Moving Ahead in the New Year!

The new year has arrived and the first official Monday is tomorrow! Are you ready to make a difference in your life and business this year? Not that you have not made a difference every year but a new bigger difference this year!

The roll over of the annual calendar allows us all to make changes, updates, new commitments and face the past challenges head on.

This is the time to find ways to Move Past and Move Ahead of it all. If you have not sat down and made a list of what worked last year, what did not work last year, what changes you would like to see happen this year, what people you would like to connect with this year - it is not too late!

Take a moment to review your logo, your website message (your tag line and the direction the message is being delivered), your meta tags, your keywords - be sure your branding is in line with where you want your business to be going! Sometimes we start out with our branding in once place and after a few years (or maybe even a few months) the direction or mission has slightly changed but your branding has not been updated. Updating your branding to be sure the most current direction of your company is being relayed is vital to your growth! You want to continually connect with your target market right? Stay up to date!

There are several Virtual Assistants that specialize in niches like this - they can assist business owners who might not have enough time to go through all of the changes. There are VA’s that assist in keeping your SEO up to date and continually adding to your key words and meta tags so you stay on top! Last but not least there are Marketing Strategists that can help you from point A to point Z in putting it all together!

Remember there are Virtual Assistants and Strategists out here to help you… if you are interested in getting a couple of referrals, please contact me and I would be happy to make a connection!

The Power of the Unsubscribe Button! {advice from a bystander}

Do you find yourself getting too many email newsletters, updates and blasts from people out there? Do you sit wondering “why did I sign up for this?” or “Oh this is not what I thought it was?” or even “I did not give this person the right to email me!” ? With so many business out there focusing on internet marketing and building lists it s no wonder that you end up a a few of them.

It is likely some are very valuable to you and some are not. Some you just joined the “list” to get the free offer that was available, he he he.

The question is what do you do now with all of these coming into your email account? First of all STOP using your main email account to sign up for promotions - create a free Gmail account or Yahoo account to accept those. I prefer Gmail because of all of the filters and automatic actions you can have it do ~ if you would like more specific strategy information on using a dummy account contact me and I can give you more…

BUT what I want to focus on are emails that you feel “you get too many from this certain person”, you “feel they are too focused on just selling their products and not contributing” or you “feel you never asked to be on their list”. It is very easy to report them as spammers yes, and for some that fall into these three categories it might be warranted but when you think about it they are just trying to make it. By reporting someone as a spammer you really mess them up… their email management account can be shut down and worse yet they can loose their entire database. Is it worth doing that to someone just because they are bugging you? I say no.. it is just as easy to push the unsubscribe button! Some people will email back “Please Remove Me” but understand if the one in control of that account does not remove you correctly you can be imported again and back to getting emails.

As someone who manages several client’s email management accounts on several different platforms it is much appreciated when you just choose to unsubscribe. You might think, well they can see my name and that I unsubscribed - Yes They Can, oh well - they have to understand you do not want their information any longer, it is your choice. In reality if you are just trashing their blasts any ways you are not a true customer and their count is not accurate. Also if you take control and push the unsubscribe button you are blocking them from just importing your name in later down the road - you would have to personally sign up again to get their info!

Unsubscribing can be helpful to the marketer or the leader that is doing the blasting…when you unsubscribe use the comments area to let them know why you are unsubscribing. If you think they are pushing for a sale too much, sending out nonsense, you no longer belong/participate with that organization company or if you have a suggestion to make their marketing better don’t you think they would want to know? I would!

So when you are bothered by your overloaded inbox - think of cleaning out your “subscriptions” and unsubscribing to a few things, but be proactive and helpful at the same time!

Virtual Assistants are HUGE Contributors to the Success of Their Clients

Virtual Assistants take on the non-core tasks that busy entrepreneurs are finding themselves bogged down in.  A Virtual Assistant can free up time for that busy entrepreneur allowing him or her to build their clientele.  What would other areas would you be able to focus on in your business, as a business owner, if you had help with emails, customer service, scheduling and confirming appointments, invoicing and payment reconciling or any other administrative task that slows you down and takes up your time?

Who Uses Virtual Assistants?

Associations, Foundations & Organizations

Attorneys

Business Consultants, Writers, Sales Reps

Coaches—Business & Life

Contractors—Plumber, Electricians, etc.

Corporations

Entertainment Industry—Producers, Actors, etc.

Event Planners

Home-Based Business Owners

Import/Export Consultants

Marketing Companies

Non-Profit Organizations

Religious Organizations

Retail Shops/Stores

Specialists—Accountants, Attorneys, Architects, etc.

Travel Agencies

Just to name a few!

What is a Virtual Assistant (VA)?

A Virtual Assistant, or VA, is a highly skilled professional who provides administrative support and other services to executives, businesses, entrepreneurs, sales professionals, and others that might have more work than the time to do it.

VAs work as independent contractors.  VAs  use different forms of leading technology to communicate work assignments and the completion of them, such as, Internet, email, disk transfer, and sometimes even regular mail, overnight shipping and even pick-up and deliver work if in a local area.

VAs services will typically include email handling, database management, “shopping cart” data entry, invoicing, appointment scheduling and confirming, customer service, webinar moderator, general follow-up with customers of their client, reminder services, bulk mailings, and information processing.  They can also include such tasks like; meeting and event planning, desktop publishing, bookkeeping, web design and maintenance and paralegal tasks.  The services VAs offer to the business and corporate worlds today can be endless!

Take a moment to look at your business and the non-core tasks that are taking time each day and each week – can any of them be delegated in order to free up your time to build your business?