How many times have I seen this? (Answer: Many)

An entrepreneur starts a new business by purchasing a domain. Easy peasy. Then days, weeks, and even months go by and the website isn’t up yet. Meanwhile the webhost uses the entrepreneur’s web real estate to advertise itself or place ads for others. It’s sort of like parking an old car in a vacant lot and putting a For Sale sign on it.

Don’t let them park their car on your lot!

Instead, why not create a landing page for your business to begin your SEO (search engine optimization) immediately? When you eventually add your full website, you’ll already have some visibility (think website ranking) from your landing page.

Here’s what you need:

1.  Your business name.
Example: It’s Virtually Done

If you’ve figured out your domain name, you probably have your business name determined. Don’t worry if you don’t have a logo yet, but add it if you have it.

2. Ideal Client.
Example: Technical Virtual Assistance for Coaches

I’m a believer in niche marketing. You don’t have to work only within your niche, but it is a great way to attract clients in your specialty. Your niche will be one of your keywords so that potential clients can find you organically through browser searches. Say you love garlic dill gherkins. Are you going to search for “pickles” or “garlic dill gherkins” to find exactly what you want?

3. What you do.
Example: Strategic Online Administrative Support for Entrepreneurs.

Needless to say, in order to reach your potential clients, you’ll want to let people know what you’re offering, what problem that you’re solving for them.

4. Tag Line.
Example: Get More Done… Worry Free.

You may not have this entirely figured out yet, but give it a go. Try to limit your tag line to just a few words (fewer than 12) to keep it very simple for people.

5. Picture of You.

I’m not sure why it is, but people really like to know what you look like. It doesn’t have to be a photo studio picture, or one of you dressed up, but you want the picture to be of good quality, not blurry or dark, and you want to appear personable and approachable. If you are a farmer, by all means stand in your overalls in the field. You get the idea.

6. How to Contact You.

You need to cover the basics here:

• Name
• Address (City and State at the minimum)
• Email (okay to type it this way: name(at)domain(dot)com, for example)
• Phone
• (Optional) Best time to reach

7. Personal Statement.

People like to do business with people they like and “know.” I suggest that you have a brief statement in which you may cover:

• Your client’s pain and how you will solve it. Example: “Overwhelmed by your administrative tasks? Leave that to me while you get more done, worry free.”
• Why you have just one page. Example: Our website is “at the spa” and will be up in January. Feel free to contact me in the meantime.
• Your expertise. Example: “I’ve been helping clients with their administrative overload for 9 years, and I can help you too!”
• Something unique, personable, and even a little humorous. Example: “I’m known for being a ‘bulldog problem solver,’ so leave your troubles with me.”

How long with the above take to do? One hour. Really!

Will you have the perfect ideal client spelled out and the perfect tag line? Probably not, but this is just temporary and will be working for you while you are figuring everything out.

Meanwhile, those webcrawlers and spiders will be doing their thing with some pertinent information about you and your business while you are developing your web content, working with your designers, web developers, and brand experts.

Okay then…what are you waiting for? Get that temporary landing page up and get it working for you immediately. (Just don’t wait too long to get that full website up because that’s the idea anyway.)

Ezine or Website? Chicken or Egg?

Recently a potential client with a sharp business idea approached me. She has a part-time job so she wanted to start small. She figured that starting with an ezine (email newsletter) was the way to go to begin building her list of contacts, and then she would add the website later.

Not wanting to take on too much at once, she thought this made sense. On the surface it does, but let’s rethink this.

Eventually she wants to sell products on her website because she has valuable knowledge on vital topics for women. But how is she going to spread the word? Social media is an option (especially for the future), but I still think that an ezine is the most effective way to get information right under someone’s nose.  So building the list is paramount.

If she starts with the ezine, how is she going to get new subscribers? She might get some by word of mouth, but probably not as much as she could.

If she starts with the website but doesn’t have a bi-monthly ezine to build a personal relationship, how will she stay in the minds of her list?

Which should come first? It’s the chicken or egg syndrome.

After conferring with a colleague (Julie Smith of Navigator Marketing Services), we agreed that creating a logo, an ezine template, and a website all at once made the most sense. The website, at least a one-page landing page, with an opt-in form and enticing gift to encourage people to sign up is an excellent way to build the list. Then keep the new subscribers engaged by providing compelling content that addresses their interests via an ezine.

The ability to sell products later is enhanced by building the list and creating a web presence, which gets the all-important SEO (search engine optimization) started.

I may not be able to solve the question of which came first, the chicken or the egg, but if you want to get a fast start to your new business, launch your initial website –even if it is just a landing page with an opt in form and gift– and ezine at the same time.

I decided to do a little research online to uncover qualities of excellent virtual assistants (VAs). There’s a ton of information on how to become a VA or how to contract with a VA, but I didn’t see too much about excellent characteristics beyond the obvious. Let’s assume that every client wants someone who is technically skilled, honest, detail-oriented, and personable. Now let’s go beyond the basic, necessary qualities, dig a little deeper, and uncover what really pleases clients and makes them eager to pay their VA’s invoice out of gratitude, respect, and mutual admiration. (Like the way I feel when I write a check to my computer technician!)

Ten ways VAs can make their clients LOVE them:

1.   Care about your client’s company as if it were your own. This isn’t always easy because you’re not an employee who is vested in the retirement plan. In fact, you’re an independent contractor who can be fired at a moment’s notice. However caring for your client’s company in subtle, but important ways builds trust, which is vital to the long term VA-Client relationship.

For example, let’s say that you completed some work for a client, but she dropped the ball and will look bad if you don’t reach her so she’ll finish the last step. Even though it is late in the evening, contact your client by any means possible.

2.   Take Initiative. It’s easy to fall into the trap of being the “assistant” and just sitting back and waiting to be told what to do, especially when you have other clients to help out, or your own work to do. But reminding your client that you are there to help, prompting them for tasks that are coming due, and reminding them when you don’t hear back from them are all ways that you show your client that you “have their back.”

3.   Bring Ideas to the Table. Clients often have set ways of doing things, but you, as a VA with many clients, can bring alternate ideas for your client to consider (without breeching client confidentialities). Stay on top of technological advances, try free trials of innovative new systems, and suggest them to your client as ways to improve the bottom line or stay ahead of the competition.

4.   Be Flexible. When I first started out as a VA, I had rigid standards such as inflexible business hours. Although I still prefer to take Friday’s off, in today’s economy and the realities of the 24/7 internet, working the occasional late night or doing a weekend check-in becomes necessary. Clients really appreciate this flexibility. For me, the key is mutual respect with a client. If you’re working with an ideal client, then being taken advantage of won’t be an issue.

5.  Own Mistakes. Mistakes do happen, and we hate it when they do, but they are inevitable as hard as we try. Recently, a client and I were scrambling to finish an ebook with a completion deadline, and meanwhile, I was heading out of town for a mini-vacation. I finished the last edits and sent the file to my client and I was happy and carefree, that is, until I realized that I had sent the wrong file and couldn’t make it right from my remote location. Ugh. My fault. I owned it, apologized, and made it right my knocking some time off my bill. It was the right thing to do. Fortunately, I have a wonderful client who recognizes that errors happen, understood, and appreciated the break on the invoice.

6.  Don’t take criticism personally. This one may be trite, but it is important. A lot of us VAs, let’s face it, are perfectionist people pleasers. When we do something wrong, we dwell, and not in a good way, and we don’t even need the client to get mad because we feel bad enough as it is. Get over it! Grow up and stop taking feedback in a personal way. Look at it this way… if a client is taking the time to tell you what they don’t like and what they prefer, then they are taking the time to groom you into a better VA for them. That’s a good thing. When they go silent and stop giving you ways to improve, they might be shopping for a new VA.

7.  Make clients feel like they are your only client. You clients know that you have other clients, but don’t remind them of it constantly by ignoring their emails and phone calls and requiring long lead times for projects. Instead, don’t overbook yourself and be responsive. Even if you are overloaded when a client email comes in, sometimes just letting them know that you received their request and that you’re on it will be a relief to them.

8.  Invoice Fairly. If you clock your time hourly, you know that sometimes tasks take way longer than they should for unforeseen reasons. The internet slows down, you have unexpected error messages occur, a program isn’t working, or maybe you just had a real bad night’s sleep and you’re a little foggy. Although none of these are your fault, your client doesn’t want to pay for them either. If you continually ask yourself, if I were a small business owner (which you probably are!), how much would you be willing to pay for this activity and bill accordingly.

9.  Be a Problem Solver. Ultimately, you are there for your client to solve problems. When an obstacle emerges, don’t just contact your client with the stated problem and ask what to do. Instead, inform your client that XYZ happened and you see three possible workarounds. Select a recommendation and say why, and then ask your client which she prefers. Make life for your client as easy as possible.

10. Bring Humor. Some client-VA relationships are strictly business, but that’s not the kind of relationship that I prefer. I share certain parts of my personal life (where I’m going on vacation, that I’m married with a dog, and that the furnace is on the fritz), but I don’t share my personal problems. Instead, I infuse humor, lightness, and a positive outlook whenever I can. Plus, I compliment what I see that my client is doing well in her business.

So there you have it: 10 ways to be the kind of VA that any client will love, or 10 qualities to look for when interviewing VAs. Simply put, be the kind of VA that you’d love to hire yourself.

Next morning, no email confirmation of my trip. I like those, and they are handy to send to family. No problem — I headed to the website. (Thankfully I wrote down my confirmation number.) I navigated to the “print your itinerary” section, put in my email address, and hit submit. Nothing. Try again and again. What browser am I in? Google Chrome. Okay try Firefox. Nothing. Try IE and try a different email address. Okay, now I’m frustrated that I am having to jump through all these hoops to give them my business including the phone call since it would have been faster to book on the web myself.

Okay the next step is to either call them again or access customer service from their website. I did the latter and got an autoresponder reply that said if I was flying immediately, they would get back to me real soon, and if not, it would be 14–21 days. Harrumph.

I had just taken a Twitter class (see earlier post), so I thought I would give it a try. It was a challenge to be brief (140 character limitation). I had to rewrite the Tweet several times, but I came up with this:

Need email copy of my itinerary for @JetBlue. Their auto email says I’ll hear back in 2–3 weeks. Hope it’s faster than that.

The speed of the reply was amazing: 9 minutes. I received a direct message:

Please Dm us your conf # and we can get that sent to you. Happy to help. ^kg

I received my email itinerary within 30 minutes after that, and I felt taken care of. They did not address my suggestion that their website was broken. I’ll give them the benefit of the doubt that they’ll jump on that. Hopefully they’ll consider changing their autoresponder about their response time of 2–3 weeks as well.

The moral of the story for me is that if you need to get a company’s attention, and they monitor their Twitter account, sending a tweet just might be the way to go.

It was time to get more knowledge, so I turned to Lynda.com and their beginning class: Twitter Essential Training.” It’s taught by Maria Langer who is easy to follow, thorough, and has a very pleasant speaking voice.

The class covers everything from signing into a new account, retweeting, @mentions, and lists — one of my favorites for keeping who you are following organized. It covers several 3rd party products including some for scheduling tweets, using Twitter with a mobile phone, or using it congruently with other social media.

Using Twitter with images was completely new to me and very valuable. (I should know these things since a congressman recently resigned over the misuse of this feature.) I now follow Maria, which is a great way to see all these various features in action. She’s a wonderful role model for using Twitter to its fullest, and with 32K tweets under her belt (wow!), she’s earned it.

My favorite part of the course was when she talked about the friendships that she’s developed, 140 characters at a time, and how she uses it with businesses to effect change…and gets results. Power to the people, man!

I really enjoyed learning about Twitter etiquette as well. After all, when one tweets to the world, no one may read your tweet, but everyone can read your tweet for ever more, so you don’t want to make a fool of yourself or offend.

There’s so much more than what I mention here. So if you want to learn more about Twitter from the ground up, this course is a great way to learn a lot.

Just one more thing (homage to the recently deceased Peter Falk)…if you take the course and you hear a mention of the Ventura pier, know that back in the 70s during my Jr. Lifeguard training, I jumped from that pier.

(To find the course, head here. You can sample a few links for free, but you need to be a member to take the full course [worth it!])

People told me they didn’t like this one because the lettering was too bold. Fair enough.

I knew that this one wouldn’t be a winner, but I had this urge to create a check mark out of the “V” in virtually and to make a succinct logo. Well, I gave it the college try.

I confess that this one was my true favorite, and I still like it more than my existing logo. I was going to play up the sparkling effect with the wand a lot more with swirls and stars, but this logo didn’t get that far. Why? Because people didn’t get it. I took the second “l” in “virtually” and turned it into a magic wand. “Clients experience the magic of work getting magically and virtually done.” This one was too clever for its own good apparently.

This goes to show that sometimes the right logo is not your favorite but the one that resonates with the people you are trying to attract. (Graphic designers: am I right?)

My experience with Aaces.com has been wonderful. Here’s what I like:

* I send an email with low or normal priority, and I get a phone call in a few minutes.

* I know my web host’s first name, Ross, and he’s the only one that I’ve worked with all these years.

* I can contact him if I just have a silly question (how am I getting spam from myself?), or if I just want to run my website implementation plan through him to make sure I don’t have any gaps in my thinking

* If I’m unsure about something, he’ll walk me through the process

* The staff has nice, knowledgeable people

Looking for a web host with a personal touch instead of the “800-number never know what you’ll get approach?” Consider Aaces.com. Tell Ross that Kristy sent you.

Anyway, it has been a fascinating journey of learning, and I’m happy for the experience.
Here’s the journey in pictures:

BEFORE:

Old It’s Virtually Done site

DURING:

It’s Virtually Done is at the spa getting a makeover

AFTER:

It’s Virtually Done’s new site

Then I wanted to become more professional and showcase my Dreamweaver skills, so I created website #2. It served me well with its “liquid HTML” and “dynamic dropdown menus”, but it has become dated. Everyone is moving toward WordPress, and I wanted to enhance my skill set, so here we go.

What I didn’t anticipate, was how attached I was to my old website. It has over 200 links and 25 pages, all my own content. Honestly, I get compliments on it regularly, which is very nice, but I know it had some old stuff on it, and I didn’t want to face the onerous task of updating it or starting from scratch.

I decided to take an online video WordPress 3.0 class on Lynda.com and learned a lot. I ended up taking a graphics software class as well. Eventually, I created a local installation of WordPress on my PC, and worked out the structure and design of my blog/website. I worked months, on and off, on the banner designs and colors. Then I stalled…

“What was keeping me from finishing?” I asked myself. Then it occurred to me that I was not ready to “let go” of my old site and was actually mourning the loss of it. I was attached to all the work that I had put into it, the history, and how it had served me for so long. Once I acknowledged this to a colleague and friend who had just been through this process herself, I could own it and move on.

The next phase was writing the content. I opted for a weekend of absolute solitude and no distractions. That was the ticket. Then, an amazing transformation took place. After I started adding the new content to the WordPress Blog, I found that I was liking my new site so much that I was willing to let the old site go. That isn’t to say that I didn’t memorialize my old site by making a PDF of each page and backing it up, just in case. I’ll probably never look at the stuff, but it is there if I need it.

Out with the old. In with the new. Here we go!