If you are a small business owner, entrepreneur or private practice professional, the answer to that question is very simple………you do!  There comes a time in every business owner’s life when the burdens of every day administration become very overwhelming.

Your goal should be to focus on the pursuits that drive income and generate new clients for your business. Yet, that letter still has to be typed, your customer list needs to be updated, that appointment scheduled and your calendar synced. What about the newsletter you promised yourself to start sending out to your current customers?

The average business owner spends up to 40% of his/her time on routine administrative tasks, according to the U.S. Small Business Administration. Some business owners who made an effort to track their time for a couple of weeks discovered this percentage to be conservative. They were surprised to find that 60% of their time was spent on administration.

As a business owner, most of your time should be concentrated on activities that create value and revenue for your company.  Spending your time creating, planning, strategizing, networking, marketing and delivering your product or service will give your business the opportunity to grow and profit. 

If your administrative workload is not quite big enough to justify the expense of an office based administrative assistant or possibly your current staff is on overload, then partnering with a Virtual Assistant is the ideal solution. Virtual Assistants provide remote, affordable skilled and professional administrative support. Because they are business owners themselves, they know the value of your time.  When you contract with a Virtual Assistant you only pay for the time they actually work on your task or project.  Mark Merenda from SmartMarketingNow.com said it well, “I guarantee you will make more money than it costs to hire a great Virtual Assistant from what that assistant frees you to do.”

Christine Myers

Virtual Assistant Services.net, Inc.

www.VirtualAssistantServices.net

CMyers@VirtualAssistantServices.net

There are three responsibilities a business owner needs to assure business growth and success. 

 (1) Deciding - What is it that you really want to achieve in your business?  Making a Vision Board or better yet a Business Plan can go a long way to firmly establishing your goals.

 (2) Renewing - The New Year is the ideal time to take a look at what works and doesn’t work for your business. But don’t stop there!  Especially if certain elements in your business are not working, every several months, revisit the new ideas you implemented.  If they’re not producing results – get rid of them!  Be creative.  Research how other businesses in your field became or are becoming successful.  Take ideas from the systems that you can relate to and come up with ones that are uniquely your own.

(3) Clothing - Just as we need to get dressed each day, we need to develop effective, creative, healthy habits for ourselves, personally and for our business.  Your character and your business are made up of the sum of your daily habits.

What you do, you become! 

Commit yourself to doing these three things and watch your business thrive.

To Your Business Success,

Christine Myers, Virtual Assistant

www.VirtualAssistantServices.net

As the year draws to a close I have begun my planning for 2012 and have turned my focus towards next year’s social media trends. We have most definitely seen a shift in social media usage by businesses this year as more have been persuaded to jump on the social media bandwagon, however there are still too many that really do not understand how to ‘do’ social media. What holds most people back when it comes to marketing on the social network channels are fear and not knowing where or how to start. My mission is to simplify social media so that it will work for you, and trust me there is no need to be scared, just do it!

I have witnessed several businesses experiment with different social platforms, listen and watch what others are doing, and have even taken a few risks but did not attain the results they had expected. I assure you social media works, it does take time but there are businesses every day achieving success.

Three trends for social media in 2012 that I believe are going to be catalysts for the growth of businesses that use social media are; Education and training, Integration of offline/online media, and Facebook as a leading advertising vehicle.

Education and Training 2012 will be the year that companies realize to be the leader in their industry they are going to have to embrace social media and learn to take it more seriously, possibly even seek outside consultation and guidance. Training the full staff will ensure your company is fluent in social media and will be at a competitive advantage. Discovering how to tap into the social media platforms, understanding there is not a ‘one size fits all’ solution and learning how to ‘engage’ with the customer will grow your business.

Integration of Offline/Online Media This year brought the introduction of the QR code (bar code) which has made print marketing interactive, but there will be an even greater shift towards the integration of all marketing in 2012; Print to Social, Radio to Social, TV to Social, Email to Social, 1 on 1 Networking to Social, Mobile to Social and Social to Social. Social Media will be an extension of all your marketing efforts and will attract prospects to your business that will get involved with your Brand.

Facebook as a Leading Advertising Vehicle Facebook has rapidly grown into the largest website in the world with 8 million active users. During the coming year social networking is going to be more about business marketing. With the maturation of monthly visitors to corporate Facebook pages vs. website visitors we will see more companies advertising on Facebook, experience a positive outcome and become more confident with using social media to market their business.

If you have a business it is no longer a question of whether or not you need to be involved in social media and those companies that learn how to master the power of social media in 2012 will end up as winners, it is said the ROI of social media is whether or not you will be in business in 5 years, so don’t get left behind!

To Your Social Media Success!

It takes a lot of courage to start your own business.  To have a successful business – to stay in for the long term –you need more than courage. Starting and managing a business takes a mixture of determination, self-motivation, and hard work. 

Determination:  Do you love what you do?  Do you have a burning desire to turn what you love into a successful business?  Or do you continually have doubts?  It’s okay to doubt yourself from time to time. Running your own business is a big undertaking. Ultimately, you must have the courage to persevere and rise above those doubts. Are you determined to do what it takes? In the book, “Think and Grow Rich,” Napoleon Hill states that desire is, “the starting point of all achievement.”

Self Motivation:  Owning your own business means that you will be the one making the decisions, setting the pace, and leading your company in the right direction. You need to be the one who will generate the momentum, energy and enthusiasm.  You are responsible for all aspects of your business, from marketing your products or services, to bookkeeping, and everything in-between. If you are not disciplined, if you don’t do the work, the work doesn’t get done. 

Hard Work: Are you willing to work long hours to always keep your business moving forward? Sacrifices will sometimes need to be made of your time, in order to reach long-term goals and rewards. You will need to leap out of your comfort zone on quite a few occasions. Are you willing to explore new, creative ways of doing things and learn unfamiliar topics?

To increase your opportunity for success in business, take some time to explore and evaluate yourself, your business and personal goals. You don’t need to be born an entrepreneur. Anyone who has the desire, the persistence and is willing to learn can develop what it takes to be a successful business owner and entrepreneur.  

To Your Business Success!

Christine

cmyers@VirtualAssistantServices.net