Ten Ways To Use Your Virtual Assistant
May 23, 2006
- Deal with your marketing. VAs can prepare your marketing materials, have them printed for you, and even get them in the mail for you.
- Cope with your bills. Let’s face it, paying bills is not anyone’s favorite thing to do. A VA can handle your bills and send you a report on what is paid and how much.
- Handle your invoicing. Invoicing clients is a real time killer. A VA can handle invoicing and soft collections, just as your office manager or credit manager would do. That will both free up your time to generate more business, and make the business you already have even more lucrative.
- Keep your books in order. When tax time comes, you want to make sure your books are in good order for your accounting firm. Your VA can make sure your expenditures and income are entered into your accounting software quickly and accurately, and can even keep your reciepts on file.
- Handle your mail. Most of what comes in the mail is junk, do you want to waste your valuable time coping with junk mail? Have your mail sent to your VA and let her sort and process the mail. She can send you the important stuff by FAX, email, or Priority Mail. Get the junk mail off your desk!
- Remind you of important dates. Yup, even including Valentines Day and your anniversary! Just think how impressive that will be to your wife! We can also remind you of clients’ birthdays and important dates. We can even send out cards to your clients, and build loyalty to you, you thoughtful person you!
- Manage projects. Yes, we can do that. Send us a list of what needs to be done and we can help you deal with the workload. We can generate the information and reports you need. We can also follow up with the folks that haven’t done what they need to do for the project.
- Screen your email. If you don’t want to see the latest ad for Viagra, have a VA screen your email and delete all that killer junk. Your VA can also handle routine requests, and forward items that really need your attention.
- Reconcile your bank accounts. Yes, it has to be done. It is also very time consuming. Let your VA handle it!
- Provide professional presentations. Send your VA an outline (or text) of your next presentation and let her provide you with a PowerPoint presentation for you.
Using a VA is usually limited only by your imagination. Check with your VA today to see what she can do to help you.
Got Voice Mail?
March 1, 2006
“There’s not anybody who really cares about using voice messaging the way I envisioned it.” According to Gordon Matthews, the inventor of voice mail, he never anticipated that his automated message system would be used to confuse and frustrate business callers. He didn’t foresee how many ways businesses could devise to misuse his system.
When asked what aggravates them most about modern phone communication the majority of people will say that it is voice mail. Pressed for details, they explain that it is the automated answering process that companies use to screen and direct calls that bugs them, not the basic messaging-taking function.
Book Review: Business Plan Secrets Revealed
November 23, 2005
The key to successfully starting any business is a good business plan. In his ebook, “Business Plan Secrets Revealed,” Mike Elia walks you through the business plan process step-by-step: from gathering the evidence you’ll use to build your plan to delivering your plan to qualified investors.
His book provides the basic information you need to write a business plan. But its real focus is revealing how to communicate your plan to investors and convince them that your business is their best investment choice.
The Costly Truth About Bringing New Business Into The Firm…
November 18, 2005
Or how about this one? Put up a web site, run a couple of ads in the search engines and clients will beat a path to your door.
Hello…It ain’t gonna happen. Nothing could be further from the truth. The real truth is, these days the cost of advertising, the declining response of Yellow Page ads and the increasing competition for effective Internet advertising space makes getting client leads much more expensive and far more difficult than ever before.
This is probably not a very big surprise to you. Because, if you’ve done any advertising in hopes of attracting new clients, you (in all probability) produced mediocre results.
Business Names Do Matter, Norm Brodsky
November 14, 2005
In the November 2005 issue of Inc. magazine, Norm Brodsky wrote: “Your company’s name plays little, if any, role in determining your success.”
I agree completely that a company with a bad or mediocre name can reach success. However, here are 10 reasons why coming up with a snappy, interesting and memorable name is worth the business owner’s or organization’s time and energy.
1. When you call or speak with strangers and mention the name of your company, and the name in and of itself provokes delighted recognition, this can get the business relationship off on a positive footing.