Blog -

Virtual Assistant Success Story – Amanda Long

Amanda was my virtual assistant intern in the fall of 2015. She is sharing with you about her success below:

Where I started: I started out wishing I could be a work at home mom, playing with a blog and knowing I had more in me.

How You Helped: I learned that I did have real potential and was able to build a real business and being a work at home mom was my dream come true. I learned how and when to talk to clients and what to say, what clients to avoid, all the systems I needed to get into place to help my business run smoothly, and much more. You gave me the confidence and knowledge I need to move on and up in my business.

As well as, I could show my family the difference I was making in other people’s business while working on my own. I became a WAHM/VA in their eyes, and they were willing to learn more {even though they didn’t and still don’t really understand everything I do}.

Where am I now: I feel great about my business and the changes that I’ve been able to make for my family because of it. We don’t worry about money because there’s always money coming in. I can’t think of a time that I really worry about ‘getting more clients’ because I’m always booked to the max and that’s thanks to your marketing training.

Bio:

Amanda is mom to Emmett, wife to Steven and business owner/blogger in her free time. She loves being creative both online and through home management. She’s a former hairdresser who loves her work at home business and it’s flexibility. She enjoys spending time with her oilfield man when he’s home, and her days with her two puppies while everyone is working and at school.

You can find her at http://virtuallyamandalong.com

What Should I Budget to Start my Virtual Assistant Business

By Alyssa Avant

When starting a virtual assistant business, money is a big concern. How do I know this? I know because I had the same concern as well. The thought, “What if I cannot afford it?” buzzed around in my brain, along with other questions.

How much is this going to cost? Do I need a website?
Do I have to have it designed?
Do I need a dedicated telephone line?

I honestly wished someone would have taken me by the shoulders, looked into my eyes, and firmly said to me, “Slow down.” Unfortunately for me, no one did that. Fortunately for you, I am attempting to through the words of this book.

Please, don’t do what I did. Don’t spend money too fast. You can learn how to budget to start your virtual assistant business.

I spent money that I didn’t have to spend. I’ll admit that. In fact, this is going to sound crazy, but I went to the bank and I took out a personal loan for $3000.

Pick yourself up off the floor, stop crying, and don’t worry that you’ll need to go to the bank and take out a loan for $3000. You don’t need it. In fact, all I had to show for that loan a year later were the payments I had to make on it. I don’t know what I did with that money besides buying myself cute things for my closet office and maybe a few business cards that I still have sitting in that closet. The only thing of real value that I spent that money on was a little online training that I got from some of those ladies who reached out to me in the first days of my business.

The online training that I took on some of the basics of business was the most valuable thing that I spent that money on, and the truth is that training was pennies compared to my $3000 loan.

Quite honestly, the training cost about 10 percent of that amount, and it paid for itself a million times over.

Budget to start my virtual assistant business

Basic Needs First

Before you can even consider those things, you need to make sure that you have the basic needs of a virtual assistant before you can even begin to launch your business. There are some very basic needs that every virtual assistant must have. These include:

A computer – You don’t have to have the latest and greatest but you do want a computer that will run the basic programs such as Microsoft Office, Skype, and an internet browser.
High-Speed Internet – Working virtually requires that you be able to connect to the Internet quickly and easily. You will want to invest in a reliable Internet service provider.
A phone – Whether you have a landline or a cell phone you will need to have a way to communicate with your clients and potential clients.
A quiet place to work – Though it isn’t necessary to have an office, it is nice to have a place to call yours when it comes to where you work. You could claim a corner of the bedroom, redo a closet and make it into an office nook, or use your spare guest room as an office.

In addition there are a few tools that I highly recommend using; however, most of these are free or low-cost tools. You can get the FREE list of 18 Must Have Tools Every Virtual Assistant Needs (Including the Ones I Use Every Day) here.

Handling Your Business Finances

I realize that you are probably more concerned with making money, however, it is important that you have a solid budget and bookkeeping plans in place before you ever make money. If you don’t do anything else establish a separate PayPal account or checking account to keep your business finances separate from your personal finances. This will make things much easier to handle at tax time.

You will also want to track your income and expenses. There are a variety of ways to do this. I recommend using a system for this whether you use a simple spreadsheet or a more robust bookkeeping program, such as QuickBooks.

Be Prepared for Tax Time

Though I am not an accountant and cannot offer advice for you in that area, I can tell you, as an experienced virtual assistant, you will want to keep good records so that you can claim all the expenses that are possible. Being self-employed means that you pay all your own taxes, unlike if you had an employer. I suggest making an appointment with a certified public accountant. At the very least you will want to keep those records, as I mentioned, tracking your income and expenses.

Why Your Website Needs an Up to Date Blog

By Alyssa Avant

Are you an entrepreneur who is trying to obtain a web presence as a way to promote your company or business? Then you are probably at some time or another going to, or maybe you have already, ventured into the world of blogging. Blogging, though it began as sort of a hobby for many, has turned into a profitable business for others. It is also a way to aid you in connecting with your target audience and drawing them into your websites through a new format, the blog. However one key to remember is that your website doesn’t just need a blog, your website needs and up to date blog.

Utilizing a blog as a part of your company’s website is crucial. Here’s why:

Blogging helps to provide keyword rich content to your company’s blog and website. There are many benefits to having a company blog, these include:

Branding – Having a blog gives you a place online to help establish your brand. It can help you to build a reputation with your readers that will give you a positive image. Also, it can help lead your readers to become your customers.

Fresh Content – Fresh, original content on your blog helps the search engines find you. The more often you can provide fresh content the better off you are.

SEO (Search Engine Optimization) – Search Engine Rankings are where it’s at these days. You can receive higher rankings for your website by using a blog and its content to improve those rankings. We optimize your blog posts with keywords that help drive traffic to your site, increasing your search engine rankings.

More Traffic – Above all, the blog helps with your traffic as previously mentioned. Whether you want higher search engine rankings or just more customers, traffic is the way to receive both. A blog with fresh content is how to get that traffic.

Want to know more about how to have your website be a website that lives up to the phrase, “If you build it, they WILL come”?

Download our Ultimate WordPress Website Checklist.

How to Streamline Your Social Media

By Alyssa Avant

If you own a business, whether you are a full-time entrepreneur or you are balancing a J-O-B and a sideline business, either way, you are likely super busy and could use any time-saving tips that you can get. Am I right?

In my last post, I discussed streamlining your client onboarding process. In this post, we are going to talk about another area of business: where you can streamline it, saving you time, and maybe even saving you money!

Social media can be a beast at times.

There are so many different platforms that you can get involved in that it truly can take over your world if you let it. There are several ways that you can streamline your social media:

Narrow down the social media platforms that you use to a maximum of three. This will allow you to focus in on what is working and what isn’t so that you aren’t wasting your time. The best way to decide which platforms to be active on is to first determine which platforms your target market utilizes the most.
Determine how often you will post. Not every platform requires constant posting for you to see results from using the platform. There is a strategy to seeing results from each platform. Therefore, you need to determine the strategy that you will use and implement, and track your results. This way you know if posting three times a day is enough on Facebook or if you need to post twelve times per day on Twitter.
Organize your social media content. Getting the content that you want to share organized and easy to access is a huge step in the direction of streamlining your social media. Having content scattered throughout your devices and stored in a variety of places can make it difficult to wrangle it all in when you are trying to schedule posts.
Use a social media scheduling tool. It may go without saying, but manually scheduling out social media content is just not a timesaver, it is instead a time sucker. There are a variety of social media scheduling tools. I recently began using SmarterQueue. It truly makes social media scheduling so much easier. Get a free extended trial by using my link.

These are just a few things to consider in an effort to streamline your social media.

You can also set up systems for your business that can help to streamline social media as well. Click the image above to sign up for the free checklist.