reason to do so this is another red flag for me.

That’s it! These items are short and sweet, but oh so telling.

Filed under: Build Your Team | 2 Comments »