Can you believe it’s August already? The holidays will be here before we know it. Now is a perfect time to reflect on your business and see if it is all that it can be. Is it running at full speed and do you have all the clients that you need? If not, it’s time to get moving before the rush of the holiday season begins. At that time it gets too easy to say, “Well I’ll wait until next year to really get this business going.” Now is the time to look for those clients who need help with their holiday promotions. Now is the time to look for those clients who you can target with a “New Year” campaign. It’s also a great time to reconnect with ALL your clients and let them know how you appreciate them and perhaps how you can help them with other needs they may not even know you do. But of greatest importance, now is the time to say, this is my business and I’m going to make it SUCCESSFUL!!!
One of the first steps to take is to clearly define who you are and what your business stands for. I’ve seen too many businesses so scattered and going in so many directions that they have lost there clear focus. I speak from experience here. I have a tendency to take on too many projects or go off in too many directions. I then need to step back and reconnect to what I really want for my business. We work so hard to develop a niche and a reputation for being the best. However, it’s hard to be the best at too many things. Take a second and reflect on what you are the best at. Now write it down and decide if this is the direction that your business is currently going in. If not, it’s time to redirect and refocus.
Now that you’ve defined your business, where you want to go, you are ready to jumpstart it. It’s time to get active, get moving, and get reenergized.
~ First, you need to aggressively market your business. Read and research new things. Subscribe to newsletters and ezines from successful VA practices and other professionals. Read new books and find new tips.
~ Join the association that you’ve heard about by so many but haven’t made the commitment yet. Then start networking and ask — What are you doing to make your business successful? You’ll find that so many are glad to share that with you.
~ Get moving online. Take a look at your website and see if it is the best that it can be. I recently did some PR work for a client, VA Networking Forum, http://www.Vanetworking.com. We developed new themes for them, “Hey, hey, the VA Gang’s all here,” and VANF, the forum for successful and aspiring virtual assistants. This made a considerable difference in the forum as it gave it a more defined purpose. The colors, the professionalism of the wording, everything about it would convince a client to work with them. Look to your site and spend the time to make it something that you can be proud of. Too often we throw together a website, just to have it done. Remember this can often be a client’s first impression of you. Is it selling you well?
~ Get your site listed. Research! Research! Research! What does it take to get to the top of Google where the clients will find your site. Are you on Yahoo Directories and different sources that businesses can see you? Spend an hour or so a day just to do this and see what a difference it can make in your business.
~ Go looking for clients. If you specialize in real estate, then find out where you can find agents. Where are they online? That’s where you should be too.
Jumpstarting your business can be exciting and rewarding. Once you start seeing the results in your Paypal account and your business account starts getting bigger, you start doing this more often and finding ways to continue to do so. The results show it’s well worth taking the effort. Good Luck and Get Moving!
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Diana Ennen is the author of numerous books including Virtual Assistant: the Series, Become a Highly Successful, Sought After VA, Words From Home, Start, Run and Profit from a Home-Based Word Processing Business & the Home Office Recovery Plan. She specializes in publicity and book marketing and is president of Virtual Word Publishing http://www.virtualwordpublishing.com and http://www.Publicity-VA.com. Articles are free to be reprinted as long as the author’s bio remains intact. |
