The VA Resource – Featured eBiz & New Resources Coming

I have some exciting news to share from The VA Resource.

The first bit of news.  A few weeks ago, I submitted The VA Resource to be considered as a featured eBiz on an incredible blog I recently found and now follow called LearnIt2EarnIt.  Well, check it out!  The VA Resource is the featured eBiz on the home page!

LearnIt2EarnIt is owned by Lynn Brown, who I recently connected with via a common contact in the online business world.  Lynn and I have exchanged some fantastic dialogue and I’ve been working my way through her website resources as well as her blog content.  If you’re serious about developing your online business presence, I highly recommend visiting Lynn’s site .  She shares her knowledge and insight based on ten years of experience helping online businesses grow.  You can access her content-rich packed blog via the link on the top left of her home page.  You will NOT believe the amount of f*ree resources she posts.

My second piece of BIG news regarding The VA Resource is that my web designer (Jen Puckett with Jenz Virtual Office – can’t recommend her enough if you have any website design needs, big or small!!!) is currently working on my new Virtual Assistant business resource page for my VA colleagues looking to be a “Social Media Savvy” superstar!  I can’t wait for the site to be live.  All the tools you need to develop a comprehensive and AWESOME content development marketing strategy as well as a ton of simply savvy tools to manage multiple social media marketing campaigns simultaneously without missing a beat!  I’ll make an announcement as soon as my site is up and running.

BeMyVA.com Founding Member!

If you haven’t heard of BeMyVA.com, it’s a BRAND new directory for virtual assistants.  I was excited about the new site from the start and followed the pre-launch activity closely.  As a result, Effective Virtual Assistance, LLC is a founding business member and has had several articles published on the site already.  A couple of weeks ago, I was contacted by the CEO of BeMyVA, John Palmer.  We had a terrific conversation and he asked if I would be interested in being a contributing training resource member listed under my site TheVAResource.com (where new virtual assistants can find a huge collection of business start-up and marketing documents).  The training module is a work in progress and I’m excited to be a part of it from the ground floor.  I will be promoting TheVAResource.com through the submission of articles on the site as well as providing direct feedback to the owners.

If you are a small business owner looking for a virtual assistant with specific expertise, I encourage you to check out the listings on BeMyVA.com.  Of course, if I can be of assistance, please let me know!  Effective Virtual Assistance provides virtual business support to small business owners who need more time to focus on revenue generating activities.

If you are a virtual assistant, BeMyVA is a great place to list your business.  The owners have big plans for the site, and already you’ll notice some unique features.  For example, there is a “clicks” reward system.  For activities as simple as, for example, participating in conversations on the member forum, you earn clicks.  The more clicks you have, the higher up your listing will appear in the search results.  So stay tuned as the site membership grows and features are added.

The VA Resource End of Summer Bonuses!

Summer may be coming to an end but there is still something to get excited about! It’s the The VA Resource End of Summer Bonus Time!  Receive 2 additional bonuses with every sale now through Labor Day!

What do you get?  If you aren’t familiar with QRGs, or Quick Reference Guides, now is a great time to become acquainted.  A QRG is a one-page, handy, information packed resource document.  I have included 2 terrific QRGs in the end of summer bonus time.

The first one is titled: Electronic Survey Essentials.  From my four years of experience developing surveys and analyzing data, you’ll gain insight into easy yet highly effective tips for creating surveys and writing survey questions.

The next one is called: Process, Systems & Organization Best Practices for Your VA Biz.  In this QRG I share simple yet realistic best practices you can implement right away!  So don’t delay!  These bonuses will only be available for a limited time.  Head on over to The VA Resource NOW.

*Note, the bonuses will automatically be included with the download of each package.

The VA Resource WIIFM #5 & Final – Focusing on Growth and Billable Hours!

As Virtual Assistants, we market the importance of outsourcing tasks that take the focus away from value-add and revenue generating activities.  A better business solution is to hire a virtual assistant to complete those tasks!  We enable our clients to commit themselves to working on the business and not in it.  Well, the same concept applies to virtual assistants!

In order to build and grow your virtual assistant business, there are several key areas you must focus on.  I’ll name three big ones that have been critical to the success of my business.  One: Building relationships with your network to earn business and referrals.  Two: Building trust and reliability with your existing clients through customer service, quality and follow through.   Three: Connecting and developing your business and personal brand with your target market.  As my business has grown, the time it takes to focus on developing these three areas has increased.  There are only so many hours in the day!  As a result, during times of overflow I may outsource certain tasks in order to give myself the time to focus on critical business growth activities.

When you start a virtual assistant business, before you can focus on building your network, developing relationships, finding clients and marketing, you need to establish your administrative and marketing systems and processes.  Those systems and processes will require documents and templates.  Developing documents and templates will take time.  The time you dedicate to this task could be better spent focusing on growing your business!  Well, I have good news!  There are many virtual assistants who have already developed best practices, documents and resources that you can take advantage of!   If you are starting a virtual assistant business and want to spend more time focused on growing your business and billable hours, the BEST collection of virtual assistant startup, networking and marketing documents and tools are found at The VA Resource.

Wondering what in the world is WIIFM?  Find out here.

The VA Resource WIIFM #4 – Saving Money!!

As I watch the news these days, I can’t help but think what an amazing time to be a virtual assistant.  My target market is local small business and every time I meet a business owner at a networking event, the comments I hear after explaining what I do reinforce that thought.  As a virtual assistant, we have the opportunity to present a cost effective business solution to small business owners who are struggling to get ahead in this economy.  The number of benefits a virtual assistant can bring to the table continues to grow as the economic outlook continues to look unfavorable.  As a result, more and more smart, savvy professionals are starting their own virtual assistant practices.  I don’t view this as competition.  As a matter of fact, it’s just the opposite for me.  As my virtual assistant connections grow across my social networking channels, I have the opportunity to learn from a larger pool of expertise these new VAs bring to the table.  There is plenty of work to go around!

Starting a virtual assistant business can be done on a “shoestring” budget.  When I started my business, I didn’t have much capital to work with so I did my share of research before making any investment.  Aside from my computer, the biggest investments I made were joining networking groups that gave me access to sample business tools and documents with paid membership.  I won’t say that I regret those investments, but I will say that there is no reason it should cost hundreds of dollars to access quality business documents and templates.  I also spent a lot of time customizing the templates and in many cases, just started from scratch to create my own version.  So take advantage of my experience and my opinion that it shouldn’t cost a lot to access professional and customizable documents for your virtual assistant business!

Wondering what in the world is WIIFM?  Find out here.

The VA Resource WIIFM #3 – Simply put…saving time!

One of the catch phrases I have used at networking events since 2008 that typically gets a lot of attention is, “Giving the small business owner more time to focus on core business and revenue generating activities.”  This is attractive to any small business owner because we all know there are just never enough hours in the day.  Hiring a virtual assistant gives the small business owner leverage to complete more tasks in less time.  Ultimately this is equivalent to having more hours in the day!  Who couldn’t use that!

As a virtual assistant, we aren’t making money unless we’re billing clients.  When you start a virtual assistant business, the last thing you need to do is to spend a lot of precious time drafting, formatting and tweaking your business documentation and templates.   No worries, I’ve got you covered!  When I decided to package my essential business documents and tools, I made sure I included all the resources I relied on heavily when I first began my virtual assistant business as well as the ones I refer to on a regular basis now that my business is established and successful.

When I was in the corporate world, I documented business processes for various departments at several different companies.  I’m a highly organized person and I enjoy that kind of work!  I learned along the way that the most effective business process is one that can be used repeatedly and is scalable to allow for growth.  I kept that in mind when I developed my own business systems, documents and tools.  Therefore as my business grew, there was very little change I needed to make to my systems and processes.  WIIFM?  I save time EACH and EVERY day by having effective and efficient business systems aligned with documents and templates that function for a variety of clients with very little customization needed.  Sound good?  If the answer is YES then don’t delay!  Make a SMALL investment that will be a BIG time save as you earn your place as a successful virtual assistant!  Visit The VA Resource today!

Wondering what in the world is WIIFM?  Find out here.

The VA Resource WIIFM #2 – You do NOT need to re-create the wheel

When you start a new business, you have a LOT on your plate.  The first of many steps should be to write your business plan.  Even if you don’t need a business plan to secure funding, putting it down on paper serves many purposes.  To name a few, your business plan helps organize your ideas, outline your vision and goals, identify your target market, determine your start-up costs, and develop a marketing plan.  As I state in the title of this post, you do NOT need to re-create the wheel when it comes to your business plan.  There are many great resources online.  The one I really like walks you step by step through your business plan.  It is offered by SBA.gov and you can find it here.

As a virtual assistant, your clients will depend on you to be organized, efficient, proactive and thorough.  These are just a few of the components that will align you as a critical value-add service to your clients.  So the question is, what do you need to do to get into that position?  First and foremost, you need your own business systems set up to keep your daily administrative tasks to a minimum.  This will give you time to focus on prospecting for new clients and building the relationship with existing clients.  The business systems you put in place will require various documents and resources that you will rely on every day as you build and grow your business.  I am here to tell you that you do NOT need to re-create the wheel trying to develop your own business documents, templates, marketing materials and resources from scratch!  With a little research, you can find many websites that offer business documents for virtual assistants.  What you want is a core set of materials that you can incorporate into your business systems and processes immediately.  You want products that won’t require a lot of re-work to make them ready to use and by all means, you want to get the most for your money!

I started my virtual assistant practice over three years ago.  I did the research, filtered out the unnecessary fluff and used my experience documenting business processes to come up with a fine-tuned  set of simple, replicable and repeatable tools to keep my day-to-day operations running smoothly.  Now I’m offering these resources to you!  I have purposely priced my start-up packages with the new virtual assistant in mind.  Why do I offer such a comprehensive set of materials at such an incredible price?  For one, I love what I do and know there are a lot of people out there with the drive to start a virtual assistant business who just don’t know where to start.  I also understand that most of us who start a virtual assistant business want to make it happen with minimal overhead and smart investments.

So what are you waiting for?  You won’t find a comprehensive set of essential business documents for your virtual assistant business at such a low price anywhere else!  Head on over to The VA Resource to see all the great documents and tools included the The Virtual Assistant Business Essentials packages.

Wondering what in the world is WIIFM?  Find out here.

Taking Your Online Business Up a Notch…Seriously This Works

Have you ever wished that you could have a step-by-step blueprint to create the business of your dreams? You know what I’m talking about. A business that allows you to create quality information products for your market. One that makes money for you even after you’ve moved on to the next info product on your list.

And wouldn’t it be great if that ‘blueprint’ didn’t cost you an arm, leg or your first born AND it actually did what it said it would do for your business?

Boy, do I have good news for you today!

My highly successful friend (we’re talking a six figure income here), Nicole Dean, has finally opened the doors to her much anticipated (I’ve waited for this for years) membership course that will take you behind the scenes of her very own business and show you how to make money online with your information product.

She’s offering to show you exactly what she does, why she does it & how to apply it to your own business for only $10 per month.

Nicole doesn’t do anything half-assed so you can expect high-quality, timely information directly applicable to your business model.

This isn’t an easy solution to all your marketing problems, but if you put in the effort & apply (read: DO) the lessons each month then you will see growth in your income.

In her own words:
“After a lot of sleepless nights, here’s what I finally discovered and what I’m going to share with you: To make money with your information products, you have to do the RIGHT things – and at the RIGHT times. And I’m going to show you what those “right things” are.: ~Nicole Dean

I don’t know about you but if I had someone offering to show me what to do and when then I’d get off my keister and get signed up pronto.

Wanna know what you’ll get when you sign up? Well, I’m glad you asked!

==> Immediate Access To The Monthly Lesson with Case Studies

==> Ask Nicole – Yep! You can email Nicole your questions about the lessons & she’ll answer them.

==> She’ll help recruit affiliates for you via her FreeAffiliateArticles.com site.

What are you waiting for? Get your exclusive access today here.

P.S. I really don’t know how long she’ll keep the price at $10/mo, so don’t dilly-dally.

 

The VA Resource: WIIFM?

I’m excited to kick off The VA Resource WIIFM campaign!  If you’re asking yourself “what is WIIFM?”, it stands for “What’s In It For Me?”  Over the next couple of weeks I’ll be explaining in detail the value and benefit of the Virtual Assistant Business Essentials packages offered at The VA Resource.  If you are a virtual assistant, the first WIIFM answer is…I created these packages with YOU in mind!  Visit my site and you’ll see just what an incredible value you receive when you purchase one of the Professional, Customizable and Affordable packages.  Whether you’re a new virtual assistant or an established virtual assistant needing to develop or streamline business systems and processes, you’ll find these resources are the perfect place to start!

Creating A Facebook Welcome Page – It’s Easy with the Right Tools!

As an advocate for incorporating Social Media in order to develop an effective small business marketing campaign I knew that when I published my new site, The VA Resource which offers a HUGE collection of essential business templates and tools for virtual assistants – I would need a Facebook page.   The process of creating a Facebook page is not very complicated.  If you need some assistance on the basic setup, I have included a free copy of my Quick Reference Guide to Creating a Facebook Page for Business.

When I published a Facebook page for my Virtual Assistant service business, I actually hired someone to create a welcome page.   You can see it here. While I feel strongly that a good business practice for most small businesses is to hire someone to manage tasks take time away from building and growing your business (little plug for the Virtual Assistant Profession), sometimes I stray from that “rule of thumb”.  For example, I recently came across the website Wix.com.  Wix is an online tool that literally walks you through creating professional, refreshing, flash enabled websites – without any coding!  In addition to websites, you can also use Wix to build a Facebook Welcome Page – for FREE!  If you want access to other critical elements for a website such as a domain name, hosting plans and an expanded list of features on top of the incredibly easy to use design interface, you need to upgrade to one of their very reasonable premium packages.  Now, since I love to learn new business tools and I especially love a challenge, I decided to jump in and create my own welcome page this time for my site, The VA Resource.

I started by selecting a template specifically designed for Facebook welcome pages – this is very important!!  From there, I chose my background design and color.  The template I selected included a few elements I didn’t need so with a couple of clicks they were deleted.  I was truly amazed at how easy it was!  In order to add or edit an area on the page, I simply clicked on the element, selected a command (i.e. edit, crop, link) and made my changes.  To add a new element to the page, such as a picture, a fancy element, or a widget, I only had to drag and drop the option right into my page.  I would then edit the element to fit the page and match the design.  There weren’t very many clipart options in the free version so in order to have a wider selection, I probably needed to upgrade.  However, for my first project utilizing this tool I opted to stick with the free version.  It was very straight forward; and I was pleased by how easy it was to create the “flash” elements.

The overall experience using Wix to create my Facebook page was very rewarding.  You can see my finished product here.  “Like” my page while you’re there!  I can definitely see myself using this tool again for my future business needs, although I may upgrade next time.  The fact that you don’t need any coding to develop a professional looking site is key to saving time, money and frustration.  Their selection of templates is also impressive.  I have looked at the templates in many other programs, including Microsoft Office Live Small Business where I host my virtual services site, Effective Virtual Assistance, and they just don’t compare.  You can learn a lot more about Wix here.

If you have any experience with Wix, or my article inspires you to try it, I’d love to hear from you!  Post a comment and let me know the positives and negatives you encountered!  Know about another great free tool?  Post that as well!

***AUTHOR BIO***

Katie Bauer is the owner of Effective Virtual Assistance and TheVAResource.com.  E.V.A. partners with small businesses locally and nationally giving business owners the time they need to focus on core business and revenue generating activities.  With a firm belief that the success of a client is our success, we are highly motivated to go above and beyond with each and every project.

The VA Resource is the best place on the web to find essential business documents and templates that will create a SOLID foundation for your virtual assistant business.  You will not find a collection of templates and tools that you can put to use immediately anywhere else on the web, and at an incredibly affordable price!

NEW!  The VA Resource Shop – Offering Simple, Customizable and Affordable Business Forms and Templates: http://effectiveva.com/EVAResourceShop.aspx

Website: http://www.effectiveva.com

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