business | Erin Blaskie | Digital Vanguard, Speaker & Content Producer

Oh Business, You Silly Thing You

Posted by Erin Blaskie on Dec 5, 2011 in blog, Business Tips | 4 comments

This isn’t one of those posts I write with advice embedded into it and this isn’t even going to be a post with much of a beginning, middle and an end.

Nope, this is a post that I am writing on my iPhone while I soak in a glorious, peaceful bubble bath.

I was talking to a client and very dear friend of mine today about business and life and how the two end up affecting each other so much. In my case, my daughter is cutting her first year molars and it’s killing me… Figuratively speaking of course but the late nights, endless suffering she is experiencing and my insane work schedule has created this space where I feel slightly trapped.

You see, business is not an easy journey to choose. Over the past seven years, I have not gone a day (literally not a day – probably not even an hour) where someone has not needed me for something. If you are in business too, you might be able to relate. Regardless of how many hours you put in, regardless of how much support you have around you, someone ALWAYS needs you.

I am fairly certain that this is why I started my business in the first place. I loved feeling needed and like I was making a difference and more importantly, I loved when my clients relied on me to make their life easier. I had a place in the universe – a purpose. However, sometimes I wish that I had a day, or an hour, where I could disappear and not be needed.

You see, with being needed comes a lot of guilt. Guilt when you can’t produce the way you want to, perform the way you want to and be the kind of person you want to be for everyone you know. The guilt then turns into resentment and that isn’t healthy for anyone.

So, I’ve been learning. I’ve been learning that it’s okay to be imperfect, it’s okay to say no to things, it’s okay to choose what or who I give my time to.

I was talking to Steve tonight about our daughter and I was telling him that I want to make her growing up experience memorable and exciting. I don’t want to focus on material things or keeping a perfect house or having her in the best schools (not that I don’t think education is important but I do believe it should be chosen based on the individual needs of the child and not because of the school’s status in the community). I kind of feel that way about my business too. It’s more important to me to get my offerings / talent / skills / whatever out to the world than it is to worry that everything has to be perfect.

I’m also learning that when you balance life and a business so delicately on your shoulders, something somewhere has to give a little and that is okay too.

What are your big learning lessons about business as you make your way through?

Brand & Message Essentials for Creatives on Social Media

Posted by Erin Blaskie on Nov 23, 2011 in Facebook, How-To, Internet Marketing, LinkedIn, Marketing, Social Media, Twitter | 0 comments

I had the honor of speaking yesterday at Ottawa’s Make Art Work! conference put on by OCRI and I spoke on the topic of, “Brand and Message Essentials for Creatives on Social Media.”

The presentation was designed to highlight the ways that creatives and artists could use social media and maintain an authentic expression of selves.

Here is the slide deck from that session:

Jaded: Adventures in Business Ownership

Posted by Erin Blaskie on Apr 8, 2011 in Business Tips | 10 comments

Author’s note –> This post has a fore-story (is that even a word?!) but I promise it gets to a good business lesson a little later on… just bear with me because this is a post I’ve been meaning to write for awhile.

Another author’s note –> If you like the posts that are all frilly, fun and filled with “success tips”, skip this one and wait until I’m inspired to do that kind of post. This one is more focused on the darker side of business ownership.

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In the past few months, I’ve been on a maternity hiatus. Waking up every day and getting to spend the entire day playing with my daughter, teaching her things and getting drooled on has made my life feel complete.

It has also made me begin to look at other things completely differently because once you step back from something long enough, you can really look at it objectively.

Take business ownership, for example.

Seven years ago, I launched my first company at the age of 21. I was young, eager, excited and inspired to do great things in the world. I had professional goals and I had revenue goals. I had a vision of what success looked like. I had years and years stretched out before me.

My start into this land of business was an amazing one. I had excellent clients who appreciated my work, I had people searching me out (instead of having to market to them) and the economy, at the time, was booming. It felt fabulous and I felt like I was on top of the world.

(Even writing this I feel like I am spouting off the beginning of a sales page and really, I want to punch myself in the face.)

The clients I was working with were people I had admired. People whose sites I had previously stumbled upon or been referred to and I looked at them and thought, “Oh man… I need to work with them some day!” Their business models were those that I wanted to emulate and setup so I could see how they ticked inside.

Business ownership and being an entrepreneur seemed all too good to be true… until the layers of the entrepreneur onion began to peel off in a way that truly did make my eyes water.

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I began to have behind the scenes access to these businesses I had so admired in the past. I began to see that they didn’t walk their talk at all. A lot of it was smoke and mirrors.

There was the business and marketing coach who couldn’t fill their own programs which therefore led to internal team issues as the blame of failure had to be placed somewhere (and it certainly wasn’t going to fall on their own lap)…

The millionaire coach who was struggling to pay her mortgage on her newly purchased mansion and was in tears about it nearly every day.

There was the business coach for women who had to dip into her children’s education fund to pay for things in the business and who decided to let me go after I told her it wasn’t a good idea…

There were the law of attraction coaches who were super negative behind the scenes… the relationship experts who had rocky marriages and who treated their team poorly… and there were the money coaches who never paid their bills on time.

Not only were some of the entrepreneurs not who they claimed to be, they were also making claims and doing things that caused my jaw to drop…

People who claimed to be earning a certain amount weren’t.

People who said their programs were nearly full or who claimed to have only “x” number of seats left weren’t telling the truth.

People would rack up hours with their virtual assistants (us) and stiff them with the bill claiming that they, “Never really liked the work anyway and doesn’t that justify non-payment of services and if not, I’m going to go and tell all of my friends stories of how shitty your services were because don’t you know how social media works?!”

Sigh.

Now, you might be sitting there thinking, “Well Erin… seriously?! Did you REALLY think that everyone in marketing was telling the truth? Did you REALLY think the cobbler’s children had pretty little shoes?” Well… yeah. I kind of did.

I thought that people were still human… even when separated by computer screens. Humans who had compassion, respect, were polite, told the truth and were who they said they were.

Needless to say, seven years in and I find myself a bit jaded about business ownership.

I’m not saying that I’m going to up and close my business tomorrow — that is not the case. We are lucky to have a handful of really, really amazing clients. Clients that stand by us through the “new client learning curve” and clients who totally get how to delegate and work with a team and clients who respect our work.

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But, in a post that might seem just downright depressing, here is the silver lining:

We all have the ability to do better and build businesses doing the most authentic thing(s) we can do for ourselves.

It’s just going to take a bit of creativity and a pair of nice, sturdy blinders. We are all born with the ability to be successful. You just need to figure out what success looks like to YOU and use that as the guide to get you where you want to be.

So, I challenge you to the following:

Ditch the comparison vortex… you know what I’m talking about… the hours you spend looking at everybody else’s business but your own.
Realize that while you might wish you were so-and-so or have a business like them, YOU are amazing and the other person just might be sugar coating a wee bit to help make that next sale.
Stop using the methods and tactics and NEXT-BEST-THINGS! that everyone out there is telling you to… if you hate sending spammy e-mails all the time, don’t! Instead, send messages of value and heartfelt outreach so you can CONNECT instead of SELL.
Be authentic. Be authentic. Be authentic. Yep, I realize you might be sick and tired of the idea and of the word “authentic” but seriously, be your awesome self because no one else can.
Get really, really clear on who you want to work with so you can find clients that PAY you for what you are worth and for your services, so that you get work that you LOVE to do and so you can stand behind their businesses 100%.
Don’t buy into everything out there and get sidetracked from reaching YOUR goals. I promise you that the most successful companies out there did not become successful by reading a $47 e-book or buying into a $100,000 coaching program. I PROMISE.

In the meantime, I’m going to work on becoming un-jaded about business.

I’m going to work really, really hard to attract in only those clients that my team and I are inspired to work alongside.

I’m going to say YES to the things I love to do and want to do and say NO to the things I don’t want to do because my time is valuable and I need to respect that.

I’m also going to search out more business owners who are doing what they love and who are walking their talk both in the public and behind the scenes. When I meet them, I’m going to connect with them and surround myself with other awesome and inspiring business owners.

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If you are reading this post and have ideas on how I can turn my jademobile around and be reminded of those early days in business ownership, lemme know in the comments below!

Lastly… if you find yourself also jaded or overwhelmed by what you thought business was and what it really is, make a list of ways you’re going to try to change your outlook on it. Want to be even braver? Share the list below.

You're Missing the Value Proposition

Posted by Erin Blaskie on Nov 19, 2009 in blog, Virtual Assistance | 18 comments

Do you ever get the feeling that sometimes people miss the value proposition you are setting forth? Like, it’s the biggest part of your business… the biggest attribute to your clients but because it’s so obvious, it gets overlooked? That’s what is inspiring this blog post.

Now, I know it’s YOUR job, as entrepreneur / business owner / CEO / leader, to set forth your value proposition and describe the benefit statements to your clients, colleagues, etc. but do you ever find yourself still trying to show the REAL value?

Our virtual assistance services / creative, professional outsourcing services are priced in the mid-pricing scale of virtual assistance companies. We offer excellent services for the online business owner and we have a team of people that my clients can plug into and rely on to get their work done. We offer more diverse skill sets and services than a lot of solopreneur companies will. All of these are great benefit statements and selling points.

But here’s the thing most people miss… I built my clients a team.

If you are working with a multi-VA firm, that firm’s owner built YOU a team. You didn’t have to. The hiring, the process of making sure the talent was good enough, shortening the know/like/trust factor was all done for you. Hours spent unbillable doing interviews, creating sub-contractor agreements, e-mail addresses, Basecamp accounts, etc. was completed when you got here.

Now, I’m not moaning about the time spent building a multi-VA team and I certainly know it was my choice in creating a large company but I realized the other day that when people say, “You’re a little more expensive than other virtual assistants” I should respond, “I know! We should be!” THAT is our value.

Our benefit statement is that I’ve created YOU a company with web designers, blog designers, graphic designers, internet marketing support people, administrative support staff, PHP programmers, social media assistants… the list continues so that you don’t have to scour the web looking. You don’t have to waste your time.

So, all this to say that if you are working with a multi-VA team and you are complaining about rates (or even gently trying to get even further discounted rates) remember that the time spent building this team was all done so you wouldn’t have to do it.

Do you have a benefit statement that is so obvious it gets missed? If so, share it!