3 Tips to Maintain a Good Working Relationship with Your VA
When you find a VA that meets all the criteria of your wish list, you will probably thank your lucky stars that the search is over and want to hold on to them forever! So what can you do to maintain a great working relationship with your VA? Start with these tips.
Communicate.
Communication is the key to a successful working relationship on both ends. When you give your VA instructions on a project, be sure they are detailed and clear. Have your VA reiterate the details to ensure you are both on the same page and ask if they have any additional questions. If your VA requires additional information from you, respond to requests in a timely manner.
Make plans to check in.
When you first begin working with your VA, decide how and how often you will communicate. Will your project require regular communication, such as a weekly meeting to discuss strategy and progress? What is the best method of communication for you both? Schedule times and details of necessary meetings as soon as possible. This will ensure that you both stay on track and don’t get booked up with other obligations.
Evaluate your business needs regularly.
Regularly examine the performance of your VA and keep track of their progress. Don’t be afraid to tell them if you aren’t happy with something they have done. Your VA is there to support you and help your business succeed. They want to make sure you are satisfied with their work. If you find that the relationship isn’t working out, terminate any agreements you have with your VA. There is no use sticking with a VA who isn’t making your life easier and contributing to your business’s success.
By following these simple tips, you can be assured that you are doing your part to ensure a long, happy and healthy partnership with your VA!
3 Questions You NEED to Ask a Potential VA Before Hiring Them
You have big plans for your business, but you know you can not accomplish everything by yourself. And you should not have to! You can find a great VA dedicated to helping you every step of the way, but it can be a daunting task. How can you make sure you hire the right person for your business? Asking a potential VA the following questions will help you make the right choice.
What experience do you have handling these types of tasks?
The first question any business owner should ask a potential VA is about their experience. There is no point continuing the conversation if this person can’t help you with the tasks you need completed. Find out if the potential VA has performed these tasks before in their own business or for clients. If knowledge of a special program is required to complete your projects, be sure they know how to use it. Ask them for references or samples of their work. Seeing a completed project that is similar to yours or getting feedback from other clients can go a long way in helping you trust the expertise of your potential VA.
What are your fees and payment policies?
If you are comfortable with the experience of the potential VA, you will want to find out about their fees and payment policies. This is extremely important as all VA’s are different and you do not want to end up with surprise charges later. Many VA’s will offer a monthly retainer package at reduced rate from their regular hourly rate. This means that you are agreeing up front to hire them for a certain number of hours each month. If you are planning on having your VA work on a regular basis, this may be your best bet, but be sure to find out if there are a minimum number of hours required to qualify for this arrangement. Also, find out what happens to unused hours if they are not needed for the month. Do they carry over to the next month or do you lose them? What about if more hours are needed to complete certain projects for the month? Are you notified beforehand so you can approve overtime, or will you get a surprise invoice after the fact?
Don’t forget to find out when your potential VA expects payment. Some VA’s will require payment before services are rendered, while other VA’s will send invoices on certain days of the month. Take note as to whether there are any extra charges for rush projects or late payments.
What is your availability?
If you find the potential VA meets the previous criteria, you will want to find out about their availability for you. How much time can they devote to your work with the rest of their workload? If they can only devote 5 hours/week to your projects, you need to evaluate whether or not that will be enough time.
You also need to find out when they are available for assignments and phone calls. You don’t want to send a project to your VA at 4pm that needs to be done in an hour if they only work until 3pm. Keep in mind that you may be in different time zones.
There are other questions you may want to ask a potential VA depending on your business needs, but these are the main ones you will always want to find out about no matter what the project is.
3 Tools Your Service Business Needs to Be More Productive
3 Tools Your Service Business Needs to Be More Productive
Everyone can agree that owning a business is a lot of work. Not only do you have to complete your client work, you also have to worry about all the administrative tasks that come along with owning a business as well. With so much to think about, it is easy to get overwhelmed! Maybe you find yourself constantly working long hours to get everything done. Or maybe you spend so much time on client work that you just neglect your own business.
Neither of these scenarios are pleasant and both can harm your business. By introducing some new tools into your business, you can begin to work more efficiently and be more productive with the time that you do have. Here are a few tools you need to start using right away in your business.
Bookkeeping Software – Gone are the days of handing a stack of receipts to your accountant and letting them figure out the financial state of your business. If you are interested in growing your business, you need a good bookkeeping system. You should know where your business stands financially at all times. Accounting software will allow you to generate an up-to-date report of your business transactions and let you know where you are at with your business in a matter of seconds. All you have to do is keep up on entering all your transactions. If bookkeeping is not your area of expertise or you don’t have time to do it, outsource it. You will still have access to all the reporting features and that can make a big difference in how you proceed with your business.
FreshBooks is a great option for bookkeeping. For a small monthly fee you get an easy to use program, with many useful extras. If you are a small business with a small number of clients, you can even get a free account that lets you invoice up to three clients. FreshBooks also allows you to create professional invoices to send to your clients and includes an option for them to pay online through PayPal or another merchant account right from your invoice. You can even set up recurring invoices to go out automatically. Besides being an effective bookkeeping program, FreshBooks also has a time tracking feature. You can record your time worked and easily generate an invoice which will detail all your charges for you. Your clients will also be able to log in with their own account to see a breakdown of their tasks and the time you have spent on each.
Project Management System – A good project management system can be a lifesaver for your business. A project management system allows you to keep track of all your current projects and schedule all the tasks you need to complete for each project. Using one will also allow you to assign tasks to your team members and collaborate with them and your clients in a secure online environment. You will have everything you, your team members and your clients need in one place, saving everyone a lot of time.
One useful and easy to use project management system is ClientSpot. It is inexpensive, easy to use and has plenty of great features. With ClientSpot you can schedule all your tasks, assign tasks to other team members, and keep track of your client’s upcoming events. You can also share information with your team members and clients through comments and documents and give your clients access to view the status of their tasks and see how much time you have spent on them. ClientSpot even lets you track retainer hours so you never unintentionally go over your budgeted hours again!
Autoresponder Service – If you haven’t yet discovered the benefits of autoresponders in your business, now is the time to start! They are a great automation tool for your business. Autoresponders are messages that are sent to a person automatically when they complete a particular action, such as signing up for a newsletter or purchasing a product. You can set up autoresponders to stay connected to your prospects and customers with very little effort on your part. One example of how to use autoresponders in your business is to set up a series of tips. This allows you to share the same content with all your prospects and clients regardless of when they subscribe, and you only have to set it up once. You can also use autoresponders to provide top-notch customer service by thanking your clients for their purchase and giving them further instructions or details.
My autoresponder service of choice is Kick Start Cart, due to the many different features it offers. It is the same software as it’s parent company 1ShoppingCart. Not only does Kick Start Cart offer a complete email marketing program, it also serves as an online shopping cart allowing you to sell your products and services on your website. Another great feature of it is the ability to create an affiliate program. With Kick Start Cart you can easily set up an affiliate program for your products and services and allow others to sell for you.
Running a business will always be a big commitment and require a lot of work, but your business doesn’t have to suffer as a result. You just have to learn to work smarter, not harder, and there are plenty of tools to help you do this. Consider a wise investment in your business!
How to Set Up a Product in Your Online Shopping Cart
How to Set Up a Product in Your Online Shopping Cart
If you plan to sell your products or services on the internet you will need an online shopping cart. By using a shopping cart, your website will be able to sell for you 24/7, even while you sleep! It will process transactions and store all the customer information for your records and future use. Using an online shopping cart also gives you the advantage of automating your business by allowing you to send autoresponders to your customers to thank them and provide more purchase details.
Step 1: Choose the option to create a new product.
Step 2: Enter the details of your product.
- Enter the name and price of your product and be sure to check the box for “Active.” Those are the required items for your product. The other items in this section are all optional.
- Add an image of your product
- Write a short and/or long description of your product to display on the cart page.
- Choose an autoresponder to be sent automatically to your customers when they purchase your product.
- Enter a SKU if your product has one or put the product into a category within your shopping cart for organizational purposes. For example, you may create a category called “E-books” or “Coaching Programs.”
- Save your product and move on to the next tab.
Step 3: Choose your products settings.
- If your product is on sale, specify the sale price and make that price active.
- If you will be charging a different amount of sales tax or shipping for this product, you will enter it here. When you are setting up your cart you will choose your default tax and shipping charges, which will appear automatically for your products when you check the appropriate boxes. Don’t enter these amounts again here if they are the same as your default. The only time you will enter an amount in this area is if you are charging a different sales tax or shipping charge then your default, such as if you have one item that is heavier than your other products.
- Check the box to calculate affiliate commissions if you have an affiliate program for this product.
Step 4: Get your product link.
- Skip to the fourth tab labeled “Links.”
- If you choose to specify certain URLs for your customers to be directed to during the buying process, you can do so here. If you leave these blank, the default pages will be used. The Destination URL is where you want to send your customers when they hit the “Continue Shopping” button in the shopping cart. The Thank You URL is the page you want your customers to see when they make a purchase. The Clear Cart URL is the page you want your customers to go to when they hit the “Clear Cart” button in the shopping cart.
- Copy the checkout link and paste it in your website. You have two options for your buying process and whichever one you want to use will determine which link you choose. If you want customers to go straight from your website to the order form where they fill out their personal and payment information, you will use the “1 Step Checkout Link.” If you want customers to go to a cart page from your website, you will use the “2 Step Checkout Link.” This will send your customers to a page where they can review what is in their cart and choose to either continue shopping, checkout or clear the cart.
3 Reasons to Include Internet Marketing in Your Business
3 Reasons to Include Internet Marketing in Your Business
Every business should include internet marketing strategies in their overall marketing plan. It is a great way to spread your message and boost your business growth. Yet many businesses have not taken full advantage of this powerful marketing tool. Maybe they feel their audience is not online. Maybe they feel it is too difficult and it would be too costly to invest in the help they would need. Maybe they have tried marketing online before, but didn’t get the results they were hoping for.
Internet marketing perk #1: It is cost-effective.
Internet marketing perk #2: It offers variety.
Internet marketing perk #3: It introduces you to a large, targeted audience
Let’s Connect…
