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Top 3 Important Essentials Necessary for a Solopreneur

This blog post contains affiliate links which means if you make a purchase through those links I will get a small commission.

Any business can create a space for themselves online. Bringing your business online is a wise decision in order to market it well in the day and time in which we live in. Everyone has a smartphone in their hand and it is a way in which you can market your business and do so inexpensively.

The top three important essentials that you need as an online business owner are:

The first tool that you need is an autoresponder. One of the best ways to market your business is to have an email list. One of the best and easiest ways to have an email list is to have an autoresponder. This allows someone to come to your website no matter what time of day it is and automatically receive whatever free offer you have there automatically when they exchange their name and email for your offer.

You can offer a free consultation, a free chapter of your book, a report or something similar. This free offer needs to be something of value that you are giving away for free. For example, if it is a free consultation they will automatically be emailed letting them know how to get their free consultation or redirecting them to your scheduling tool.

If it was a free chapter of your book then they will automatically be sent that free chapter even if it is 2:00 am because that is what an autoresponder does. So it is important to use an email marketing tool and to have an autoresponder so that you can get those email addresses.

There are tons of them available at different price points. I currently use ActiveCampaign, which starts out at $17 a month. There is also:

ConvertKit
Aweber
MailChimp
and many more.

Those are just a few of the ones on the market, but they are all ones I would recommend.

The second tool that you need is a social media scheduling tool. Social media is one of the best ways to connect with individuals in your target market no matter what your target market is and honestly, I believe that the top ways to connect on social media right now are the following:

Facebook
Instagram

These are the top two that I would recommend using. I would also recommend LinkedIn especially if you are a professional business owner because it has so many connections. The best way to utilize social media is to be consistent and in order to be consistent, it is best to schedule it. Because it is so hard to find the moments and the time to post on social media otherwise.

So some of the social media scheduling tools that you can use are:

Buffer
Hootsuite
MeetEdgar
and many more!

All of these are great tools to use to schedule out your social media in advance.

Then the third essential that you need would be a website. I highly recommend using WordPress on your own hosting. (I currently use and recommend MomWebs.) The host will host your website for a monthly fee. Then you will want to install WordPress, which is a free open source program. You can install this yourself or hire someone to do it for you. I personally specialize in WordPress so all of the websites that I build or maintain for clients are on WordPress. It is very user-friendly and it has tons of options which will allow you to have a very professional looking website, which is important.

To recap here the top three essentials that you need are an email autoresponder, a social media scheduling tool so that you can stay consistent on social media and a website. These are all services that I provide, but I do specialize in WordPress, that is the area where I have the most skills.

I would love to connect with you and I do offer FREE 20 minute consultations which you can book here: http://alyssaavantandcompany.com/schedule.

Why Your Website Needs an Up to Date Blog

By Alyssa Avant Leave a Comment

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 Leave a Comment

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.

How to Streamline Your Client Onboarding Process

By Alyssa Avant 1 Comment

Affiliate Disclaimer: This post contains affiliate links. I get commissions for purchases made through links in this post. Although you won’t pay any more for any purchases you make, the commissions will enable me to continue to provide free content to readers.

As a technical virtual assistant, I see behind the scenes of many people’s businesses. No matter what the offer is, if you are offering a service, whether it be a class, a coaching program, or a WordPress website design, you will have to have a client onboarding process.

You will want the process of getting information to your newest clients to be smooth, easy, and most of all automated, if possible so that you don’t forget a single step. You will want to start creating and streamlining your client onboarding process by making a checklist of each step needed. Take a client from a brand new client to an engaged client with all the information that they need to start your class, communicate and engage in your coaching program, get their site design started, or whatever the offer is in your business.

Using my business as an example, once a lead has made the decision to become a client of mine, I work through the following simple checklist:

Send the new client a welcome email.
Send the client an agreement via HelloSign.
Ask them to fill out my new client form.
Send the client an invoice via Freshbooks.
Invite the client to a Dropbox folder.

Inside the welcome email, I explain to the client all the pieces above that they will be receiving. I also tell them what to expect from our agreement.

One of the most important things to consider when you are creating your onboarding process is to try to answer any of the client’s questions by anticipating them before they ask. Remember, you want the process to be as smooth as possible.

Some additional tips for streamlining this process are to use various tools. These tools can help save time and automate the process.

The first tool I recommend, if you are a Gmail user, is to use the canned responses lab that is available to you. This stores template emails so that you do not have to type them over and over or even copy and paste because they are right there for you.

The second tool that I recommend is the e-signature tool that I recommend and use, which is called HelloSign. This program also allows you to store templates if you use the paid version, but the free version works great as well.

For forms, I use the program called Cognito forms which I embed right into my website. This is another program that has a free option and is very simple to use.

Finally, I use Freshbooks for invoicing and Dropbox for file storage and sharing. I simply create a new folder for each client and share it with them.

The more that you can streamline the client intake process, no matter what your business is, the better. This will save you a ton of time and stress.

Wondering what other tools you might use to help streamline your business? I have a free download of 30+ Tools to be More Productive in your Business.Click here to get it now!