Tags |
|
|
Links |
|
|
Actual for You - Defining Your Niche as a Virtual Assistant
The IRS issued a warning on Wednesday against scammers who pose as private debt collectors looking for unpaid tax debts.The IRS has designed its new private debt collection program to minimize the risk of fraud, "because we know what it's like out there with regard to identity theft nowadays," said Brady Bennett, IRS director of collection.Critics of the new program, which assigns unpaid accounts to private collection agencies, say that consumers can easily be taken advantage of by fraudulent collection.The IRS plans to start assigning 12,500 accounts with unpaid tax debts to three private agencies starting next month. Approximately 40,000 accounts will be turned over to private agencies by the end of the year. These accounts are limited to taxpayers w
Okay, now that you’ve decided you want to niche tighter, you may be asking yourself how to go about choosing an industry.
A key factor in deciding on a specific industry is to spend a few hours assessing your own interests, work style, and personality characteristics. With at least an hour of uninterrupted time set aside for this specific task, use a blank sheet of paper and answer the foll
Structured personal injury settlements are the legal agreements between two different parties where one party pays over a specified time to the other one. These settlements generally occur in the case of any personal injury. An insurance company pays the injured party through annuity payments. This is done while releasing a defendant from liability. The insurance company and their affiliates guarantee payments in the structured settlements.Structured settlements are tax-free when they fund any personal physical injury claim. Structure settlements are also used for non-personal injury claims. There are various criteria that have to be met for the structured settlements, as far as they are relevant to your personal injury claim.If the loss amount is much more t
a. A situation or activity specially suited to a person's interests, abilities, or nature.
b. A special area of demand for a product or service.
Niching (tr.v.)
To place in a niche.
As a Virtual Assistant (VA), you know about filling a niche because you are already doing it by being a VA. You cater to the administrative, technical, creative, and financial needs of your clients by assisting them virtually. This itself is a niche.
If you’re like many entrepreneurs when first starting in business, you took every job that came along. You did it from a place of necessity. Even if you thought yours was the exception, no company can meet every need of every client throughout the life of a business. There is no doubt, however, that this approach serves us well in the beginning!
If you are an exceptional entrepreneur who has developed a reputation of excellence in everything you do, eventually you will need to make important decisions about the future of your company because you have more business than you are able to manage. What a dilemma! You are no longer in a place where you must accept work because it provides revenue. Your hard work has brought you to where you have the opportunity to pick-and-choose your clients from this point forward. What a thrill to redefine your growing business!
This is the perfect time not only to increase your fees, but also to decide on the specific industry or industries and type(s) of clients you most want to serve. This is known as niching.
By narrowing your focus, you:
• have the opportunity to work with people in the industry of your choice.
• have inside exposure to different aspects/news of the industry from the perspective/experience of your clients.
• can position yourself as the VA expert within your industry and use this to market your services, e.g. “We cater to the ____ industry and are the first and only ones to do so. We are best equipped to meet your needs because we know the industry from the inside out!”
• will have the passion and tenacity on those days when you question your sanity and wonder if you truly have what it takes to be a VA. You will be serving an industry you love and that will carry you to your next new client/task.
• keep your focus on those clients/markets that most interest you and will continue to interest you over the life of your business.
• are maintaining a concentrated marketing/advertising focus instead of diluting your efforts by trying to meet every need of every client in every field.
• increase your ability to get an hourly rate that is higher than a VA business with no niche focus. If you have insider knowledge of a specific industry, your expertise is more valuable and therefore, you can charge more for your services.
Initially, you may think that you risk losing business because you are niching yourself too narrowly. However, if your focus is catering to a specific industry and all your marketing efforts are placed there, you will soon reap the rewards of clients who come only from your chosen industry . . . an industry you love and want to cater to anyway! You will have more business than you’ll be able to manage and can soon raise your rates again!
Okay, now that you’ve decided you want to niche tighter, you may be asking yourself how to go about choosing an industry.
A key factor in deciding on a specific industry is to spend a few hours assessing your own interests, work style, and personality characteristics. With at least an hour of uninterrupted time set aside for this specific task, use a blank sheet of paper and answer the follo
Let’s face it. Starting a new business is no easy task. From legal considerations to financial planning, new business owners have a lot to worry about.One of the most important steps a new business owner must take, and perhaps one of the most overlooked, is choosing a company logo that is visually compelling and speaks the language of your business. Having a great company logo is the first step to successful business branding.If you are starting a new business, consider choosing a ready-made logo to save time and money, without sacrificing quality or design.Some advantages of choosing a ready-made logo:Choices: One of the best aspects of purchasing a ready-made logo is the amount of choices a new business owner has in terms of logo design.
If you are an exceptional entrepreneur who has developed a reputation of excellence in everything you do, eventually you will need to make important decisions about the future of your company because you have more business than you are able to manage. What a dilemma! You are no longer in a place where you must accept work because it provides revenue. Your hard work has brought you to where you have the opportunity to pick-and-choose your clients from this point forward. What a thrill to redefine your growing business!
This is the perfect time not only to increase your fees, but also to decide on the specific industry or industries and type(s) of clients you most want to serve. This is known as niching.
By narrowing your focus, you:
• have the opportunity to work with people in the industry of your choice.
• have inside exposure to different aspects/news of the industry from the perspective/experience of your clients.
• can position yourself as the VA expert within your industry and use this to market your services, e.g. “We cater to the ____ industry and are the first and only ones to do so. We are best equipped to meet your needs because we know the industry from the inside out!”
• will have the passion and tenacity on those days when you question your sanity and wonder if you truly have what it takes to be a VA. You will be serving an industry you love and that will carry you to your next new client/task.
• keep your focus on those clients/markets that most interest you and will continue to interest you over the life of your business.
• are maintaining a concentrated marketing/advertising focus instead of diluting your efforts by trying to meet every need of every client in every field.
• increase your ability to get an hourly rate that is higher than a VA business with no niche focus. If you have insider knowledge of a specific industry, your expertise is more valuable and therefore, you can charge more for your services.
Initially, you may think that you risk losing business because you are niching yourself too narrowly. However, if your focus is catering to a specific industry and all your marketing efforts are placed there, you will soon reap the rewards of clients who come only from your chosen industry . . . an industry you love and want to cater to anyway! You will have more business than you’ll be able to manage and can soon raise your rates again!
Okay, now that you’ve decided you want to niche tighter, you may be asking yourself how to go about choosing an industry.
A key factor in deciding on a specific industry is to spend a few hours assessing your own interests, work style, and personality characteristics. With at least an hour of uninterrupted time set aside for this specific task, use a blank sheet of paper and answer the foll
Once you have taken the decision to get a mortgage you need to be able to work out how much you can afford to pay.You can do this by performing a mortgage payment calculation. There are certain considerations when you calculate mortgage payment levels that suit you that you need to keep in mind: How much mortgage can I afford? What type of mortgage should I get? What kind of loan payment schedule suits me best?As always it is best to start at the beginning. How much mortgage can I afford: answering this question is easy - but you must be honest with yourself! Look at your earnings and savings and your expenses. How will these be affected by a mortgage? Some expenses like rent will disappear when you are a homeowner but a mortgage will bring other e
By narrowing your focus, you:
• have the opportunity to work with people in the industry of your choice.
• have inside exposure to different aspects/news of the industry from the perspective/experience of your clients.
• can position yourself as the VA expert within your industry and use this to market your services, e.g. “We cater to the ____ industry and are the first and only ones to do so. We are best equipped to meet your needs because we know the industry from the inside out!”
• will have the passion and tenacity on those days when you question your sanity and wonder if you truly have what it takes to be a VA. You will be serving an industry you love and that will carry you to your next new client/task.
• keep your focus on those clients/markets that most interest you and will continue to interest you over the life of your business.
• are maintaining a concentrated marketing/advertising focus instead of diluting your efforts by trying to meet every need of every client in every field.
• increase your ability to get an hourly rate that is higher than a VA business with no niche focus. If you have insider knowledge of a specific industry, your expertise is more valuable and therefore, you can charge more for your services.
Initially, you may think that you risk losing business because you are niching yourself too narrowly. However, if your focus is catering to a specific industry and all your marketing efforts are placed there, you will soon reap the rewards of clients who come only from your chosen industry . . . an industry you love and want to cater to anyway! You will have more business than you’ll be able to manage and can soon raise your rates again!
Okay, now that you’ve decided you want to niche tighter, you may be asking yourself how to go about choosing an industry.
A key factor in deciding on a specific industry is to spend a few hours assessing your own interests, work style, and personality characteristics. With at least an hour of uninterrupted time set aside for this specific task, use a blank sheet of paper and answer the foll
It is very easy to find a site that is neat, professional-looking, and one that offers a free three-agency credit report and free credit report without a credit card.This scam is too good to be true. Usually the only catch is an upfront charge to the consumer of $7.95 or something similar for each disputed item on your report. I was on the verge of signing up, but got a sneaking suspicion that something wasn't right.Every other site I'd seen offered an Equifax report for free, and a three-agency report for around $35. How could they offer it for free, and How could anyone get a free credit report without a credit card?Skeptical, I researched the company and found multiple complaints. One of the prominent ones was a claim that they disputed every negati
• keep your focus on those clients/markets that most interest you and will continue to interest you over the life of your business.
• are maintaining a concentrated marketing/advertising focus instead of diluting your efforts by trying to meet every need of every client in every field.
• increase your ability to get an hourly rate that is higher than a VA business with no niche focus. If you have insider knowledge of a specific industry, your expertise is more valuable and therefore, you can charge more for your services.
Initially, you may think that you risk losing business because you are niching yourself too narrowly. However, if your focus is catering to a specific industry and all your marketing efforts are placed there, you will soon reap the rewards of clients who come only from your chosen industry . . . an industry you love and want to cater to anyway! You will have more business than you’ll be able to manage and can soon raise your rates again!
Okay, now that you’ve decided you want to niche tighter, you may be asking yourself how to go about choosing an industry.
A key factor in deciding on a specific industry is to spend a few hours assessing your own interests, work style, and personality characteristics. With at least an hour of uninterrupted time set aside for this specific task, use a blank sheet of paper and answer the foll
If you are looking for a really easy way to make money on the Internet, then you should consider online paid surveys. It is not hard to do, it's fast to start up and it's easy to get paid for online surveys.The reasons that survey makers pay cash to people for taking surveys are: First, because they need a large data base of people of both sexes, all ages, from all walks of life to be able to meet the demographic needs of the market researchers. (One survey might be about hair curlers and aimed only at women, another might be about moustache wax and be aimed only at men). Second, because they want fast response to their questionnaires. It's hard to get volunteers to hustle!To get involved and start getting invitations to take surveys you need to choose a go
Okay, now that you’ve decided you want to niche tighter, you may be asking yourself how to go about choosing an industry.
A key factor in deciding on a specific industry is to spend a few hours assessing your own interests, work style, and personality characteristics. With at least an hour of uninterrupted time set aside for this specific task, use a blank sheet of paper and answer the following questions:
1. What are my hobbies?
2. What are other areas of interest that are not yet hobbies? What passions have I not had the time to explore?
3. Which existing clients bring me the most joy? Why? In which industries do they work?
4. What are the work and personality characteristics of my ideal client?
In answering these questions thoughtfully, you will begin to see patterns emerge. These patterns will offer clues about which industries to further investigate as possible options for your new focus.
Now that you are thinking more about focused niching, it is a perfect time to go through your list of services and cut out the ones that:
• you don’t love
• aren’t lucrative
• aren’t requested often enough to warrant keeping them on your list of services
These points will move you closer to being in full alignment with providing the services that you most enjoy! You are creating a vacuum . . . an open space that will be filled with dream clients in your desired industry! How does that sound? Think about it. If your current circumstance is filled with an unfocused direction, clients coming in from fields that hold no interest for you, and old service offerings, it is your duty to yourself and the life of your business to draw in a situation that is a much better match.
Okay, so you have chosen your niche market, developed a new plan of how to market your VA services, cut out services that no longer play a part in your new direction, and it occurs to you to ask the question: What do I do with my existing clients who are not in the industry on which I have decided to focus?
Great question! By all means, keep them! They are one of the reasons you are in the place to be able to take this important step. And no doubt, they will continue to be excellent clients and make referrals based on your well-established relationship.
The primary focus is that NEW clients come from the industry you have decided is the best match for the person/business you are now.
In following these guidelines, you will find your work becoming more and more fulfilling because your efforts truly meet the needs of those who most interest you! Only with a narrowed market concentration, can you truly meet the specific needs of your clients.
Happy niching!
by Charlon Bobo, Muse works™ © 2005
HTTP = HTML link (for blogs, profiles,phorums):
<a href="http://www.actual4u.com/article/154615/actual4u-Defining-Your-Niche-as-a-Virtual-Assistant.html">Defining Your Niche as a Virtual Assistant</a>
BB link (for phorums):
[url=http://www.actual4u.com/article/154615/actual4u-Defining-Your-Niche-as-a-Virtual-Assistant.html]Defining Your Niche as a Virtual Assistant[/url]
Related Articles:
Conflict in Workplace Teams: 5 Ways to Capitalize on Healthy Conflict and Make Better Decisions
Mortgage Refinancing Using a Home Equity Loan
Internet Business Model For Selling A Single, Unique Product
Bookmark it:
|