by Ace Concierge | Virtual Assistant | Feb 6, 2014 | Business Values, Communication, Entrepreneur, Small Business
Your business can’t survive online without the trust from your consumers. They won’t buy unless they feel the know, like, trust factor. You must earn the trust and loyalty of your audience; your community. Cultivate your relationships through authentic communications and reliability. Your network is always looking for validation to ensure that a potential partnership or connection is dependable, trustworthy and “real.” Remove the feeling of vulnerability and risk of doing business with someone behind a keyboard. There can be an uneasy feeling and some have been burned, which is something you must understand and respect from the customer’s point of view. It is up to you to help them develop a comfort level and place of safety to do business online.
I believe fundamental honesty is the keystone of business. Harvey S. Firestone
You don’t need a contract to instill honesty and live by a moral compass. Give out what you expect in return and nothing less. Your business depends on it. Your reputation will either make you or break you. Credibility and a sound reputation is what gets you to the finish line toward establishing rapport and a long term relationship.
Each of your social platforms showcase you and your brand. You have the opportunity to personally interact with your followers – your potential customers on a personable level. Let them get to know you through your content, postings, engagement and dialog. Keep it real and keep it you.
Trust = Authority x Helpfulness x Intimacy / Self-Promotion Steve Rayson The New Formula for Social Media Trust
Your 10 Tips to Build Trust:
- Offer solutions: SHOW them you care and are truly interested in listening and solving their problems. Consumers have pain points that need care and understanding. Demonstrate that you you know what they want and need.
- Communicate clearly and responsively. No one likes to be on hold listening to ear bleeding elevator music. Engage. Whether you are responding to a post comment, email or client text message, don’t keep them waiting and wondering. Service them promptly.
- Be transparent. It helps to instill trust and shows the human side of your company and your brand.
- Be accountable. Do as you say; back up your words with actions and if you make a mistake, own it 100% and correct it. The customer is the one who writes your paycheck.
- Privacy and confidentiality. Respect a client’s proprietary information and discussions. There is no reason to share this type of data. You are being trusted with details or questions and they should not become public knowledge or water cooler chatter. Lock it up!
- Testimonials. When you receive recommendations, make sure they are openly displayed as they help to validate your service and your company. Add them to your website, email signature and other marketing collateral. If it is a tweet, then save it as a favorite so others can see “real-time” recommendations. Ask for them on your LinkedIn profiles.
- Under promise and over deliver. It may be a cliché but it is a premise of good business and service. There is nothing more disappointing or frustrating to be let down by a vendor missing a deadline.
- Educate and share valuable content. Enrich the lives of your audience without self-promotion and you become a trusted resource not a snake salesman.
- Feedback. Never bury your head in the sand. Always ask for feedback on a job, a post, a conversation. If you don’t ask, you don’t receive and you won’t know what you are missing. If you off point, you won’t be able to take charge and correct the course. Feedback is a valuable learning tool toward successful relationships and communication.
- Commit to your word. Very simple yet some have a propensity to fall back and forget such a courtesy. Do as you say without hesitation. There is enough misrepresentation in the world, especially online but if you intend to build your brand, your reputation and your business, then follow through with your verbal handshake.
How do you build trust and instill confidence with your customers and community?
by Ace Concierge | Virtual Assistant | Feb 4, 2014 | Productivity, Small Business, Time Management
You can’t “manage” your time but you can learn to better manage yourself. “Time management” takes discipline and commitment. There are many hindrances to time management but they all relate back to how you regulate your life and productivity levels. It is a matter of the daily choices you make and how you set your priorities. If something is that important to you, then you will get it done; otherwise, you will make excuses. Your success depends on getting the most out of each day.
We seem to think we have so little time to effectively manage our days and have some semblance of work life balance. You too want to get more things accomplished while the clock keeps ticking and more tasks seem to pile up. It can take all of the discipline you can muster to tune out the influx of information coming at you. Time can be an elusive mystery when you are in a constant struggle to find more of it, so it is up to you to invest in your time, in your life, in your business.
“People are always trying to find ways to save more money, but saving time may be the true mark of success.” Geoff Williams
Get a handle on your time, your interruptions, your distractions and your data overload. The first step toward success is to be cognizant of the level of disturbances which you allow into your day. It could revolve around the daily notifications you receive regarding text messages, emails, news alerts, phone calls or any other immediate disruption that diverts your focus from the task at hand. Learn to be fully engaged with whatever you are working on and give it 100% of your focus, otherwise, it may only get half done or be done inefficiently. Decide what is most critical and stop multi-tasking. It diminishes your productivity, may change your brain chemistry and increase your error rate.
Another substantial detraction from your efficiency level is the organization of your office space. When you create a more structured environment you become more efficient and effective. You are no longer scrambling to locate important papers, files, emails or even your keys. Your time management increases as does your personal and professional productivity. Your setting is not just about physical space but mental as well. If you reside in chaos or mayhem, it does transmit into your work habits and daily living.
Being busy, doesn’t equate to being productive. You could be wasting your time and energy doing menial tasks or simply procrastinating. Focus on real work that gets you closer to your goals. Ask yourself, “Does this serve my goals? Is it getting me closer to completion?”
“When we’re busy, we see that as being productive, when productive is really narrowing down what we need to do.” Cathy Sexton, time management specialist.
Time Management:
When you learn to manage yourself, you will better manage your time.
- Turn off notifications
- Set priorities and goals
- Don’t procrastinate
- Time block your day and schedule
- Organize your data
- Institute systems and processes
- Develop a routine
- Set boundaries
- Use your calendar for appointments and To Dos
- Use action steps for items on your To Do list
- Stop multi-tasking
- Keep your workspace orderly
- Use news aggregators for your RSS feeds
- Automate social postings
- Schedule time to engage in social media and stick to it
- Check email at specific intervals
- Learn to say no
- Get appropriate amounts of sleep
- Know your most productive time of day
- Delegate
“He who every morning plans the transaction of the day and follows out that plan, carries a thread that will guide him through the maze of the most busy life. But where no plan is laid, where the disposal of time is surrendered merely to the chance of incidence, chaos will soon reign.” Victor Hugo
What steps are you ready to implement in order to become more productive and manage your time? Sound off!!
by Ace Concierge | Virtual Assistant | Jan 21, 2014 | Delegation, Entrepreneur, Small Business, Virtual Assistant
I learned to delegate!
Many grew up with the mentality, “If you want something done right, you’ve got to do it yourself.” Well, this is just is one big bowl of misunderstanding and attitude adjustment. There comes a time when you must cut the apron strings and fly.
As an entrepreneur, the CEO of your company, you have a limited number of hours to work both IN and ON your business. Constantly flipping your hats not only takes time, but a shift in focus, a reorganization of your priorities and it disrupts your workflow. You may end up overlooking important business details or even client needs because you are buried in the trenches instead of running the front line. Focus on the high payoff activities that model your organization’s vision, foundation and core competencies.
“Exponential growth is possible when we give up trying to do everything ourselves and allow others to leverage THEIR genius to help us grow.” Melanie Benson Strick
Consider what and who suffers while you try to feebly grasp on to every responsibility, system and process.
At what cost do you realize that it isn’t prudent nor an effective solution to retain every job function in your company? If your goal is to scale, then delegating is one simple tool to enable you to commit and dedicate to your company; your passion!
Building a company requires a team and as one person, while as incredible as you are, you are still not a “team.” We can successfully build your online team to take you to the next level. Solo-preneur doesn’t mean lonely or alone. You have an option, a teammate: enter the executive virtual assistant.
“Almost all of my business transactions are conducted via e-mail and occasionally phone. It really doesn’t matter where my assistant is located. No one knows the difference. I’m convinced that virtual assistants are the future. Honestly, it’s one of the best decisions I ever made.” Michael Hyatt
Outsourcing is not a new age concept. It is a dose of reality especially within the digital community. You might be surprised at just how many people and companies outsource components of their daily business operations and social media. They get it. They want to grow and flourish and to do this, it means giving up some control and trusting in another entrepreneur (Virtual Assistant).
“Do what you do best and outsource the rest.” Robert G. Allen
Delegating Exercise:
(No heavy lifting required) whether you use your computer or paper and pen, the choice is yours, just do it. Design it how it will best flow for you but just track the data. Use sticky notes if you want.
Column one: items that represent working ON your business. (all of the things it takes to manage and propel your business forward……)
Sub-columns: every day, every week, monthly and yearly
Track the time spent on each
Column two: items that represent working IN your business (social media management, administrative, calendaring, writing, curating content…..)
Sub-columns: every day, every week, monthly and yearly
Track the time spent on each
In a week’s time, what does your tally look like? In your honest review, did you spend more time working IN your business rather than ON it?
- What was accomplished?
- Did you meet your goals?
- How many projects were completed?
- Did you engage with clients?
- Were you able to close any sales?
- Did you initiate consults?
- Write new strategies or brainstorm ideas?
- Revise your business plan?
- Create or consider other revenue streams?
- Design new products or services?
- Innovate?
- Think outside the box toward your long term growth potential?
- Read white papers?
- Review the competition?
- Collaborate with colleagues?
- How must time did you allocate to social media? Or get sucked in to the black hole?
- Is social media management the best use of your time (excluding engagement)?
- Did you forget anything or miss an appointment?
- Procrastinate yet another day/time?
- How many tasks were interrupted?
- Did you miss any opportunities?
This simple, yet effective exercise should leave you with a list of tasks and projects you should delegate. They do NOT represent your core genius, but are actually a hindrance to your growth.
I am sure you have your goals written down somewhere. Compare your long and short term goals to everything you worked on this week. Does your work support your vision and aspirations?
You know you need to start delegating if:
- You spend 7-10+ hours online, curating, scheduling and managing your social media and it takes away from time with clients, colleagues, partners etc.
- You need to implement some systems to streamline your business processes
- You have wished for a like-minded brainstorming partner
- You are ready to scale, but don’t have enough hours in the day.
- You find it hard to concentrate and stay focused because there is too much for one person to do.
- You have some projects or platforms that are barely started or only half finished.
- You lay awake at night wondering how you will manage everything.
I don’t think you started your company to stagnate but instead, it is time to actualize your dream and go for it. There is too much at stake for you to stay here, doing what you have always done, day in and day out. If you want different results, then you need to change the experiment.
Give up a few things on your list and experience the benefits of delegation. Partnering with a virtual assistant is a results oriented approach for you and your business. Our intellectual property from years of experience, research and education is invaluable and can be right at your fingertips when you choose to incorporate our expertise into your business operations.
“The first rule of management is delegation. Don’t try and do everything yourself because you can’t.” Anthea Turner
- Consider the sacrifices of holding on to EVERYTHING you do.
- What would you focus on if you have had 5-10 more hours per week?
- How would you change your daily processes and systems?
- Do your daily business operations scream for your undivided attention?
Can you afford NOT to delegate?
by Ace Concierge | Virtual Assistant | Jan 15, 2014 | Organization, Small Business, Social Media
You know the intrinsic value and sheer magnitude of having an online presence and creating a community but what do you do with it?
How do you do it?
Do you have a method to your madness or are you the willy nilly type posting, commenting and further acting like a crazed JuMpInG bEaN?
Slow down a bit and take stock of your social platforms, goals and each individual audience.
And don’t just go over it in your head. WRITE it down.
Whether you engage on one social channel or 10, you should have an idea of what you are doing and why.
Know where YOUR audience is.
“Social media is a smart selling tool only if your clients and prospects are using social media.” Colleen Francis
Don’t spread yourself too thin or your quality of content and engagement will suffer. THIS will hurt your brand image and reputation. You are here to build. To construct your digital universe and connections not to destroy them with a wrecking ball.
Time and patience is an absolute must. Don’t expect to have people clamoring all over you because you pushed out a few posts. Sure, you may feel pride and accomplishment but, your online networking is about developing relationships and brand awareness.
Real, honest relationships with a foundation of engagement, not self-promotion. Your consistency and frequency of remarkable content will cultivate you as an authority; a thought leader in your field.
To put it simply, be the person you would like to meet and do business with. What attracts you to others? What entices you to listen and pay attention? Emulate that.
If you’re not sure where to begin, check out this infographic from TopDog Social Media in 25+ Tasks For Your Social Media Strategy There are some very basic tasks that you should be working on every day in each of your social networks. This image displays the bare minimum.
While these three platforms represent just a small nibble of your full dining experience, never stop reading and educating yourself. The climate, dynamics, algorithms and “rules” are always changing.
Research the staggering statistics on social media growth, the B2B and B2C environment, the money spent on social media teams to ensure companies are involved, listening, engaged and troubleshooting, be amazed with the tremendous increase in content marketing and curation. This is where it is at and if you are not disseminating and curating, you may get lost in the vast amount of digital noise. You could become just another fly on the wall. Don’t get swatted. Get educated.
Here’s a little food for thought to motivate and inspire your online activity.
What You Absolutely Need To Know About Content Marketing
10 Awesome Infographics to Guide your Marketing Plan for 2014
Get better social media results in 2014: 3 strategies that will up your game
Social Media Audit: How to use tools to audit social media
The 3 Essential Elements of Any Successful Social Media Marketing Strategy
Is Solution Selling Dead? The 2014 Content Marketing Imperative
Understand your social media goals and carefully plan your strategy, writing for your audience and their needs to create a tight and authentic community of brand ambassadors, colleagues, friends and customers.
by Ace Concierge | Virtual Assistant | Jan 13, 2014 | Productivity, Small Business, Time Management
Nope, you won’t find them in this post but you can read more in: Don’t Die by the Deadline. The title promised you help on how to lasso your hankering for procrastination.
There are no real tips in this post, except: GET IT DONE.
You have a choice in every aspect of your life and with every choice there is a consequence. Whether the outcome is positive or negative, it is something you essentially choose. If you choose to put off what needs to be done, then you will pay the price. Can you afford it? When you invest in your time, you invest in yourself and your company. You are highly valued. Make sure you realize this.
You may procrastinate for a host of reasons, but ultimately it comes down to you doing or not doing something and when. If it is all that important and has a deadline, I would imagine you would attend to it with a little more immediacy than letting it hang on until the last moment. Usually, the final product of the rushed job leaves a great deal to be desired. It isn’t worth it to do something with only a fraction of your attention and interest.
Know the true value of time; snatch, seize, and enjoy every moment of it. No idleness, no laziness, no procrastination: never put off till tomorrow what you can do today. Lord Chesterfield
Consider the outcomes and “penalties” when you need to tackle a project or task. Your driving motivators should come from within because it is important to you not because you are making someone else check in on you to ensure you completed your alleged mission impossible.
Most people don’t have a problem finding time for the things they want to do, but once a task is presumed challenging, time consuming, or boring, procrastination takes over.
You have priorities. You have goals. Accomplish them. Light that internal fire and be accountable to yourself. Own your lists and To Dos. Yes, there are some things that present more of a struggle or personal challenge for you, but that is not an invitation to walk away or leave it on the back burner.
Things people say:
- I can’t get started.
- I don’t know where to begin.
- It is too hard.
- I need more help.
- I don’t want to do it.
- I don’t want to do it alone.
- It is frustrating.
- It isn’t fun.
- I just don’t feel like it.
- I have more time.
- What are your tips?
- It isn’t due yet.
The whining list is infinite. You have said some of these and honestly, I have too. The drama of I can’t, won’t, I don’t feel like it gets as old as the “stuff” I found in a lunch baggie inside my beach bag from this summer. It isn’t pleasant and accomplishes nothing but increased frustration and dissatisfaction.
If you have something to do, deadlines or not “Just Do it.” You don’t need help or special tips. You need to set your goals and priorities.
Important things get done.
- You can do them now.
- Prioritize your list.
- Create actions steps.
- Delegate.
- File.
- Discard.
Just take action! Real action!
by Ace Concierge | Virtual Assistant | Jan 2, 2014 | Entrepreneur, Goals, Small Business
Change up the experiment if you want different results. Old news but so true. You can’t expect something to change if you are doing the same old tired routines day in and day out. No matter what it is, personal or professional, it is up to you to be accountable and design the success you want.
It is when you push the boundaries of your comfort zone that challenge and change become inevitable. This is your place for growth. Don’t buck change. Embrace it. When you become shaky, nervous, maybe even a little queasy, you will know that you just took that needed leap toward greater things. Congratulate yourself. Rewards are on their way to you.
Be Encouraged! There is growth and life outside of your comfort zone! Chery Gegelman
No one else will deliver your dessert. Use the finest ingredients if you want a tasty rich slice of cake.
Anyone can simply rip open a box and add water. Toss the boxed mix, tin foil pan and plastic spoon.
Use the highest grade, unrefined flour. Raw sugar. Real cocoa. You get the idea. Nothing processed or prepackaged.
Dump the status quo and acceptance of being average to craft the pinnacle torte with chocolate ganache for full-bodied ecstasy on your tongue that makes your taste buds burst with excitement.
Can you taste it? What does it look like to you? What will it take to build this mouthwatering dessert?
No matter what your goals may be, it takes planning, commitment and time.
- Envision your dessert and build it.
- Set attainable goals.
- Implement the tools you WILL use: whatever works best for you.
- Create your plan with action steps and a timeline.
- Be accountable.
- Taste the ingredients. Modify if necessary.
- Know that a redirect is sometimes required.
- Challenge old assumptions.
- Oven temperatures vary.
- Don’t burn the chocolate.
- Find a sous chef or two. Delegating helps you scale.
- If your cake falls in, make another one. Failure is a success point.
Is it difficult or frustrating to instigate change? Hell yes. You have all been there. That is what life is about. You must take risks and get uncomfortable if you want to taste the reward of success. These outer limits that you test, show you who you are, what you are made of, your real strength and resolve and that you CAN do accomplish anything you dream about. The biggest risk, is not risking anything at all.
Be bold and courageous. When you look back on your life, you’ll regret the things you didn’t do more than the ones you did. H. Jackson Browne, Jr.
It can be a scary place but strap on the mindset and turn on that mixer.
Be BOLD with your goals.
This is 2014 and time for change.
