The Work at Home Wife

Create a Professional Client Welcome Packet for Your Virtual Assistant Business

Angie — Thu, 17 May 2012 11:23:59 +0000

There are so many bases to cover when starting a virtual assistant home-based business. The fun doesn’t end when you land your first client however. Now it is time for client intake forms, contracts, business policies and payment arrangements. This is where New Client Welcome Packets can save you and your new client valuable time, energy and mishaps.

Welcome packets serve many purposes:

They inform new clients of your standard operating procedures.
They insure you have collected those devilish little details; contract, contact information, passwords, etc.
They introduce new clients to other service offerings that may be of interest.
They show you are a professional and can leave your new client confident that they chose the right person for the job.

Getting all of the correct pieces into place can be a bit overwhelming. That is where Virtual Assistant Forums has stepped up to the plate and put together a 26-page guide for creating a Professional New Client Welcome Packet. In addition to the guide, you will also find seven editable templates:

The Client Retainer Contract is eight pages covering everything from rates to payment terms, non-disclosure to non-compete. US, UK and Canada versions are included.
The Welcome Letter is fabulous. It sets the tone and expectations for those first few weeks when both parties are learning the other’s business processes.
Client Intake Form
Client Questionnaire
Credit Card Authorization Form

The guide walks you through each document, its purpose and how you can put it to good use.

Things I Would Have Liked to See

No examples were given for the sections relating to service upsells and business policies. If I was a new service provider, I believe that would have been a great help. However, these things are not of the same importance as those included templates. Therefore I don’t feel it has a negative impact on the value of this product. A business policies document can easily be created by pulling a few of the most important aspects of your contract and creating a document that reiterates these procedures.

Is It Worth the Investment?

This is how I weigh potential investments: In the time this product will save, could I make more money working than the cost of the investment?

This eBook costs $14. I have no doubt that I could make more money working than finding or creating these documents on my own. In fact, I purchased similar documents to this years back that I currently use. I paid far more than $14 for them… far more than $14. And mine didn’t come with a guide.

Virtual Assistant Forums is a trusted resource in the VA community. I have no problem recommending this guide and no doubt that you will get more than your money’s worth time and again as your newly created welcome packet streamlines your incoming client process saving you time, energy and headaches. Buy it on the forum or get it for your Kindle.

Disclosure: I received a free copy of this guide to review. All opinions are mine.

This post originally appeared on The Work at Home Wife. If you are reading this material outside of subscribing to my RSS feed, the site you are on is in violation of the copyright. Please contact me at The Work at Home Wife to report this violation.

How to Fund Your Home Business With Kickstarter

guest — Wed, 16 May 2012 11:41:23 +0000

There’s never been a better time in history to be self-employed. If there’s an upside to the recession, it’s that it forced hundreds of thousands of people to reassess their careers. Many of them finally found themselves pursuing dreams they’d left on the sidelines for a ‘real job’ years before.

Unfortunately, with the economic downturn came a belt-tightening by banks. It became harder than ever to acquire a small-business loan at a good rate, counteracting the movement toward entrepreneurship that rounds of corporate layoffs had forcefully inspired.

Enter Kickstarter. Recognizing a need for new sources of small business capital, three programmers and idealists in New York City began the site in 2008. Four years later, over $175 million dollars in pledges have been raised, with 20,000 projects successfully funded.

Although artists, bands and filmmakers have embraced the site, the most successful campaigns have been for innovative products. However, even a service-industry concept can succeed. Looking to start an interior design consulting firm? Kickstarter can launch your business, with less payout than a daily deal like Groupon or Living Social would require. Whether you’re a freelance bookkeeper, a massage therapist, or a jewelry artist, Kickstarter should be on your radar as a useful tool for raising new capital.

Before launching your campaign, remember these important guidelines:

Launch with Guns Blazing

The same principles that exist for retail outlets and restaurants apply to work-at-home endeavors backed by Kickstarter. Would you open a new restaurant if you were still waiting on your menu to be printed, tables to be refinished and approval for a license to sell alcohol?

Open up shop before you’re prepared, and the initial feedback will be poor. Online and in the physical world, you want your first customers to be excitedly spreading the word.

Launching a Kickstarter campaign for a pie-in-the-sky idea (i.e. “If I raise $10,000, then I’ll pursue this further”), might seem like a good thought, but it’s a virtual guarantee that you won’t meet your goals. That requires doing your homework first, and sticking to this next point:

Give Your Supporters Tangible Rewards

Occasionally, a Kickstarter campaign will succeed where the motivation of backers is based solely on altruism. This is exceedingly rare, however.

For work-at-home and small businesses, Kickstarter should be thought of as a pre-sale tool. Don’t base your campaign on asking for a handout. Even if your friends want to help you, do you really feel good about begging for free money, just because you might raise $1,000 or so?

Let’s say you’re a recently licensed massage therapist, and you’re hoping to start your own home-based business rather than subletting space from an existing salon. To do that, you’ll need funds to file an LLC, purchase a quality table or two, and buy supplies and advertising. You estimate that you’ll need about $5,000 to get started.

If you plan to charge $75 for a one-hour massage, launch on Kickstarter by offering the same service for $60. Your recipients have an incentive to pay now and receive later, you raise fast capital, and you build a future customer base.

Provide a Variety of Low-Cost Options

One of the most successful Kickstarter campaigns in history concluded this February. A comic book artist in Philadelphia needed roughly $58,000 to print more copies of his popular “The Order of the Stick” series. By the time the fundraising drive ended, 14,952 backers had pledged $1,254,120.

How did a comic book generate 20 times what it asked for?

One of the Order of the Stick campaign’s most notable features was the detailed variety of deals. For $10, backers received a fridge magnet and a digital copy of the comic. For just a dollar more, backers received an original crayon drawing by the artist. That option was limited to ten backers, creating a sense of both haste and popularity when people visited the site.

The majority of Kickstarter donations come in the first and last 24 hours of the campaign. Having limited deals that ‘sell out’ can create urgency and discourage waiting to pledge (and perhaps forgetting).

Order of the Stick’s rewards increased in small increments, with $16, $24, and $25 pledge levels that include detailed and varied reward packages. People felt like they were getting a bargain, and the idea of helping an artist out that they admired while being a part of a movement encouraged them to make the ‘impulse’ purchase of something they might have deliberated over longer in a physical or online store.

If you’re ready to start your business, consider Kickstarter before going to the bank. You won’t pay interest on the ‘loan,’ and you’ll have the backing and motivation provided by your supporters to get your project done and get them their rewards. Best of all, you’ll be in business faster than you could have imagined.

Anita Brady is the President of 123Print.com. The website offers promotional and office organization supplies like affordable business cards, memo pads, banners, personalized mugs and other items that combine high quality and customization with an affordable price.

Top 6 Reasons to Build Email Lists for Your Blogs

Angie — Mon, 14 May 2012 13:23:23 +0000

I told you last week that sending newsletters has long been my online nemesis. I’m forcing myself to overcome that as we speak. Luckily however, I have been collecting subscribers since shortly after building my first website. If you are currently unsure as to why you need to build email lists for your online properties, here are my top six reasons for getting started today.

Google is Fickle. If you rely heavily on search traffic, it will not take long to find out this traffic source is fluid. One day, you are at the top of the pile. The next day, someone has taken your place. With a list of ready listeners, you can rest assured that someone is going to be showing up regardless.

Email is Great for Relationships. We likely all have a sector of shy readers. They may not feel comfortable commenting publicly, but they may feel more at ease giving you feedback privately. Email lists are two-way streets, and they are easy to respond to.

Social Media Can’t Compare. Less than 10% of your Facebook Likes are seeing your status updates. The great thing about email – if they don’t have time to read it now, it isn’t going anywhere. It will wait in the inbox until someone takes action.

Expand Your Reach. One great feature of newsletter services today is the integration with social media. Your latest newsletter may be sent through your social profiles automatically giving another set of followers the opportunity to see it. Your newsletter may also include social sharing buttons allowing your subscribers to share your news with their friends and followers.

Revenue on Demand. If you are in a pinch for some extra cash or looking for replacement clients, your email list can be a lifesaver. You can hold a quick “fire sale” or let your subscribers know your business has an opening and ask for referrals. You can also notify your list members of short-term sales from others that may be of interest.

You Own It. Facebook owns your Page. Twitter owns your profile. Your RSS feed may be under the control of another entity. If you are paying for an email newsletter service, you own your list. (Please be aware that if you are using a free newsletter service, they retain control of your list.)

There are numerous reasons to start building an email list. What is your favorite reason for collecting subscribers?

6 Tips for Social Marketing a Home Business

Angie — Thu, 10 May 2012 12:10:55 +0000

You may feel that social networking is being forced on you as a home business owner. In today’s market, it is. There is a good chance that your target clients, customers and readers are using at least one social networking platform. This is likely where they are looking for businesses like yours. If you are marketing a home business on social platforms, here are a few quick tips.

Be Findable – Most social platforms have some type of privacy setting available. Make sure your business profile visible to the public. Use a key phrase in your Bio or About section that your target audience may be searching. Do not protect the Tweets or status updates of your business profile.

Be Inviting – It may seem silly, but those simple words “Follow Me” can make a big impact. Use a strong Call to Action. Invite your target market to connect with you online.

Be There – If your last status update was three months ago, new visitors may move right along without clicking that follow button. To the public, it appears as though you have abandoned your profile. Why follow someone that isn’t there?

Be Social – You will likely be talking to yourself in the beginning, but keep it up. Social networking is all about building relationships. Your new followers may not feel comfortable with you initially. That’s okay. Keep talking. And don’t just talk about yourself. If you see something online that may be of interest to your followers, pass it along. If your home business operates on a local level, chat up local events. Eventually one person will start engaging with you. When the others see that, they will likely follow suit.

Be You! – Customers like to know there is a real person behind the business. We like to buy from real people. Don’t be afraid to share your fun side.

But, Be Professional – Your potential customers want to know you, but they don’t want to know too much. Keep the negativity and passive-aggressive status updates offline. No one wants to work with someone that appears unstable.

If you are not sure what you should be doing “socially,” follow a few similar businesses that are making a big impact online. Follow businesses that have a lot of engagement. Watch how they are marketing. Look for those little things that are separating them from the rest of the pack. These are things you can take back to your own profile and modify for marketing your home business.

What is your best tip for social marketing beginners?

New Drag and Drop Builder for Easy Email Newsletter Design

Angie — Mon, 07 May 2012 11:53:32 +0000

I have a confession to make. I stink at email marketing. Oh, I have been building a list since I started blogging. I pay for an email newsletter service. I know full well the value of an email. Not a fan of creating them, however. I’m stubborn. If things don’t work like WordPress these days, I have little patience for it. But, this is one service that loses me money month after month. I hate that worse than I hate creating newsletters.

Over the weekend I spent some time in Aweber looking at what was going out to subscribers previously, and what options I had to improve things for both readers and myself. Much to my surprise, Aweber now has a Drag and Drop builder for email newsletter design that is perfect for my needs.

After choosing from the many templates available – you can also upload your own – it is simply a matter of clicking on the applicable box to edit the contents. The below template came ready to promote articles or blog posts. With these new features, I can easily add an image, title, description and URL for my latest blog post. If my chosen template had a different setup, it would just be a matter of dragging and dropping the Article block to make it fit my article promotion needs.

You have several other Drag and Drop blocks available as well. Once a block is dropped into the editor a slide-out box will prompt you for the necessary information for that block. You can add easy-to-follow Facebook and Twitter buttons to your emails, promote your products and add coupons to your newsletters. You can add your logo or signature. These options allow for a little more networking, a little more branding and a little more passive income.

This was a great find. The Aweber Drag and Drop builder will encourage me to take a few minutes every week to create a more interactive and attractive newsletter replacing the less than stellar RSS broadcast that was previously being sent. As I am more confident in what is being sent, I can start actively building my list again, something that I stopped quite some time ago. Hopefully over time, my emails will become another avenue that passively generates an income. Something they should have been doing from the beginning.

If you are already an Aweber customer, schedule some time to design a fresh broadcast for your subscribers this week. If you are not currently using Aweber, you can get started for only $1.

Why Copywriting Is Important To Every Home Business

Angie — Fri, 04 May 2012 12:22:37 +0000

Did your eyes just start bleeding a little? Mine did. Being a salesperson is one of the few drags of being in business for yourself – even when it is only writing. But, learning the basics of copywriting is essential to every home business owner. Bad copy is likely losing you sales as we speak. You may be talking yourself right out a sale. Luckily, a few quick tweaks can bring noticeable results.

Start with a question. This is one of my favorite copywriting tips of all time. Begin your sales copy by asking your potential customer a question that would get a “yes” response. This conditions them to say yes to what you are offering from the start. Would you like to double your revenue while working less this year? Well, of course I would! I will take two, please.

Your writing can have power so use powerful words. Don’t use words like try or maybe. When talking about your services or products you need to portray confidence and effectiveness. Use words like growth, results and quality.

Keep it short and to the point. Limit your paragraphs to one topic and keep it two or three sentences in length.

Focus on the benefits. Features and benefits are often confused. A feature is something your product or service has. A benefit is what it will do for your client.

Your Call to Action can make or break the sale. Blogging with Amy had a great post this week about affiliate marketers closing with the wrong call to action. The same goes for trying to sell your services. Don’t end your page with “follow me on Twitter.” End your page with “place your order” or “contact me now.”

Read it aloud. Your copy should feel like a conversation with a good friend. It shouldn’t sound choppy or robotic.

Revise as necessary. If nothing is happening, make a few changes. The great thing about writing online as opposed to print is that we can change things on the fly. No Wite-Out needed.

Copywriting is like any other seemingly impossible task. Break it down into consumable pieces and it begins to look a lot less scary.

What copywriting tips can you share?

Starting a Catering Business for Long-Term Success

Angie — Wed, 02 May 2012 11:32:28 +0000

Catering is a $7 million industry. Business owners can operate in a variety of specialized areas and there is plenty of room for business growth. While starting a catering business is less expensive than opening a restaurant, it shouldn’t be taken lightly. Not only will you need a passion for cooking, you will also need a strong business sense.

Business Needs

Detail-Oriented Personality with Strong Managerial Skills

Local Licensing, Inspections and Insurance – Do not go into the catering industry under the impression you can simply use your existing home kitchen equipment. In many states this is illegal. Contact your Department of Health for local regulations on food preparation, necessary licensing and minimum insurance needs.

Commercial Kitchen Equipment can be rented if the price is out of reach initially. Depending on your catering niche, you may need to decide if you will buy or rent table settings, glassware, linens, etc. If your business brings food to your client, you will likely need to invest in portable food storage.

A separate Business Entity is a must. Food prep can be a risky business. You don’t want your family’s assets and future put at risk in the event of a customer complaint. Consult an attorney and/or tax professional for advice on the recommended business structure for your new catering business.

Marketing Your Catering Business

Get Your Niche. Cooks can cater to a wide variety of customers. You may choose to specialize in weddings, small parties, bag lunches to businesses, professional luncheons, household meal delivery, or another area entirely. Once you choose your niche, your preferred methods of marketing will be a lot easier to nail down. A few avenues to be utilized regardless of your niche:

Customer Referrals
Business Referrals
Social Media
Local Listings
Professional Organizations like NACE

Words of Wisdom

Get Some Experience by working with another local caterer or taking a few culinary courses at your local community college.

Start Small with three to seven menu items. This allows you to get accustomed to your new business and streamlines the ordering process for your customers. Sometimes having too many options is not a good thing.

Catering can be an extremely lucrative career. Just don’t underestimate the work involved. You will need to keep up with the physical and mental demands of this busy business.

Do you or someone you know own a catering business? Do you have any advice or personal insight into this career choice?

Should You Add Your Site to Bing Webmaster Tools?

Angie — Mon, 30 Apr 2012 12:40:22 +0000

Last week I noticed a sudden upswing in traffic coming from Yahoo! and Bing. Though these are not search engines I have taken much notice of in the past, if they are going to send me traffic I want to make sure that continues. One way to do that was to add my site to Bing Webmaster Tools so that I can get a better picture of how these search engines view my sites.

The process is rather simple. Once you create an account, you simply need to add a piece of code to your site to verify ownership. If you are on WordPress and using a plugin like Google XML Sitemaps, Bing will see this and you will not need to generate a new sitemap. Within three days you will begin to see Bing stats.

In your dashboard you will see metrics similar to those in Google Analytics. You will find information relating to your traffic, indexing and crawling. You can see your search rank and Click-Thru Rate for keywords. You can see code errors and submit missing URLs.

In addition to these features, there are a few other useful metrics you will want to keep an eye on:

In addition to Inbound Links, Bing will also show you Deep Links. If Bing finds your site to be “authoratative,” you will be blessed with Deep Links within the search engine. These are similar to Google’s Site Links.

Crawl Details will alert you to any crawling issues such as malware infections, HTTP code errors and robot restricted pages. These are always problems you want to watch for and fix ASAP. Bing will even notify you by email of these issues, if you choose. This is especially handy in the event of malware infections.

Bing Keyword Tool

The Keyword Tool within Bing is far different than Google’s, and one I am still experimenting with. Unlike the Google Keyword Tool which pulls phrases from paid advertising, Bing tells us these phrases are those actually being used in search queries. You can look at the keyword’s impressions for the past few months. You can even seek out keywords by location and/or language.

If you are looking for search traffic, make sure your site is visible and accessible to every search engine – not just Google. I also received $50 in advertising credit upon submitting my site. Submit yours here.

Helpful Webmaster Resources from Bing

Getting Started Checklist

Bing Webmaster Tools Help

Have you added your site to Bing Webmaster Tools?

Best Blog Post Roundup: eBook Edition

Angie — Fri, 27 Apr 2012 11:49:27 +0000

eBook publishing is a hot topic right now. And, that is really no surprise. It is something most tech-savvy people can handle. There can be little to no monetary investment involved. It can provide a long-term, residual income. Something most of use are striving for these days. Therefore, this week’s blog post round up is devoted to all things eBook.

5 Things Beginners Need to Know About eBook Publishing – Jane Friedman is someone that I found only recently. She has a lot of great information on her blog about writing and publishing online.

Publishing on Kindle for Increased Profits – This is an Expert Briefs session from Nicole Dean. I think I have linked to it before. Regardless, it is a great post full of tips from eBook authors.

PressBooks - This is a cool free tool that WordPress users will love. You can create your eBook and export it in multiple formats. You can even add multiple authors.

How to Write a Free eBook in 7 Days – This article from Men With Pens is a great start for those new to writing eBooks. This talks from the “free report” point of view, but double or triple your word count and you will have a paid info product in no time.

Where are you gathering information on eBook publishing? I would for you to share your resources in the comments.