4 Resources Help Small Businesses Save Time, Money, Paper and Gas

Small businesses are always looking for ways to save time, money, paper, and especially in today’s economy – gas. As a virtual assistant to solo professionals, I’ve come across several resources that have helped me and my clients save time and money.

One task that can take up time and paper is getting a contract or agreement signed. Time and paper can be saved using an online resource called Echo Sign. This service makes getting a document signed by both parties as easy as sending an email – and it can be done in minutes. There’s nothing to install and a free account can get five documents signed a month. It’s been very useful in my business, making the turn around time in getting documents signed almost non-existent. Also, there’s no paper to print. Documents are stored electronically. Visit their website at EchoSign.com.

Are you always jotting yourself a note on a sticky note? Save yourself money and paper by using Jott.com. Jott converts your voice into emails, text messages, reminders, lists and appointments. Just pick up the phone and send yourself a Jott. Your Jott will be in your Inbox when you get back to the office. No more sticky notes!

Would you like to receive all your bills electronically and not deal with the hassle of paper anymore? Of course you want to sign up for any e-statements you can. Another great online resource is PayTrust.com. PayTrust allows you receive, review, pay and organize all your bills online.

Do you like going to seminars to learn more about your industry but find you can’t afford the gas anymore? Teleseminars may be the answer you’re looking for. Save gas by never leaving the comfort of your home or office. Check out Conference Call University at CCULearning.com.

Many solo professionals are saving time and money by using the services of a virtual assistant to help create and implement online marketing for their service businesses. Search for a virtual assistant in your area and see how he or she can help.

Succeed as a Chief Virtual Officer (a.k.a. Virtual Assistant) 3-Hour Workshop in Sacramento

Virtual assistants are busy helping their clients build and grow their businesses but don’t always put into place those same systems to grow their virtual assistant business. This 3-hour workshop is designed to help you grow your business. It’s not skills training but business coaching. Sue and Joel D Canfield share more than 50 years of experience working with small businesses. They love teaching others how they can have the deep satisfaction they get from their work and the life it allows them.

Special Note

This is an information packed workshop. We’re aware that you can’t possibly absorb it all in a single sitting. That’s why the cost of the workshop includes a 2-CD set containing 5 hours of audio and over 50 pages of reference materials and notes for you to review at your own pace as often as you like.

Topics:

Marketing Your Services 101

  • Basic concepts of permission marketing; Dos and Dont’s

Defining Your Ideal Client

  • How to identify your target market, clearly define your ideal client, and questions to ask yourself to determine if a prospect is your ideal client

Networking Creates Word of Mouth Referrals

  • The importance of networking in person, how to effective network, role playing

Converting Prospects to Clients

  • How to prepare to interview a prospect, questions a prospect may ask and how you can answer them, questions you should ask your prospect, questions to determine if the prospect is your ideal client

Effectively Marketing With Your Newsletter

  • Various newsletter tools available and basic information about them, where to find content, what the reports mean and how you can use them

All attendees will receive these free reports:

  • Identifying Your Ideal Client and Target Market
  • Networking Creates Word of Mouth Referrals
  • Converting Prospects to Clients
  • Effectively Marketing With Your Newsletter
  • Bonus Tips: Grow Your Business as a Chief Virtual Officer
  • John Jantsch’s 17-page report 7 Steps to Small Business Marketing Success

Bonus #1: All attendees will receive access to the Members Only Forum at no additional charge!

Bonus #2: Every attendee will receive a copy of the 72-page workbook Building Blocks: Succeed as a Chief Virtual Officer.

Cost: Early Bird Special (Register before noon June 30, 2010) $75

Regular Price (After Noon June 30, 2010) $100

Register Here: http://sacramentovaworkshop.eventbrite.com/

Marketing Your Virtual Assistant Services Coaching Call

Tomorrow is the day! We’re launching our monthly group coaching calls.

Join us for April’s Group Coaching conference call on Tuesday, April 20, 2010 at 11:00 am PST. We have arranged our schedule for a 60-minute call. If we need to stay on the call for 90-minutes, we’ve left our schedule open to accommodate that so you get all your questions answered.

All who register will receive by email after the call:

  • John Jantsch’s 17-page report 7 Steps to Small Business Marketing Success
  • Bonus Tips: Grow Your Business as a Chief Virtual Officer, a 10-page report

Win a copy of the book, Duct Tape Marketing by John Jantsch! Each attendee during the live call will be entered into a drawing and the winner will be announced at the end of the call.

On this call you will learn:

  • Basic concepts of permission marketing
  • Dos and Don’ts of marketing your virtual assistant services
  • The importance of marketing by networking
  • and more…

Register for the call. Only $20!

Building Your Network of Fellow Virtual Assistants

I know you think you can and should do it all. I disagree. You’ve developed your niche market and your specialized skills. That’s great! Now your client asks you to do a task that you have no experience doing. Instead of taking on a task that you don’t know, why not enlist the assistant of a fellow virtual assistant?

I have a client that has a half dozen different virtual assistants working on her team. She recognizes that each one has specific skills and talents. Imagine you are a small business owner starting a retail business. Would you really hire one person to be your accountant, attorney, salesperson and business coach? No. You would hire individuals specializing in each area so that the work they each did was the best and made the best use of their time.

I encourage you to build a network of fellow virtual assistants and then freely refer business to each other. There’s plenty to go around. Instead of getting stuck and caught when you cannot accomplish a task you don’t have the skills for, your client will be impressed that you were able to find someone that specializes in that particular skill.

I have found that I love the general administrative tasks that involve lots of typing, data entry and ten-key. Several clients have had me compile spreadsheets of contacts to include names, addresses, phone numbers, emails, websites, and additional notes. Many find this type of work tedious and boring. So give me a call if you need someone to handle that type of work.

On the other hand, I have not had extensive experience with setting up shopping carts. Yet many solo professionals now need this type of work. If that’s your expertise, let me know so I have someone to refer those prospects to when they approach me for that type of work.

Working together, virtual assistants can grow their businesses. There is enough to go around!

Don't Depend on Your Memory

There’s a marvelous tool that will help you free up mental energy, while ensuring that you’ll remember important ideas, facts, and feelings.

It’s a notebook.

I’ve spent an hour this morning trying to remember the details of a conversation I had with a client, so I can write an outline for our next coaching session. I feel like I’m not providing the real value I want to deliver when I can’t get back in the emotional moment that sparked a very clear picture of our next chat; our direction for the next session.

Thing is, I really was taking notes—but on what my client was saying, not on what I was saying. I mean, I’ll remember my own words, right?

As a matter of fact, no; I don’t.

I’m planning on recording these calls, strictly so I can go back and review what was said and how it was said, to recapture the emotional impact. My benefit comes from changing how people feel based on what they think about, not just sharing facts for them to sort out in their own head.

My dad never went anywhere without a little thirty-nine cent notebook in his shirt pocket (he write in it with a fountain pen, in green ink—but that’s another story.) When he needed to remember something, he just wrote it down. Not only did he actually remember things later (reviewing the notes) but his mind was free to concentrate on the moment instead of spending part of its energy remembering the three simple little things he needed to remember—they were in the notebook, not his head.