Following Up With Clients

Following up with clients is probably the single most important thing you can do to grow your business. For many entrepreneurs following up with clients can be a scary thing. It can mean rejection. It can also mean a sale and owning a successful business. Not following up... well that's kind of like rejection, same result at least - no new clients.

If the thought of following up with potential clients makes your heart race try reading Jaime Lee Mann's book The Art of Follow Up. This book will help you get over that fear. Jaime writes in an easy to understand, easy to relate to kind of way. After I read her book I really had no more excuses for not following up. I am so glad I did read her book, my business has soared to levels it would never have been if I had not mastered The Art of Follow up!

'Tis The Season to be... overwhelmed, stressed, tired...

Are you feeling overwhelmed? Is there too much to do and not enough time to do it?

How about stop what you are doing right now and write out a task list. Write down everything you need to do. I mean everything. Get all that garble out of your head and on to a nice clean sheet of paper.

"The most important factor of an effective task list is to actually use it and look at it every day.

A task list is not something you enter into Outlook and never look at again. It is not something written on five different sticky notes all over your house or office. A task list is a working document you look at and update on a daily basis.

No task list or calendar system will work if you don’t look at it and use it every day."

(excerpt taken from Managing Your Thriving Business For Success)


"It’s all about planning, planning, planning (and then actually doing!)."

Now, look at that task list and prioritize it. What things on that list must you do today? Put an A next to those things or a star or whatever works for you.

So... what are you waiting for... go get those things done... one at a time. Then cross them off the list and give yourself a pat on the back.

Happy Holidays!

Do You Have A Newsletter?

Do you have a newsletter for your business? I've been thinking about creating a newsletter for a long time but never got around to it. I help my clients with their monthly newsletters. I know the benefits of having a newsletter, I just never took the time to do one myself.

I have finally decided to go for it. I am going to start a Virtual Simplicity newsletter in 2008.

Thanks to Heather Jacobson this is going to be a lot easier for me. She just published a book titled Expanding Your Business...One Subscriber at a Time! Build Your Business With Newsletters.

The best part is the book only costs $7. I just purchased it yesterday and am already getting excited about starting my newsletter. Heather is a master at spelling things out in easy to do steps.

On top of the great advice offered in this book Heather offers an awesome perk at the end of the book. Anyone that purchases the book can be an affiliate and she is paying her affiliates 100% of the sale. How cool is that?

Happy Holidays! I will let you know when my newsletter is up and running.

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Is your business Thriving?

What About You?

Successful business owners take time for themselves by creating routines. Besides scheduling meetings with clients and time to work on projects, don't forget to schedule time to run your business and time for you.

It is very common that the "me" time always gets pushed to the bottom of the list and often never happens at all. To avoid this, start scheduling routines in to you day.

Include in your routines regular meals… breakfast, lunch and dinner, in addition to time for exercising and relaxing. If you are going to have a thriving business you need to take care of yourself. You need to eat regular meals, exercise, spend quality time with family and friends, and give yourself time to relax and rejuvenate.

Are you taking care of you? If not, please make it a priority to start today. Your clients need you, your family needs you, it's important that you take care of you.

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Is your business thriving ?

Thanksgiving

For all of us US citizens Thanksgiving is just around the corner. Many of us will be seeing our families. I know some of you are excited about this and others probably wish they had something else to do that day.

I read this quote by prosperity teacher Marilyn Jenett today and it struck a cord with me about my upcoming family dinner.

"We must stop and make a big decision. The prosperity thinker will not "entertain" (keep attention on) the problem. The prosperity thinker makes a firm decision to focus completely on the solution and thus invite the solution to present itself. The solution can only get through if we are open and receptive to all positive, healing possibilities. It cannot get through if we persist on dwelling on the problem. We must create a dominant thought of the solution. We don't know what the solution is, we just know that it exists for us and our loved ones."

– Marilyn Jenett

This is a great affirming paragraph to read anytime you find yourself in a challenging relationship.

Thanksgiving is a day I love because it reminds us all to stop and be grateful. I personally believe everyday should a day of thanks.

What are you grateful for?

I am grateful that I met Marilyn Jenett and signed up for her Feel Free To Prosper(FFTP) program. I recently found out she is going to be offering her FFTP program to Virtual Assistants that are members of VANA at a special discounted rate. If you are feeling stuck... wondering when you will get your first client... or wanting to bring your business to the next level then I highly recommend you sign up for her class. Marilyn is an awesome mentor and teacher. She spells things out in an easy to follow system. Amazing things have happened in my life since I met her.

I first met Marilyn at Ryze where she runs the FFTP group. She basically wrote her whole life story of her journey of prosperity. You can read it here at her FFTP group on Ryze under the post called How Did Marilyn Start Her Business? A True Tale of Synchronicity and Guidance.
Reading her story was like reading a good page-turning novel, I couldn't put it down.

Happy Thanksgiving!!!


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Is your business Thriving?

You Don’t Have To Wait Until New Year’s To Make Your Resolutions!

We waste a lot of time waiting for things.
Have you ever said any of the following statements?
I’ll join the gym and start exercising in January.
I can’t put my website up until I have the perfect logo.
I’ll go to that networking meeting after I get my new business cards.

What are you waiting for? What is your excuse?

We all make resolutions on New Years and we all know what usually happens to those resolutions.

“Insanity: doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.”
–Albert Einstein.

Why wait until the New Year to set your resolutions that probably are not going to happen anyway? You can set goals today, make an action plan and put yourself in the driver’s seat of your life today!

The first step in setting goals is to know what you want. If you don’t know what you want, how are you going to get it?

Take out a sheet of paper and write down ten things that you want to accomplish.

Now take those ten things and write them in the present, positive form. For example, if you want to make $50,000 a year; write I earn $50,000 a year. If you want to go to the gym three times a week; write I go to the gym three times a week.

Now, pick one goal and write down every thing you need to do to reach that goal. If your goal is to get one more client what are you going to do to get that client?

Start with writing your goal in a present, positive statement at the top of the paper.
Goal: I have one new client.
Action Steps:
1. Attend at least one networking event per week (Research networking events in your area – ie. Chamber of Commerce, BNI, Toastmasters)
2. Join one new online networking forum. Network online – network with peers and potential clients. Research online forums. Join forum, introduce myself and participate in discussions.
3. Follow up with potential clients. Make phone calls, send handwritten letters, send emails.
4. Send sales letters to target market. Research and get addresses of target market, write letters, mail letters, follow up with phone call.
5. Spread the word! Talk about what you do. Be proud. Tell your mom, the bank teller, the cashier at the grocery store, your kid’s teacher, the lady at the dog park, everyone! Be excited about what you do.

Now focus on your goals. Read your list of goals everyday. Read them twice a day! Read them in the morning and before bed. Do the action steps. Add them to your to do list. Commit to taking charge of your life. You have a choice. You can sit around watching TV and surfing the internet or you can be taking action steps to get you closer to reaching your goals. What are you waiting for? Go! Get in the driver’s seat now!

About Sally Kuhlman
Sally Kuhlman, founder of Virtual Simplicity provides administrative, marketing and technical support to entrepreneurs and non-profits.Managing and developing a growth-oriented business is something that all businesses strive for, including Sally Kuhlman, owner of Virtual Simplicity and Yvonne Weld, owner of Able Virtual Assistant Services. They decided to combine their knowledge and wrote a book, “Managing Your Thriving Business for Success” which gives you the tools to successfully manage your own thriving business. For more information about getting organized, setting goals and managing your thriving business, visit http://www.thrivingbusinessmanual.com/managing

Managing Your Thriving Business For Success Debuts!

I finished my book! We are officially launching it today!

Thanks to all my virtual friends at VANA and the VA Revolution for your support this last year!


Managing and developing a growth-oriented business is something that all businesses strive for, including Yvonne Weld, owner of Able Virtual Assistant Services, and Sally Kuhlman, owner of Virtual Simplicity. They decided to combine their knowledge and wrote a book, “Managing Your Thriving Business for Success” which gives you the tools to successfully manage your own thriving business. “Although, we have both been very successful at running thriving businesses, we have faced many hurdles and ups and downs on our journey to success”, says Yvonne and Sally.

According to the Small Business Administration, the estimates for businesses with employees indicate there were 649,700 new firms and 564,900 closures in 2006. They also indicate that two-thirds of new employer establishments survive at least two years, and 44 percent survive at least four years, according to a recent study. These results were similar for different industries. Firms that began in the second quarter of 1998 were tracked for the next 16 quarters to determine their survival rate. Despite conventional wisdom that restaurants fail much more frequently than firms in other industries, leisure and hospitality establishments, which include restaurants, survived at rates only slightly below the average. Earlier research has explored the reasons for a new business’s survivability. Major factors in a firm’s remaining open include an ample supply of capital, being large enough to have employees, the owner’s education level, and the owner’s reason for starting the firm in the first place, such as freedom for family life or wanting to be one’s own boss.

They attribute much of their success to various key factors, including good time management and scheduling, setting goals and evaluating them continually, setting boundaries and sticking to them, good business planning, both short term and long term, and much more.

That’s where “Managing Your Thriving Business for Success” comes in. This manual will give you the tools to successfully manage your own thriving business and then you can say that your business is in the SBA’s statistics of being a surviving and thriving business. Don’t you want to be one of those businesses that grow?

About Yvonne Weld
Yvonne Weld is the owner of Canadian-based Able Virtual Assistant Services and author of The Ultimate Guide to Creating a Thriving Business. Yvonne brings knowledge from a number of resources including personal experience (8 years in her previous employment as an Office Manager), education (graduate of several courses at the Small Business Centre, London, Ontario) and her love for information through reading and internet research. To learn more about what Able Virtual Assistant Services can do for you, stop by www.ableva.com or email us at info@ableva.com.

About Sally Kuhlman
Sally Kuhlman, founder of Virtual Simplicity, is an independent professional providing administrative and technical support usually handled by in-house staff. After working in the corporate world she started working virtually as the Director of Operations for a consulting firm that offers evaluation and strategic planning services to non-profits. In addition to working with entrepreneurs, Sally specializes in partnering with non-profits providing administrative, marketing and technical support. To learn more about what Virtual Simplicity can do for you, stop by www.virtualsimplicity.net or email us sallyk@virtualsimplicity.net.

About Managing Your Thriving Business for Success
For more information about Managing Your Thriving Business for Success and how you can manage your thriving business, visit the Web site at http://www.thrivingbusinessmanual.com/managing.