I was recently interviewed for the Tips & Tools for Virtual Assistants Telesummit, hosted by Tracey D’Aviero, on the subject of creating multiple streams of income for your business. You will find a transcript of that interview below.

How Did You Get Started in the VA Business?

I have always been entrepreneurially curious and at the age of sixteen I had this vision of providing administrative services to the businesses in my local area. However, I ended up getting a job at an ice cream store and well… my mobile admin business dream got replaced by a ice cream scooping muscle.

Fast forward to the early 2000s and I had just finished school and I was in a career job doing public relations and teaching the Business Administration Diploma Program at a private college. I still had that urge to figure out a way to work for myself so I went online and revisited my idea of a mobile admin business. It was through a simple Google search that I found someone doing virtual assistance work and believe me, if I could remember who it was, I’d be sending them a very sweet thank you letter.

Two weeks after finding that VAs website, I launched my own site and had my first paying client not long after. Six months after launch, I had a full practice so I quit my full-time teaching gig and jumped into virtual assistance. I haven’t looked back since.

How Has Your Business Evolved Over the Years

My VA business started as a solopreneur setup but is now a 23 person creative, outsourcing agency. I was only doing one-on-one service style support but I now have an active library of information products and I have a website that provides tutorials and support called EntrepreneurDIY.com.

I am the type of entrepreneur that is multi-passionate. I enjoy the VA side of things but I also enjoy strategizing with my clients about how to build, manage and grow their businesses using the Internet. I also love to speak and I love to create information products as I am a natural-born teacher. Because of these various areas of interest, my business evolved to rise up and allow me to diversify what I do.

When Did You Learn About Multiple Streams of Income / Passive Revenue?

When I started my business back in 2004, one of my very first clients was in the business of selling e-books. Before I opened my own virtual doors and met him, I had never heard of an e-book. The concept was foreign to me but once I saw the success he was having selling this e-book, I knew that I needed to jump on the passive revenue train and figure it out for my own business.

With this same client, we did so well with the e-book that we caught the attention of another company who was selling a complimentary product. We merged our companies and later, sold the newly formed company for over $15 million dollars. Yes, we went from a $47 e-book to a multi-million dollar exit strategy.

Needless to say, I became VERY interested in creating alternative revenue sources for my own business.

How Does Earning Passive Revenue Affect Your Business & Your Life?

Earning passive revenue allows you to free up your time and leverage your expertise and knowledge to earn more while working less. It truly is one of the best ways to own a business without the business owning you.

On the business side of things, passive revenue allows you to create one-to-many opportunities. What this means is that instead of answering questions or providing solutions on a per person basis, you can reach more people using the same amount of effort. There is only one of you but many, many customers so you need to leverage that.

On the personal side of things, it frees up your time so you can work less and spend more time with your family and friends. You can actually take up a hobby – even as a busy entrepreneur!

What IS Passive Revenue?

Passive revenue is loosely defined as income that you earn inside of your business that you aren’t trading time for money for. This means that you can generate the revenue while you sleep, while you are on vacation or while you are working on other income generating projects.

However, the big myth that I need to dispel is that passive revenue does NOT mean that it is income you don’t have to work for. The difference between passive revenue and regular revenue is that you only need to setup a passive revenue stream once and you can benefit from it for a long time to come. Usually, passive revenue streams are also streams in which you can earn on-going, recurring revenue.

The most common passive revenue streams include things like information products (e-books, audio programs, e-courses, etc.), affiliate programs (referring other people’s businesses / services / products for commission), online training, group coaching programs which are turned into self-study programs afterward, membership programs, virtual events (teleseminars) and service-based income (sub-contracting, private labeling, etc.)

How Do You Know When You Are Ready to Implement Passive Revenue?

Everyone is ready to implement passive revenue. Every single entrepreneur can and will benefit from setting up multiple streams of income. The difference between the person that does it and the person that doesn’t is simply action. The person who takes action will make more revenue from different sources than the person who doesn’t.

You don’t need to have lengthy education or special knowledge of the industry. You simply need to know how to solve your customer’s problems. You simply need to be able to provide real solutions in real time.

How Do You Get Started with Passive Revenue?

The easiest form of passive revenue to start with is the information product. Information products are e-books, audio programs, e-courses, online training, etc. Any product that you are setting up that is delivering information to your target audience is an information product.

The end product may be different, ie: e-book, audio program, etc., but the process to get there always starts with the same piece of information: the idea. You simply need to have an idea and that idea is going to come from one of your customer’s problems. You need to ask yourself, “What does my client struggle with and how can I help?” as it is in that, “How can I help?” part that you will find the idea for your information products.

Once you have your idea, you simply need to create the information product, setup your website to sell the information product and setup digital delivery to deliver the product to your paying customers. Once you have that in place, you can stop answering questions one-on-one but rather say to people, “I have just the product for you” and point them in the direction of your newly created information product.

How Do I Implement Passive Revenue Into My Regular Marketing Plan?

Implementing passive revenue, by way of information products, into your regular marketing plan starts with taking a good hard look at your current processes. Where, in these processes, do you see clients asking you the same questions over and over? Where, in these processes, do you see room for an alternate option?

Once you analyze your current process, you may see room for an information product versus a typed response. You might also determine that your customers need more information or support on a particular topic. For example, let’s say that you build WordPress blog sites for your clients yet once it is done and they have the site for awhile, they often complain about not getting comments, etc. to their blog posts. You may want to consider putting together a blog visibility guide that walks them through that process and you can decide whether or not you’ll give that to your clients for free, make them purchase it or package it with your blog design setup.

One of the early business lessons I learned is that not everyone wants to consume information in the same way. Some people are auditory learners where others are visual. Some people like to learn on their own whereas some people prefer the group format. The key to creating a successful business is to tap into each of your customer’s learning styles.

Let’s use my outsourcing company, BSETC (www.bsetc.com) as an example. I start potential customers off with our 30 Days of Delegation Workbook as a free, PDF download. This e-book contains various resources inside including a couple of pre-recorded teleseminars on outsourcing and delegation. We upsell a few of our a la carte services and we upsell our hourly packages. For those customers who don’t actually want to hire a team, we also upsell our membership program at Entrepreneur DIY (www.entrepreneurdiy.com) where they can learn how to do everything we would do and do it themselves.

We have visual options, audio options, we’ll-do-it-for-you options, do-it-yourself options and we have various price ranges for all of those items. The key is to offer a diverse enough portfolio that you will have something that appeals to each potential customer.

For all other forms of passive revenue, such as advertising or affiliate programs, you can easily implement those onto your site without the need to tie it into your marketing plan or get too analytical about it. It just takes knowing how to use them and how to set them up for your particular website.

What is the One Thing You Wish You Knew About Passive Revenue When You First Got Started?

I wish I knew just how easy it was to start setting up multiple streams of revenue for my business. It would have generated me more business income much more quickly. A lot of people develop fear over adding passive revenue because the process of doing so seems difficult or above a particular skill level but that isn’t true. Anyone can implement passive revenue streams if they have a plan and some ideas on what to offer.

I know you asked for one but I’m going to throw out two, I also wish that I had known that even if something was already created, it was totally okay to make my own version for my clients. People often tell me that the reason they aren’t moving forward with passive revenue is because “all of the good ideas are taken” and I say, “Yes, but are those ideas written or executed from YOUR perspective?” Everyone brings something different to the table so I always encourage people to go forth and do it anyway as it will always end up being different than what is currently out there.

How Can I Learn More About Passive Revenue?

Since starting her business in 2004, Erin Blaskie has earned multiple six figures by using passive revenue and multiple streams of income. She has blogged about some of the ideas behind passive income before but has never compiled all of the information into one e-book until now.

“How to Become a Passive Revenue Powerhouse: The Online Entrepreneur’s Guide to Creating Viable Revenue Streams” is chock full of tips and tactics on how to create multiple streams of income for your business. Whether you are a coach, an author, a speaker, an online retailer or a medical professional (or anything in between!), you will benefit from the wisdom shared within the pages of this e-book.

Learn more and grab your copy here.

If you pay close enough attention, marketing lessons can come from the most unlikely places. Take this week for example. I was sitting at my desk and happened to notice that there was a Lee Valley Tools catalogue laying there, not yet opened.

While I waited for my iMac to launch, I flipped through the pages and recognized something about the experience I was having while reading this catalogue. I, as someone who is mostly uninterested in tools, gardening, etc., was getting extremely excited about their products. In fact, I was making a mental note of the items I NEEDED to have in my home inventory.

As I mentioned, I am not a gardener, I am not skilled in the area of home renovation, nor do I have an inclination to wield tools. However, the catalogue was causing me to have extreme desire to jump in my car and get to Lee Valley. Right. That. Instant.

So, what was it about the Lee Valley catalogue that made the products so appealing to me? Someone so clearly outside outside of their demographic?

[1] Equal Text to Images

Most catalogues out there are heavy on the imagery and light on the descriptors. When this happens, a potential customer may look at a photo, not understand what the product is for or how they could use it, and they would flip the page (or walk away from a physical store or click away from a website).

What Lee Valley does differently is that they provide a lengthy description with each product and in some cases, language that speaks directly to the customer. Language that tells a story and brings the customer in to a real-life scenario where they can see, smell, hear or understand exactly the type of experience they will have if they purchase that product.

For example, they sell a cooling towel. This cooling towel is draped around your neck when you are working outside and it is supposed to keep you cool. Now, had I looked at the photo alone, I might have thought, “Hmm… this looks like an oddly shaped scarf” and flipped the page. However, the descriptor speaks to me and makes me imagine the scenario and how I might use it: “Simply soak the towel in water, wring it out, and snap it taut – you can feel it begin to work almost instantly and it can cool for as long as two hours.” Mmmm… now I want a cool towel for those hot summer days.

To apply this to your own business, take a look at your website, your brochure or your catalogues. Are the descriptors with your products and services giving your potential customers an experience? Are they getting a little taste of what it would be like to purchase your products and services? If not, take a page from the Lee Valley catalogue and dress up your descriptors.

[2] Sell Pieces Individually

One of the products that Lee Valley sells is a maslin pan. A maslin pan, according to the catalogue, is “traditionally used to make preserves” and helps to “distribute heat evenly and prevent burning.” When I was glancing through the catalogue, I noticed that this particular item was sold in three parts. (1) Maslin Pan, (2) Lid for Maslin Pan, and (3) Maslin Pan with Lid. The price of each item was $76, $10.50 and $82 respectively.

As I read about the maslin pan and looked at the pricing, it got me thinking: “Do people need two lids for their maslin pan? Would they buy two pans with one lid? The pan and lid together is obviously cheaper, why don’t they just sell it as a set and call it a day?” Reading further into the description I realized that the lid was actually optional and was most commonly used when making soups or other dishes.

So, I learned something. Maslin pans, when used for preserves, don’t need to be used with a lid. However, some people might want that option to make soups or other dishes. Some people may not know that a lid is not needed for preserves so they might want to buy a lid (or two!) just to be safe. Preserve making pros, who know they do not need a lid, could save a couple bucks by leaving the lid option aside.

In your own business, present your clients and customers with options. Make sure that there are options for those who know exactly what they want, for those who have no idea what they want and for those who want all of the options — just in case.

[3] Ordinary Items Can be Extraordinary Products

If you look through the Lee Valley catalogue, you’ll see that they have some products that are fairly ordinary items. In fact, you could probably find some of the items around your house right now. However, Lee Valley has recognized a need and turned a few ordinary items into extraordinary products.

Take their Pie Weight Chain for example. The pie weight chain is simply a 7 ounce, 10 inch strand of stainless-steel beads. The idea with the pie weight chain is to coil the simple chain into the pie shell before it goes in the oven. You literally just wrap the beads around and around in the base of your pie shell so that the little balls weigh down the pie so it doesn’t get all lumpy when it bakes.

Someone would have looked at a 7 ounce, 10 inch strand of stainless-steel beads and saw a 7 ounce, 10 inch strand of stainless-steel beads. Someone at Lee Valley looked at it and invented a Pie Weight Chain which sells for $14.95.

When you are looking at creating your products and services, look at the ordinary ways that you can help make your customer’s lives extraordinary. Not every product or service you create needs to be complex and detailed to sell. In fact, sometimes the products and services that sell the best are the simple ones that solve a problem.

To Close Off this Post

What is it about catalogues or marketing that gets you excited? Have you ever seen an advertisement for something you wanted so badly but had no idea why? Leave your thoughts in the comments!

We’re pleased to announce that we will be hosting a weekly podcast via iTunes!  Each week, we’ll be bringing you a five-minute or less podcast focused on a variety of topics: social media, Internet marketing, entrepreneurship, general business tips and more.

Episode 6: Stacy Karacostas & Erin Blaskie on Copywriting

In this episode of the podcast, I interview Stacy Karacostas on the subject of copywriting. In the interview, Stacy shares a few of her tips for making all of your marketing WAY more effective!

It seems a lot of entrepreneurs really struggle with communicating not just what they do or sell, but also the value of their products or services. That makes it really hard to land clients. Stacy has spent many years as a professional copywriter, writing marketing materials for large and small businesses. In this podcast, she shares a few tips to make marketing easier.

Listen to this episode here in the blog post or download it via iTunes.

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You can also listen to the podcast right from this post!  To listen, simply click play on the player below.  You will not be able to stop and come back to the recording so keep that in mind before starting the podcast.  If you have any comments that stem from the podcast, please leave them as a comment here!

I just had an e-mail pop into my inbox from a coaching client who asked me about finding clients now that their “virtual doors” were open.  I figured that the answer to this question may be helpful for more than just my client so I am unleashing it here on the blog to not only give you my advice but also get some additional advice via the comments.  Upon reading this, if you have anything else to add, please do!

The “If You Build It, They Will Come” Idea

Most entrepreneurs freeze up at the point of having to sell their product and / or service.  They have worked tirelessly on educating themselves about their industry, the skills they’ll need to service clients, product development, etc. but very few people think about what they will do when it comes time to stop working ON the business and turn to working IN the business.

Unfortunately, once your business is setup and ready to go, people don’t start knocking your doors over (or at least, not always).  The idea that “if you build it, they will come” turns out to be a bit of a farce.  Marketing, selling and communicating out your new business to potential clients is time consuming and can sometimes feel a bit overwhelming.  In fact, the marketing and selling part can be the hardest part for a lot of people.

Get in People’s Faces

The first idea that I generally start with as a recommendation is the idea of getting into people’s faces.  Now, I don’t mean going all tough gangster on them but rather just getting into their sights and doing so often.  I encourage people to wake up every day and ask themselves the following question:

How can I get into the face of my ideal target customer today?

The way that you do this is by first defining who your ideal target customer is and then figuring out how to think and behave like them.  For example, let’s say that you sell web design services.  You know that the people who are going to hire you are probably people that have a terrible website that needs a makeover or people who don’t yet have a website.  So, you now have two distinct target markets: existing web owners and offline businesses who want to come online.

For the first target market, these people may hang out on social media and other Internet avenues.  Setup your profiles on these sites and begin to demonstrate to people how you’ve taken old websites that were horrid and made them new and pretty again.  Do this through Tweeting, blogging and Facebook photo albums.

For the second target market, you may want to attend local networking events to meet these offline business owners.  Make connections, find out who doesn’t have a website and offer your services to them.  Demonstrate affordability and the “why” behind the importance of being online.

Turn Your Cornfield Into a Freeway

I know, I know… not the most environmentally friendly analogy but here it is.  Let’s say that your business is setup in the middle of a cornfield and the corn is super high.  The business wouldn’t be very visible to the roads around the perimeter of the cornfield, would it?  Of course not.  It’s hidden in the center of this expansive cornfield which is exactly the way your business is when it’s first launched.  Hidden away from people’s sights.

Until of course, you start creating roads to the business.  These roads knock down some of the corn making the business somewhat more visible.  The more roads you build, the more visible the business is.  Soon enough, you have a busy and active freeway to your business where the corn used to stand.

Analogy explained: if you setup as many different avenues into your business as possible, you’ll be more visible which will naturally result in more sales.  These avenues can be social media profiles (Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn), video channels (Ustream, YouTube), press releases, articles, blog posts, etc.  Anything you are creating that connects up to other busy sites becomes an avenue to which people can come into your business.

The Conversion

So, once you have your business setup, you’re thinking like your ideal target customer and you have your avenues built, it’s now time to think about the conversion of these prospects into clients.  Make sure that your web spaces have many opportunities to capture the traffic flow.  Whether that is done via list building or a free giveaway or you receive comments on a video on YouTube, make sure to find a way to grab the attention of your prospect and keep it for the long-term.

In some cases, you may just be capturing new relationships to build, grow and cultivate and sometimes, that person will become a client or customer immediately.  Either way, honor all experiences and find ways to engage and interact in a way that suits your style.

Now that you’ve read my ideas on finding clients, what are some of the things you’ve done?  Leave them as a comment below!

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!

When you write a book, the common goal is to get it into the hands of many people as possible. If you’re truly lucky, you’ll also get it into the hands of people who don’t know you yet. These people will be the new ambassadors of your message and may not have heard about you before or know what you’re about. Once they receive your book, they will no longer be left in the dark.

There are two ways to release a book. One way is to do it quietly and / or to your own network and market only. The second way is to do it up in a big way where you hit the most amount of people and involve others in the success of the launch.

I’ve been involved in quite a few info-product launches and in the launching of real books via Amazon. These are also known as “The Amazon Book Launch”. Creative no?

The goal, as we said previously, is to get the book into the most hands possible. You do this through reach. With a book launch, you want to reach out to other people who share synergistic products, ideas and thoughts who can contribute to the book launch or promote it.

Here’s how:

• Research people who are doing something similar to you on the web but who don’t also have a competing book. Reach out to these individuals to see if they want to contribute a bonus to your book launch. The beauty about grabbing your near competitors is that it instantly puts you in the forefront making it appear like you lead the competition (and maybe you do).
• Create a really compelling sales page where you will pitch the book and the bonuses. It’s important to have a presence that highlights the book and the teachings inside but that also showcases the bonuses. The more exclusive the bonuses are, the better the results will be.
• Ask those who are contributing if they’d like to have you do a virtual event (teleseminar or otherwise) for their list. If so, you’ll have the chance to pre-pitch the concepts in the book. Teach one or two concepts from the book and let them know about the upcoming launch. If they liked you and what you had to say, they become pre-qualified to buy your book.
• Set a date and lead up to it. The key to a book launch is anticipation of the idea and the launch. Do as many events and contributing partner promotion as possible leading up to the launch and the day of, make sure as many people as possible are promoting, Tweeting, talking about and highlighting your book.

There are other things you can do as well for your book launch but these are some highlights. The best part is that this entire process can be outsourced to a virtual assistance company like ours at Business Services, ETC. Delegate it, forget about it and watch the book sales pour in.

Been involved with a book launch?  Add your tips as a comment!

via hubspot.com

I know I already Tweeted this out but I felt it pertinent to be on the Lifestream as a permanent post.

Posted via web from Erin’s posterous

I had an interesting experience recently with a speaking event that I was asked to speak at.  I had delivered a presentation at the event last year which was enjoyed by the participants so they asked me to come back and I gladly accepted.  Last year, the event was run the way events should be run.  The event organizer promoted it and was responsible for filling up the seats, etc.  This year, it seemed that the marketing and promotion was put on the speaker’s shoulders.

Now, I’m not trying to sound like a diva speaker but when you are asked to speak at an event, that should be something that is exciting for the event organizers.  Obviously there is some reason why they’ve invited you into the event to share your information.  Forcing the speaker to either “promote it or be canceled” is not the right tactic to get people excited about your event.  In fact, it usually makes speakers like me bolt for the nearest door and decline the opportunity.

So, how can you learn from my experience and help make your own events exciting? Here are a few tips.

1. Don’t demand that people market your event – make them want to.
2. Treat your speakers like gold – they are the appeal for your audience.
3. Give your speakers plenty of resources to pull from.
4. Don’t favor one speaker over another – promote them all evenly.
5. Put together a committee for your event so you aren’t trying to do it all yourself. This causes burnout!

In any case, I learned a lot from the experience and have the pleasure of speaking at a few other well promoted, well attended events this year.  In those cases, I gladly promoted the events for two reasons… (1) They made it super simple and (2) they didn’t request that I do it — they left it up to us.  Golden rule is that people don’t like to be forced into doing things – they prefer to have the option.

What about you?  Ever experience anything similar in your own business or interactions with event coordinators?  What did you learn?

[tags]Events, conferences, promotion, marketing, successfully promoted speaking events, speakers, speak, speaking, promotional, Erin Blaskie[/tags]

If you watch American Idol at all, you’ll notice that one of the words Simon Cowell uses a lot is self-indulgent (I suppose that might be two words). He uses this word after a performer has chosen a song simply because he/she liked it and not because (a) anyone else would or (b) it was relevant and made sense.

This trend is not just found on the stages of American Idol.

In entrepreneur land, we see this all the time. People are adding service upon service upon service to showcase all of their expansive knowledge yet there is no consistency, congruency or cleanliness to it. It’s more like someone decided to wake up every day, forgetting the previous day’s ideas, and create more things that are similar yet maybe just slightly different.

Other times, we land on someone’s website only to be lost in the maze and confusion that is their site. Products? Store? Resources? Help for You? “Where do I go to just spend my money?” is probably what you will find yourself saying out loud. A few minutes later, you’ll click that tiny red x or you’ll go back to Google and go elsewhere.

The thing is, everyone can change their gluttonous ways and change their websites… It’s just that most people can’t stop doing what they are doing. The reason is usually because they are trying to throw everything at the wall and see what sticks. While I commend this approach (because it involves action), you need to do it in a way that still makes sense to your consumer.

So, how can you change your ways if you air on the side of gluttony and self-indulgence? Here are some ideas.

1. Less is Definitely More

Streamline, streamline, streamline. Don’t offer six masterminds. Offer one and bundle up what you were going to spread out over six. Also, you don’t need to offer every single ebook and audio program that you own as individual products. Group things together that make sense to be grouped and offer them as packages.

2. Be Careful With Buzz Terms

Mastermind, mentorship program, bootcamp, self-study, e-book, audio program, etc. These are all words we use to describe service offerings but BE CAREFUL here. You do not want to have a mastermind and a mentorship program that offer similar things but one to a group and one to a single person. Yes, the logic sounds great but imagine looking at someone’s website and seeing two things with the same name. Without doing research and WORK, I would never know what you were offering.

3. Only Offer Things That Make Sense & That Appeal to Your Audience

This is where a lot of people fail. The general consensus is that if you’ve created it, of course people will want it! Chances are though, if it’s not highly targeted to your audience, they won’t buy it. So, instead of focusing your time on creating sales pages, setting up products, etc. focus instead on the current products that are selling.

Do you remember the 80/20 rule? If we apply it here, 80% of your income will come from the top 20% of your products. Therefore, you don’t need to spend your time on the stuff that doesn’t sell. Take it down, streamline and make your bestsellers known!

If you are guilty of doing the above, you might want to consider getting outside help and an outside perspective on this. Sometimes we can’t see the forest for the trees and we just need to admit that and get help.

(Editor’s Note: If you are looking for help in this area, we are here! You can purchase a one-hour call with Erin where you’ll spend the time analyzing your current websites, your service offerings, etc. to see if you are leaving money on the table by either confusing your website visitors or not packaging services up properly. Click here to purchase a one hour call and we’ll get you scheduled right away!)

Would you like to use this article in your publication, on your blog or in some other fashion? You can so long as you include this bio with it:

Erin Blaskie is the owner of Business Services, ETC – A Global Internet Marketing & Implementation Firm. Her company helps businesses from around the world take their practice online and create huge success using various internet marketing tactics. Erin herself has been featured in three print books (”Becoming an Online Business Manager” by Tina Forsyth, “My So-Called Freelance Life” by Michelle Goodman, and “The Official AWE Emerging Trends Guide 2009” compiled by the Association of Web Entrepreneurs), honored as Office Arrow’s 2008 Runner-Up Business Woman of the Year, interviewed by countless gurus and media personalities (John Jantsch of Duct Tape Marketing, Sheri McConnell, Stacy Karacostas, Gina McNew) and featured in major news publications (ABCNews.com, Ottawa Citizen and Employment Journal).

[tags]Gluttony, self-indulgence, self-indulgent, entrepreneur, entrepreneurial, small business, solopreneur, marketing, internet marketing, service offerings, choices, Erin Blaskie, BSETC[/tags]