Winning the “Bid”
June 7, 2010 by Christina Littrell-Williams
Filed under Why VA's
Bids, most of the companies create bids in order to secure an account. As a VA we speak with our potential clients, evaluate their needs and put together a proposal bid, not unlike most service businesses. Here are some quick tips for “winning the bid” 
1) Target the correct company for you and your services. Make sure they are a perfect fit with your company and same the other way around. You do not want to be putting in a bid on a job just because and then do the job poorly.
2) If you are a “smaller” company think about working with larger service suppler companies! This allows you the opportunity to work with clients you might have never had the chance to work with before. 3) Get certified! For a lot of the smaller service based companies you can look to be certified in different service arenas. Organizations like Women’s Business Enterprise National Council www.wbenc.org offer certifications and this shows larger companies you are serious! Get out there and check out the opportunities, they are everywhere!
Delegation… a Lost Art Part Two
June 1, 2010 by Christina Littrell-Williams
Filed under Biz Development
Do you find yourself thinking I don’t even have the time in my day to delegate a task to 
someone… This is a pitfall many of us fall into. The truth is you don’t have the time NOT to delegate.
As a business owner your calendar is probably your most valuable tool. Notice I called it a TOOL – you need to use it that way. Schedule everything you have to do on the calendar that includes shopping, paying bills not just business meetings and networking! You will get a clear picture of the REAL amount of time you have in a day. Now while you are scheduling things – schedule in a block of time for delegating tasks, the beginning or end of the day is always best!
During this time you will focus on tasks you can hand out to others to complete type up an instruction email, include all attachments and don’t forget to include a date you expect this task to be completed – send it and consider that task completed! Your support team will get it done! It is important to make time work for you not you rush around trying to keep up with time!
Delegation… a Lost Art Part One
May 28, 2010 by Christina Littrell-Williams
Filed under Biz Development
Are you the King or Queen of the “I can do it better myself” attitude? Or do you say to yourself, “It will take me longer to explain this task then if I just go do it myself”? First of all let’s agree that is totally the wrong attitude in both situations!
You are losing money left and right if your focus is not directly were it should be and that is working ON your business! You should have a support staff, even if that is your high school son/daughter and other family members working on databases and paperwork. Every business owner should have support and then more importantly know how to delegate tasks to that staff correctly.. Over the next couple of weeks I will provide you with tips that will help you become a better “delegator” and help you regain your focus ON your business!
- Hint #1 – Understand the Task at Hand: You must understand the task at hand yourself fully. How can you expect someone else to understand your explanation of what needs to get done if you don’t know that much about it. Also, you do not want to end up in a pickle where this is a repeating task and the one person that always handled it for you, leaves and you are stuck with it not getting done and not knowing how to do it.
- Hint #2 – When sharing this task, make sure you share the expected outcome that way your support person has the full vision of what you are looking for.
Client Retention…Do You Have It?
May 24, 2010 by Christina Littrell-Williams
Filed under Biz Development, VA Tips
Making a sale once or handling a client’s account once is better than not having either, right? But will they come back to you if they need your product or services again in the future… that is the question.
Client retention is so important. You want to create a customer “loyalty” to you, your services and your products. You want to create a “community” within your business! You want them to refer you!
Here are a couple tips on bettering your Client Retention…
• Take time out of your day to check in with a couple (2) existing customers/clients – ask them about THEM and what they might need or want or for feedback on their last visit with you.
• If you do a monthly newsletter or article – highlight one of your “champion” clients in the community. Maybe something special is happening in their business you can share.
• Provide something for your clients & customers – a freebie like a car wash, give-aways or even a client appreciation day at your place of business (remember to take pictures!)
Personal touches are so important – remember we are building “relationships” with our clients! If you would like to hear about what I consider to be the BEST client retention tool for ANY business owner, contact me!
VA’s can save you money!
May 22, 2010 by Christina Littrell-Williams
Filed under Why VA's
How do you save money if a Virtual Assistant’s hourly rate is higher than an in-house employee?
This is a question that hinders a lot of business owners from hiring a virtual assistant. The cost of hiring someone to come into your office or business location for $20 per hour seems like such a better deal than hiring a virtual assistant for $35 per hour, right? In the long run NO WAY! State to state in house employees salary laws are different but just take this – with a fringe benefit of 35% you add $7.00 to your in-house employee’s income per hour, then you take in the overhead (office equipment, supplies, worker’s comp and so on) of 50% you add $10.00 to your in-house employee’s income per hour for a total of $37.00 per hour. Those costs seem to get lost in the shuffle because they are either calculated by a payroll service OR through the accounting program you have set up. Those are costs that are not included in your Virtual Assistant’s wages. On top of those “extras” you need to calculate in tardiness, sick days, vacation days and slacking time which every employer pays and have no completed tasks to show for it! Again this is something you do not calculate in when working with a Virtual Assistant – they get paid for the project completed OR for the house actually worked! It has been calculated that you pay on average 2,080 hours per year for an in-house employee and can get the same amount of work completed by a virtual assistant in 480 hours per year (an employee’s 8 hour day can usually be crunched into a 3-4 hour day with a virtual assistant) – calculate this out and it is a savings of over $60,000.00! Now that is a savings!
Moving Ahead in the New Year!
January 3, 2010 by Christina Littrell-Williams
Filed under Biz Development, Featured, VA Tips
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}
December 8, 2009 by Christina Littrell-Williams
Filed under Biz Development, Featured
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
April 27, 2008 by Christina Littrell-Williams
Filed under Biz Development, Why VA's
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)?
April 20, 2008 by Christina Littrell-Williams
Filed under Why VA's
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?