2009 September | Virtual Assistance University

Profit Growth Strategy #9 for Virtual Assistants

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Sep 112009

Table of contents for Profit Growth Strategies for VA's

Find Speaking Engagements For Your Clients

Top notch virtual assistants find new ways to market their clients. Today and tomorrow we will share a few of the ways you can do this. Your client will be grateful for the help and will remember you when they book more business.

Speaking engagements are a great way to get the word out for an expert. There are over 10,000 national associations that cover every industry. Each of these associations has local, regional and state chapters whose leaders are looking for speakers every month. If your client is an expert in an industry or has a specific niche, find opportunities for him to speak to a room of prospects.

If you don’t have experience in this area, there are experts who can teach you. However, before you spend money on programs, call some of your partners. Someone in your network is likely to have experience setting up speaking engagements. Ask them for tips or even ask if you can “apprentice” with them to learn this skill. There is no education that replaces actual experience.

Finding the right meeting is the key. Ask your client who his best customers are. Then find out what these customers read and which associations they belong to. Research the associations and read their materials. Befriend the leadership of the associations and recommend that they have your client speak. A third party referral is a very powerful persuasion tactic.

If you are interested at all in building and growing a recession-proof Virtual Assistant practice, I urge you to join our mailing list now.

**You have permission to reprint in your publication or to your website/blog any articles by Denise Griffitts found on this Website as long as Denise Griffitt’s name and contact information is included. Denise Griffitts, Virtual Assistance Industry Expert, http://virtualassistanceuniversity.com, info @ virtualassistantindustry.com, 888-719-6711.

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Profit Growth Strategy #8 For Virtual Assistants

Virtual Assistance Industry No Responses »

Sep 102009

Table of contents for Profit Growth Strategies for VA's

Build Your Client a Free Squidoo Lens

Is your client an expert on something? Cat nip toys, Library operations, power of persuasion? No matter what your client’s area of expertise you can create a Squidoo lens. What’s a Squidoo lens? It is a free, single page online – which translates to a popular way to be found on the web and possibly make some money for your client or a charity. Squidoo is a user-generated website which ueses the concept of a lens as its primary feature, and the best part about it is that you don’t need to have a computer science degree or know html to build a beautiful one page site.

Squidoo lenses are a cross between Wikipedia and a blog. You can sell items on your lens, link to Amazon and much more. So whether your client’s passion is politics, the internet, or enterprise content management, you can bring them further exposure by creating a Squidoo lens or a series of lenses. It is a fun and simple way to publish information that allows you to share, get found, get followed and get influential. Your client will love it.

At this time Squidoo is in the top 500 most visited sites in the world, and in the top 300 most viewed in the United States.

If you are interested at all in building and growing a recession-proof Virtual Assistant practice, I urge you to join our mailing list now.

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Profit Growth Strategy #7 For Virtual Assistants

Virtual Assistance Industry No Responses »

Sep 092009

Table of contents for Profit Growth Strategies for VA's

Leveraging Other People’s Highest Billable Hours

Yesterday you learned how to leverage your highest priced billable hours. Today you are going to learn what to do with those tasks you don’t care to do or don’t get paid well enough to do. This profit growth strategy is often neglected but can be worth millions of dollars and many more hours sleep over the course of your career.

Many solo-preneurs fail in business because they never build a network of strategic partners. Virtual assistants are notorious for this behavior. It is also one of the key reasons most virtual assistants never make more than they did in corporate America.

Develop a network of virtual assistants and other professional service providers who complement your work. This is a mutually beneficial relationship. You pass your partners work that they specialize in and you receive work from them that is your specialty. Each of you only uses the highest priced skills you have doing work you enjoy. This way everyone performs at their highest level and produces results that create loyal customers.

This partnership is not a free venture. You must work out an agreement as to the prices your partner will charge for their services. Then, you will add a premium. The amount of the premium you charge can depend on the amount of effort and time you consume in selling the services, managing the project and billing the client. A set dollar amount per hour or a percentage-based fee is acceptable.

Strategic partnerships are highly valuable and help you earn money while you are sleeping or on vacation. Once you master this you will be more valuable to your clients and you will have a vast network of partners selling your services in reciprocation for you selling their services.

If you are interested at all in building and growing a recession-proof Virtual Assistant practice, I urge you to join our mailing list now.

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Profit Growth Strategy #6 for Virtual Assistants

Virtual Assistance Industry No Responses »

Sep 082009

Table of contents for Profit Growth Strategies for VA's

Leverage Your Highest Priced Billable Skills

One of the fastest ways to grow your revenue and profits is to leverage your highest billable skills. Most entrepreneurs—including virtual assistants—overlook this simple strategy. It will save you time and energy while increasing your profits.

I am often asked how to set your prices. This is a quick and rough way of doing it, but it can also be effective. First, follow yourself around for a few days or even a week. Keep diligent track of the things you do, how long you do them and how much you enjoy them. For this latter point use a scale of 1 to 5. This list will help you identify at what level you are working and should reveal why you have a specific type of emotional engagement with your work.

Next, research the rates firms charge for each of these services. Call a temporary agency, contract service or even review Salary.com. This will give you a ballpark estimate of what it is worth. Once you have these hourly rates, list them next to each skill. Do some simple multiplication to find the product of the hours and the hourly rate. This will tell you what you should have charged for the week you tracked.

Most people stop at this step. They will raise their rates according to their estimate of one week and assume that every week is like this. Experts take it one step further.

Review the list. Look at those things you love to do. See what you get paid for doing them. Those are the skills you should sell today because your passion for them allows you to do them well and to work long hours if required. Then look at those skills which pay the most. If you don’t like them, reflect on why you don’t like them. If it is a matter of lack of skill, then resolve to focus on growing in these areas and seek expert advice and mentoring. As you build a new expertise, you will want to move your business toward these higher priced billable skills.

Tomorrow we will discuss what to do with the skills you don’t like. These can be excellent profit centers and help you build a valuable network.

If you are interested at all in building and growing a recession-proof Virtual Assistant practice, I urge you to join our mailing list now.

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