Virtual Marketeers

Archive for October, 2009

So, after the last article I wrote, I may have left you thinking, “how does positive thinking relate back to marketing, or even to owning and running your own business?”

As I see it, it has a huge impact on how you run your business, and whether or not you receive and grow your client base through your business.

Positive thinking and doing gets you noticed!  Proactive thinking and doing also gets you noticed and in a good way!  Planning for the future and goal setting gets you noticed in a good way!  Putting positive systems in place to help grow your business gets you noticed!  Plus these things have a really positive impact on your life, and how you do business.

As a business owner positive thinking is a ‘personality trait’ that you want to have! If a business does not focus on positive thoughts and actions, then how might you expect for your positive personality to shine through to its clientele?

To think positive thoughts, and focus on positive talk and action you are setting up your business for success.  After all, positive people attract positive business.  Positive people also attract and implement creative and very innovative ideas.

So I hope that I have inspired you in these last two articles to focus on and foster positive thoughts, and in doing so open the doors even wider for your business success.

If you haven’t already done so, you might like to head over and have a read of the previous article I posted, The Question of Positive Thinking.

I have found this topic to be a bit of a difficult one to write on because it is personal to me, and I continue to learn and grow… I am no expert in this area.  That is why it is a question, rather than an answer, because these are my thoughts.

I am sure that there are some things in this article that others may possibly disagree on, or might maybe like to expand on.  I do welcome these thoughts and ideas in the comments section.

There are so many things that might happen in each and every one of our lives that might have a positive, and on the other hand a negative impact.

With so many differing experiences in each and every one of our lives, and so many ways to handle things… each person might handle, or even see the same situation in a different light. Our seeing the situation in a different light, and acting on it in a different way will often determine which direction our live heads.  It continually moulds us as a person, for better or for worse.
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I found the definition of Time Management on Wiki to be quite interesting.  I also found it to be a bit long-winded and partially confusing when I was reading through it.  Is it really that complex?  I think it probably is!

The time management methods that one person might use aren’t necessarily right for the next person.  Also, those methods used seem to be forever changing, because it is continually evolving as people learn and implement their new ideas.  Books about both how to grow our business and life balance seem to emphasize time management as being a key skill that needs to be learned and mastered.  When the book or coach does not speak directly about time management; for example they might speak about leadership, or marketing, or lead generation…, but the mechanism that makes these models either successful or non-successful I would have to say is the overarching administration or management of each of these methods.

So what am I saying?  That if we are looking at developing a model of leadership, or client fulfillment, or a marketing method, we should also look at our time management skills, and we would need to develop a good administrative system in view to maximize the opportunity for  these models to work effectively.
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I wanted to let you know that Intellimon (who you may know as the makers of the award-winning ‘XSitePro’ Web site design software) are launching a training course, a week from now. To kickstart this training course, this Thursday they are having a price draw and its free to enter. More on that in a moment, but if you can’t wait here’s the link

http://www.complete-guide-to-website-building.com

The course, in case you haven’t already heard about it, is MASSIVE. It’s taken twelve months to put together, and is completely unique.

It’s been specially put together for people:

… who have never built a web site in their lives before…

or

… who have tried to get to grips with building websites, only to get confused and de-motivated before eventually giving up out of sheer frustration…

or

… who have previously outsourced and now want to take control of their existing website, and stop relying on costly designers who want paying every time a small change needs making…
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1.  Record how you currently spend your time to give you an idea of how you can utilise your time more effectively.

2.  Use the time log to help identify what time of the day is your “prime time” so that you can plan those more important tasks around this time.

3.  Plan Your Work.  Work Your Plan!

4.  Set a bit of time aside each evening to plan for the next day, you might;

• Check you diary to see what is coming up.
• Get your things together for that meeting you will be attending, or the presentation you will be giving the next day.
• Plan what you would like to achieve for the day and allocate times to achieve those items.

Think of it this way; that small amount of time you spend this evening will go a long way towards you feeling more in control for tomorrow.

5.  A question to ask yourself when you start something is “Why am I doing this right now”.  This will help for you to not waste your time, or another persons time.  If you are procrastinating then it will help get you back on track.
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I am learning that the number one thing in business is to make sure that we continue to grow and develop our skillset.  Life is a journey, and we can choose to do big things (bigger that we can even imagine), or stand still for the time.  As I see it, without the personal development and evaluation of myself and my business, I am not going anywhere – actually things for me will stand still… completely stagnant, or it could possibly even go backwardmaybe.  So what sort of things should we be doing?

1. Making the best use of our time
   Evaluate how we currently use our time, and how we might make even better use of our time.  Evaluate how much time we spend on planning, marketing, technical etc.  Start setting up processes and streamlining things if we haven’t already.  If we streamline those items that will come in contact with our client, then we must make sure that the service still continues to be personal to them.  Establish a routine, especially if there is a family to look after.  There are plenty of things that we might look at when we talk about making the best use of our time, hey.
   By the way – sometimes the absolute best use of our time is to take some time out to relax.  We absolutely need to schedule in some downtime so that we can refresh in readiness to get moving again.  Oh, and I find that some of the best inspirations come to me when I am relaxing!  This is something that I do struggle with this as a Mum, because I think that “Oh I should be doing this,” or “I should be doing that,” but I have to tell myself “Hey, no you don’t!  You need a rest the same as everybody else!”

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Developing a niche area can be a really good marketing tool for not just Virtual Assistants, but for all business owners.  If you haven’t already, you might like to read the article ‘What is Niche Marketing?‘ where I covered why and when business owners should establish a niche area.

This article is especially focused towards Virtual Assistants.  It provides you with a comprehensive list of  ideas for niche areas:

• Affiliate Marketers (assistance to)
• Appraisers (assistance to)
• Architects (assistance to)
• Association Management
• Authors (assistance to)
• Bankruptcy (assistance to bankruptcy firms)
• Blog Design and Maintenance
• Bookkeeping
• Business Writing
• Churches
• Coaches
• Concierge
• Conference and Event Organization
• Confidentiality (a Virtual Assistant who places special emphasis on confidentiality)
• Construction Industry
• Copywriting

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A Virtual Assistant (VA) is a highly trained independent entrepreneur who provides a multitude of administrative support services via the internet to meet the growing needs of entrepreneurs and small businesses worldwide.

Previously a Virtual Assistant (VA) might have been considered to be similar first to the office secretary, and then to the Personal Assistant (PA); the main difference being that a VA works from their own office to provide these services virtually and as a contractor.  This description and role has and continues to broaden, because Virtual Assistants around the world continue to find new and innovative ways in which they might branch out to sometimes never heard of, or never thought of areas of expertise.  Virtual Assistants have branched out to areas such as graphic design, web design, ghost writing, bookkeeping, blog design and management, shopping cart… amongst other things.  As Virtual Assistants often allow for time and funds to be put towards training and development – so many Virtual Assistants are able to offer qualifactions in the area that they market as being their ‘niche’ or specialty area.

Today virtual assistance is a widely accepted industry; it is becoming more and more mainstream and well known with each and every day.  This solution has become increasingly popular for small business owners who are too busy to get everything done on their own.  It provides small business owners with an opportunity to engage the services of a high quality assistant, without having to provide office space, a permanent wage, or other oncosts that might come with hiring an employee, permanent or casual.
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