One is for the 2010 VA of the Year and the other is for the 2010 Techie of the Year. That one I’m pretty excited about because I do take pride in my technical skills!

In case you haven’t been following along this has been a very transitional year for me and it’s been full of changes (more on that later).I’ve been spending a great deal of time doing different training programs including one  that will make me an Infusionsoft expert (when I’m done) and another that gave me 1ShoppingCart expert status. I’ve also taken the exhaustive OBM Certification program.

(Psst….don’t tell anyone, but I’d really like to win the title of 2010 VA of the Year. I was nominated last year and so if I don’t win this year I’m going to develop a Susan Lucci complex.)

Dang it’s hard to type with your fingers crossed….

Here we are on June 21 – the first day of summer – but it feels like I was just setting my New Year’s Resolutions! Speaking of resolutions, last week I started working on one of my goals for 2010 by enrolling in Infusionsoft Bootcamp.

In case you haven’t heard of Infusionsoft, it basically replaces your need for having a stand-alone email marketing system, shopping cart and CRM (Customer Relationship Management system).

Infusionsoft users can manage all of these critical components of an Internet business from one efficient, effective and highly integrated dashboard.

I’m busy learning how to set up and customize an Infusionsoft account, how to manage follow-up sequences, set up products and payment plans. I won’t lie, there’s a ton of other stuff to learn about order forms, templates, refunds, broadcasting and affiliate programs. But when I’m done, I will be a superstar and you will want to hire me to set up your account because trust me – you don’t want to do this yourself. (Holy hard work Batman!)

It actually might not hurt to contact me right now because I’m about to get a lot more popular. Give me a shout today and we’ll schedule you in for the minute I’m ready to transition you over to Infusionsoft or to take over your existing account.

Now I better get back to it – it is bootcamp you know!

Now I’m getting off track.

See…I told you a little while ago about how I’m now a Certified Online Business Manager but since then I’ve gone ahead and taken another very important course – this time from The Shopping Cart Queen, Christina Hills. That’s right! I’m now Certified in 1ShoppingCart! That’s great news for my clients because I can help them get more out of their carts now. Heck I’ll be able to take over the entire e-commerce aspect of their businesses if they want me to!

If the extent of your knowledge about shopping carts is how to put stuff in them and you have an online shopping element to  your site, we need to talk! Just not this weekend please. I have plans

In case you haven’t heard the phrase ‘Online Business Manager’ before, it’s defined as:

“A virtually based support professional who manages online based businesses, including the day-to-day management of projects, operations, team members and metrics.”

Sounds sort of similar to the definition for a Virtual Assistant, I know, but it’s different. A VA does tasks for clients but an OBM focuses more on the managerial role, strategy and project management. Besides, I am a firm believer in continual education so I can help my clients in as many ways as possible.

Of course I picked up loads of new skills and future clients – I hope you appreciate what I just went through for you.

OBM Training is a five month program but I did it in three days. Intense…ALL DAY…three days. I then did one entire week of grueling and rigorous certification. ONE WEEK. Those five days were spent performing real life strategy projects, working for actual six-figure and seven-figure clients. I created project plans, mapping and techniques to help the clients grow their businesses.

So there you have it. Larissa Parks the Virtual Assistant is now also Larissa Parks the Online Business Manager.

And I look forward to serving new and existing clients in an even bigger way!  Well, let me get back to spring cleaning, because a lot of changes are about to happen.

I  know what you’re thinking, “Now, why on Earth would you just stop keeping your blog updated when you’ve gained some momentum recently?”

My best answer to that is that it could possibly do us more harm than good to be blogging without knowing for certain who, exactly, we’re going to be marketing to come April 1st and frankly, blogging is too much work to be wasting valuable post energy on irrelevant topics.

Now, this new plan being cooked up isn’t something I just plucked out of thin air, but I’m being completely transparent right now when I say that I haven’t ironed out all the details yet and until I do I’m not prepared to launch anything or to be blogging about it.

There are other spring cleaning items that are taking place around here as well, changes that are collectively going to improve our clients’ experience working with us and that will make team members happier…including letting go clients who are not holding up their end of our working arrangement.

So…we’ll be falling off the radar for a couple of weeks but my question to you in the meantime is this:

When did you last do some spring cleaning in your business?

• Are you still doing things that aren’t working?
• Are you holding on to clients because they pay you, even though they make you miserable?
• Have you brushed off your marketing materials lately?
• What about an updated list of service offerings or some spiffy new content?

Come on, guys, spring has sprung and it’s time to get serious about getting rid of the business clutter to ensure a healthy, happy rest-of-the-year!

You pick up your mop and pail and we’ll see you in April!

I choose the best of the best when it comes to the people I add to my team. They’re the experts at what they do, so I trust they’re doing the projects they’re assigned to the best of their ability. I oversee “bigger picture” projects and liaise with clients. I don’t need to be involved in every single project because, quite frankly, I’m busy enough with building the business, keeping it humming and signing on clients!

Besides, the reason I’ve added these professionals to my team is because they’re skilled in areas I am not…for the most part. Trust me, I’m not getting in the bookkeeper’s way because it would be a waste of my time (and hers) to be in her business all the time because she knows what she’s doing.

I’m not going to give my copywriter a list of guidelines about writing press releases before I ask her to write one. I have her on board with me because she knows what she’s doing. I trust her and everyone else on my team to do what they do best.

Fancy that.

Unfortunately, this trust factor is a rarity to most people who have ever worked admin in an employee role. We’ve all been micromanaged at one time or another and we’ve all hated it. We’ve called that micro-manager nasty names behind his (or her) back and complained to our spouses about them after a long day at work.

If you consider yourself a micro-manager you do not want to enter into a contract with us at Seven Winds, or with any VA anywhere for that matter. You will not be popular.

The whole point of partnering with a virtual assistant is to free you up to do other things. That means you need to give your VA control over her tasks, otherwise, you’re completely defeating the purpose of the relationship.

All that will get you is one frustrated VA and the feeling that working with a VA is taking up more of your time than you expected.

That’s a classic symptom of micromanagement. It wastes your time and it’s precisely why you would be much better off hiring yourself an in-house assistant who will put up with the constant stream of instructions and over-the-shoulder-looking.

So you have fun with that while we go ahead and make a real difference in the lives and the businesses of the trusting business owners we choose to align ourselves with. And if you know some entrepreneurs like that, send ‘em our way. We pay referrals.

Let’s be honest. You started a business to make money and live a good life. If that wasn’t the primary reason, surely it made it on the short list, right?

But have you even noticed what’s happened here?

Your days are so jam-packed with action that most people would hardly believe you actually do all the things you do.

There is a never-ending list of errands to run, calls to return, appointments to keep, inquiries to respond to, paperwork to file, invoices to send, receipts to enter and, oh yes, the work you actually do for your clients.

Then there are the marketing activities that have to be done to keep your business…well…in business. You have blog posts to write, ezines to send, auto responders to set up, campaigns to launch.

Of course there are the things you should be doing to build relationships with your customers that you never get around to. You could be sending cards and gifts of appreciation, thank you notes for referrals, birthday cards, happy-anniversary-of-working-together notes and the list goes on.

You might have kids to feed, laundry to do, beds to make and groceries to pick up.

It’s exhausting just to look at those few short paragraphs because they’re packed with so much work AND TRUTH!

When do you ever get to sit down with a book?

When do you rent a movie for yourself?

When do you get a massage?

Do you realize that the majority of the items you’re running around after your own tail trying to get accomplish every day (now that’s an attractive visual) are dead easy to delegate to a Virtual Assistant?

You can free up time by working with a VA like you wouldn’t believe.

If you’re not taking care of yourself, you’re not really all that successful. You’re trying to be, but how does it really feel when you continue to come last on your list of priorities?

Who is pushing you to get off your butt and tackle those projects you’ve had in mind for your business?

When you start working with a Virtual Assistant (a good one) you’ll have someone looking out for your best interest and supporting your success like you never thought possible.

• A good VA will remind you that she can cover your email and phone for the weekend so you can take that road trip you’ve been thinking about for years.
• She can tell you to take an afternoon off because she’s got everything under control.
• Your Virtual Assistant will give you your life back and you’ll get a more successful business in the long run.

This is the perfect time to partner with a Seven Winds Virtual Assistant because we’re running a fabulous promotion during what we’re calling, “Make it Happen March.” Learn how we can take one of your “meaning-to-get-around-to” projects, give it the love it deserves, and make it a reality for you.

Just like that!

Where do you come on your list of priorities? Because wherever it is, if it’s not first, you deserve to be higher.

There are two types of Virtual Assistants, at least as far as I’m concerned. There’s the type that works really hard at making it sound like they’re really busy and successful. They mention it so often, in so many places, that it’s quite evident to the rest of us that there’s no way they’re actually as busy as they claim to be. On Facebook you see them chatting with other VAs, complaining about their clients (how professional) and talking all day about the amount of work they’re doing. (These VAs may claim they’re on Facebook to market their business, an argument immediately discounted by the fact that they actually complain about their current clients.)

Then there’s the type of VA who works full time, both at reaching their business goals and doing client work. This VA actually is busy and has little time to gossip and speculate on what other VAs are doing. This is the type of VA you don’t see hanging out on message boards and chatting on Facebook all day because they’re too busy actually marketing and doing client work to be investing time in those types of activities.

This VA adopts unique marketing techniques and is more worried about their own business than what others are doing.

This VA tends to not feel like they’re really part of the VA industry because they’re not very well known among their peers except to be disrespected for doing things differently and bucking the regular trend.

See, I belong to the later group. I really am busy at building my business, managing my team and working on projects. I am not very competitive by nature and I am too busy to keep tabs on all of my competitors anyway.

I have to tell you, there’s a lot to be said for bucking the trend and making your own mark on your industry. I’m proud of what I’m doing and I’m proud of the fact that I have not lowered myself to the level of some of the “haters” I hear from who are much too concerned about what’s happening at Seven Winds.

I am officially done caring about what these people think or say about me and if you find something similar happening to you in your industry, I suggest you do the same.

Anyone who has enough free time to worry about what I’m doing has to learn how to market themselves properly. There is enough business to go around for everyone, so instead of worrying about how I’m marketing or how I’m growing my business, worry about what you can do to make your own mark.

End of rant {SIGH}.

Do you ever have one of those days where you can’t focus on work?

You must know what I’m talking about.

Like when you have a head cold and all you can think about is putting on your flannel pjs and curling up in bed with box of tissues and jar of Vicks VapoRub.

Or it’s a sunny Friday afternoon and mentally you’re outside enjoying the fresh air with your kids and/or your dog.

Maybe there’s nothing at all behind it but you just can’t focus on work.

It happens to all of us, for reasons which have most likely been scientifically proven.

One of these days might look something like this:

09:00 – you sit down at your computer with a cup of coffee/tea/juice/water with excellent intentions of working hard and being productive all day.

09:05 – you go through your emails and note which items need your attention.

09:10 – you check Perez Hilton’s blog to see what’s going on with the celebs.

09:25 – you head over to Facebook and look at pictures from your neighbor’s sister’s nephew’s dog-walker’s wedding.

10:45 – you get a refill on what you were drinking earlier and fix a snack.

10:50 – return to your desk, open your Word Processor look at it, close it and open Twitter.

11:45 – head to the kitchen to find something for lunch.

12:15 – eat lunch at your desk, open Word again and start working on a list of ideas for blog topics.

12:25 – you stare out the window and decide to check if there are any interesting auctions ending soon on ebay.

And so on and so forth.

When you sat down, you had good intentions of working, but you ended up wasting the entire morning.

When this happens and the time you’re spending at the computer is completely unproductive, the only practical solution is to walk away and call it a day.

If you keep sitting there, there are other things in your life you’re neglecting that could be done instead – feed the fish, water the plants, get the mail, organize your closets,  clean the car, etc.

Odds are, you’ve been spending way too much time sitting over your desk and you’ve just hit a mental wall.

The next time this happens to you, just listen to your body because it has shut down your brain for a reason.

To prevent this from being a regular occurrence, give us a call and make use of our virtual assistance services. We can fill in for you when you’re having a day like this, and we can stay on top of your paperwork, marketing and other tasks so that you’re not burning the candle at both ends to the point where you’re sitting at your desk drooling on your keyboard every Friday.

It’s okay to take a break because nobody expects you to be productive 100% of the time – even if you own a business.

Call on us and let us help you run your business. Once we’re up to speed, we can fill in for you anytime you need to take a mental health day.

We don’t need a doctor’s note and your secret’s safe with us.

1. Give priority to communication skills.

Today’s trend dictates that call centers are the most convenient form of customer service. With just one call away, customers’ concerns are given answers eliminating the need to go to the actual service centers. With call centers come the outsourcing option. Not all call center representatives have English accents. It is important for these representatives to have clear enunciation and pronunciation for the customers to understand them well. This is a necessity because if customers find it hard to communicate with the call center representatives, chances are, their needs won’t be met and they will likely look for another business to close deals with. For this reason, business with customer support services must see to it that they train their customer service representatives to ensure that their accents will not be an obstacle in improving customer loyalty.

2. Build good relationships with your customers.

Every business should be aware of this. This is very important because customers are the foundation of your business. No matter how good a business is, if no one will patronize what you offer, your business will be absolutely good for nothing. Building good relationships with your customers will make them feel important and secure your business, giving them enough reason to come back for more.

3. Feed your customer representatives with as much information as you can.

This is very crucial because right the very moment your customers encounter any concerns regarding your products and services, the first thing they will most likely do is to contact your customer service support for their needs to be addressed. Customer service support exists to help customers with whatever it is they need help with regarding your products and services. You need to be able to provide your customers with as much answers as you can. Otherwise, it will cause doubt on your reputation and distrust from the customers.

These three steps of providing good customer service will help you increase sales. Remember, customers are the bread and butter of our business. You need to satisfy them for them to give you loyalty in return. Loyal customers ensure sales and make your business position more stabilized. How you get that? Good customer service.