by Jodie Hodges | Nov 24, 2011 | Uncategorized
I’m not sure where to start today. Breathe……..stop being a cry baby (OH HAPPY TEARS).
My beautiful daughter and a wonderful group of kids have been chosen to dance next year in America.
They actually get to dance up the main street of Disneyland.
There are around 30 kids dancing with my daughter being the baby of the group at the perfect age of 7.
I have been amazed at the families involved. We have been cooking BBQ’s, selling pies and chocolate frogs. Nothing is to hard, nothing is a drama. My daughter has never felt like her epilepsy is an issue and that I say a massive thank you to the kids and the their families and of course to the wonderful teachers who sometimes have to wait for Emily to have an absent seizure before going onto the next move.
While I was selling my pies I had one of my son’s mates mum from school say to me that they would give me a cheque instead of buying pies. Today while at karate she handed me a cheque for $500.00. I was blown away! She said this is for the kids and smiled.
To you my dear friend, THANK YOU.
I promise to take a picture while those kids are living a dream!
Jodie
by Jodie Hodges | Nov 21, 2011 | Uncategorized
by Donna Toothaker
Most online businesses naturally focus on online marketing and social media to drive their business. However, traditional “offline” marketing methods are invaluable. They are still some of the most effective ways to growing your business, and should not be overlooked.
First, are you using your mailing list effectively? A good mailing list is the foundation for your business. This is not just an e-mail list. Having a database of names, mailing addresses, phone numbers and other personal information gives you the tools to connect personally with current and potential clients, business associates and even competitors.
Are you launching a new service or product, or presenting at a local event? Send a postcard announcement to clients, potential clients and area businesses with whom you do business. Do mailings every other month or so, including something valuable and new each time.
Send personal notes to clients thanking them for choosing you, thanking them for a referral, and upon completion of a big project. Including a personal sentiment shows care and attention to detail. Put birthdays on your calendar and send cards to your clients – your kindness will be remembered, and so will you when the opportunity comes up for a client to refer somebody to your company. A good way to keep track of client birthdays and send out cards automatically is to use an online service like SendOutCards.com.
Many newspapers and local radio and cable television stations will gladly print listings or run PSAs for offerings that are free and serve the public. Offer to do a free class or workshop at your local library, women’s business network, or community center, and send press releases to local papers, radio, television, and local business newsletters, such as those sent out by the chamber of commerce. Ask whatever group who is hosting you to send it to their membership and contacts as well. Whether a small business owner is curious about hiring a Virtual Assistant, or a local unemployed professional is looking to start her own VA business, marketing yourself face to face is a highly effective way to promote your business, and the VA industry in your area, while adding new prospective clients to your mailing list.
Where do your local entrepreneurs do business or hang out? Bring yourself to potential customers. Places like copy centers, local cafes with Wi-Fi, and health clubs are populated with your target market, and often have community bulletin boards or places to leave business cards. Get to know the managers or owners of these businesses. Ask to hang fliers with any new business offerings, upcoming events, coupons or special offers.
Advertising is also effective – but only if you are able to do so on a regular basis, and to the right audience. If major newspapers or industry magazines are out of your reach financially, consider pitching a weekly column and ad placement in a local community paper, an ad on a local am radio talk station, or sponsoring arts and community events throughout the year.
Work these ideas into your yearly marketing plan, and see where they can dovetail with your online marketing. You may repurpose your online article submissions as those community newspaper columns, for example, or send a postcard to contacts as you launch your new services or specials online. Whatever offline marketing route you choose to travel, utilizing those good ol’ fashioned, tried-and-true methods can put you on the road to growth and success!
Donna Toothaker is CEO, founder and coach of Step It Up VA Coaching, and the creator of the 6 Steps to 6-Figure VA Success System. These highly sought-after VA coaching programs have been created for established, successful VAs who wish to create the 6-figure business of their dreams. Visithttp://www.stepitupva.com to receive the free report, Top 3 Mistakes to Avoid in Creating a 6-Figure VA Business.
by Jodie Hodges | Sep 25, 2011 | Uncategorized
SEO Technical Virtual Assistant
Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is the process of modifying a website to rank as highly in the search engines as possible for the most appropriate search terms that people use. SEO deliveries targeted traffic to achieve online marketing objectives, increase in sales, conversions, lead generation and increase in traffic.
Website content and website structure are two critical components to good SEO practices. Page titles are the most important part of optimization. I always put the key word at the start of the heading. This is what the guru’s call perfect placement. I always stick to only a dozen words or less in my SEO technique for a page title. A good Technical Virtual Assistant will be able to help you achieve, without paying thousands of dollars. Another key thing to remember in SEO is to list your home town or important city (target city on the home page title). For me, I live in a small town in Coffs Harbour, NSW, Australia.
HTML is useful in achieving good SEO results, but not necessary. WordPress is helping out those of us (like me) who are skilled but not fantastic as HTML.
Another tip is to remember that search engines cannot read graphics, photos or images.
Well it is Sunday evening and I am off to spend time with my family. After all that is why I became a Virtual Assistant!
I will be back to talk about Meta Tags and what it all means.
Chat soon
Jodie
by Jodie Hodges | Aug 25, 2011 | Uncategorized
I just came across this fantastic blog from Jack Canfield.
I believe you have inside of you a core genius… some one thing that you love to do, and do so well, that you hardly feel like doing anything else. It’s effortless for you and a whole lot of fun. And if you could make money doing it, you’d make it your lifetime’s work.
In most cases, your Core Genius is directly tied to your passions and life-purpose.
Successful people believe this, too. That’s why they put their core genius first. They focus on it—and delegate everything else to other people on their team.
For me, my core genius lies in the area of teaching, training, coaching and motivating. Another core genius is writing and compiling books. Over my 35 year career, I have written, co-authored, compiled and edited more than 150 books, and I love to do it! I do it well, and people report that they get great value from it.
Compare that to the other people in the world who go through life doing everything, even those tasks they’re bad at or that could be done more cheaply, better, and faster by someone else.
They simply can’t find the time to focus on their core genius because they fail to delegate even the most menial of tasks.
When you delegate the grunt work—the things you hate doing or those tasks that are so painful, you end up putting them off—you get to concentrate on what you love to do. You free up your time so that you can be more productive. And you get to enjoy life more.
So why is delegating routine tasks and unwanted projects so difficult for most people?
Surprisingly, most people are afraid of looking wasteful or being judged as being above everyone else. They are afraid to give up control or reluctant to spend the money to pay for help. Deep down, most people simply don’t want to let go.
Others (potentially you) have simply fallen into the habit of doing everything themselves. “It’s too time-consuming to explain it to someone,” you say. “I can do it more quickly and better myself anyway.” But can you?
Delegate Completely!
If you’re a professional earning $75 per hour and you pay a neighborhood kid $10 an hour to cut the grass, you save the effort of doing it yourself on the weekend and gain one extra hour when you could profit by $65. Of course, while one hour does’t seem like much, multiply that by 52 weekends a year and you discover you’Ave gained 52 hours a year at $65 per hour —or an extra $3,380 in potential earnings.
Similarly, if you’re a real estate agent, you need to list houses, gather information for the multiple listings, attend open houses, do showings, put keys in lock boxes, write offers and make appointments. And, if you’re lucky, you eventually get to close a deal.
But let’s say that you’re the best closer in the area.
Why would you want to waste your time writing listings, doing lead generation, placing lock boxes, and making videos of the property when you could have a staff of colleagues and assistants doing all that, thus freeing you up to do more closing? Instead of doing just one deal a week, you could be doing three deals because you had delegated what you’re less good at.
One of the strategies I use and teach is complete delegation. It simply means that you delegate a task once and completely – rather than delegating it each time it needs to be done.
When my niece came to stay with us one year while she attended the local community college, we made a complete delegation – the grocery shopping. We told her she could have unlimited use of our van if she would buy the groceries every week. We provided her with a list of staples that we always want in the house (eggs, butter, milk, ketchup, and so on), and her job was to check every week and replace anything that was running low.
In addition, my wife planned meals and let her know which items she wanted for the main courses (fish, chicken, broccoli, avocados, and so on). The task was delegated once and saved us hundreds of hours that year that could be devoted to writing, exercise, family time, and recreation.
Most entrepreneurs spend less than 30% of their time focusing on their core genius and unique abilities.
In fact, by the time they’ve launched a business, it often seems entrepreneurs are doing everything but the one thing they went into business for in the first place.
Many salespeople, for example, spend more time on account administration than they do on the phone or in the field making sales, when they could hire a part-time administrator (or share the cost with another salesperson) to do this time-consuming detail work. In most cases, in a fraction of the time it would take them and at a fraction of the cost.
Most female executives spend too much time running their household, when they could easily and inexpensively delegate this task to a cleaning service or part-time mother’s helper, freeing them to focus on their career or spend more quality time with their family.
Don’t let this be your fate!
Identify your core genius, then delegate completely to free up more time to focus on what you love to do.
I believe that you can trade, barter, pay for and find volunteer help to do almost everything you don’t want to do, leaving you to do what you are best at – and which will ultimately make you the most money and bring you the most happiness.
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