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 name it was a member of my VA team.  oops!  I immediately wondered if I’d slipped up and my team didn’t realise I could help them source services and products when they have a need.  But perhaps my name wasn’t on this member’s mind when she was thinking about ‘who would know someone…?’ and she may have recently been doing business with the lady from my chapter (through previous promotions I’d done).

So, when you are looking for a referral for a particular service or product, think about the people you already know and ask them ‘who do you know…..?’  There is sure to be someone you already know who can recommend someone they know through personal experience and connections.  After all, word-of-mouth referrals are something we all appreciate, aren’t they?

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 Leetham, another Wonderful Web Woman, was holding the video but we had both met face-to-face before so it wasn’t a first this time round. But it was the first time the three of us were together.   Janet and Charly had been visiting Melbourne for an awards night for their businesses, and of course, with some success too.  Below this photo was taken by Charly’s husband.

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 wouldn’t just rush up to someone and ask them for work would you? I hope not!  And neither should you at an online forum.

Spend time getting to know people, and the culture of the group. And better yet, join in the conversations and allow others to get to know you. Then, if the occasion arises for them to outsource work to another VA, they might just call upon you for help. But they won’t if they don’t know you and haven’t had the opportunity to get to know you.

So, stop asking for work and start networking instead!

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 along to the industry association networking meetings put on for her target client base.  She then said she didn’t know how much fuel she’d use and the cost involved in going all over the place.  Bingo!  The thought hit me ‘how many clients did she really need?’ and I responded by saying that she really only needs to go to the one event to meet possible clients and once she gained one client, if they’re happy with her, they will refer her.

Now, I should clarify here – I don’t mean attend only one meeting, period. I mean, find one local network that is close by and attend their meetings regularly, whether it be weekly, monthly or somewhere in between.  Building relationships is important but once you get past first base and people get to know you it’s so much easier to move to the next base and gain new clients.

It’s important to know when you’re first starting out in business that you don’t have to get everyone’s attention.  You can’t possibly service everyone with a need, but if you gain 1, 2 or more clients from that source it will build from there and as you gain confidence, the more attractive your service will be to others as they learn about you.  You only need one to get the ball rolling!

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 shouldn’t be in there doing the connecting for them.

Why? Because those people we’re connecting with will assume that we are the person we’re representing and they’ll be forming a false ‘relationship’ with someone who isn’t who they appear to be.

I believe that our clients really need to be doing the networking. They have their own personalities and interests and will be drawn towards certain people that have an instant rapport with them.  Unless our own personalities closely match that of our clients, that really isn’t going to work.

I found the last paragraph of this article interesting:

So save yourself the trouble of running all these online accounts and hire a virtual assistant to do all the online work for you. You will definitely reap the benefits of getting on these online networks and actively build relationships with the people on the networks.

Who is building the relationship in this article? Not the client but the VA.  If the client doesn’t have time to build relationships with others then how are they going to grow their business? They can’t remain isolated from people for too long as networking and marketing go hand-in-hand and are an important part of business development and relationship building.

So while I agree that Virtual Assistants can set up profiles, upload images, add bios and even send out invitations to existing contact lists the client has, I don’t agree that the VA should actually be doing the tweeting, connecting, replying and responding – the client needs to take ownership of that part of the networking and do it for themselves. What are your thoughts?

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 that engaging a Virtual Assistant to set things up for them and do occasional maintenance was all that is needed.  I don’t agree – I believe they have to be involved in the networking aspect of using these tools – I’m just setting up the mechanics to make it easier for them to use.

It made me realise that these clients don’t understand the reason why these networking sites exist.  They’re not for automatic promotion of business services and products to generate quick sales, but rather to facilitate networking, build relationships and over time, may generate business. I can affirm business will follow but only after people feel they’ve gotten to know you, trust you or see that there are others they admire who trust you and do business with you.  Why would they when there are many to choose from and some of those may be their competitors who are in there building relationships.

In this day and age of instant gratification and quick responses, people tend to forget that some things need to be nurtured and carefully grown over time.  And networking is one of those things, irrespective of what vehicle or tool is used. What do you think?

On one of the forums I participate a member was asking how to market their VA business and get work.  I joined in the conversation and highlighted the importance of networking.  My response is below.

Networking is a key to developing business and a big part of it.  I believe you should be networking both online and offline.  I started with offline networking in the early days of my business because there was no Internet then but online networking today is just as important – you need a mixture of both.

Check to see what business groups meet locally to where you live and go and attend some of their meetings and meet other business owners.  As you get to know them (it takes time and won’t happen instantly) you’ll get to know of their needs and they’ll get to know how you can assist them.  Same with online networks. If you have some idea of who your target market is then search yahoogroups for networks that relate to that group of people. But if you don’t have a target market, then start with your own interests.  For example I joined a writers forum because I love to write. I ended up supporting authors with research and document formatting because they needed help.  Locally I joined a speakers groups because I wanted to learn more about public speaking and today, I and my team in Australia, support many professional speakers – just through that one network. I didn’t know that was going to happen when I went to my first meeting.

For the most part the networking I do costs me time and very little money but it does depend on the groups you go along to. I was a member of BNI (Business Network International – www.bni.com) for 5 years and that did cost money but I did recoup my costs as well and today still service people I met and still have access to all the resources I met (Accountant, travel agent, printer, etc).

There are some excellent books out there that will assist you such as “Masters of Networking”, “Seven Second Marketing”, “Networking Magic” and so on – many of these will give you great hints and tips in how to market yourself and your business and connect with others.  I believe that networking is an important element of your marketing and through continued connections with others you’ll find ways of promoting your business that works for you and is succinct in getting the message across.

Hope this helps.

I recently met a copywriter at a business breakfast I was speaking at and she was keen to talk to me after the event.  She was looking for more ways to get clients and was wondering if I accepted copywriters into my Virtual Assistant network.  I told her I would send her some suggestions that would help her with her business and then I realised that it might help some who read this blog as well.

We met at the breakfast last Tuesday and you were wondering if my Virtual Assistant network would be suitable for a Copywriter.  It is in some ways but we don’t get a lot of requests for that kind of work. More secretarial but a small number of my team do provide copywriting services when the opportunity comes along. We do get people needing briefs, blogs and websites written for them.

But I want to suggest to you options that are open to you. Do you spend much time on the Internet?  Because I feel it’s important you do.

I believe there are 2 major audiences out there these days – those you meet face to face, as in the breakfast last week, and those you meet online and probably will never see face to face.

You have a website but it really doesn’t demonstrate your ongoing commitment to writing.  I would encourage you to start writing a blog explaining the benefits of having a copywriter and sharing case study stories of clients you’ve assisted or know other copywriters have assisted.  You don’t have a newsletter either – how do you build a list of subscribers or a database?  If you had a blog though you wouldn’t really need to worry about a newsletter as the blog would be effective.

Another way to gain attention online is to join some discussion forums. You don’t have to chat in them every day but it’s important that you are mixing and mingling with two types of people – your peers, and your target audience.

If you go to www.yahoogroups.com and do a keyword search for ‘copywriter’ you should find discussion forums where others like you have discussions about how to run a business like yours, find clients, and what’s happening globally in your industry. And then start seeking out your target audience.  Who are they? Who have you serviced before? Check to see if those type of people also have discussion forums and join them and get to know the members but don’t blatantly do promotions, rather just offer advice as it is sought.

I belong to over 30 discussion forums, 20 of which are via yahoogroups and others are board type forums through ning.com or other avenues.  www.linkedin.com is the world’s largest business database to my knowledge and would be worth joining – if you go to my blog at www.soho-life.com and search on linkedin you’ll find hints and tips on how to set up an account and make use of this system.  www.twitter.com and www.facebook.com are more possible avenues for finding clients and associates – my links are below and I encourage you to look at what I’ve done and how I use them.

I hope this gives you the reader, some worthwhile food for thought as I’m sure it gave the lady I was sending this information to.

Last year I wrote about two different situations where the VA community grouped together to help one of its own.  One was when a VA shared on her challenges and others rallied round to help her.  The other was when I, myself, was going through a family tragedy and so many once again, rallied round to support me and let me know they were there in my time of need.

Well, another need has been highlighted by one of my team today and it relates to the Victorian bushfires that most of the world now knows about by now.  There have been so many stories of those directly affected – lost homes, lives, pets, livestock, businesses, crops and so on.  It has been devastating and has swept our nation with grief and shock. And we’ve had firemen flown over from New Zealand and the US (and possibly other areas) to come help fight the biggest natural disaster Australia has ever known.

There is a massive fund raising effort being held currently and many people are donating clothing, food, goods, household items, places to stay and so on to assist those directly affected.

But it wasn’t till today that I’d given thought to those indirectly affected and this is also something that needs to be highlighted.  The businesses and communities that will suffer loss – extreme loss, if nothing is done – due to the drop in tourism because people are either scared or incorrectly assumed other towns have been wiped out.  One of those is Beechworth and because a member of my VA team lives and works there, it is something I want to highlight here.  I have blogged and twittered about this situation but I want to encourage you too, to write about it.  Perhaps even adopt a town you know of in Victoria, that needs that kind of attention and support.  And if you do, why not leave a comment here with a direct link to the post you’ve made and the town you are supporting.

Thank you for your help on behalf of all in Victoria who have a need of this kind.

Victorian bushfires, fires in Victoria, Beechworth, Australia, tourism

I hope you like the series I’ve been doing on the mistakes VAs make in operating their businesses.  I’ve been getting great feedback – both here at the blog and via email from various people and the list has been growing as I’ve been thinking about it when away from my office and doing other things.

So, where did I get the idea to do this? Twitter.  What Twitter?  Yes.  I saw someone post some weeks ago the number one mistake in their industry – it was just a single post and didn’t continue on, but it suddenly made me think about mistakes people make when starting up a virtual assistant practice, or even further down the track. And it’s grown from there.  And of course the mistakes I listed don’t always apply just to virtual assistant practices. They can almost always apply to any small business operator as well. So why not share the series with other business owners you know?  It may just help them avert a problem before it gets started.

I have number 7 coming out on Monday.  If you have any suggestions for more ‘mistakes’ I’d love to hear about them and I will give you the credit for them too, with a link back to your site or your blog.

virtual assistant business, Mistakes VAs make, Twitter, social networking