January has always been a good time for many of us to setup goals and marketing plans for the coming year. One of our main goals for 2011 is to increase our value and benefits to clients.  This will include finding and connecting clients with the latest technologies that allow them to increase productivity, and reduce their involvement in the day-to-day tasks that keep them from moving their business to the next level.  And equally as important, allowing them to implement those tasks that sit on the back-burner because no-one has the time to follow-through on them.

I recently spent some time with a client of three years who wanted to see if there were other ways we may be able to support them. They were pleasantly surprised that I was able to suggest new technologies and processes that could not only save them money, and increase productivity, but that required minimal support from either Accurate Business Services, or in-house staff. By sharing my knowledge and experience I was able to increase the value of our working relationship and create cost-effective ways to accomplish their goals whether or not they needed us to implement them.

They could now see how partnering with us benefitted their bottom-line.  We are now both excited to be moving their business forward in a manner that creates a win-win.  If we don’t help make them more successful, why would they need us long-term?

Many of my prospects don’t see the need to work with a Virtual Assistant when they already have and employ in-house staff.  Sometimes in-house staff sees the VA as someone who is poised to take their job.  That’s just not what our relationship is about.

We work with a number of clients who employ full-time staff, or in-house support shared by a number of people.  Working with a Virtual Assistant allows you access to resources they don’t have access to, and professional assistance in times when your in-house staff is overwhelmed and the added expense of training, taxes and benefits, make a temp person an ineffective and overly costly option. Because we work with clients nationwide, we can also share our successes in many business and marketing situations. Why re-invent the wheel?

Still not sure a virtual professional is right for you – find one or two projects you could delegate to a VA, and give it a try – look at www.ivaa.org and check out their Directory, or submit an RFP (Request for Proposal) and see what happens.  Or contact us for a no-obligation complimentary 30-minute consultation to see if working with a VA is right for you.

Once you experience the freedom and professional support, I’m sure you’ll agree there are some distinct advantages to working with a VA.

Wishing you and yours a happy, healthy and prosperous 2011! Let’s work together to increase your success.

Jeannine Clontz, IVAA CVA, MVA, EthicsChecked™, provides marketing and social media support, training and consulting to busy entrepreneurs. For information about finding a VA, download her FREE 10-Step Guide to Finding the Right VA, or to learn why Social Media should be an important part of your marketing plan with her FREE Report, Social Media Marketing Benefits, visit: http://www.accbizsvcs.com, or contact her at info@accbizsvsc.com

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I was looking through a magazine and stumbled upon something I hadn’t seen in years, a glass piggybank.  I recall the first such bank I received when I opened my first savings account.  It forced me to continue to save because I didn’t want to ‘break’ it until it was completely full, or I had enough to purchase something I really wanted.  My eyes were always on the prize.

By the ‘80’s piggybanks had changed; they had stoppers in the bottom to remove money whenever you wanted. By not having to keep adding to your savings until you’d reached your goal, many times they were never met.  The bank became a place to gather loose change and such, but it took away the demand, if you will, that you reach a goal or lose it all, by having to ‘break the bank’.

It makes me think about my business goals in somewhat the same way.  I have to find ways of making myself accountable to reaching the goals I’ve set.  Last year, I setup several reminders to check in on my 2010 goals. When I got the first reminder, I realized, – YIKES, now where did I put those goals? J  I was not focused on reaching them.

It’s difficult when you’re the boss, isn’t it?  How can we set goals and make ourselves accountable for the goals we need to keep our businesses afloat in these challenging times?

First, take a look at what types of goals you might want to set for yourself.  Some to consider might include:

• Sales/income
• Number of new clients
• New equipment/software
• Knowledge-based achievements (certifications; classes)
• Adding staff or sub-contractors

As you can see, there are many types of goals you can set for your business.  I usually try and have three to four of these areas covered in my yearly goals; that way, if one seems to be lacking, I can transition more time and effort into making that particular goal a priority, or adjust it to give myself a clearer way to achieve it.

I think the next most important thing is to put it in writing – something about memorializing it makes it seem more attainable, and real.  You might even consider sharing your yearly goals with a colleague or peer and ask them to check in with you several times a year to make sure you’re on track to achieving them.

Equally as important is making sure that you don’t beat yourself up if you don’t attain a particular goal.  Goals are something you are aspiring to achieve; they should help you be accountable for where you want your business to go.

2008 was a perfect example of that for me.  I was right on track with my sales/income and new client goals for 2008, right until the stock market crashed in October.  Suddenly, everything changed.  By the end of the year, several goals had not been met.

I rewarded myself for those goals I did achieve, took stock of those I didn’t, and tried to understand why; then I realigned my goals for 2009 and again for 2010, to offset these changes, and added several new categories of goals that will help me keep my business on track and growing.

Goals are meant to inspire you and invoke you into taking action.  Don’t let them bring you down if you don’t achieve them; re-adjust them. Find a cheerleader, someone who will help you stay on track with your goals, but will also encourage you and help you see the positive changes and growth you have experienced.

I am pleased to say I exceeded my 2009 goals and I look forward to a prosperous 2010 and achieving my goals.  Re-invent yourself and keep making deposits in your unbreakable piggybank of growth.  Stay positive and watch what happens.

Jeannine Clontz, owner of Accurate Business Services, a VA practice, is an author, writer, speaker and VA Business Coach specializing in providing professional business coaching to established and start-up virtual assistants (VA’s).  For her FREE audio CD “What’s Holding Back my Business Success?” or a 2-month trial in her group coaching program visit:  http://www.VAbizcoach.com; or contact her at: coach@VAbizcoach.com.

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Is ‘Geek’ the new ‘Cool’?

Resources
South by Southwest

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Tis the season for conferences and I’d like to get your objectives on why you attend the conferences you do.

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I stole borrowed my son’s Mino to talk about it… did I think it lived up to the hype? Hmmm….

Resources:
Jamie’s Blog – Blog Jamie Blog
Flip Mino – on Amazon
Flip Ultra – on Amazon

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Many people struggle to answer this question.  Sometimes referred to as your elevator speech, or infomercial, having a smooth and easy to understand response will really go far in helping people to know who you are and what you have to offer.

Here are five things to consider in crafting your 60-second infomercial:

1. Who is your target market?  While I can open my infomercial by saying, “although I have clients in almost every industry…” – you still want to focus on your niche or target market to help people think of who they know that could benefit from your services.  If you’re still not sure, analyze your current client list and see if there is a particular industry, or type of client that seems most logical to your offerings.
2. What problems does your target market have that you can solve?  Keep it simple.  Come up with one or two things – don’t overdo it – less is more!
3. How do you solve these problems?  Again, don’t come up with a laundry list of products/services, just enough to whet the appetite so they’ll want to find out more.
4. Mention something specific that speaks to results, like: ‘many of my clients say their sales increased at least 20% as a result of working with us’.
5. End with either a memorable tagline, or a question – like – ‘is that something that might be of interest to you or someone you know?’

Once you have it setup, print it out and practice it (and time yourself) several times until you have it pretty well memorized.  You don’t want to come off sounding too scripted, but you will need to get comfortable with all the aspects so that you’re sure to hit all the points you need to in your time allotment.

Once you have this mastered, you will want to cut the content even more, for a true elevator speech – which is usually only 30-seconds in length.

Finally, especially if you attend networking events regularly, you will want to have several different versions for answering the questions numbered two, three, and four above.  This gives people the opportunity to hear more about the additional services/products you provide.  If you only talk about one specific product or service, they’ll believe that’s all you offer and you could be leaving potential sales on the table.

With a little bit of work, and practice, you’ll have the perfect 60-second infomercial that helps people immediately recognize what it is you do, and who they need to refer to you.  Word of mouth marketing is the most cost-effective way to market your business.  The infomercial is the best tool to close the sale!

Jeannine Clontz, owner of Accurate Business Services, a VA practice, is an author, writer, speaker and VA Business Coach specializing in providing professional business coaching to established and start-up virtual assistants (VA’s).  For her FREE audio CD “What’s Holding Back my Business Success?” or a 2-month trial in her group coaching program visit: http://www.VAbizcoach.com; or contact her at: coach@VAbizcoach.com.

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Well, it finally happened. I have migrated my mobile phone experience from a Windows-based smartphone (T-Mobile Dash) to Apple’s iPhone 3GS. Partly because my Dash was over 2 years old and acting up a bit, partly because I turned 50 last month and my husband surprised me with a trip to the AT&T store, and partly because I just wanted to see for myself what all the fuss was about. One thing you may not know about me is that I’ve been a Microsoft fangirl from way back, so making the switch to an Apple mobile device was something I’ve resisted up until now.  Overall, I’m really having a fun time with my new iPhone. It’s definitely different. The whole touchscreen thing is new to me and I’m slowly getting used to it. At first I really missed having buttons, but now…not so much. I was also worried about not knowing how the AT&T cell service in my area would be compared to the awesome T-Mobile cell service was, but fear not… it’s just as great.

The first thing I noticed was that it is physically bigger than the Dash. That’s OK. The feature that has put me over-the-top in love with the iPhone from the very beginning is the screen size (aka workspace). Holy Moly! Where have you been all my life?!?!

Something I discovered that you can easily do is to add a new desktop icon to your favorite websites, thus completely customizing your iPhone to access the sites you most commonly visit. While you’re on any webpage in the browser on your iPhone, click on the plus sign and select Add To Home Screen. OMG!

And can I just go on the record to say that the web browsing experience is FAR superior to that on my T-Mobile Dash.  Since this is not a Dash-bashing post, I’ll simply say that my iPhone will not strictly be a mobile tool for me to get my email anymore. It’s so much more. Plus, I do understand that there’s a new T-Mobile Dash on the market, however… the call of the iPhone was too strong for me to ignore. Dang it! I just wanted one, OK!!?

The other thing I love is the application store. I feel like someone handed me a credit card and told me to shop-till-I drop. There are free apps a-plenty to choose from. While I’m not a big fan of using iTunes, I’ll suck it up as I walk down each virtual aisle and get to pick and choose what bling I want to get for my new toy business tool. Finding new applications is fun, but a bit time-consuming. I have always been a huge fan of “top 10″ and “Best of” types of articles, so Mashable has become my new BFF when looking for iPhone application lists. I’m having a lot of fun exploring the applications for social networking, too. These make it really easy to interact with the various social networks away from my computer.

Since this is my first iPhone blog post here, I’d like to share an application that has me as excited as my puppy gets when he thinks I have a treat in my hands — the Facebook for iPhone 3.0. All I can say is WOW! I’m in Facebook Business Page heaven. Forget about looking at my Facebook profile, it’s the integration with Pages that has me seeing stars.  Just days before it became available, I read an article about the new version of this application and couldn’t wait until it was approved. While there are some missing features that people are wanting, I’m quite happy with the new functionality to work with the Facebook Pages I’m an admin for.

Other social networking applications I’ve installed and are exploring are TwitterFon, Nambu, LinkedIn, and Wordpress (Thank you, Mashable!). I’m also exploring various ways to work with my ping.fm account, including something I just found called Pingle.

In upcoming blog posts I’ll be exploring more of these social applicatons and more, then sharing my experiences with you.

What about you? Any iPhone users out there that have an application you’ve discovered that makes you all giddy or gives you that warm fuzzy feeling inside? I’d love to hear from you!

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Now I have heard of everything.

Did you see the headlines today on how the bank foreclosed on the wrong house???

How would you feel if you paid your mortgage on time every month, get a knock on your door from the police telling you that you have to get out? Not in a month or even a week, but NOW!

This poor woman was kicked out of her house, all of her personal belongings were scattered across the front long for all to see all for a innocent mistake. She had to go to court to prove she was not delinquent on her house payment.

I know that it was just a mistake and things happen, but I was floored when I read this.

The article states that the wrong doing was done at the local County Clerks Office but all I can say to this is, if you had a Virtual Assistant working with you, this probably wouldn’t have happened.

You can read the full article here http://www.nbcmiami.com/news/local-beat/Womans-House-Mistakenly-Auctioned-by-Bank-53583357.html?yhp=1

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When you have more than 2 contractors who are working with you and working with your clients, who are depending on you to provide their livelihood; you have a Multi-VA business.

For the past 5 years, I have been managing my Multi-VA company, AnotherME.  I didn’t start out with the intention of growing a Multi-VA business.  Originally I had a business partner, and we shared all of the business tasks like marketing, bookkeeping and client sales; along with sharing the client workload.  When we both recognized that the business had grown and our goals for the business were not the same… it was time to dissolve the partnership.  (that’s another topic for a blog!)

The first thing you need is a good… no, make that a great bookkeeper.  Once I gave up the tedious task of billing, collecting and paying all the contractors – I was free to start generating new business and working with my client base.  I still have control.  I see every timesheet, every invoice and sign all the checks that go out!  I get monthly reports from my bookkeeper and we email the QuickBooks file back and forth.  So I always have an up-to- date copy!  As a business owner, you have to make that leap and get over your fear of losing control!

If you are just starting out and have a few contractors, now is the time to develop some basic systems, processes and forms that you can use on a regular basis.  These will become your foundation as you grow your business.

Forms – Create a client information sheet, a VA checklist for client tasks, a Contractor Service Agreement and a Client Service Agreement.  Don’t feel pressured to spend a lot of money.  There are many resources online for Service Agreements and contracts.  Find something that works for you, but expect to make changes as your business grows.

Systems/Processes – I recommend you start out right with Quickbooks for your invoicing, tracking and payments. You can get a copy of QuickBooks at Costco or Sam’s Club.  We also use a time sheet system called EZtime by TimeRewards.  This was recommended by my CPA because it ‘syncs up’ the time sheets and the work descriptions with Quickbooks.  (easy payments, easy invoicing…all in one place)  There are several other systems out there – FreshBooks, BaseCamp,etc.   Just find a bookkeeping system that will scale and grow with your business.  If you have to pay a little right now – it’s worth it in the end.  It will be less hassle when you upgrade or outgrow the “freebie”.

Communication is the KEY to managing your Multi-VA contractors and your clients.  I recommend emailing, calling or IM’ing with your contractors at least once a week.  That communication will help you develop good relationships and give you insights into your contractor’s abilities …and loyalties.  I stay in touch on a regular basis with all of my VA’s.  They can call or email me anytime with questions, problems (business and personal) or ideas.  They are free to communicate with the bookkeeper when they have questions about payments or need help with the Time sheet system.  The bookkeeper also communicates with the contractors if she has questions about their time sheets!  We work as a team.  With 14 VA’s scattered throughout the US, I started doing conference calls with my team.   We use FreeConferenceCall.com and everyone dials in.  It’s just another way to communicate and develop your Multi-VA team.
Create a Virtual Assistant profile of the type of contractor you want to hire in your business.  Just like an employer creates a job description or a recruiter has an “ideal candidate profile”.  This is critical.  Too many chiefs and not enough Indians will cause problems down the road.
And the last, but most important tip – be prepared to change. And then change again!  You’ll find that once you get it all figured out, your business will start growing; and then you’ll have to change.  And that’s a good thing!   Having your own Multi-VA business and managing (working with) a team of  professional women is rewarding and worthwhile!  I wouldn’t have it any other way!

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If you’re a geeky gyrl but no fan of baseball, hang on a sec. There may be untapped opportunity for you on or near the diamond. And if you ARE a baseball fan, how fun would it be to be able to list a minor league franchise on your roster?

This summer I’ve been able to enjoy all of my son’s minor league games with the Orem Owlz live not because I am independently wealthy and able to follow him around the Pioneer League but because of all the technical constructs in place to deliver the game experience to fans in faraway places.

I can listen to every game for free, delivered via streaming audio. Not only that, I can get each day’s lineup as soon as it’s posted in the clubhouse via Twitter. I can see photos and video by visiting the team website and on their FaceBook page and over at Flickr. During the game, a live chatroom is open (again, all free) to anyone, so I can login there as soon as the announcer begins his pregame interview, and can interact with fans who are in Florida, Canada, Texas, and New York, or even with those who are in the stands since the ball park offers wifi.

In Rookie League ball, aka short season, the staff is friendly and accessible, and each person wears several hats. Visiting the stadium last week, I met the General Manager, the owners, the director of marketing, and numerous other friendly folks. Since the same person is in charge of producing prerecorded content and announcing the game live, interacting with fans in the chat room, and tweeting the game, you can quickly see that this one guy is spread very thin. This is where we geeky types come in.

There are jobs available to make all of this happen in minor league baseball, and you don’t have to go through the Major League front office to get them!

If your set of tech skills is a good match, you might be able to drum up some business for yourself in Minor League baseball. Here’s how to find the people you’ll need to talk to:

Go to http://mlb.com.

In the horizontal navigation bar, select “team sites,” and then pick any team listed there. For this example, go down the American League column and select the Los Angeles Angels. Now, in the nav bar, move your cursor over “roster” and scroll down to “minor league affiliates.”

in the case of the Angels, that will show you that they have minor league teams in the Dominican Republic, Tempe Arizona, Orem Utah, Cedar Rapids Iowa, Rahcho Cucamonga California, Little Rock Arkansas and Salt Lake City Utah. You can see the address and phone number of each of these affiliates, or click on one of the logos to go to that MiLB team’s website.

The higher up the team is in the system, the more tricky it is to gain access to the owners and staff info. But here’s the info on getting a job in MiLB via the 2009 Job Fair. And visiting the Rancho Cucamonga Quakes site, clicking on “Quakes Info” you can find out the name of all the office staff (no emails) and even a job openings listing.

Clicking on the Arkansas Travelers site’s “about” link, on the other hand, gives you names and email for every one working in that club.

So, fan or not, there are technical opportunities within Minor League Baseball. And, despite our sluggish economy, you can visit one of these ballparks near you this summer and see firsthand evidence that MiLB is doing it up right by charging fair prices for admission and food. Maybe your next client will be one of these teams!

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