Every Virtual Assistant makes mistakes when it comes to building a successful business - it’s how we learn (sometimes it’s an unfortunate way to learn!).

And believe it or not - most of these mistakes are totally preventable. What does this mean? It means that we are the ones getting the way of our own success!

Over the last few years I’ve been very fortunate to work with 2 great partners. Together we offer 15+ years combined in the Virtual Assistant industry and through our own trial and error - and from conversations we’ve had with hundreds of Virtual Assistants - we’ve seen the most common mistakes Virtual Assistants are making when it comes to building their business.

That’s why we decided to create a special video and free pdf report - to help Virtual Assistants avoid these common mistakes!

Visit www.7BiggestVAMistakes.com to view the video and sign up to receive the free report “The 7 Biggest Mistakes Virtual Assistats are Making and (more importantly) How You Can Avoid Them.”

We’d love to hear from you …. what mistakes have you made that have affected the growth of your business? Post your story below.

Enjoy!

~Cindy

In just a couple of days my oldest son will be starting Grade one. I’ve already thought of the homework assignments, class projects and everything else I’ll be helping him with after school for the next 12 years. Although I’m glad I don’t have homework to do every night, I was thinking about how I apply ‘homework’ to my typical day as a Virtual Assistant.

Homework - as I call it, is essentially taking the time to research information about your prospective clients before you speak with them. For example, with the Multiple Streams Team, when a business owner completes our Client Application Form, I schedule a time to speak with them to learn more about their business. However before our scheduled call, I do my ‘homework’ and gather as many details as I can about this potential client.

To me, this means more than just visiting their website and taking a quick look around. I do start with reviewing their website and reading various details such as their services and bio. Then I typically Google their name and see if I can find anything else about them - articles published, press releases submitted, joint ventures they may already have, organizations they participate in, awards they have won, etc. By taking this extra step, I am more equipped with details about who this business owner is and whether I am interested in what they do and who they work with.

On a teleseminar I recently gave through a VA Organization, a participated asked me why it was important to me to go beyond just reviewing a potential client’s website. The answer was easy to me - by learning more about them than was on their website, I was able to:

1. Demonstrate my ‘mindset’ - letting them know I had used my initiative to learn details about them that were beyond their website
2. Determine how involved this person was in their expertise as well as which marketing strategies they actively used for their business
3. Understand more clearly who they worked with and exactly what they offered
4. Get a better sense of their style and personality
5. Consider potential ways I could support them - both short term and long term
6. Determine whether I was interested in working with this person or if I was the right person to support this business owner.

If you can demonstrate to your potential clients that you’ve taken the time to learn about them - and have gone beyond visiting their website - their interest in you will peak. Clients WANT a VA who uses their initiative ….. this is an easy way for you to demonstrate this from the very beginning.

In my book “Virtually Successful: 8 Simple Ways for Virtual Assistants to Find (and Keep) Clients“, I go in to much more detail on how you can get ready to meet new clients. Visit www.GrowYourVABiz.com for more info.