Virtual Assistant Success

February 21, 2009 | 3 Comments

Virtual Assistants 9.5 times out of 10 are people.  People vary as much as anything when it comes to quality, reliability and performance.  Here are a few tips to make your experience with a virtual assistant better.

  1. Pay a living wage - Do not try to talk down a Virtual Assistant in price much.  If they are too high for your budget, find someone else.  I do not know many people that are happy and do a good job after a pay cut, and if you convince the virtual assitant to work for a lower rate, that is exactly what you are doing.
  2. Give Clear Directions to your Virtual Assistant - Even if the Virtual Assistant has worked on your kind of project before, give clear directions and examples of what you want as an outcome.
  3. Package Tasks - Set specific, small tasks with limited hours to complete.  Always take the time to assess the work.  If a Virtual Assistant never hears feedback, they will think they are doing an excellent job.  If you want to see some improvements it is up to you to let them know.

Virtual Assistant Success is possible, but remember they are people that are just trying to figure out what it is you want and complete it in a way that makes you happy and makes the virtual assistant money.

Posted by Ron McDaniel | Filed Under Blog 

Tags: , , , ,

Cheap Virtual Assistant

January 29, 2009 | 1 Comment

If you are doing any kind of Internet Marketing, you have your hands full.  Any given part of Internet Marketing is fairly easy, but doing everything that is needed yourself to be successful doing Internet Marketing is impossible.

You have to leverage other people’s Internet Marketing skills.

The best way to do that is to hire a reasonably priced Virtual Marketing Assistant.  Notice I did not say cheap virtual assistant.

A cheap virtual assistant might be OK for you if the tasks you have are not mission critical.

But if you want to be able to depend on someone, you need to hire a professional virtual marketing assistant that will charge enough to care about your project.  This is not cheap.  But a Virtual Marketing Assistant has several benefits over an employee.

  1. You can cancel any time, depending on the contract you work out.
  2. You can use the virtual marketing assistant when you need them.
  3. You can set clear outcomes as conditions for continuing to work with your virtual marketing assistant.
  4. No health care, no payroll taxes, no paperwork……

A virtual marketing assistant is the least risky way you can expand your Internet Marketing effort.  Just keep in mind that if you have already tried a cheap virtual assistant and you were disappointed with the results, that is not the same as working with a professional virtual marketing assistant that is charging a fair price.

Posted by Ron McDaniel | Filed Under Blog 

Tags: , , , , , ,

Virtual Assistant Business Startup

January 13, 2009 | Leave a Comment

Just Released - Get the Virtual Buzz Assistant Starter Kit.

We have combined several important resources for Virtual Assistants into one starter kit that will help you launch your Virtual Assistant business and market yourself and your virtual assistant clients online.

It also comes with a free 7 day trial of our membership site.  You will have access to our training videos, Internet Marketing eBooks and Virtual Assistant Job Leads.

We are confident when you see the membership site you will want to remain a member.  After all, one client from our site should be worth much more than the small membership fee.  And one of our members was making $3,000 a month after 2 months in the site.

[Read his testimonial]

This includes an eBook that is 30 days to launching your Virtual Assistant business - and we focus on how to get the details done and focus on revenue as quickly as possible.  If you are planning on loosing money or spending a month designing your logo, this program is NOT for you.  We want you to move to client work within the first few weeks and then continue to improve your virtual assistant website, brand and virtual assistant business after you have revenue.  [Read More]

Reblog this post [with Zemanta]

Posted by Ron McDaniel | Filed Under Blog 

Tags: , , , , , , ,

How to Start a Virtual Assistant Business

January 5, 2009 | 1 Comment

Thinking about starting a Virtual Assistant Business?

A virtual assistant business is only a little different from many other service businesses.  In fact, instead of searching for How to Start a Virtual Assistant Business, you could probably do a search on how to start a freelance writing business and get better results.  That position has been around a lot longer and there is probably a lot of great information out there that would fit for the Virtual Assistant Business as well.

Here is a list of items you need to consider if you are starting a Virtual Assistant Business.

  1. What is your specialty?  Do you have some virtual assistant skills that you are an expert in?  People will pay more per hour if you are really good at something.
  2. What do you need to set up?  Not just a website - you also need a blog, a twitter account and more things to really have good online visibility.
  3. What makes you special?  Differentiating yourself is important to earning a good wage.
  4. How will you price yourself?
  5. What packages will you offer?  People like to buy a package that is easy to understand.
  6. How will you protect yourself?  Do you set up an LLC or an S-Corp?
  7. How much should you spend on graphic design, logos, business cards, etc?
  8. How will you generate leads?  How will you close leads?

These are just some of the things you need to consider.  If you do not make fast, sound decisions you will spend too much time setting up your Virtual Assistant Business  - and you need to move to revenue generation as quickly as possible to build a viable business.

Posted by Ron McDaniel | Filed Under Blog 

Tags: , , , , ,

Marketing your Virtual Assistant Business

November 16, 2008 | Leave a Comment

10 Tips on Marketing your Virtual Assistant Business

  1. Blog - You should start a free blog at Wordpress.com and Blogger.com - And you should learn how to set up a blog, customize the template and launch a blog for clients.  Don’t write about your virtual assistant trials and tribulations.  Write about what clients are looking for.
  2. Networking - People are more likely to hire you if they meet you in person, even if you are going to be working virtually.
  3. Email - Build an email list by offering a free download and use auto responders to build a relationship and market your virtual assistant services.
  4. LinkedIn - Put up a professional profile and solicit testimonials for your virtual assistant business.
  5. Freelance Sites - Sure the competition is rough, but use freelance websites like eLance and oDesk every day.
  6. Business Cards - Have nice business cards designed and carry them everywhere.  You never know when you will meet someone that needs your virtual assistant services.
  7. Make it easy to contact you - You should not have a single webpage, blog, email or any other form of communication that does not make it super easy to find out about your virtual assistant business and how to contact you.
  8. Communities - Find a good online community or two where entrepreneurs are hanging out.  Use the community to learn about business while promoting your va business.
  9. Referrals - Ask for referrals from vendors, happy customers and friends.  Ideally they know people that are interested in a virtual assistant to help them grow their business.
  10. Meet someone new every day - Set a goal to communicate with someone new every day.  It could be a quick email, a phone call or in person at an event.  You must mention your virtual assistant business.  The only rule here is that you make a new connection every day.  Note that if you meet 20 people today, you cannot move the other 19 forward.  Tomorrow you still need to meet someone new.

This is just some basic tips on marketing your virtual assistant business.  It does not even get into the complexity of advertising, PPC or SEO.  But this is a list of things that anyone can start doing to market their vb business quickly with little or no cost.

Posted by Ron McDaniel | Filed Under Blog 

Tags: , ,

Small Business Blogs - BlogCatalog Blog Directory