From the Desk of Janet Barclay

I couldn’t let International Coaching Week go by without stopping to celebrate the business success I’ve experienced over the last couple of years, because it wouldn’t have been possible without the support and guidance of my coaches.

When I decided to leave my job and work in my business on a full-time basis, I knew I needed to speed up the growth process to bring my income to what it had been. I had a lot of good ideas, but didn’t know how to decide which ones were worth implementing or even how to go about it in some cases. The best decision I made was to team up with a business coach, who helped me to analyze my competition, identify my niche market, and strengthen my branding, among other things. I still had to do all the work, but with someone to guide me and to be accountable for, I was able to accomplish much more than I had been able to do on my own. As I’ve mentioned before, I later took part in a group coaching program based on the Law of Attraction, which further developed my awareness of my ideal client and helped me to take my business to the next level.

If you’re a new entrepreneur, you may have limited resources available, but I strongly encourage you to find a way to make the investment. Group coaching tends to be less expensive than one-on-one, and provides the added support of the other group members. Another option would be to offer your services in exchange for coaching.

Just make sure that the person you choose as your coach is someone you respect and feel comfortable with. And remember, you will have lots of homework! Like so many things in life, you will only get out of coaching as much as you put into it.

There are a number of coaches in my blogroll, whose specialties include executive, marketing, productivity, and careers. Why not pay them a visit and see what they have to offer?

I received the following inquiry this week on my article directory/blog, OrganizedArticles.com: I was referred to you as I am thinking of going into the Virtual Assistant field. Any suggestions that you can offer would be greatly appreciated. How does one get started, membership, help etc.?

Since I am often asked this, or similar questions, I decided to post my answer here. There is a ton of information available and I won’t try and duplicate it, but rather provide some direction.

For anyone contemplating starting a virtual assistant business, I highly recommend joining the Virtual Assistant Networking Association (VANA). There are many VA groups but VANA is open to anyone, regardless of geographic location or specialty (or lack thereof). There’s no cost to join, the forum is very well organized, and the members extremely helpful and friendly. You can probably find the answers to most if not all of your questions there, and if not, you can post them and count on receiving a number of replies. They’ve recently introduced a premium membership which includes a lot of extra information and resources, including access to RFPs (more on that later) and until the end of October, it’s available for only $99.00 (after that, it goes up to $249.00).

If you’re not familiar with the term "RFP," it stands for "Request for Proposal." VANA, and most other VA associations, allow potential clients to submit the details of their requirements and members can then send their information for consideration. This is similar to applying to job postings, except that you’re not looking to be an employee but an independent contractor, so instead of a resume, you’re sending a proposal.

Canada has two VA associations, the Canadian Virtual Assistant Connection (CVAC) and Canadian Virtual Assistant Network (CVAN), and each offers different benefits. CVAC has two levels of membership - a "partial" membership is free and a "full" membership, which is required to access RFPs and some of the other membership benefits, has an annual fee, which I believe is around $30.00. CVAN doesn’t offer a free membership, however, a lifetime membership costs only $49.95.

There are also a number of international organizations as well as some geared towards specialty fields such as real estate virtual assistants. Since I’m not involved with any of them, I’m unable to provide any details, but you can find lots of information on the three websites which I’ve mentioned.

I know quite a few people who have been able to go through the government’s Self-Employment Program and found it to be very helpful, but if you’re not eligible, there are lots of other places you can get information and advice on starting a business, such as through your local Small Business Enterprise Centre or community college, or from a business coach. There are even coaches who specialize in working with VAs, not to mention a large number of VA training and/or certification programs.

I hope this is helpful, and I wish you luck on your new endeavour!

Do you have SOP? Where do you keep it? Is it in your head, or well documented?

What is SOP? SOP stands for Standard Operating Procedures, and it’s something every business needs, even one-person, home-based businesses. The best time to develop your SOP is when you are just getting started. Of course, it will probably need to be modified from time to time, but at least you have something to work from.

This topic is covered in Michael Gerber’s bestselling book, The E-Myth Revisited. Gerber suggests that you prepare from the outset for the day when you need to start delegating to employees or outside services, by preparing an organizational chart for your business, complete with job descriptions for each role you currently fill. Even if your company never expands to the point where you need to hire employees or subcontractors, it will ensure that the work is performed in a consistent manner, which improves efficiency and allows your clients to know what to expect. 

It is much more difficult to start developing your SOP after you’ve been in business a while, because by that time you probably have many more procedures to document. However, the importance of doing so has been reinforced in some recent training sessions I’ve taken through the Canadian Virtual Assistant Network (CVAN). This week, I participated in a webinar on starting and operating a multiple VA practice conducted by Michelle Jamieson, CVAN founder and President of MJVA which opened my eyes to the fact that before you can successfully incorporate associates into your business, you need to have well-documented procedures to ensure that everyone on your team is on the same page. Last month, I participated in a teleclass on contingency plans presented by Yvonne Weld, the owner of ABLE Virtual Assistant Services and author of The Ultimate Guide to Creating a Thriving Business. Yvonne pointed out the importance of having everything documented so that someone could come in and look after things in the event that something happened to prevent you from being able to work on a temporary or permanent basis.

Working on my SOP has been added to my "must do" list - how about you?

I’ve always considered myself fairly independent, but I realize that there have been times that my desire to figure things out for myself has meant it took me longer than if I had simply asked someone.

One of the components of the Turbocharge Your Business Mastery Group I belong to is a system where we are randomly assigned to another group member to be our buddy during the program. Since the group generally meets every two weeks, my buddy and I have decided to connect by telephone on the in-between week, to discuss whatever seems important to us at the time.

A few weeks ago our call was scheduled for early afternoon. My buddy asked me what I had planned for after the call and I told her that I hadn’t yet decided, and that I felt it was too late in the day to try and plan anything specific. She (quite rightfully) pointed out that I had a good three hours left, which was certainly enough time to accomplish something. I then decided that I would work on a particular project and report back to her the next day. She also told me her plans, and agreed to report back to me. The buddy system was very helpful to me that day, because not only did it help me to realize that it wasn’t too late in the day for me to accomplish something of value, but it made me accountable to someone to ensure that I did.

In our call yesterday, we decided to take turns stating what we wanted to see happen in our lives, either professional or personal. This helped us to clarify in our own minds what we wanted, but by expressing it, we also sent it out to the universe, allowing us to attract those things into our lives.

Remember, just because you work from home doesn’t mean you have to go it alone. Find someone to buddy up with - to brainstorm, to vent, whatever you need. They don’t have to be in your field or your industry - they just have to be there.

The steadily increasing number of individuals with computers and Internet access has made it easier to start a business with minimal investment, compared to the days when nearly all businesses had to have a physical presence to become known. Unfortunately, too many people just jump in without giving any thought to their email address.

Best Choice

Ideally, everyone should have their own domain name. This is not only important for branding, but it tells the world you are serious about your business. Even if you don’t intend to have your own website right away, or at all, you can still benefit from using your own domain name. Since domain name registration costs $15.00 per year or less, it is affordable even if you’re on a shoestring budget. I would be very leery of dealing with someone who doesn’t have enough confidence in their business to invest $15.00 in it.

Second Best 

If, for some reason, you really don’t want to invest in a domain name, you should at least create a separate email address for your business. Many ISPs will give you multiple email addresses at no extra charge, so why not set one up that is yourbusinessname@yourisp.com, or even yourpersonalname@yourisp.com if you haven’t decided upon a business name.

Third Choice

If you absolutely MUST use a free email service, choose a user name that reflects your business appropriately. Keep in mind that many people will be reluctant to deal with a business that uses this type of service, as they are often associated with spammers and here-today-gone-tomorrow operations. Not only that, they may question why you are using an online service and think you don’t have your own computer and must go to a library or Internet cafe to check your email. If this is the case, it is vital that you make every effort to do so every day and to respond to your messages promptly in order to establish your professionalism.

Bad Choice 

Do not use a shared email account (e.g. johnandmarysmith@isp.com) for business purposes. Not only does this send up a red flag - your clients probably do not want your spouse reading their messages to you - but it is too easy for you to miss a message if your spouse reads it first and either doesn’t remember to mark it unread or accidentally deletes it. I have had this happen to messages I’ve sent to clients, on more than one occasion.

Worst Choice 

Under no circumstances should you use an email account with a cutesy or suggestive user name for business purposes, unless of course it relates to the nature of your business. Would you entrust your bookkeeping to babygrrrl@yahoo.com?