Wednesday, June 1, 2011

SERVICE BUSINESS
But for small entrepreneurs, technical and highly skilled people, service business is a very good career path. Imagine staying at home and waiting for your regular customer to call you because she wanted to have a home service massage, or has a broken faucet, is really relaxing. Service business actually is the best business for small entrepreneurs because it only requires skill and low capital. You can browse our lists for some good service business ideas.

Monday, May 30, 2011


What Does Organization Mean for a Virtual Assistant Business?

By Katie Bauer
You have a busy day ahead of you with two proposals due, several phone calls to make and overdue marketing activities that you can no longer put off.  As you sit down at your desk, you slowly scan the pile of folders you’ve been meaning to file, the stack of business magazines and newspapers you’ve been meaning to catch up on, the mess of business cards from recent networking events, and the vertical hanging file that has receipts from the past two months sticking out in all directions because you haven’t had time to log them in.   
Suddenly your office seems very small and you can actually feel your stress level rising.  Ever had a moment like this? 
For a small business, moments like this are bound to occur, but there are many methods of organization a virtual assistant can depend on that will reduce and potentially alleviate these moments.  First, there is organization in the physical sense.  This applies to keeping your desk clear of clutter, keeping important information easily accessible and keeping the means of accomplishing this simple so you stick with it. 
Another method relates to organizing the back office management of your business so at those times when your physical office may be in disarray, you do not stress about the tasks you need to accomplish that day.  How is this possible?  Simple.  You have already taken the time to sit down and assess what it takes to run your business.  As a result, you have developed replicable and sustainable business processes, systems and tools that keep your day-to-day activities organized.
Therefore, those proposals you need to send are practically done.  Your template is in your operations file directory, and based on the steps you have documented regarding proposals, all you need to do is customize sections 3 and 5 so they apply to the client, add the client’s name to the signature line, save the file as a pdf and email it!  At this point, this process is like clockwork. 
Oh, and that mess of business cards from the events you attended over the last couple of weeks?  Today is the day you will eliminate that mess.  How you ask?  Again the answer is simple because you only need to refer to your highly organized administrative procedures document on contact management.  Your steps outline how to categorize contacts and what type of follow up is necessary along with the text used for written follow up or follow up via phone call.  All that remains is entering the contact into your database which, by the way, also tracks each stage of your contact management system so you know the status of each contact.  You are a highly organized machine!
Now the question is how do you get to this place?  As a virtual assistant, the first step towards success is ensuring your own business is organized so your day-to-day operations are efficient and not overly time-consuming.  This enables you to dedicate your time to prospecting and managing billable client projects.  The VA Resource (http://www.thevaresource.com) is where you can find Simple, Customizable, and of course Affordable business templates, documents and tools that are exactly what you need to organize your virtual assistant business administrative and operational processes.  The clock is ticking so don’t lose another minute!
— Note to Publisher —
This article is free for reprint. Please do not change the article in any way, other than to replace the link for The VA Resource Affiliate Program below with your affiliate link.
Katie Bauer is the owner of The VA Resource – www.thevaresource.com , where you’ll find unique, easy to use and extremely affordable business documents and tools that are essential whether you are a new Virtual Assistant or an experienced VA looking to organize your business processes.  (You can sign up for The VA Resource affiliate program here: http://ow.ly/4NVgw )