Last night I was interviewed on New Media Radio by Monique Terrell and Sam Weaver on the topic of: “Social Media and the Virtual Assistant.”

We had a great conversation around the virtual assistance industry and how social media has affected the industry both from a service standpoint and a user standpoint.  In the interview, I share my opinion on “social media assistants” and talk about incorporating these trendy new services into your business without pigeon-holing yourself.

You can listen in to the interview here.  I’ve also embedded the radio interview below.

This weekend and past week, I’ve had the unfortunate experience of dealing with a non-paying client.  Generally speaking, we collect pre-payment on all services and then keep detailed time logs of the work that is complete.  We allow our clients to have a period of time to look over the time logs and if they have anything they are unhappy with or wish to clarify, they can do so and we work with them to ensure that they are satisfied.

Every once in awhile, I’ll meet a client who is just awesome.  Or, at least it starts that way.  The client is happy, excited, we finish some really great work for him/her and over time, develop a relationship that seems like it’s going to last forever.  That is until the client runs out of money.  Now, we do our best to help our clients make money but we can only do so much.  For example, if we suggest that the price on their newest program is ridiculously high and they don’t adjust it, it is not our fault if they do not sell seats into that program.

So, this past weekend, I was dealing with someone who had obviously run out of money.  How do I know this?  Their eChecks have come back NSF (non-sufficient funds) at least three times and the time between invoice and payment was getting longer and longer.  Now, since we had entered into an awesome relationship, I had allowed them to pay-as-they-went.  Yes, I know.  Stupid mistake on my part in hindsight but this person seemed like a trustworthy person who had appreciated and loved the work we had done to date.

Here we were with two open invoices that were unpaid.  I had mentioned that after these invoices were paid up, the client would have to start doing pre-payment on all work since we couldn’t wait any length of time before getting paid.  I mean, that’s only fair right?  You do work, you boost someone else’s business and they pay for that work to be done.  Seems like a logical business transaction to me.  I was willing to work with this client to come up with a plan that worked for both of us if need be.

After mentioning that we would have to go to a pre-payment after she paid up on what she owed, she conveniently found a new team to work with.  Then, the finger pointing e-mails started.  Up until now, the client had been more than happy with the service.  However, when it came time to having to pay the bill, there were all of these things that we had apparently done wrong, things they weren’t happy with and “other clients” that they had referred who were also unhappy with the service.  (Side note: after checking with those “other clients”, it turns out they are more than happy.) The kicker was that in one of the e-mails, the line was used that I was “all about the money.”

This line has inspired this blog post.

Why do people think that asking for payment on work you’ve done is being “all about the money”? Of course I’m all about the money.  If I do 25 hours of work for you, I want to be paid for that work.  I don’t run a charity and I certainly need to eat.  However, I’m also about other things – being flexible, providing value to my clients, checking in to ensure that they are happy and listening to problems when they come up and working to fix them.

Being “all about the money” is not a bad thing in business – it’s a necessity. Wanting to be paid for work that has been performed is not a privilege I have to earn – it’s what should naturally occur in a business relationship.  Thinking that you can run a business and not focus on the money aspect is just silly.  Again, there are going to be other aspects of your business that are equally as important but YOU WOULD NOT HAVE A BUSINESS IF YOU DID NOT COLLECT REVENUE.

Entrepreneurs that don’t pay their bills or who haggle invoices or who discredit the work of the people who work alongside them need to grow up. Being in business is about creating fair transactions on both sides.  It’s not about trying to get things for free and it’s certainly not about dodging out of paying your invoices.  That’s just poor business practice.  Instead, these entrepreneurs should be paying their invoices with gratitude knowing that the support they are receiving, in whatever format it comes in, is awesome and helpful.

I’ve got some work to do to our own invoicing and billing allowances but if anything, this situation has taught me that I am totally okay being “all about the money” sometimes.  Otherwise, I wouldn’t have a business that could sustain my day-to-day life for any length of time.

What do you think?  Is being “all about the money” a bad thing in business (keeping in mind that there are still those other areas of importance I mentioned previously)?

Even though my business has grown to the level that it has, I still do all of the new, potential client calls.

Call me crazy and tell me there are better ways to spend my time but I continue to do these calls myself because I have an amazing red flag detection system.  I like to think it’s genetic but I really think it’s attributed to working with some very non-ideal clients in my past.  Having serviced over 300 entrepreneurs in their businesses, I can tell you… not all clients are good ones (sorry!)

One of my biggest red flags on any new call is what I like to call the baggage flag.

Better yet, let’s call it the bag tag… oh wait, that doesn’t sound appropriate… Baggage tag?  Nah, let’s just go back to baggage flag.

Imagine this… you’re me and you have a call scheduled with a potential new client who, on the onset, seems like a perfect match.  They have an online business, they are into the whole Internet marketing thing and they just seem to have it going on.  Exciting right?

So, you get on the phone with said person and they are all nice and pleasant and the call is going well until you turn their attention to what brought them to hire an implementation company.

New Potential Client:  “Oh, this isn’t my first time.”

You:  “Oh?”

New Potential Client:  “I’ve actually had quite a few VAs in the past couple of years.  However, they just didn’t seem to work out… I woke up one day and one of my virtual assistants had just disappeared… another one just wasn’t meeting my expectations… this other VA I hired, well let me tell you, didn’t… blah blah blah”

You:  “Sounds like you’ve had a lot of unfortunate experiences.”

From this point forward, the new potential client fills up their entire booked time with me discussing previous VA experiences and asking me to prove how we’re not going to step into those same mistakes.  Next thing you know, the half hour is up and the entire time was spent focused on the past instead of on the present.

BAGGAGE FLAG!

Instead, new potential clients (if you’re reading this and the above sounds like you, note taking time!) should push a big, giant reset button before starting any new conversation or working relationship.  This will help you re-focus on what’s important.

It’s like any relationship.  Let’s say you have this boyfriend (or girlfriend) who is really unromantic.  Never buys you flowers, never surprises you with chocolates and never takes you out.  Now let’s say you’ve met Joe/Joanne.  Do you spend your first date explaining how your previous relationships failed and grill them about how they are going to be different?  No.  You don’t do that because you’ll cause your new date to go running for the first exit.

Same principle applies with business.

If a new potential client spends all of their time talking to me about how previous relationships didn’t work and they stay so focused on how we’re not going to screw up too, they are going to miss out on our excellence.  They’ll miss out on my award-winning (okay, so that’s stretching it) pitch about what I’ve built and how our team is so different than other VA companies.  They’ll miss the fact that we don’t even really call ourselves VAs but rather creative professionals.

Most importantly, they’re missing the present moment.

Do you have your own red flags when speaking to potential clients?  If so, what are they?

What are your thoughts? Leave them as comments below.

I was having a conversation today with one of my team members, Jeff, about the reluctance we sometimes see in people wanting to give free content away.  Some schools of thought are that you should charge for everything and not let anything go for free.  I have one thing to start this conversation off with:

If giving away content for free will cause your knowledge well to run dry… you may want to re-think the business you are in.

You should be in a business where you can create content like nobody’s business.  You should be a never-ending resource or supply of information in your area of expertise.  If you don’t feel this way, it means that you may not be stretching yourself far enough, researching your industry enough OR (and here’s the BIGGIE) listening to your customers.

So, that is the first part…  Understanding that you need to go outside of yourself to create fabulous content and stretch the creative mind and the listening mind.

Here is the second part…

Nobody will buy from you if they haven’t experienced you in some form or another.

You need to allow your prospective customers the chance to sample your information, expertise and build up that know, like and trust factor.  If you hoard all of your information to yourself and slap price tags on everything, people aren’t going to buy your products.  They want to experience the product, the service, the program, etc. to make sure it’s a good fit for them.  So, give TONS away!

Think about free trials at Costco. I was there last night and had THE best spinach dip there.  Now, if it wasn’t so fattening (I’m training for a 5K race at the moment), I would’ve bought it but I never would’ve thought about it if I hadn’t had the sample.  Walking through the aisles I also tried these delicious mini pizzas.  Again, not what I want to eat right now but STILL – I hadn’t heard of the brand or considered buying them before.

Don’t give away the same garbage that everyone else does.

Browse around a few websites and you’ll see that a lot of people give away the same types of freebies.  E-books that are simply upsells into the *REAL* information.  Instead, give away a really solid product that someone can use to solve a problem they are having.  Then, the person feels like you’ve actually helped them.  When they encounter a similar problem in future, they’ll remember how you helped.

Customers are smart. They’ll see fluff for fluff and quality for quality.  Let them try everything to see if they like it and you’ll convert many more sales.

Question for you: what is your favorite way to give away content?

(If you want any of our free content, see the Downloads section on our Support Site — not even an opt-in required!)

I imagine a lot of people would have this if they could. Thanks to Warren Whitlock who posted this link on Facebook!

PostClick from Christopher F. Smith on Vimeo.

[tags]Social media, vlogger, vlog, vlogging, blog, blogging, blogger, social networking, assistant, personal assistant, virtual assistant, Erin Blaskie, Warren Whitlock, Facebook[/tags]

I’m really excited to be one of the speakers at the upcoming Metromom Online Success Telesummit. I’m one of 18 experts giving information on how to maximize your time and energy with knock-out internet marketing strategies.

My talk is about: Virtual Assistants: Delegate For Greater Success

I will share the following tips:

• Learn how hiring a VA saves you money
• Discover what kind of tasks your VA should be doing
• What you need to do BEFORE hiring a VA
• How to find a great VA
• Learn how much delegating tasks will cost you

This is a virtual event that takes place on May 1st and 2nd. And the best part is that it’s f.r.e.e! You can go to this page to learn more about it and watch a great video by MetroMom Founder, Kim DeYoung

Ps – Here’s a quick audio message about the specifics of my talk.

[tags]Metromom Online Success Telesummit, mompreneur, Kim DeYoung, MetroMom, virtual assistant, virtual assistants, virtual assistance, delegate, outsource, delegation, outsourcing[/tags]

Today marks the BIG day for our free teleseminar where we’re going to introduce the new business and what our BIG plans are for 2009. It seems like a lot of people are doing this… We’re really moving into who we are truly meant to be and to see everyone doing it is glorious!

One of the things I’ve been joking (partially?) with my clients about is that on January 1, 2009, the virtual assistant part of my died. I am going to admit it… I did not make the world’s greatest VA. Funny that it took me four years of running my VA business and teaching others to create VA businesses before realizing that it just wasn’t my calling.

So… why is that? Well, a few things. First – I’m a born entrepreneur. I revel in the big picture, the results, working inside of your passion and exceeding set goals. Second – doing “tasks” is not my specialized skill set. Sure, I could do all of the “tasks” that a VA was required to do but when it came to just staying in that one place, I couldn’t. I was always off doing other things too which distracted me from being just a VA.

Now that I’ve stepped into this new me, I realize that being an Internet Marketing Strategist IS my forte. The best part is that our company can still offer virtual assistance but in the form of implementation – the follow through to carefully thought out plans. It’s just that I don’t need to be doing it… My talented team can (and they do an even better job than I ever could have!) There were many holes that existed in my previous work with clients and now that I can see them, it’s allowed me to adjust accordingly.

No one was being served properly when we mashed together – both parties having different expectations and both expectations falling short. The client didn’t know where to start, we didn’t know their businesses well enough (and soon enough) and the frustration would set in. Being a big picture thinker and loving when goals are set to work toward, I changed all of that for 2009.

Instead of just “doing”, now we’re doing what we’ve naturally done for quite some time… We’re now planning, following through and then measuring results.

Come to our free teleseminar to learn more. Just click here to register. If it’s past the date of the teleseminar when you are reading this, click through and register anyway – you’ll get a copy of the recording and can hear about all of the exciting things we’re doing in 2009 and beyond!

You can also learn more about our company by watching our video here:

[tags]Erin Blaskie, internet marketing, internet marketing strategy, internet marketing implementation, marketing strategy, virtual assistant, virtual assistance, BSETC[/tags]