Written on June 4, 2009 by admin
Having a guest on a teleseminar is a great way to build your database as you can both cross-promote the event to your lists. Sounds simple to set up, “Oh I’ll just make a quick call, confirm and we’re off to the races,” but there are several things that need to happen in the background to ensure a successful call - all tasks a quality virtual assistant can handle.
Have your VA either call or send out an initial query email to your prospective guest or if you make the initial invite yourself, you can sit back while your VA takes care of the rest.
Your VA will:
1. Send out a follow-up email with information about the date and time of the call, topic, request the guest’s photo, bio and brief blurb on the topic they’ll be speaking on, as well as any questions they might want you to ask during the call.
2. Follow up in three days if the guest has not replied.
3. Create or update your teleseminar page and send the link to the guest so they can proof it in case there are any changes needed. This is the link your guest will send out to their email list to cross-promote the call.
4. Monitor registrations, send out broadcast reminders of the event. Also send out any handouts if applicable.
5. A week before the event, send the guest a reminder email with the date and time as well as the call-in information. Request that the guest arrive 5 minutes early for the call.
6. Two days before the event, send the above email again, asking if there are any questions or anything else the guest needs.
7. On the day of the teleseminar, your VA will send you an email with the call-in details, including your host PIN code, recording instructions and ask you if you need anything else. (Hint: If you’ve not yet held a teleseminar that will be recorded, it’s a good idea to practice. Have your VA call into the line and you can talk for a few minutes while you record just so you have the system down pat.)
8. After the event, your VA will send a thank you email to your guest and send out any follow-up email broadcasts to your participants (pre- and post-event emails can be set up in your shopping cart system ahead of time).
As with any marketing initiative, you’ll want to do some advance planning on when to start sending out the word about your upcoming teleseminar. Start at least four weeks before the event. Ahead of that, you’ll already want to have your guest confirmed and your registration page up and running as well as your pre- and post-event emails queued).
As you can see, logistical planning is required to make everything run smoothly. There are always several “moving pieces” in carrying out a task like this, so the more lead time you can give your VA as well as your guest and your participants, the more chances you’ll have for a successful event!
Contributed by My Creative Assistant’s Senior Writer & Client Manager, Kathy Smith.
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Written on June 2, 2009 by admin
If you’re a coach, consultant, author, speaker, or Internet Marketer who is in email overwhelm, it’s time to have an assistant step in.
Daunted by the thought of someone else taking over this role? You’re not alone. Anxious your customers and prospects won’t be treated the way you treat them? By having a competent and well-trained virtual assistant on the job, you can relax, knowing all is being handled with care, and in your style.
There are two ways you can approach this. You can simply throw your assistant into the fire by handing over your email with a few instructions, but if you want get the best return on your investment as well as ensure your precious customer relationships are kept intact, here are some quick tips on how to make the process simple:
1. Give your VA a list of standard inquiries you normally get, along with your responses. This will help your assistant get a good sense of the tone and approach you use in your communications.
2. Let your VA shadow you as you answer incoming mail by blind copying them. Do this for a few days or even a week. This is a great way for your VA to see both the content and the volume of your email over time.
3. Next, have your VA take over your email and answer anything that’s straightforward, copying you, sending along questions to you for clarification. You can also be shadowing your VA at this stage, giving feedback as you go.
4. Finally, assuming all has gone well to this point, let your VA have full autonomy in answering your email, without having to copy you unless appropriate. Your VA will still have questions at times, but there is a natural evolutionary process, and in time you will receive less and less of them.
The whole process described above can be done in a week or 10 days. It’s up to you and your VA to see how things go. Stretch the time out a little more if there are a few tweaks still needed in the training process. Your VA can also build an email management systems manual based on the training they receive. This in-house document will be of great value to you, especially if you hire more VAs as you grow your business.
In the fast-paced world of Internet-based businesses, keeping in contact with clients and prospects is essential. Don’t make the mistake of cutting corners when training someone to handle your email. It will pay off more than just in time and money. Your VA becomes your ambassador, the front line person that can make or break relationships if not properly taught how to do the job.
Once your email management has been delegated, you’ll be released from an often onerous but a very critical task that literally speaks volumes about you and your business.
Contributed by My Creative Assistant’s Senior Writer & Client Manager, Kathy Smith.
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Written on May 28, 2009 by admin
One of the most popular ways to help you market your business and build a loyal following is by writing articles and posting them to online article directories.
Many coaches, authors, speakers, Internet marketers and other Internet entrepreneurs use this as a valuable marketing tool. The majority of directories are free and very easy to post to. Some of the most popular ones include:
www.ezinearticles.com
www.ideamarketers.com
www.articledashboard.com
www.selfgrowth.com
If you already have an ezine or blog on the go, then you’ve already got content ready to post, so the next step is to have your virtual assistant create a list of directories that are relevant to your vision of where you’d like your articles posted, and in what categories. Every article directory has different criteria for posting. For example, some directories have forms you can fill in that are organized by title, summary, keywords, article body and author’s resource box. Others let you copy and paste the entire article into one field. Still others allow text-only submissions, and others allow you to use basic HTML tags. As far as publishing turnaround, some sites will automatically publish your article right away, others may require a seven-day approval process. There are many variables, but a quality virtual assistant who knows their way around article submissions can have this project done pretty quickly.
In order to track your submissions, have your virtual assistant create a spreadsheet with the name of the site, its URL, the title of the article submitted, the date submitted, as well as the stats. Most article directories have stats listings. This is great information, as it lets you know what subject areas are getting the most hits so you can alter your material accordingly.
As well as article content, the most important part of your article submission is the author’s bio section. In it, you will have a brief bio of yourself, but also be sure to add a link to your website for more information and to sign up for your free offering. It’s amazing how much website traffic you can generate from doing this.
Besides increasing lead generation, posting articles can also get you known as an expert in your field. The more articles you can post about the theme of your business and all its offerings, useful tips, coaching options, etc., the more you’ll become known for what you do. And that can lead to invitations for you to be interviewed on a teleclass, speak at an event, enter into a joint venture, co-create products with partners and colleagues, and much, much more.
If you have great ideas but writing isn’t a skill in which you feel competent, engage a good copywriter who understands the article-writing process and the world of online article directories.
If you haven’t joined the article-writing bandwagon yet, that’s okay. It’s never too late to get started! By developing a plan of action with your virtual assistant (and copywriter), you can move fast to extend your presence on the Internet, bring traffic to your website, and welcome new clients!
Contributed by My Creative Assistant’s Senior Writer & Client Manager, Kathy Smith.
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Written on May 26, 2009 by admin
The whole focus of Internet marketing is to build your list and create a loyal following. In order to do that, you need to be in regular contact with your clients and prospects, and an autoresponder program helps make it happen.
Autoresponders are a feature of programs such as 1Shopping Cart (www.1shoppingcart.com), AWeber (www.aweber.com), and iContact (www.icontact.com). The benefit of using the autoresponder is that you can queue your emails to go out on specific days (with some programs, even at specific times) so that you can always plan ahead. For instance, if you are holding a teleclass on a certain date, you can easily accomplish your pre- and post-event communication using an autoresponder system. Your virtual assistant can set up the emails for the entire marketing cycle at one time, which is both time-efficient and cost-effective.
You can also decide if you want to send out HTML or text (or both) emails. For HTML emails, it’s a good idea to have your virtual assistant or web designer create them in an HTML editor-type program like DreamWeaver. Then, all they have to do is copy the code and place it in the HTML-selected option of the autoresponder. For text emails, it’s always good to ensure you keep the number of characters per line in mind. For example, it’s typically standard for text emails to be between 50 and 65 characters per line. A great program that’s very quick to use for this purpose is www.formatit.com. First, draft your email in Word, next, copy and paste the text into Format-It, choose the number of characters you want and click the submit button. Voila, your text is formatted. Simply copy and paste into your autoresponder program and queue the email.
Another benefit of using an autoresponnder system is that you can set up a series of emails that are dispatched at particular intervals. For example, your freebie give-away on your opt-in box is an audio series. Let’s say you want to send out each lesson every Monday. Your virtual assistant can set up all of the lessons at one time and set the intervals accordingly. Even after the audio series has ended, you can continue to connect with your registrants by sending check-in emails at other intervals.
Broadcast messages are another type of autoresponder frequently used. For example, if you hold a three-week group coaching teleseries, after each class, your virtual assistant can post the call recordings on a specific webpage for the group. Next, a broadcast message will be sent to the group letting them know the recording is available, as well as any reminders or other notes you want to give your participants.
In the game of Internet marketing, high touch is always the goal. You want to keep yourself top-of-mind with your clients and prospects in a business-appropriate manner and tone by following the “rules of constant contact”. Never drown your database with too much information, and similarly, don’t be a one-trick pony, only sending out your free report and never sending anything else again.
With autoreponder programs, you literally have mass marketing at your fingertips. With a competent virtual assistant at your side and a little advance planning, you can implement a host of marketing initiatives that include:
-teleclasses
-webinars
-free report
-free audio series
-affiliate programs
-product and service offerings
-newsletters
-membership programs
…and more
The best thing about autoresponders is they make the technical back-end system for staying in touch with your list amazingly effortless. While you’re busy holding a teleclass, your autoresponder system can simultaneously be sending out emails about the launch of a new product, following up with folks who attended your last in-person group coaching event, welcoming new affiliates, delivering your ezine, and confirming registrations for your membership program. Why wouldn’t you want to take advantage of a system like that?
All you need to add is a quality virtual assistant and you have the makings of every Internet marketer’s dream – a proverbial “hands-off” marketing operation that frees up your valuable time to keep designing more products, services and programs to tell your growing list about!
Contributed by My Creative Assistant’s Senior Writer & Client Manager, Kathy Smith.
Posted in Business Tools | Comment Now!
Written on May 22, 2009 by admin
One of the quickest and easiest ways for you to build your list is to have a place on your website where people can enter their name and email address and, in turn receive something of value for free. This is called the opt-in box.
Internet marketers, coaches, consultants and other web-based entrepreneurs use a wide variety of ways to capture the contact information of a site visitor. The most recognized and popular way is to display an opt-in box on each page of a website that typically delivers a “freebie” such as a free report or audio recording. The best place to put an opt-in box is on the top right-hand side of a website where the eye is naturally drawn.
In addition, landing pages are also used to gain the website visitor’s contact information before they enter a site or buy a product. The opt-in box is usually very clearly visible in the middle or the right-hand side of the page and is much larger and more prominent than it would appear on a typical website.
Copy on a landing page is generally brief and may explain the solution to a problem for the potential client, and also explains what will be dispatched to the visitor once they sign up (e.g. a freebie or something else of value). 
No other topic is included on the page, so the visitor will not be distracted by links going to other pages or by any other information that does not concern the subject at hand. Visitors have the option of bypassing the opt-in box. This is necessary otherwise people returning to the site, who already signed up for the free report, would be forced to do so every time.
Here is an example of a landing page designed for this purpose:
http://www.lighthouseorganizers.com
Similarly, you can use the same tactic for single-purpose, one-page websites. Most of these sites are geared to delivering a freebie for a special group of people in your target market. For instance, when you hold an in-person seminar or teleclass, you could create a particular website that has special give-aways for those participants.
Here’s an example. This page was created as a follow-up to an in-person seminar, and offers the group a free e-book download to the group.
http://www.lighthouseorganizers.com/business2009.html
Once you have people in your database, don’t forget your due diligence with follow-up marketing. Keep in touch with a newsletter, product and program announcements, informative tips and tools, etc. Remember not to oversell yourself. Devise a strategy for balancing the content you send so it’s not just about sales and ensure it also provides valuable information to your readers. Relationships (the know, like and trust factor) are the keys to healthy sales. Engage your list often to keep you top of mind while rewarding people for their loyalty.
My Creative Assistant can provide these services. We create opt-in boxes, single-purpose webpages, landing pages as well as setup and maintain shopping carts, and can help you develop products, give-aways and more! For more information, visit www.MyCreativeAssistant.com.
Contributed by My Creative Assistant’s Senior Writer & Client Manager, Kathy Smith.
Posted in Business Tools, Education, Marketing | Comment Now!
Written on May 20, 2009 by admin
Teleclasses are one of the most popular ways to engage with your potential clients and brand you as an expert. Not only do you have the opportunity to “get in front of people” in a live situation, but you also have the opportunity to build your list, sell your product or service, and create a following. Sounds good, right? But there are many pieces to put together in order to make it happen. You’ll need a good marketing and logistics plan in place to ensure everything runs like clockwork for you and your team. And you’ll also want to make sure you market to your list well ahead of time to give people enough notice to sign up, then engage them before and after the event so their experience of you and your business is smooth and well rounded.
Here are the most popular kinds of teleclasses. All will help in building your list.
1. Free teleclasses – typical topics include your service or product, or you might discuss information based on FAQs you receive from your website.
2. Paid teleclasses are more in-depth teleclasses, e.g. a 3-week teleclass series on how to market yourself using social media.
3. Ask-the-expert teleclasses. Interview an expert about their passion. You’ll both benefit from cross-promoting the class to your lists. Alternatively, be interviewed by someone else, and again, you benefit from not only cross-promotion but it’s a great segue into selling one of your products or programs.
4. Group teleclasses, for example information geared to membership programs, e.g. as part of the service you offer your members, they receive a once-a-month live teleclass with you.
If you’re new at giving teleclasses, here are the basic procedures necessary to help you put all the pieces into place.
The Client’s To-Dos
1. Decide on the title, date and time.
2. Decide if this will be a solo gig or if you’ll be interviewing a guest. Prepare a 50 to 55-minute presentation (leaving time for a plug for your product or program and field questions). Feel free to practice with a friend or colleague!
4. Always have an “upsell” in mind, e.g. a discount on a new product.
5. Decide in tandem with your VA where you want to market the class and start well ahead of when the seminar will be held. A good rule of thumb is at least four weeks. Marketing can include:
-sending a notice to your networks, e.g. clients, former clients, and via colleague’s lists where appropriate.
-listing the class on your social networks
-listing the class on free teleclass listing sites like teleclass.com.
-sending out a press release
-announcing it in your ezine and on your main website
6. Decide on the dates marketing autoresponders will go out.
VA To Dos
1. If there is no conference call system in place, your VA can sign up for any of the free ones like freeconferencecall.com – then send along the call information, e.g. call-in number, host PIN code, recording instructions, etc. It’s also a good idea to use a system called Audio Acrobat (www.audioacrobat.com) for all your class recordings. It’s very simple to use and makes it easy to post both MP3 recordings and live streaming audio for your recorded calls.
2. Create a landing page with sign-up form.
3. Create a thank you page.
4. Create a teleclass etiquette list and procedures for registrants to either be posted on the thank you page or be delivered via email.
5. Create autoresponders that:
-confirm registration
-remind registrants of the class
-a sequence of marketing autoresponders to remind people who haven’t registered (you and your VA should determine the intervals)
-after-class autoresponder telling registrants the recording is ready (generally posted on the thank you page).
6. The day before the class, send a checklist to the client with reminder of the host call-in information, number of registrants, etc.
7. Follow-up email a few days after the class with a note to ensure they got value from the class, acknowledge if they bought the product you upsold during the class, and ask if they have any questions.
(Your VA may attend the class if you feel you want them there.)
Oh, and lastly, if you struggle with writing the copy for the teleclass, registration page or autoresponders, have a good copywriter write the material for you.
Hold as many teleclasses as you can that work within your schedule. Try different topics to see what is most popular. Periodically ask your clients what they’d like to learn more about. The more services, products or programs you have, the more opportunities you’ll have to market those offerings by teleclasses. You’ll be building your list, gathering exposure, selling your products, and adding to you growing loyal clientele every time!
Contributed by My Creative Assistant’s Senior Writer & Client Manager, Kathy Smith.
Posted in Business Tools | Comment Now!
Written on May 12, 2009 by admin
It’s an issue faced by business owners worldwide — having to let go of, or “fire” a client. When I started my business, it’s not a situation I ever thought I would face, as I was happy to take on almost anyone that wanted to hire me. However, over time, my client scrutinizing skills became more acute, and I began to realize that not every client is a perfect client for me. In fact, more than 50% of the people I speak with are not a good fit for one reason or another. Just like Donald Trump in “The Apprentice”, sometimes you just have to say, “You’re fired!”
What happens to your business when you keep clients that are PITA (I’ll let you figure out that acronym) clients? All of your time and energy is drained in serving these clients, you lose any enthusiasm you ever had for your business, and you no longer have the time or desire to go out and market yourself and continue to fill your client roster. You become angry and resentful of the clients that are dragging you down and begin to question yourself about why you started a business in the first place.
Disengaging from a poor client choice can be painful, and often it’s not easy. However, given the alternative, letting go of that client is a healthy route to follow. I found a great quote on the topic of “letting go” by author Benjamin Shield in his book, Handbook for the Soul: “Letting go is one of the most difficult challenges human beings ever face. I’ve always pictured letting go as transformation moving from a closed fist to an open hand. As we take an open-handed attitude toward life, we can be free of the self-made obstructions that litter our path. This process requires a willingness to shed our persona–those inauthentic trappings we hold onto for identity but that no longer serve us. The choice to let go frees us to follow the pathway to our soul.”
I can very much relate to this quote — freeing yourself from a bad client choice does provide the pathway to follow your soul. Finding the perfect clients with whom you resonate will bring joy back into your life and business once again, thus putting you back in touch with your business and life vision and reconnecting to your soul. Life is too short to work with PITA clients. Check your client roster against these 7 signs — is it time for you to shake out your client roster?
1. You dread every phone call from the client. If you’re constantly ducking someone’s call because you find it painful or exhausting to speak with them, or the conversation invariably makes you angry or resentful, it’s time to take some action to remedy the situation. How much more would you enjoy your day-to-day client interactions if you looked forward to taking your client’s calls?
2. The client nitpicks every single expense and insists that tasks should take anyone else as long to do. I’ve had clients who “knew” I was shortchanging them and insisted that what I was doing for them wouldn’t take others in my field as long to complete, and I should adjust my bill accordingly. I’ve discovered that this lack of trust is about the client, not about me, and that I’m more than competent and skilled in what I do. Don’t let a “nitpicker” make you doubt yourself –there are other client fish in the sea.
3. Emergency requests are the only type of requests your client makes of you. No one likes to be under the gun, and trying to do something quickly and under pressure stifles all creativity and thoroughness. Some people are addicted to adrenaline and like to stay in the urgent all the time. However, living the urgent is a high-stress way to live your life, and the toll it takes on body and spirit is substantial. A better client choice is someone who adequately plans and prepares his time, so that emergencies are rare.
4. Lack of client follow-through prevents any progress from being made. Do you spend all of your time with a client in review of plans and what’s supposed to be done, yet seldom ever get to the point of completion so that you can move to the next stage? Nothing is more frustrating than a client who says she wants to achieve a certain result, but seems to be immobilized in the planning stage. Consequently, you spend all of your time with the client in review rather than in action. Perhaps you’re able to put on a “coaching” hat and help the client see the roadblocks she’s facing. However, if she’s unwilling to discuss what’s stopping her and your frustration level is growing at her lack of action, it’s probably time to cut her loose and let her go.
5. Your client loves to micromanage. Typically, when I’m hired by a client, they have a problem to solve and I offer the perfect solution to their problem. However, I’ve had clients who don’t let me solve their problem in the way that I think is best. They insist on having to approve every step along the way and must be involved in every single detail. In many cases, they are accustomed to having employees and erroneously believe that good management entails micromanaging each step an employee takes. A great client is someone who hires you to solve a problem and doesn’t really care how you resolve it — they are willing to give you the room and latitude to bring your experience to the table and help them resolve their issue.
6. Delegation is a skill completely foreign to your client. Most business owners know that in order to be successful in your business, you can’t do it all alone. A successful business owner has a great team to which she consistently delegates tasks that she doesn’t have the time to do, while she is out there looking for new business opportunities. If your client refuses to let go of anything and insists on doing the very things you were hired to do, your client hasn’t grasped the notion of “lost opportunity costs”. Sometimes it’s simply easier for a business owner to work “in” the business rather than “on” the business, as the latter usually means that you have to be in the marketing and sales mode — a mode that many business owners hate. A great client does what she does best and delegates the rest.
7. Money issues plague your client. Can your clients really afford to hire you? Sometimes they’re in a start-up phase, or they’re just experiencing a cash flow crunch. They obsess over your fee in every conversation that you have, and are usually slow to pay your invoices. The time and energy you spend in chasing their payment is very draining. A better client is one who understands your payment requirements and is easily able to afford and pay your fee.
I realize that it takes time and a visit to the “school of hard knocks” to finely tune your ability to choose clients that are a perfect fit for you. Take a look at your standards for running your business — perhaps to need to raise them so that you can make better client choices. And, the first standard to put into place is that you don’t work with any clients you don’t enjoy. Let go of those clients who are causing you pain, and new clients that are a better fit will show up in their place — guaranteed!
Online Business Resource Queen (TM) and Business Coach Donna Gunter helps service professionals learn how to automate their businesses, leverage their expertise on the Internet, and get more clients online. To sign up for more FREE tips like these and claim your FREE gift, TurboCharge Your Online Marketing Toolkit, visit her site at OnlineBizU.com. Ask Donna an Internet marketing question at AskDonnaGunter.com.
Posted in Business Tools, Clients | Comment Now!
Written on May 2, 2009 by admin
“No, I’m not ready to release my….(fill in the blank here with ezine, ecourse, ebook, blog, website, etc.) because it’s not quite ready. I need to…(fill in with your excuse here: do more work on it….have it edited….review the copywriting, etc.)”
How many times has a statement similar to that come out of your mouth? I know for me that it’s happened more often than I care to recount. I am a recovering perfectionist who used to utter some variation of the above sentence with great regularity.
What I’ve discovered in my time as an Internet entrepreneur is that my need for perfection in my products or marketing materials is simply another excuse to procrastinate. Yep, when I try and convince myself that the ebook needs more copy editing or that my website needs just a few more pages to make it say just what I want it to say, all I’m doing is creating plausible excuses to put something off for a few more days, or even weeks or months. Why? Because inaction is safe — you’re not putting yourself out there to the world to face possible criticism. The longer you excuse yourself from taking action, however, the more difficult it becomes to build a business and create the kind of life you want for yourself.
Don’t let yourself fall for your own fabricated excuses. Stop waiting for perfection. It’s never going to arrive. Better to release something that may not be perfect than to release nothing at all. How much money can you make on an ebook that no one knows about? Last time I checked, it wasn’t much!
Sure, you may fall under the scrutiny of other perfectionists in the Internet world who are gleefully waiting to tear you apart by pointing out your errors. Thank them for their constructive feedback, create a correction log, and let the criticism fall off of you like water off a duck’s back. In my experience, those critics who have the leisure time to point out the flaws of others really aren’t doing much with their own lives and businesses. That’s why they have the free time to correct the errors of others.
The whole notion of how perfectionism was holding me back was aptly illustrated at a Coachville conference I attended several years ago. The late Thomas Leonard, founder of Coachville, had brought up on stage a very successful Internet entrepreneur to speak to us about how he had found a great product to sell online and the process he used to uncover the hungry target market who would pay handsomely for the material he was selling. We were all given the 12-page handout of the long sales letter that was used to sell the product, and many of us were taking copious notes.
However, I noticed the guy next to me, an engineer, wasn’t taking notes. Instead it appeared he was going through the sales letter and was making grammatical and punctuation corrections. He disappeared during our next break, and when I returned to my seat afterwards, I discovered that he had returned as well, but seemed to be highly agitated.
Without waiting for an invitation, he proceeded to tell me what had happened over the break that had gotten him so upset. He showed me his copy of the sales letter and the corrections he had made and said that he’d gone up to the speaker during the break and offered to give him the corrections to the sales letter. The speaker took a look and told him, “No, thanks.”
The engineer couldn’t believe that this speaker wouldn’t take advantage of all the work that he (the engineer) had done to correct the sales copy. The engineer thought the speaker was being rather foolish and apparently told the speaker that he was being short-sighted not to take advantage of the offered corrections.
The speaker informed the engineer that the sales letter in question was making him $67,000 per month in sales and that he had no intention of “fixing” a good thing. Furthermore, the speaker explained that because he had worked so hard on crafting the wording of the sales letter and that the letter was bringing him so many sales that he’d be foolish to tinker with any portion of it.
Apparently the engineer left the conversation with the speaker in a huff and returned to his seat, still steaming, and still convinced that the speaker was making a grave mistake by not taking his copy editing advice. The engineer was so blinded by the need to be perfect and be right that he was blocking his path to online success. I bet today that he’s still tweaking his sales copy or his product and has yet to do anything with coaching business.
So, which do you want to be? The engineer with the grammatically correct sales letter that never sees the light of day, or the Internet entrepreneur making $67,000 per month off a product that has a sales letter with grammatical and punctuation mistakes?
Don’t let your need to be perfect hold you back any longer from taking the action you need to release your product or service to the world. In most cases, taking action, even though it might be a bit flawed, is always better than no action.
Online Business Resource Queen (TM) and Business Coach Donna Gunter helps service professionals learn how to automate their businesses, leverage their expertise on the Internet, and get more clients online. To sign up for more FREE tips like these and claim your FREE gift, TurboCharge Your Online Marketing Toolkit, visit her site at OnlineBizU.com. Ask Donna an Internet marketing question at AskDonnaGunter.com.
Posted in Business Tools | Comment Now!
Written on April 30, 2009 by admin
UncleSamsMoney
Did you know that the Federal Government and Private Grant Foundations issue billions of dollars in grant money each year? Many of these grants are specifically earmarked for women and minority businesses.
Grant programs are not Loans. The money is yours to keep and never needs to be repaid. This grant money is non-taxable and interest-free!
Grants are not an easy process. You must research and apply for each grant that you are interested in and qualify for. Honestly, the processs can be quite complicated and confusing.
UncleSamsMoney is an online web site that can help you in selecting and applying for grants. They offer a directory of grants, grant writing software and more.
If you’re a minority/woman business owner, don’t ignore grants that were created especially for you! While the process can be intimidating, receiving thousands of dollars to invest in your business can take you to the next level! Imagine purchasing a brand new lap top, software and office furniture for your office. You can also use that money in education to further your business, learn new skills or softwares, and so much more!
If you are not interested in using UncleSamsMoney to research grants, you can also manually research grants. Ask your local library for assistance.
Written by Anna Baron
Visit Anna’s Website.
Anna Baron is the owner of The Virtual Link, The Virtual Secretary, VAstartup, GeekGyrls, Virtual Assistant Blog and various other blogs and web sites. Anna’s expertise is Internet marketing and social media marketing. She is a real estate virtual assistant, virtual assistant to coaches and a virtual assitant to speakers. Anna is also a virtual assistant coach and mentor teaching others how to start a virtual assistant business.
