jennydecki

- Don't Wait for New Year's Eve to Be More Successful - Work Less - Play More - Resolve to get more new business now! - You won't get new clients unless you get help - Want more time to get new clients? Ask me how! - We don't file our nails in your office I really like the play on New Year's and resolutions...but can't quite make it work into a short, snappy tagline Good luck and I hope you get one that really sings for you! Jennydecki

But first and foremost I promise to become a more active member of the board Plus attend networking chats and help the members of this board when I have knowledge that could help someone become a more successful VA. Really. What I need from you guys is help to win a contest that gives me access to a nutritionist and a healthier lifestyle. My grandmother being in the hospital this week and being diagnosed with cancer, along with celebrating my 35th birthday the day before she was diagnosed, was a huge wake up call for me. Luckily I'd already started exercising and losing the weight. But I need more. I need training, tools, and a plan. That's what I'm going to get from Mamavation. It's a contest hosted by Leah of BookieBoo.com (an online fitness hangout for moms of any fitness level) where a mom becomes an inspiration and beacon for other moms trying to lose the weight in a healthy way. In fact, it's really just about fitness and lifestyle because while i weigh 310lbs. after a 9lb. weight loss last week another contestant only weighs 155lbs. but she has different goals. So please, visit Mamavation and check out the videos (mine is the one at the top, I'm the hot, sexy redhead ) and then vote for me every day once a day from now until 7/12 when the winners will be announced LIVE on Mamavation TV. The voting box is on the right hand side of the page right under the advertisement. I'm @jennydecki. (If you need a reminder you can follow me on Twitter - again, I'm jennydecki - and you'll see it come up!) Also, I totally got permission from Tawnya to post this so I'm not spamming, I swear!!! Thank you for supporting me in a healthy lifestyle, and if you want to join bookieboo.com and start getting healthier and balancing your work/life with some good health all kinds and types of people are welcome. If you don't already know me you'll be amazed they let me in anywhere after you see the video!!! See you around the forums! @jennydecki

This may not be helpful, but just in case... I was using SugarCRM and then tried out Zoho (another free CRM solution) - what I found was that for my needs they had way too many features. Here's what I use now: Three Excel Spreadsheets - Excel for standard Name, Address, Phone and Email, then use a separate workbook for each client (Eventually I had two files an A-M and N-Z so this is two of the three spreadsheets right here) - An Excel spreadsheet for Leads only. I transfer the information to the client spreadsheet when they convert over, and if I haven't done any work for them in four months they move back to leads so only my *active* clients are in the Clients spreadsheet. - Google Calendar to send me emails reminding me when to follow up, when an anniversary is, and when to invoice. I copy and paste from Excel to Google Calendar. While it seemed like it would be easier to set up a CRM system in the beginning, I found that the way I work it's just easier to rock out with a couple spreadsheets and Google Calendar. An added bonus is being able to import some or all of my Excel spreadsheet into Word for form letters or labels for two or twenty leads! Of course, I'm sure that a CRM system works for some people way better than this system, but if you don't need it, you can also keep great track of your customers, leads, phone calls, last contact, and follow-up activities using Excel or even the Spreadsheets function in Open Office with Google Calendar (or your Outlook Calendar or the Mozilla calendar...I forget what it's called).

Yea! I'm so glad I could help!

I think this post ALONE shows you have the focus, drive, and determination to be an amazing success!

Direct marketing sounds like a great niche. This may also be the perfect time because as more and more businesses expand online, there will always be some that want to get back to their roots and will remember that the "old school" ways worked for a darn good reason! You may also want to try and find someone that doesn't mind phone work and set up a strategic partnership so you can mail out the pieces and then they can hire the other person to do follow-up calls on the direct mail and maybe they give you a referral fee for those clients. Best of luck to you!!

Or to make it short and sweet you could drop office/business altogether. Superior Services for your Growing Business When you say "growing business" you're already telling them what you're offering services for. Saying office or business services doesn't really narrow it down specifically and tell them what you do more than the tagline does without it. But it's all about what you think looks great and you can say over the phone or in person or on a website and be proud of!

Seriously. I was blogging and in the middle of a post I started thinking about Tawnya out of nowhere. How she started as a VA just like everyone else here, and how she grew her business with determination and hard work into the best and biggest Virtual Assistant forum in the world. That doesn't even include all the other amazing things she's doing like the podcasting, radio shows, mentoring, seminars, and just being an all around help to those around her. Most of that was done while she was battling a health condition she thought she might never get rid of. If anyone ever feels down about what they're doing, or thinks the light at the end of the tunnel seems too far to get to...just remember Tawnya and what she's accomplished. She is the best success story I can think of, bar none. I like when I randomly think about people and when I'm done I have a big grin on my face. Tawnya, you rock.

That is so amazing - CONGRATULATIONS!!!!!!!!!

hashtags are used on twitter to make it easier to follow a topic. For instance, the conservatives on twitter use #TCOT ... if you go to search.twitter.com and put in #TCOT you will see the conversation of the people using the tag. If you are in a Twitter party you may find using www.tweetchat.com easier. You log in, put in the hashtag of the party you are attending, and it will scroll the tweets that include the hashtag like a chat room so you can focus and concentrate on a specific discussion. Hope this helps!

If you're not using a plugin like FireFox's Power Twitter all you have to do is write your post so people know it's a retweet. RT @reaysolutions (copy and paste the original tweet here) - people know RT means retweet...usually Hope that helps! If you are using Power Twitter there is a little button by most links that says RT and you can click that to retweet.

Ruth, that was a PHENOMINAL post. You should really make that into an article and force it down every business owner's throat from here till the end of time I fire a client when I see the number on caller id and cringe to my toes. If I have a negative physical reaction, I'm outta there.

The problem is if you try and convince someone they need something they are sure they don't, you run the risk of looking like you know more about their business than they do and it can cause tension and make your client feel uncomfortable talking to you. If they are sure they don't need it, I wouldn't push it. Okay, I would probably send them blog articles and links once every few weeks with a note that said, "Thought you might find this interesting." But again, you do run the risk of making them angry. I guess what I'm trying to say is, it depends on your relationship with this particular client. If you have a great relationship you can probably convince them over time, but if you have a very professional relationship with no emotional connection they may move on to someone that doesn't try and tell them what's best for their business when they know better. (I'm not saying they really do know better, just that they think they do!)

Most new VAs start out with a firm understanding that any business owner can use their services so they should, of course, market to everyone. Other VAs will tell them they need to niche. They need to have a target. They need to, for all intents and purposes, narrow the marketing focus! Many new VAs don't understand why they would market to less people, because the fear that they will get no clients is great - and if you only market to 1,000 people the odds that 0 will buy your services seems even greater. This is a simple logic problem based in fear and need. I understand it - I once marketed to "everyone" as my niche, too. The reality is, if you have a website geared toward plumbers with examples of how your social networking expertise can help a plumber, it helps that plumber reading your site really picture what your relationship will be once they hire you. That is a far more powerful marketing message than saying you provide social networking services without concrete examples. It gives your prospect the ability to see it happening, and that increases the chance they will pick up the phone and call you, or send you an email, asking for more information. When you market to everyone you're targeting no one, and your VA site will look like a thousand others. When you pick a niche (like plumbers) you can target your whole site with related keywords and go to plumbing forums and show off your expertise. All of your marketing becomes more powerful. Instead of a vague goal that you want to get "a bunch" of VA clients, have a goal to get three clients. Once you actually have your first three clients you are going to need to spend some time working on your time management and client work-balancing abilities before you take on the next hundred!

The major keywords that I wish my website could be number one for are the ones I use in tweets on Twitter. Because it carries such a high amount of Google Juice, I figure why not go for the gold! I save my long-tail keywords for the blog and website.