I'm a firm believer that networking should be done as much offline as it is done online. I belong to two regular networking groups - one weekly and one monthly, and then go to others periodically too. I find I pick up a lot of referrals this way from people who like to meet who they're going to be doing business with, or who they will be referring to. This is how I began doing business before the Internet and I still am actively networking on a local basis regularly, over 20 years down the … [Read more...]
Local networking is important
A question I see asked time and again on the VA and business forums are 'how do I find more clients?', or 'how do I get my name out there?' The answer is, and always has been 'networking'. Networking is one of the most important activities that is required of a business owner. You can do everything you can think of, set up great systems, design a fantastic website, have all your paperwork in place but if you don't actually spend time connecting with people, very few are going to find you. And … [Read more...]
How much business are you getting from business groups?
I saw a question relating to this at a (non-VA) forum that I belong to but felt that the question is also relevant to Virtual Assistants. The person in question felt that joining this group and that one and another was costing him a lot of money and he wasn't sure he was getting any benefit from it. I felt perhaps he wasn't clear on why he was joining groups, other than the hope of generating business. This is my answer to him: I think you need to do your homework and visit as a guest to each, … [Read more...]
Who do you know?
Over the years I've become known as someone who knows someone when someone might be looking for someone. Are you still with me? ;-) I believe in networking - it has helped build my business and builds the business of countless others around the world. There are some really good business networks out there that really work, and BNI (www.bni.com(.au) is one of them. This morning while I was at a BNI meeting one of the members passed a referral on to our business coach and when she read out the … [Read more...]
Two Wonderful Web Women meet face-to-face
Recently I had the wonderful privilege of meeting Janet Beckers, Founder of Wonderful Web Women face-to-face. We'd spoken online before and on the phone but had never met face-to-face until a few weeks ago in Melbourne. Funny really, we've known each other for a few years. So strange to not have met before. Janet had her video recorder with her and we did an impromptu interview so here I am unmade up and in the natural so to speak. Actually there were three of us there that day. Charly … [Read more...]
It’s not cool to ask
In fact, it's rather rude. What? you say. I'm talking about those who beg for work at Virtual Assistant forums. They join and then start sending PMs (Personal Messages) to members at the forum, or email them, or ask on the forums itself for work. This is not what the forums are for. They are about learning and sharing information and over time people get to know each other. It's what networking is really about - developing relationships. When you're at a face-to-face networking event you … [Read more...]
How many clients do you need?
A chance comment at a VA forum made me realise that a new VA was using the scatter gun approach to finding new clients and was, therefore, trying to prevent travelling all over the countryside and use cold calling instead. Except she was unsure how to go about it. She'd obtained (legally) a directory for her target market and wanted to approach them all to introduce her business and was seeking advise about this. I'd made comment that face-to-face was more personal and why didn't she just go … [Read more...]
Should a Virtual Assistant Network For a Client?
I saw an interesting article today titled "Take Advantage of Social Networking with a Virtual Assistant" so of course I went and read it straight away. I have very firm ideas about what a VA should and shouldn't do for a client and networking is one of those things I don't believe we should be doing. I agree we can set up profiles for clients and hold their hand and help them through the process of learning to use tools such as LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter and others but I strongly believe we … [Read more...]
Networking is not ‘set and forget’
A recent conversation with a client set me thinking. In fact I'd had a similar discussion with another client not much earlier. They both wanted accounts set up at various social networking tools such as LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, etc and have everything automated (rss feed from blogs, automatic responses, etc) so that they could literally 'set and forget' the very tools they needed for networking. This isn't the first time this subject has been raised - I've had others ask too, thinking … [Read more...]