IVAA NEWS
Live Summit Early Bird Rates End TUESDAY
All good things come to an end – well at least the $399 registration price for the IVAA Live Summit conference April 17-20 in Memphis! For members, there is the option for a split payment over 30 days, as well, in addition to the discount. We are looking forward to eating some BBQ while enjoying fabulous sessions and great company! Register today!
New Certification Tests are LIVE
The new system is up and running, WAHOO! We hope you will find the testing interface easier to use and focus on the actual test. Sound good? Members will continue to enjoy discounts for the exams.
- CVA (Certified Virtual Assistant): $120 (members only)
- EthicsCheck®: $50 (members); $90 (non-members)
- CRESS (Certified Real Estate Support Specialist): $45 (members); $85 (non-members)
New Programs at IVAA Australia!
Things are hopping over at IVAAOZ. Unfamiliar with IVAA and want to hang with the “pros”? Check out "Why Join IVAA" session every 3rd Wednesday at 2:00 p.m. AEDT.
New to IVAA? We’ve got you covered. Check out the New Member Orientation the 1st Thursday of the month at 1:00 p.m. AEDT.
IVAAOZ members now enjoy Expert of the Month sessions in your time zone! They are held on the 2nd Tuesday of the month at 2:00 p.m. AEDT. All recorded just like the EOM sessions over in the states. Recordings can be found on the Website File Cabinet.
PRESIDENT'S MESSAGE
Australia. There are many wonderful and successful Virtual Assistants (VAs) in Australia that we can connect with, provide educational opportunities and programs geared specifically to their needs.
Here are some of the opportunities already in place.
Join us for our weekly Coffee Chats every Monday at 5:30 PM AEDT where we have open discussions about the industry, general business challenges, and talk about IVAA and the many benefits of membership – member or not, you are welcome to participate. To attend please register at IVAA's calendar.
You’ll be pleasantly surprised at the great Expert of the Month (EOM) sessions coming the 2nd Tuesday of each month from 2:00 – 3:00 PM AEDT – our next session will be on Tuesday, February 14th! Guest speaker, Jeannine Clontz will help us determine whether or not a niche is the best option for your VA practice, or if you already have a niche, how to go deeper into your niche to re-energize and grow your business, in her presentation Finding Your Niche or One Size Fits All! Join us for this webinar by registering through our IVAA calendar.
Interested in finding out more about becoming a member of IVAA Oz? Join us at 3:00 PM AEDT on the 3rd Wednesday of every month for our "Why Join IVAA!" presentation. You do not have to be a member to attend; you just need to register by using our IVAA calendar.
Virtually yours,
Doreen DeJesus, President
Attending live events is one of the fastest, easiest ways to enroll new clients into your practice and increase your income. How can that be the case for you?
When you attend an event there is a natural process which occurs that includes networking, creative buzz and encouragement to build a successful business. Additionally, it affords you an opportunity to break free from the virtual world that you have become accustomed to and connect with other humans. There is NOTHING like spending face-to-face time with real people. Plus, you have an opportunity to learn new skills or increase your knowledge in a particular area, which makes you more valuable to your clients.
I can honestly tell you that I have gained one new client and several valuable contacts from every single live event that I have ever attended. Since 2006, I have attended on average three events per year. I would hardly call the expenses incurred a drawback. In fact, all such expenses have proven to be very wise investments for my present and future goals. The same can be true for you.
For example, just a few months ago, I attended an event focused on teaching solopreneurs how to use speaking to grow their business, which is a topic that compliments my work. Attending the event cost me about $1,000 (in travel expenses, meals, tuition, etc.), but I met a lot of great people and connected with two prospective clients who were highly interested in my services. Following up on those leads turned those connections into $18,000 in NEW income. So was it worth it for me to take off from my business for a couple of days and spend the money to attend the event? Absolutely! Especially because I had the opportunity to travel to a beautiful city and had a lot of fun!
Choosing the events that you attend is very important. Factors to consider are: 1) Will there be a large number of your ideal clients in attendance? 2) How will the information presented at the event help you to improve your business? 3) What exactly will you do to followup on the interest you receive? Having the answers to these questions clearly in mind BEFORE you register for the event will ensure a strong return on your investment. Also, you'll want to prepare well in advance to attending the event, so you are able to clearly articulate the value of the services you offer and position yourself as a resource to assist those you meet.
I hear a lot of virtual assistants say they can’t afford to attend live events. If you think you can’t afford to attend live events or invest in programs to enhance or gain new skills it is probably due to a two-fold problem:
- You are not charging enough money for your services.
- You are not setting aside money and time each month to invest in the growth of your business.
If you truly want to grow your business and start working smarter, not harder, you MUST invest in yourself. It’s simply not optional. After all, if you don’t invest in yourself, why should your clients invest in you?
As you prepare your marketing plan for the next few months, be sure you set aside time and money to attend live events in order to put yourself in front of YOUR target market. It’s one of the fastest ways to grow your business quickly.
Invest in your business development, attending IVAA's Live Summit programmed specifically for Virtual Assistants."
Many business owners start blogging as soon as their site is up and running. They have some great ideas at first and then they run out of steam. Sometimes it is difficult to see the value when you have nobody following your blog and very few hits on your Website. I am going to list a few reasons to keep blogging and how you can maximize your exposure by blogging. One thing to keep in mind, blogging is a long-term commitment that seldom pays off in the short term.
- Search engines LOVE new content. Writing blog posts often (at least 1 to 2 times a week) gives the search engines more content to record. The best strategy is to keep your blog content relevant with what your target market is searching for. To rank high in the keywords you are targeting, it is important to have lots of content using those keywords. Writing blog posts about your vacation in Aruba is okay as long as you can tie it back to what you do.
- It gives you credibility in your niche. When a potential customer visits your site, a blog gives them a peak into your personality and your knowledge base. This is why it is a good idea to be professional in your posts and not spend your time spouting off about problem clients or how much you hate waiting in line at Walmart.
- It can help generate conversation via social media. Each time you post to your blog, you should consider tweeting about it, sharing it on Facebook and asking for opinions via LinkedIn. There are ways to have your posts automatically sent to the different social media outlets depending on what blogging platform you are using. But you may want to send it out a few more times in the course of the week to grab the people who didn't see it the first time. This may be especially true when you are finishing your blog posts at 2:00am.
- You can repurpose your blog posts in so many ways. There are article submission sites like eZine Articles that you can join that allow you post your articles with your contact information. Other people can then use your articles for their purposes as long as they use all your contact information provided and link back to you. It is another way to create backlinks to your content as well as credibility. Once you get enough blog posts about a specific topic you may want to create an eBook to give away as your opt-in freebee. Perhaps you may want to group some together and sell them as an eBook or create an eLearning course.
- Is a great starting point for your email marketing campaign, eZine or newsletter. You can tease your readers with an excerpt of your blog post and then link them back to your Website to read the rest. This is a great way to bring traffic to your site.
I hope this has helped you to see the value in blogging for your business. If you blogged once a week for a year, you would have over 50 articles to your name. It is a long-term commitment that can be very beneficial if you stick with it.
Christine Bearse spent over 20 years in various project, restaurant and office management positions before the dream of owning her own business came true. She has built a business doing work she fully enjoys, works with fabulous clients and is on the never ending quest for better ways to streamline business operations through the use of technology. When she isn't building websites or managing client projects, she is spending time with her husband and two young sons.
Sydni Craig-Hart, Sydni Craig-Hart, The VA Success Coach™, is Founder of Executive Assistant to Virtual Assistant!, a company dedicated to providing Administrative Professionals with the support, tools and resources they need to create a highly successful, profitable Virtual Assistant business. Visit VASuccessSecrets.com to listen to Sydni's FREE audio class "How to Start and Grow A Profitable Virtual Assistant Business ...In Less Than Six Months."
Nancy Seeger, is the owner of Arts Assistance, a web design and graphic layout provider integrating client marketing messages into designs for small businesses and musicians. With IVAA, Nancy serves on the Board of DIrectors as Marketing Director, volunteers on the Design Committee and both Live and Online Summit committees.
Colleen Wietmarschen is the owner of Clerical Plus Virtual Business Support Specialists. She is entering a new phase of her business concentrating on author assistance, ghostwriting, and blogging for clients, as well as project management, and other administrative services. She volunteers for the IVAACast Newsletter as well as committees for IVAA Online and Live Summit conferences. Visit her newly-designed Website at ClericalPlusVA.com.