There is no denying, it appears that the U.S. seems to be heading for an economic slowdown. I refuse to flat-out say ‘recession’ as I would prefer to be the optimist.
I read a good article in Business Week this morning as to how to prepare your small business to be recession-proof. The bits of advice has opened my eyes into changing my ‘road map’ on things that I need done for at least this quarter.
To keep from losing business, keep in close touch with your customers. “Show that you care. Understand how their business is being affected and look for ways you can help. Lasting relationships are built in hard times.” And look for new market opportunities, recognizing that when the business climate changes, customer needs will change as well. That may mean new markets will open up for you…
When I finish an assignment with a client, I follow-up from time to time just to say, ‘hello’ and inform them that Remote Admin Services is here for them for both big projects and small tasks. Therefore if my client needs to cut back, they still have me in mind and use my services albeit more likely on a smaller scale. Better to have a smaller assignment than none at all.
…Create a positive experience…Another good option for local businesses is community involvement. “Join the Rotary Club or the Chamber of Commerce. Sponsor a Little League team. Let the Girl Scouts do a car wash in your parking lot. This is part of bonding with your community and becoming an established part of it.”
This is particularly useful if either you are just starting out as a VA or other small business. Virtual Assistants spend just about all of their time in an office and very rarely do we venture out to the community at large. This is not particularly bad especially if one has their majority of clients that is out of state or even out of country. However, there is something very special when you build a relationship within your local community. There is nothing like it in the world in which you can go actually meet with your client or potential clients face to face or deliver a finished product in person.
…small companies need to reach out to the new residents in their communities. “They’re going to choose someplace to buy their pizza and their shoes. You want to have an active campaign to greet them and bond with them…”
Technically the above does not really pertain to Virtual Assistants (unless one is niching to personal assistance services), but the concept still holds true if a new business opens up in the community. If you happen to be driving by a new place of business, make a point to stop by and introduce yourself with business card in hand and welcome them into the community. Checking the local papers or a Google Alert of local press releases might help.
In the article it also talks about hiring, not firing. Say that a small business has an administrative assistant and business is doing fine, but not growing due to the slowdown. Yet the admin is buried in tasks that really requires another assistant. No problem, a Virtual Assistant can easily take care of the overflow, until business picks up again…and you will be able to hire an additional in-house admin! Do not have an administrative assistant at all? Remote Admin Services can take care of your tasks until you are ready to hire!
Finally, as much as it is a crunch in these hard times, now is not the time to get rid of your marketing plans…silence your marketing, you silence your business…period. If you must change to an alternative less-costly plan of action, the article suggests innovative ideas such as e-mail marketing, blogging and online newsletters.
As a wise-relative used to say to me all the time, “this, too shall pass…”
Before I go any further, there are two things that I need to disclose regarding the above headline. One, it is from a press release that I found on Yahoo Finance. Two, the Harris Poll survey is commissioned Elance, Inc., an online outsourcing company. That said, here are some numbers that might interest you:
More than 70 percent also said that hiring a virtual assistant would give them more time or reduce stress in their lives.
About one third (34 percent) feel that their job performance would improve.
55 percent say that working with a virtual assistant would allow them to focus on more important tasks and errands.
52 percent say they would have more leisure time to spend with friends, family, exercising or on vacation.
Men are more likely to see the benefit of working with a virtual assistant than women (77 percent vs. 69 percent).
Many people are still reluctant on hiring a Virtual Assistant due to cost. However the beauty of Virtual Assistance is that you can hire them to take care of mundane tedious tasks via hourly, fixed retainer, or per project basis…the choice is yours. Thus eliminating of the cost of having a full-time administrative assistant because you do not pay for unused/idle hours, taxes, benefits, office space, or equipment. You pay only what you need; Nothing more, nothing less.
It is OK! You can take this first step in making your life easier by handing over your important office tasks to a qualified Virtual Assistant. Remote Admin Services can help! Get yourself of warm cup of coffee (or your beverage of choice), set your XM channel or iPod to your favorite music and have good look at your inbox or desk. What tasks or projects have you been putting off for the longest time? Pick a task or project and contact us. You will see how valuable and cost efficient it is to use a Virtual Assistant when you realize that you have more free time to grow your business — or enjoy life outside of work.
If ever you were wondering about starting a blog, but worried about the space, WordPress has anted up their free membership from 50MB of storage space to 3 Gigabytes! That is a LOT of space for a free service! Typepad offers the same amount space for $300 a year.
Now there is no excuse, for the Virtual Assistant, or any small business for that matter not to have a blog. We all have a lot to say and we can all say it for free.
As I mentioned earlier in previous posts, being a Virtual Assistant (or even a home office warrior) there is this cyber-partition if you will between yourself and your clients. Many clients never actually see their Virtual Assistant.
In an effort to get my name out locally, I had to venture out of my virtual shell and attended my first county Chamber of Commerce gathering. I did not know what to expect or how I was to market myself aside from my ‘elevator speech‘ that I prepared. The gathering was a Leads Exchange in which when the meeting starts each participant has 25 seconds to describe who they are, then they pick a card from a basket (which you deposit one of your own upon entry). From that drawn card, you make arrangements with that business to get together informally for coffee. At the end of the meeting you have two prospective coffee dates. Then at your table, each participant has an additional two minutes to talk about your business in more detail and answer questions that might arise.
I rehearsed my speeches pretty good,and I thought that I did rather well. But there is always room for improvement. Following the meeting I realized that certain parts of the benefits of Virtual Assistance was not mentioned. Lesson learned, I made notes. My services are listed on the back of my business cards. I really need to be a little more assertive in reminding the holder to flip the card.
All in all, I thought it was a great start. Everyone was friendly, and very few, if any at all, ever heard of the concept of Virtual Assistance. They were very interested in what I had to say. I plan on attending again sometime in the future.
Thanks to a recent blog response and a cross reference, it appears that scam artist Todd Mayer (a.k.a Ted Grant) uses another email address. This has been circulating since at least December 7th, 2007. Also has a new address: 702 Old Kent Road, SE1 8JU.
Here is the current tally:
alfredlombado [@] yahoo.com
tmustmk2 [@] yahoo.com
Good work to all who contribute! Let’s keep it up! You can report to Yahoo Security by clicking here. Remember to copy/paste everything in the email you received, including headers. You do not need to have a Yahoo ID in order to submit your report.
What would I give to be able to attend the Consumer Electronic Show in Las Vegas!
I really wish I knew about this device before I tried my first data back-up on my Lenovo Laptop (It took up nearly 1/2 of my hard drive!). Check out the below WebTV coverage about clickfree.
Thanks to a recent comment from the Scam Library post, our illustrious Todd Mayer is now Ted Grant. Kudos to J. Smith for letting us know (and allowing me to reprint).
Mr. Todd Meyer has resurfaced as Ted Grant in the e-mail I received today. This is what I received:
Hello, my name is Ted Grant. I operate a consultancy
firm here with name and registered address as follows:
Xpress Solutions, 37 old Lilly BLVD, London NE7 9KP.
A client of mine who is due to arrive in the United
States in few weeks time is interested in your virtual
services. Can you tell me a little more about your
mode of operation?
If interested, please reply
Thanks
Ted Grant.
It seems that Mr. Grant is still using the alfredlombado [at] yahoo.com email address from the last time. Will someone at Yahoo Security please get their act together and knock this guy of the ’Net?? Their Security Site not is easily navigable, but if any VAs receive emails from Mr. so-called Todd Mayer or Ted Grant or any email from above, you can report the Yahoo ID here. Yes, our distinguished scam artist will likely return with a different Yahoo ID, but we now know what to look for.
First of all, Happy 2008! Time once again to reprioritize and get into the swing of things for a productive and prosperous year.
My first RAS blog post of the year is mentioning a really good find in getting your business listed on the Internet. First of all the wonderful thing about Virtual Assistance is that we are able to serve our clients nationally, even globally. But there is always something special when we do business on the local-level. I listed Remote Admin Services on an online directory called MerchantCircle. The sign-up was free (though there are the optional premium services available if you wish to go that route), and with it comes a plethora of services. They include a blog and newsletter modules, ability to create online coupons, a way for potential clients to ask questions, and linking with your favorite merchants and vice versa. You can see an example by viewing my listing.
Also found a great YouTube video displaying one success story:
If your small business New Year’s Resolution has been to get listed on a business directory, MerchantCircle is a great start! It is also a great way to stay in touch with your local community on your company happenings.
