From the Desk of Janet Barclay

I signed up for Anita Bruton’s seminar on Creating a Personal and Company Profile that Attracts Clients for tips on drafting some new content for my website and ensuring that my profile on Facebook, LinkedIn, and other such sites, represent both Organized Assistant and myself effectively. Since evolving from a solopreneur to a small team, we are no longer one and the same thing!

Just as Cristina Favreau stated in the session about your 30-second introduction, this is not something you can just sit down and throw together in one sitting. In addition, it needs to be updated from time to time to reflect any changes you may have made in your business, such as a new target market.

Both speakers also emphasized that the key to writing a good profile (or self-introduction) is to identify what makes you different from your competition. It’s important to remember, whenever you’re talking or writing about your business, to focus on your potential client and how your services (or products) will benefit them.

There is certainly more to learn about this subject than Anita could cover in a one-hour session, so she has introduced a Write Your Professional Profile Ecourse which sounds like a great value at only $19.99 (even less for convention attendees!)

Before closing, I’d like to applaud Tawnya Sutherland for receiving the 2008 Thomas Leonard Virtual Assistant of Distinction Award. Named for the late Thomas Leonard, the founder of several coaching organizations who is credited with coining and popularizing the term "virtual assistant," the award honours a VA who has been in business for at least 5 years and whose contributions to the industry have helped many others to build a successful business. As Founder of the Virtual Assistant Networking Forum and an active member of many other Virtual Assistant organizations, Tawyna is well deserving of this honour!

I’d also like to congratulate Kylie Short of Tilda Virtual Services who received this year’s Janet Jordon Achievement Award. Janet Jordan, the founder of Virtual Assistance U and an industry pioneer, passed away only a few months before the first Online International Virtual Assistants Convention in 2006, and the award named in her honour is presented to a VA who has been in business for less than 5 years yet has reached a milestone that has helped to boost their new business to an overwhelming success.

Kudos to both of you - your hard work has not gone unnoticed!