Tina Hilton

I love Tungle.me! It's so much easier than sending a dozen emails back and forth trying to find a good time for both parties. Tawnya, check and see if Outlook disabled the add-in at some point. If you go under Help and then disabled items it might be there, I know that's what happened to me not so long ago.

I'd suggest determining your niche sooner rather than later. I've had a much easier time finding clients since I narrowed my niche AND what services I offer. I have to believe it is because it's allowed me to focus on truly connecting with my target market and giving them answers to their specific problems. It's impossible to be everything to everybody so it would stand to reason that a potential client might think twice about teaming up with someone who appears to be trying to do just that. I'm going to be posting 12 days of virtual assistant survival tips on my blog between now and Christmas that you might find helpful too. It really is possible to gain clients through blogging and social media. I know it's possible because all but one of my clients came to me through it in some way, shape or form.

I have it and have been using it with one client, but feel the same as many of you do. Once we've added a lot of information, the wave slows down to a crawl and I hate having to keep a window open for it. Plus, I tend to be a window 'declutterer' so I end up closing it by mistake and missing Wave messages. Still..I didn't see the point of Twitter when I first started using it and now I wouldn't be without it. So perhaps the same thing will happen with Wave. I've got invites if anyone would like one and if you want to add me so that you can Wave at me it's tmhilton at gmail.

Cathy, I'll gladly help you as much as I can. Feel free to e-mail me with any questions and I'll try to help 'walk you through' it.

I've been so busy, that I'd forgotten how fantastic VANA is for information when you need it! I just asked myself this question a few days ago, as I know three of my current clients did sign up for my mailing list, and I was wondering if I should just add the rest. After some soul searching I decided it wasn't a wise decision, so I came to a compromise. I've decided to send out a "Clients Only" letter once a month or so, which will include information and specials strictly for clients. I will of course offer them a chance to opt out, but I'm thinking since this will be more like me giving them an 'inside scoop' on things to help them with their business and client only specials they won't be likely to. I haven't done it yet, so I'd love feedback from everyone.

I use Wordpress as a format for my website. Wordpress.org is where you will find the download that you can install on a hosted website. Wordpress.com is the free blog website. I absolutely love using Wordpress for my site and it's very easy to create additional pages for the site. Once Wordpress is installed for your site you also have the option of downloading 'themes', many which are designed with businesses in mind. I purchased the Thesis Theme which many professional sites use as well. ~Tina Hilton Clerical Advantage

Hi Jeanette, Title work isn't my niche exactly, but because of my background in the industry, my first client was a small, start up title company for whom I provided processing services. When I started bringing in more clients we renegotiated our services agreement and at the moment I'm providing pre-processing services for them allowing me to work fewer hours for them . ~Tina Clerical Advantage

Thanks Patty! and a big thank you for everyone's kind words on the article. ~ Tina Hilton Clerical Advantage

I am a member here!! Just not as active as I wish I could be. Thanks for the compliment Dana, I hope my articles in some small way are helping to educate people about virtual assistance. ~Tina Hilton Clerical Advantage

I currently use OneBox which is a virtual PBX service. I also signed my new client up with it as well. My client is a new business, with several employees working from several locations or on the road, plus me, their virtual assistant. Rather than give out a half dozen numbers, OneBox allows them to give out one number (toll free to boot) and each person, including me, has a seperate extension. What makes this great for me is that when a call comes for this particular client my caller id shows the toll free business number so i know to answer the phone, " Hello, Clients Business Name...this is Tina." It keeps his business looking pulled together and professional and no one would ever know that the business isn't a traditional brick and mortar. The OneBox number is also a fax number. So far it's worked great for us, and we've even had a few comments on our 'professional' telephone system. ~Tina

Do you have a specialty, i.e., corporate transactions, bankruptcy, etc.? If you do specialize, what is your specialty? If you do not specialize, do you want to? Have you found it difficult finding attorneys as clients? Hi Dana, I specialize in real estate law, since I worked for attorney's in a title office for 3 years. In fact, I just signed my first client, a new title company in town. I've been lucky enough to have been aquainted with a number of attorneys in our area who were familiar with my prior work, although were that not case I imagine finding clients would have been much more of a problem.

I wasn't including forum interaction like here at VANA, although I'm sure that is a good avenue as well. The commenting I was referring to was visiting blogs of businesspeople in your target market and start commenting there. Believe me, you would be surprised at what you're actually qualified to offer advice about. A lot of my posts on my business blog directly refer to virtually assisting. My thought is to try to educate the public a little more if I possibly can. So I've done quite a few posts on the things that potential clients most often are nervous about when thinking about using a virtual assistant instead of an in-house employee. But you don't even have to come up with in depth posts like that all the time. I'll find industry news, or business news that I find interesting, do a little blurb about my feelings and provide a link to the article, post or whatever. And of course leave a comment if you can on whatever you are linking as well. This is a good thing for both you and the linked site as they will get traffic from your site and vice versa. I just finished a series for the online magazine on 100 ways to utilize a virtual assistant. It's been a huge hit and all it really required was a bit of brainstorming and some quick comments on each one. I was really a skeptic about business blogging at first. I had blogged personally for several years, which was really just my own little soapbox, but I couldn't imagine how that premise could be transferred to business. I have to say I've been pleasantly surprised. And I've found that blogs get 'crawled' by the search engines much faster than normal business websites because they like fresh content. So it's brought more traffic from Google and Yahoo to my site as well.

I understand completely, it's been a hard one for me to overcome as well. But remember, you don't have to 'hard sell', a soft sell is sometimes easier for people like you and I. For example, when you mention the discount or bundled rates that you're willing to offer them, simply mention in a half joking manner that you wouldn't turn down your 5 minutes of fame on the radio were they so inclined. You might be surprised at their willingness to mention you! And that in itself would be well worth the huge discount you're offering, now wouldn't it? ~Tina

Blogging. It tends to make you an instant 'expert' in your field. Especially if you read other blogs in the industry you're targeting and comment from a virtual assistants perspective. By commenting on a lawyers blog, he read mine and asked me to be a contributor to a new internet magazine he was starting. I've increased traffic and inquiries from my website by 100%, all of which I can track to either my blog or the internet magazine.

Rebecka, I don't have any experience to help you out, but I just had to pop in and say congratulations. From what you've written, this appears to be an amazing opportunity to really get your name out there. Is there any possibillity of these radio personalities mentioning your business on air? ~Tina