Tag Archives: virtual assistance

Reinventing Your Business

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When you are a remote professional, making a sweeping business change is a big step. Your business identity becomes inextricably intertwined with your personal identity. After a few years on the web, you consider your business URL in the same way you do your physical address. Like a cross-country move, any big change can be traumatic.

If the time has come to narrow your scope, deepen your niche or completely reinvent yourself online, there are a few steps you can take to make the transition a bit smoother.

Get an unbiased opinion… or two or three

Because you are so “close” to the project, having outside opinions from people you trust is paramount. There are things that you simply won’t see solo. Your business may often seem to be a solitary venture, but this is a place where you need to reach out to your network. Don’t fall in love with one option before seeking feedback. Go to the “floor” with your top three or four ideas.

If you blog, post your ideas there and see if any readers will offer suggestions. If you have a professional network, toss your ideas out and get feedback from peers. If you have family members that aren’t too close to your business, get their impressions of your new direction.

Once you have narrowed the field, pay a marketing consultant or business planning specialist to give a professional opinion on the pros and cons of your plans and how they will affect your bottom line and your ability to market your new brand. You don’t want to put all this effort into something that won’t help you in the long run. A single meeting may make a huge difference in the effectiveness of your efforts.

Take all these opinions and really listen to what was said. Keep notes on all the feedback for a couple days of agonizing push-me, pull-me evaluation. Once that period is over, pick the one you love. After all, you should be in love with your business name and concept. You will spend much of your life building, growing, nurturing and living with it. It should be something you love.

Plan ahead

Don’t jump into the transition. It’s going to be a challenging project. It will require a great deal of pre-planning to make the move smoothly. Start with the baby steps…

Your new URL

  • Your URL should be a brand that you can love and one you can quickly take to heart and adopt as your online “alterego.”
  • Select a URL that carries a keyword or two if possible. It should be short, focused and possess a little “zing” to capture attention. Make sure the URL will serve you from a marketing perspective. Why would you rebrand in a way that actually HURTS your online marketing?
  • If at all possible, use a “.com” URL. Forget .net, .info, and all the upcoming extensions. Select a .com for a timeless and established look.
  • The URL should be your legal business name. Register it as “MyCompany.com” to give you the advantage of “silently” promoting your URL whenever you give your business name. Even websites and directories that don’t offer a web link will accept this type of legal business name.

The Omni-important Tagline

  • Forget the pain and agony of developing an elevator speech. The classic wisdom of a 30-second regurgitation of who you are and what you do and what value a potential customer would find in hiring you is soooo outdated and old school. (Besides, that is the purpose of your website!)
  • Don’t assault strangers with all this information. You will only make them sorry they asked. Thirty seconds will seem like a lifetime to your marketing “victim.”
  • Instead, develop a self-apparent business name with matching URL and a tiny 5-6 word tagline that clarifies your unique marketing position. You can use this combo on your voice-mail, business cards and in person, when asked what you do.
  • It will take some time and quite a bit of effort to find the perfect combination of so few words. If well-executed, it will pay huge dividends and will make you memorable.

Marketing Materials

Over the years, I’ve spent thousands of dollars on all the marketing “fixings” including letterhead, multiple logos and images, envelopes, branded note cards, custom postage stamps, business cards, business websites, blogs, custom rubber stamps (with my logo), embroidered denim shirts, t-shirts, ball caps, table spreads (for events), etc, etc.,

Of those items, the most effective have been my business cards for in-person face-to-face encounters and my website/blog. Of the printed materials, I’ve used the branded notecards more than all the other business stationery combined. When I drop a physical note to a client, a peer or a prospect, I prefer it to be a personalized, handwritten item. The rest of the time, I use email and/or PDFs.

How you handle this will depend on your business and what niche services you offer. The more online your business, the less printed materials you will need… so your mileage may vary.

Before you automatically reorder all the stuff you had in the old business name, determine what really works for you. Don’t reorder out of rote. If you ordered 1000 custom envelopes three years ago and you still 995 of those, it’s probably not the best use of your funds.

Enjoy a Clean Slate

If you are rebranding, it’s a wonderful opportunity to purge any old ideas you have about how to run a business online. You have, no doubt, learned a great deal as a result of your “hands on” experience. Advise yourself in the same way you would advise someone who is just getting started.

Think about all of your “if ONLY someone had told me…” moments. Think about all the wasted time, money, and effort you expended when you first started.

Then, take a deep breath and plan. Make sure you don’t do any of that this time.

My Clean Slate

Personally, trying to keep my blog separate from my business website, and managing multiple branded websites was a mistake. I’m not a big business and I have no need to project that image. I should have accepted that fact early on.

People hire me as much for my personality as for my skills. It was weird to realize that, but it shouldn’t have been… after all, I accept or decline clients based on that “gut” feeling I have about them. Working so closely, and being happy with that situation, requires a good rapport. It just does.

Accepting that makes it easier to develop a single site (which contains a blog) to maintain.

Keep Records

You will be going (temporarily) backward to re-brand when you change your business. It’s a fact. There are places all over the web where you have promoted your old brand.

Keeping a record (a spread sheet will work fine) of all the places that you “find” your old brand will help you transition. Change all your profiles to reflect the new business identity. You will probably be surprised how many you have online. Going through your password list is a quick way to determine the identities you need to rebrand right away.

Legal Stuff

Don’t forget to change your business name legally; even if you are using a DBA you need to register it. Do the paperwork for any required business licenses for your area. Secure a new EIN, if necessary.

Change the information with your bank and PayPal accounts. Let your current clients know how to make out future checks/payments.

Redirect Traffic to Capture Visitors

Apply a Google-friendly 301 permanent redirect to capture as much of the old site(s) traffic as possible. Use your website’s 404 logs to determine when people are looking for something they don’t find.

Fix/forward every link. It will take time, but it’s worth the effort. You don’t want to lose visitors by frustrating loyal readers.

Re-Introduce yourself

Once you are up and running, take the time to go to your favorite blogs and websites and comment to help establish the new identity. Social networking can actually make this process easier. Some platforms allow a username and URL change without any problem (like Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn), while others will only allow a URL change and you are stuck with the same username or the prospect of opening a new account and trying to recapture your friends (like StumbleUpon and ActiveRain).

Do a press release. Produce a little fanfare. This is a big deal! Celebrate it.

A Final Thought: Be Sure

Before you start this process, be sure it’s necessary. It involves a tremendous amount of effort and should not be undertaken lightly.

If a change is needed, it’s better to make that transition sooner, rather than later. The availability of good URLs is diminishing by the second and unless you have already captured the URLs you may want to use in future years, merely getting the perfect URL can be a costly endeavor.

Don’t forget to have fun recreating yourself!

Seeking a Perfect Online Project Management Tool

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For the past week, every spare moment has been dedicated to the search for my own personal Holy Grail for my entrepreneurial business … A project management tool for the freelancer who collaborates with others.

Sounds simple, doesn’t it? I’ve reviewed dozens (literally) of the options currently available. From the over 60 options I’ve seen, I’ve narrowed them down to just a few and then gone searching again over and over.

When I discovered Worketc.com, I started rethinking what I’d like this project management tool to do. I thought that maybe there was an “all-in-one” option out there that would replace all the little web-based apps I have started to use as well as the others I’m still seeking and/or evaluating.

Worketc.com has almost everything I want… close, but no cigar. I may have to settle for it, but before I’m willing to “settle” for anything, I wanted to define exactly what I want and search one more time.

In a perfect world, I’d be able to find a system that has all the tools I need to work more efficiently (from anywhere) the way I already work. I am no longer willing to change the way I work, the service I offer to facilitate the tools I use. Enough of that already!

With that in mind, I’ve created my “wish list” in two parts. One part is “Must Have” items and one part is the “it sure would be nice” list the third portion is me dreaming a bit, but still…

The program must have:

  1. Simple intuitive interface
  2. Tasks list that is sortable by project and by assignee
  3. Email notification of assigned and completed tasks
  4. Quick glance of latest activity on each project
  5. File uploads area
  6. Meeting notes area
  7. Client login
  8. Ability for clients to see progress
  9. Client task list that they can check off

Would be nice:

  1. Internal email
  2. Contacts Management Database
  3. Journal function
  4. Searchable Notes area
  5. Ability to create tasks via email
  6. Timer (punch clock) and time sheet
  7. Simple invoicing
  8. Simple accounting
  9. Multiple calendars (for each involved party, listing their tasks)
  10. Ability to import calendars into Outlook and to subscribe in gCal

In a perfect world:

  1. An offline option that syncs with the online option
  2. Interactive whiteboard area for visual tools when meeting with clients
  3. Ability to upgrade to self-hosted on my server
  4. VOIP option built in for use with client and collaborative meetings
  5. Ability to record and store whiteboard/telephone/webinar meetings in the project file area
  6. Ability to host up to 20 people for a webinar
  7. Ability to backup to/use from a thumbdrive
  8. Skinnable and brandable
  9. Logon widget for wordpress for clients to use from my website

I’ve said for some time that my business really isn’t that complex, and it isn’t. A tool like this would meet most of the needs I have in an easy-to-use, customer-friendly and portable option.

I love CashBoard for my timer, invoicing and simple accounting online. I’d like it even better if I could merge those features into an all-in-one freelance solution like this to work from anywhere. I can imagine the day when I would only need to find a computer with a browser to work from anywhere, and then could sync that data with my own freestanding version daily at my own computer as an “onsite” backup.

With that freestanding version, I could also continue working even if the Internet was down or unavailable or otherwise “wanky” and then sync the next time I connected. Wouldn’t that be nice?

Today, I’m back to the drawing board again. Now that I’ve finally reviewed enough to know what’s available and have considered more thoroughly what I need, what I want and what additional features would make it a “silver bullet” for my business… I need to try to find what will most closely meet my specs.

After the third round of shorting, I have a list of ten (some free, some paid) including (in no particular order):

But I may go back to the proverbial drawing board again. None of these offers everything I want, and many only offer a small number of the items in my “must have” list. The weekend is still young.

By the time this weekend is over, I’ll have found a workable solution — even if I can’t have all my desires filled by a single option. I’ll review again and pick the best of the lot and get my data settled in a new home. I’ll let you know what I find.

In the meantime, if anyone has a suggestion that will satisfy my list, I’d LOVE to hear from you!

Zen Office Makeover – Before and After

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Ok, my office “situation” was beyond unbearable. I had actually started queuing up the Flickr slideshow of Uncluttered Office Spaces to try to inspire myself. My “borrowed” desk was supposed to be temporary, but it had become way too permanent. It was too tall, which meant that my feet were dangling from my deskchair and I was “reaching up” to type. I sit at my desk alot, I type alot. I was starting to experience weird aches and pains. I couldn’t wait any longer.

So here’s a shot of my un-touched up, uncleaned, uncleared desk. Look quick, because I may lose my nerve soon and pull it down and vehemently deny that MY desk ever looked like THAT. Right now, I make myself feel better by knowing that this IS, after all, the before. :O)

Crazy, Messy, Difficult place to work

There, confession made. Complete with photographic evidence. So I looked at that mess and tried to determine what was essential to my work and happiness, and what was just extra stuff.

I determined that since most of my “stuff” was digital these days, that I only needed a few things that weren’t on my computer. I also decided that having my daughter’s desk right beside mine was not the best choice.

So I moved her into the adjacent room (where I can still see her while she’s completing her homeschooling assignments). I also moved my desk away from the window to avoid the early afternoon sunbeams that often blinded me.

I also moved the printer to a closer proximity (you can’t even see the printer in the “before” photo.) I pulled the cheap (but functional) kidney shaped computer desk from Serenity into the house and set it up with only the bare necessities. I’m keeping only those items I need every day at fingertip access. The rest, I’m tossing, donating or storing elsewhere.

It’s liberating!

I’ve also recently reworked the way I handle my finances, the way I keep my books and store my client files (the few that are actually physical paper). These items must be easy to access, so they are on the shelf to the left of my workspace. There’s even a place for my new, wonderful, PERFECT purse on that same shelf so those essentials can be reached without getting up.

My new space looks like this:

It's smaller, clearer and more ergonomic.

I do have a cluttered framed print above my desk — it’s plastered with a slew of my favorite photos. Not serene, not feng shui, but I love it and it makes me happy to focus on those photos and those memories at a glance while I’m working.

The light is a clip-on metal with a conversion “swirly” fluorescent bulb that really brightens up my work area without wasting energy. I tamed the tangle of cords and used twist-ties to group them and keep them unknotted.

The “new” desk is missing something, my largish stereo speakers and the huge base unit. I’ve replaced them with the tiny ones you see on the top of the new desk. They sound pretty good, but they can’t thump like the other ones could. That’s ok. I’ll make the sacrifice.

Clean, clear lines of the new workspace

This is where the non-digital supplies are stored

This isn’t the “ultimate” office, but it’s much closer than what I had before. I still need to add a rolling storage cabinet with a hanging file folder drawer in the bottom and a shallow drawer on the top. I’d like to have it outfitted so the printer will live on top. (I’m still looking for that cabinet.)

I’d also like to have a “hot file” for the incoming papers between the time they are received and the time I handle them (pay the bills, complete the project, file the papers). I’d like to hang this folder-sized hot file on the wall beside my desk.

But for now… I have to run and get my desk dock for the iPhone (thank goodness Apple designs things sleek and small!)

Blogging Exhaustion Anyone?

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A recent NYT article chronicles the stress of being a full-time blogger, entrepreneur and participant in the Internet information industry. So, after staying up until nearly 3 a.m. last night working on my “new look” for WickedBlog — with proper validation, a new layout and a WordPress update (that I did all by my lonesome!)… I have to wonder if I’m not part of this craziness.

I’ve noticed the weight gain, the failure to eat properly and the lack of exercise — especially lately. But I keep telling myself that my life will calm down soon, that it will get better, that I’m “investing” in my future. I’m serving clients, dealing with children and family issues, maintaining my websites, blogging and doing constant research.

Hmm… maybe I’m merely continuing my life-long habit of “burning-the-candle-at-both-ends” and I’m just CALLING it something new. Food for thought. Definitely!

Virtual Assistant Training: Mini-Conference by RP

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Are you just getting started as a virtual assistant, freelancer, remote professional or outsourcing provider? Are you wondering how to find the clients? Manage time and billing? How to get your business on the web?

Maybe you are an old hand and providing services remotely (like me) and what you REALLY want to know is how to gracefully “fire” a client that is no longer a good fit, or you may want to determine if it’s time to try your hand at blogging, or maybe you want to update your existing website to be more effective for your mature business model?

If you want an economical way to find solutions for any of these issues, you may want to sign up for the RemoteProfessionals.com Mini-Conference to be held on April 17th. It’s a great way to get answers from the people in the know!

Presenters include:

If you are interested, move quickly. Registration for the virtual assistant mini-conference closes soon, and the workshop sessions are limited to only a handful of earlybirds — keeping the workshop classes small makes them more effective! I’ll be there… maybe you will be too!

(NOTE: And if you are just starting out… you may be interested in the one year “startup membership” given as a complementary bonus to all non-members who purchase all-day access!)