The National Association of Women Business Owners (NAWBO), of Metropolitan St. Louis, recently announced their annual Public Policy trip to Jefferson City which includes their members, and participants from 15 statewide organizations including the St. Louis Minority Business Council, Hispanic Chamber of Commerce, Women Impacting Public Policy – Missouri, MidAmerica Minority Business Development Council, and the St. Louis Black Leadership Roundtable, just to mention a few.

This year’s trip will be on Wednesday, February 1, 2012, leaving from the Chesterfield Valley area promptly at 7:00 AM by bus, (seating on the bus is limited, so sign up early!) and the bus leaves Jefferson City at 3:15 PM and will return to St. Louis at approximately 5:30 PM.  Cost for the trip, which includes lunch and background materials, is $45/person and you must register (credit/debit cards only) by Monday, January 30, 2012, in order to participate.  You may register at: http://nawbostl.org/calendar.htm

Participants will visit the Capitol Building and meetings will be held throughout the day with legislative leaders, members of the Governor’s Cabinet, and key agency personnel.  Time will be available for you to visit your local representatives who may be at the Capitol during the visit.

This event is one of many NAWBO St. Louis organizes on a local level  so its members can access a variety of opportunities, products and services that will help their business achieve greater visibility, credibility, and profitability while building a strong network of other women-owned businesses in the region. 

For more information and to register visit:  http://www.NAWBOstl.org,  info@NAWBOstl.org, or call (314) 954-8344.  Advanced registration is required by January 30, 2012.

NAWBO St. Louis and Minority Coalition Head to Jefferson City to Increase Procurement Opportunities! is a post from: Virtual Assistance Business Briefs

The National Association of Women Business Owners will host a cocktail party and program on the latest health issues impacting women’s lives.  Dr. Susan Hoffstetter will discuss heart health, nutrition and sleep disorders, immunizations and health screenings, and pelvic and bladder health.  Hoffstetter is a board certified Women’s Health Nurse Practitioner and an Associate Professor at Saint Louis University School of Medicine, Department of Obstetrics, Gynecology and Women’s Health.

The event will take place Wednesday, Oct. 19, 4:30 – 6:30 p.m., at Westborough Country Club, 631 S. Berry Rd.   The cost to attend is $35 for NAWBO members and $45 for guests.  A $10 late fee will be added after Oct. 16.

“Dr. Hoffstetter is one of our most popular speakers,” says NAWBO president Louise Wiedermann.  “She consistently delivers timely information in an entertaining way that results in lively discussion.  We invite the community to join us for this important program.”

For further information, contact NAWBO St. Louis at 314.954.8344. To register for this important event visit: http://www.NAWBOstl.org.

NAWBO St. Louis Sponsors Women’s Health Program is a post from: Virtual Assistance Business Briefs

Last week we learned some technology tips for setting alarms, tracking time and progress, and several other support mechanisms we can achieve through technology. Our final six tips connect us with others to maintain accountability and achieve our goals more easily.

12 Technology Tips to Support Your Goals (Part Two) is a post from: Virtual Assistance Business Briefs

A blog is a great marketing tool to connect with a specific audience.  Blogs allow you to build a relationship, and establish a level of trust, a critical piece in establishing your expertise and creating the desire to connect to you, and your products or services.   It is important to establish good practices on your business blog, being certain never to lie or exaggerate your income, popularity, stats, readers, subscriptions, etc on your blog.    

There is such a thing as being too honest about your lack of experience as a blog writer, or the fact that your site is new and therefore does not yet have a big following.  This can happen by either having a lack of professionalism in the way your blog site is presented, or by your own posts telling your readers that no one ever visits. 

Keep low visitor count frustrations to yourself, and treat every blog post like a sales presentation.  (This doesn’t mean using a sales pitch.  Today’s blog reader is way too sharp for that and will quickly transition away from your blog.  What I mean is always put your best, most professional face forward.)  Never, ever comment on low blog reader turnout on the blog itself.  No one wants to hang out someplace that tells them up front that it is unpopular!  Instead, find out why visitor count is low, and fix it!

Take a look at other blogs in your niche, and take note of the ones you find professional.  Compare this to your site, focusing on the differences in graphics, presentation, layout, and how they handle business promotion.  Also notice if they have a professional theme for their blog.  There are many wonderful, professional-looking free themes out there, but you will need to dig around and choose carefully.

When you find a site you like, don’t clone it, but do learn from it.  Conversely, when you spot a blog that you don’t like, ask yourself why.  Is it a lack of professional design?  Does the site have too many advertisements?  Does it use flashing or gaudy graphics?  These observations will be valuable when analyzing what your blog should look like.  Visiting the competition is critical, because it also shows you immediately what your own readers will be reading.  Your blog has to stack up, and exceed expectations.

Whether you use a free or fee-based theme, don’t use it straight out of the box.  Most themes make it easy to incorporate a new header or logo to help expand your branding efforts, and familiarize readers of who you are.  Minimally, consider changing the color scheme so your site won’t look exactly like thousands of others out there.  This is most critical if you use a free blog platform like Blogger.com or WordPress.com.  These sites have a very small selection of standard themes, and your blog will virtually disappear in your reader’s minds if you don’t customize them!

Do you have a free or low-cost theme resource to share?  Don’t be shy, leave a comment or question below.  Let’s connect.

Jeannine Clontz, IVAA CVA, MVA, EthicsChecked™, owner of Accurate Business Services is a Virtual Assistant (VA). ABS provides ‘as needed’ marketing and social media support, training and consulting to busy entrepreneurs. Clontz is a writer, author, VA Coach, and speaker on business topics including business ethics. For her FREE 10-Step Guide to Finding the Right VA, or herFREE Report, Social Media Marketing Benefits, visit: http://www.accbizsvcs.com. Find out more at www.VAbizcoach.com or her book website http://www.entrepreneurialfreedom.com

Tips For Developing a Popular Business Blog is a post from: Virtual Assistance Business Briefs

In Part One we discussed blog basics, promotion and whether or not it was a worthwhile endeavour. 

Continuing along those lines, and equally important to your website, a blog will also require a bit of SEO (search engine optimization), carefully chosen keywords and tags, as well as, listings with directories and indexes such as Technorati, StumbleUpon, or Digg, just to mention a few. Reading and responding to other people’s blogs is also a big part of the bogging community. However, to gain a wide readership you either have to have something reasonably spectacular to offer or a lot of time to spend on promotion. 

Blogging Hazards

 Blogging has been found to get people into trouble. Blogging about work regularly opens the door to disaster. The award-winning police blogger known as Nightjack was outed by the press and subjected to disciplinary proceedings. In another case, insults about a model led to the disclosure of the blogger’s identity and legal action. Exposing your personal life can be dangerous, even if you remain anonymous.

 So Why Blog?

 If you’re able to walk the walk and talk the talk, blogging can propel your career or become a satisfying pastime. Used as a business tool, in tandem with other social media marketing, a blog can help expand your reach and help to promote your product, service or views. A blog allows you to show the ‘human’ side of your business and keep your search engine rankings high with what they highly value, FRESH content.

 A hundred million people regularly follow blogs.  The blogosphere may not be what it used to be, but when used in the business arena, as a part of a larger marketing effort, it can be a powerful tool for getting your message out to the masses.  It can be as versatile as a website without any added expense. 

 As long as you consider both sides of the equation, having a blog is a great way to express yourself and build a following. So make a little history of your own, take your business to the next level by utilizing a blog.

 Jeannine Clontz, IVAA CVA, MVA, EthicsChecked™, owner of Accurate Business Services is a Virtual Assistant (VA).  ABS provides ‘as needed marketing and social media support, training and consulting to busy entrepreneurs.  Clontz is a writer, author, VA Coach, and speaker on business topics including business ethics.  For her free 10-Step Guide to Finding the Right VA, or her FREE Report, Social Media Marketing Benefits, send a request to:  service@accbizsvcs.com or visit:  http://www.accbizsvcs.com, www.VAbizcoach.com  or her book website http://www.entrepreneurialfreedom.com

Blogging for Business (Part Two) is a post from: Virtual Assistance Business Briefs

Getting referrals takes time and work.  Just because you do a good job for your clients doesn’t mean they’re going to naturally send you referrals.  Attending networking events and making connections with people who could potentially provide you with referrals isn’t automatic, either. 

Just like everything else to do with your business, it’s hard work!  But it doesn’t have to be drudgery.  Once you start asking for and listening for the openings to make a request, it becomes a habit that will help you expand your business and increase profits.

A big part of it is your mindset.  Are you excited about your products and services?  Do you express excitement when talking about what you do?  Is there a smile on your face?  Do you think about the many potential clients searching for your products and services and how you are the best option to solve their problems?

Are you confident when you are speaking to a client or friend about passing along a referral (do you even ask?), and when your client or prospect is speaking are you focused on them and being a good listener?  Are you making eye contact?

These are all great ways to prepare yourself to ask for referrals.  And don’t forget to provide them, too.  Find someone that fits a need for this person that is not in your expertise, or suggest their products/services to someone else, and be sure to let them know you referred them.  Nothing helps solidify your relationship better than reciprocating.

Create a basic script for asking for referrals and practice it until it is second nature and flows naturally.  You’ll be surprised at just how many great prospects are out there just waiting to find you if only you would ask.

Jeannine Clontz, IVAA CVA, MVA,  EthicsChecked™, owner of Accurate Business Services is a Virtual Assistant (VA).  ABS provides ‘as needed’ marketing support and consulting to busy entrepreneurs.  Clontz is a writer, author, VA Coach, and speaker on business topics including business ethics.  For her free 10-Step Guide to Finding the Right VA, or her FREE Report, Social Media Marketing Benefits, send a request to:  service@accbizsvcs.com. For more information visit:  http://www.accbizsvcs.com, www.VAbizcoach.com  or her book website http://www.entrepreneurialfreedom.com

Getting Referrals is a post from: Virtual Assistance Business Briefs

Did that title give you pause?  Many people struggle to answer this question.  Sometimes referred to as your elevator speech, or infomercial, having a smooth and easy to understand response will really go far in helping people to know who you are and what you have to offer.

Here are five things to consider in crafting your 60-second infomercial:

1.    Who is your target market?  While I can open my informercial by saying, “although I have clients in almost every industry…” – you still want to focus on your niche or target market to help people think of who they know that could benefit from your services.  If you’re still not sure, analyze your current client list and see if there is a particular industry, or type of client that seems most logical to your offerings.

2.    What problems does your target market have that you can solve?  Keep it simple.  Come up with one or two things – don’t overdo it – less is more!

3.    How do you solve these problems?  Again, don’t come up with a laundry list of products/services, just enough to whet the appetite so they’ll want to find out more.

4.    Mention something specific that speaks to results, like: ‘many of my clients say their sales increased at least 20% as a result of working with us’.

5.    End with either a memorable tagline, or a question – like – ‘is that something that might be of interest to you or someone you know?’

Once you have it setup, print it out and practice it (and time yourself) several times until you have it pretty well memorized.  You don’t want to come off sounding too scripted, but you will need to get comfortable with all the aspects so that you’re sure to hit all the points you need to in your time allotment.

Once you have this mastered, you will want to cut the content even more, for a true elevator speech – which is usually only 30-seconds in length.

Finally, especially if you attend networking events regularly, you will want to have several different versions for answering the questions numbered two, three, and four above.  This gives people the opportunity to hear more about the additional services/products you provide.  If you only talk about one specific product or service, they’ll believe that’s all you offer and you could be leaving potential sales on the table.

With a little bit of work, and practice, you’ll have the perfect 60-second infomercial that helps people immediately recognize what it is you do, and who they need to refer to you.  Word of mouth marketing is the most cost-effective way to market your business.  The infomercial is the best tool to close the sale!

Jeannine Clontz, IVAA CVA, MVA,  EthicsChecked™, owner of Accurate Business Services is a Virtual Assistant (VA).  ABS provides ‘as needed’ marketing support to busy entrepreneurs.  Clontz is a writer, author, VA Coach, and speaker on business topics including business ethics.  For her free 10-Step Guide to Finding the Right VA, send a request to:  service@accbizsvcs.com. For more information visit:  http://www.accbizsvcs.com, www.VAbizcoach.com  or her book website http://www.entrepreneurialfreedom.com

So What Do You Do? Five Steps to An Infomercial That SELLS! is a post from: Virtual Assistance Business Briefs

For many of us, sales is a four letter word; something that causes us stress and anxiety.  So I say, “stop selling then!”.  Sounds like a good idea, doesn’t it?  So what do I mean?

Instead of trying to close a sale, try to build a relationship and see if that doesn’t allow the client to close the sale for you.  It’s really all about your client, or potential client, not you.  With that in mind, let’s come up with some questions you could ask a client, or prospect that might open a door to using your products or services.

·         Tell me about a recent project you’ve been working on?

·         Is this the type of thing you love to do?

·         Are you getting the results you need and achieving your goals?

·         What’s your biggest challenge right now in moving your business forward?

Remember to keep the conversation flowing, and positive.  You should be doing more listening than speaking, and even if it doesn’t present a problem that you can solve; who do you know who might be able to assist THEM?

If it does present you with an opportunity to solve a problem, you might say something like, ‘would it be beneficial if you had someone to partner with to achieve this goal, or solve this problem?’  If they respond positively, explain the benefits of working with you and how you can produce the results they are looking for.  Then be quiet. 

If they have an interest they’ll ask for more.  Try to continue to offer positive reinforcement for solving the problem and ask what would happen if they did not solve the problem; or how important it would be to get more positive results, etc.  This will help them see the need to get help or support and ‘close the sale’ for themselves.   

This is a great way to let clients and prospects know that you really are interested in them, not in selling to them.  I think we would all agree that we do not like being sold to, so why do it?  The bonus is this takes that four letter word (sale) out of the equation and makes for a more positive and beneficial relationship.  Win-win, I say!  

Jeannine Clontz, IVAA CVA, MVA,  EthicsChecked™, owner of Accurate Business Services is a Virtual Assistant (VA).  ABS provides ‘as needed’ marketing support to busy entrepreneurs.  Clontz is a writer, author, VA Coach, and speaker on business topics including business ethics.  For her free 10-Step Guide to Finding the Right VA, send a request to:  service@accbizsvcs.com. For more information visit:  http://www.accbizsvcs.com, www.VAbizcoach.com  or her book website http://www.entrepreneurialfreedom.com

Stop Selling – Build Relationshiops is a post from: Virtual Assistance Business Briefs

Social Media Marketing sure is HOT!  I have been very successful in helping clients with my Social Media Marketing packages, but one of the questions I’m always asked is, ‘What are the benefits?’

While most clients want to be assured that closing new business is a part of the benefit, and it is, it is probably the least in overall importance to your total marketing efforts within this platform.

As a generally ‘free’ form of marketing, social media can generate incredible exposure for your business.  With proper use of your profile areas, and links, you can create lots of exposure to your offerings.

Not only will this increase traffic to your web presence, but you can increase your subscribers/database by making sure that you have something to offer people, with little to no cost, when they first connect to your home page. 

These tools can also connect you to new business opportunities and joint ventures.  By searching for groups that connect to your target market, you will soon find others well suited to your niche.  These connections can lead to some pretty incredible relationships with like-minded entrepreneurs.

All this activity, back and forth between your social media also helps to increase your search engine optimization.  Sort of a nice bonus – you’ll be much more visible when people are looking for your products and services.

Participation in multiple social marketing communities and groups can also help to generate a more qualified lead.  Connections can be made through mutual friends, testimonials and recommendations, all which help to establish you as a trusted expert.  In many cases, the lead has already decided to do business with you before they ever make a connection.

And while I will say that these social media sites have certainly helped me to close sales with new prospects, many in areas of the world I might never have reached otherwise, I believe the most important benefit I’ve found to social media marketing is the overall reduction of my marketing expenses.

By adjusting my marketing plan and being consistent with social networking, I have been able to reach more prospective clients, build stronger relationships with current clients, peers, and colleagues, for little to no cost.  How bad could that be?

So take the plunge.  Get involved with Social Media…and enjoy the ride!

Jeannine Clontz, IVAA CVA, MVA, CRESS, PREVA, EthicsChecked™, CRVA, owner of Accurate Business Services is a Past-president of the IVAA (International Virtual Assistants Association), and is an author, VA Coach, and speaker on business topics including business ethics.  For her free 10-Step Guide to Finding the Right VA, send a request to:  service@accbizsvcs.com. For more information visit:  http://www.accbizsvcs.com, www.VAbizcoach.com  or her book website http://www.entrepreneurialfreedom.com.

Social Media Marketing Benefits is a post from: Virtual Assistance Business Briefs

We’ve all heard of social media – Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, etc., and we’re all finding our way to getting involved in the phenomenon.  For those of you who are totally involved, you might ask, what’s next?

Research I’ve done indicates that Social Bookmarking will be the next big thing for businesses to be involved with to increase exposure and expand their reach.  So what is Social Bookmarking?  Wikipedia says:

Social bookmarking is a method for Internet users to store, organize, search, and manage bookmarks of web pages on the Internet with the help of metadata, typically in the form of tags that collectively and/or collaboratively become a folksonomy. Folksonomy is also called social tagging, “the process by which many users add metadata in the form of keywords to shared content”.

In a social bookmarking system, users save links to web pages that they want to remember and/or share. These bookmarks are usually public, and can be saved privately, shared only with specified people or groups, shared only inside certain networks, or another combination of public and private domains. The allowed people can usually view these bookmarks chronologically, by category or tags, or via a search engine.

Many social bookmarking services provide web feeds for their lists of bookmarks, including lists organized by tags. This allows subscribers to become aware of new bookmarks as they are saved, shared, and tagged by other users.

Here are the top 10-social bookmarking sites for you to consider:

·         Digg

·         Yahoo! Buzz

·         Stumble Upon

·         Reddit

·         Technorati

·         Del.icio.us

·         Kaboodle

·         Mixx

·         Propeller

·         Newsvine

As these services have matured and grown more popular, they have added extra features such as ratings and comments on bookmarks, the ability to import and export bookmarks from browsers, emailing of bookmarks, web annotation, and groups or other social network features.  In many cases, you are able to connect through a Facebook profile and minimize your need to re-enter and upload basic information.

Take some time to investigate several of these social bookmarking sites and get familiar with the next BIG thing in social network marketing.  By the time they become as popular as Twitter, Facebook, and the like, you’ll be ahead of the game.  Enjoy!

Social Bookmarking the Next BIG Thing is a post from: Virtual Assistance Business Briefs