There’s a lot we can learn from consumer spending habits this time of year. Did you notice how many emails you received about “Black Friday” and “Cyber Monday” offers? Retailers are stocking their shelves, running special deals; truly they are doing all that they can to attract more customers to buy their goods. Yes, retailers are moving full speed ahead in order to increase their business.

Many other types of businesses, however, do not maintain the ‘retail mentality.’ Especially serviced based businesses like Virtual Assistance. They may tend to think, “oh well, this is a slow time of year. We will pick back up in January.”

Please tell me that you are doing all that you can to develop the ‘retail mentality’. You should be “stocking your shelves” and “doing all that you can to attract more customers.”

How can you, though, move full speed ahead and ramp up business so that you hit the ground running come January 1st?

Here are 4 action steps for boosting your business NOW instead of later.

1. Create Your Money Map for 2012: If you want a clear path on how to create more success, more profits and more freedom in your business, I invite you to join me for a two-part LIVE webinar course on how to create a marketing masterpiece. Click here to get access to your best year ever. Even if you choose not to join our profit-boosting program, please make sure that you make plans for how you will conduct your marketing program.

2. Set SPECIFIC Goals: How well did you do with accomplishing your goals for 2011? I certainly hope that you reached them all. If you have, that is a sign of good planning. And you should set new goals for yourself, stretching a bit beyond what’s possible. If you didn’t quite achieve all that you set out to, use where you are now as a starting point for what you can achieve in 2012.
3. Strategize: Setting goals is one thing. Charting the course to accomplishing them is quite another. Can you imagine saying that you wanted to lose 45 pounds, but then choosing not to exercise or change your eating habits? That wouldn’t make sense. The same principle applies to your business. If you don’t set goals and outline how to accomplish them, you won’t find the success you’re looking for.
4. Implement: THIS is the MOST important step. Take an honest look at your business. Are things going the way that you would like? If not, are you doing everything within your power to make good things happen? If not, you can choose to change that. Starting…NOW! Commit to taking the necessary action. It doesn’t have to be perfect. You just have to be consistent.

It is my greatest hope that you succeed in developing a successful virtual assistant business. Don’t slow down right now! This is the time to go all out and boost your business. I would be happy to help you do that. Be sure to develop and maintain the ‘retail mentality’ through the end of the year so that you will have a strong start in 2012.

You have decided to start your own business as a Virtual Assistant. Awesome! So, you set up shop, started marketing your solutions and enroll your first few clients. Excellent!

As you start working with clients, you may find that some of them think that a Virtual Assistant is tantamount to "employee". How did they come to feel that way? How do you feel about being an employee even though you are a business owner? What do you need to do in order to correct such thinking?

This thinking promotes dis-ease. If you are uncomfortable because of feeling this way, rest assured that there is a cure. The cure however, must be targeted toward the root cause - YOU! Your clients will view your business the way that you view it. If you have not stepped away from the employee mentality, it will show up in every aspect of your business. And that mindset will permeate your client relationships and thus, how they treat you.

YOU - The Entrepreneur

YOU are a fabulous Assistant! You know it and I know it. When you were in the corporate world, you likely did not receive the full credit that you deserved. The compensation that the company thought suited you well was a pittance to say the least. You added value in the corporate world and you most certainly add value to your clients today.

When you start working with a new client, you should set the tone so that you both are clear on how you will work together. Expectations must be set as defined by you and the boundaries you have established for your company. (Of course, your client will have their own set of expectations. Making sure your work styles and expectations fit is part of the interview process.)  There are many aspects to consider but five key areas to outline are :

1. Your hours of operation
2. Payment terms
3. Expected deliverables
4. How the two of you will communicate
5. Expected turnaround times

In most situations, if a client relationship begins to crumble it is because there was a lack of clarity, miscommunication or mistake made in one of these areas.

If you set clear boundaries and expectations at the VERY beginning of your client relationships, you will avoid feelings of stress and frustration in your business. Also important to remember is that once clear boundaries are established you MUST honor them. If you don't, your clients won't either, which will ultimately undermine your relationship with them.

By implementing the simple tips shared in this article, you will be respected as a business owner and thus acknowledged as a true partner with your clients. "Be" the entrepreneur that you desire. After all, that is why you started your own company.

This is the cure for the dis-ease of being viewed and treated like an employee. You are wonderful. You are strong. You are the entrepreneur with whom others want to partner. Don't ever let anyone (including yourself!) tell you differently.

Once you setup your business and start moving out of "start-up" mode, you'll want to turn your attention to "building" mode.  Yes, you WANT a long-term sustainable business. You BELIEVE you can create success for years to come.  Remember this quote: “There is something more important than believing; ACTION! The world is full of dreamers.  Those who are successful will move ahead and begin to take concrete steps to ACTUALIZE their vision” (- Unknown).

The first step in doing so is to define what success means for you.  You want to get to that place and stay there.  As an executive or admin assistant, you likely started out as a newbie in the corporate world. Over the years you found yourself going from supporting entry level personnel to C-Level executives.  In that world, supporting the highest level executives may have been considered by you as "Success Status".  You want to reach that same level, but this time it will be created by you in your own business.

Building your business and growing it to support the lifestyle you want is the whole point of becoming an entrepreneur. In order to build your business, you will need to do a few things very well:

• Market Consistently:  In our recent article on marketing, you learned how to reach out to your warm market.  That is the group of people who already know, like and trust you.  They are your family, friends and former colleagues.  Congratulations if you have received clients in this way! Now it is time to step up your marketing.  You need to know who your target market is and who your ideal client is.

Your target market is the industry or profession on which you focus your marketing efforts.  For instance, if you decided that you want to focus on working with fitness professionals.  That would be your target market. Now you can focus all of your marketing attention on that specific group.  You can easily find networking events where fitness professionals spend time.  They will be at conferences that you can attend.  Your marketing collateral will speak directly to this group.  It will help them to see that you are the expert who can help them to solve their specific problems.

Your ideal client is the one type of person in that target market that you are best suited to work with.  This person has traits that inspire you to do your best work. Being clear on your ideal client will assist you in ALL of the marketing that you do going forward.  It will affect where you direct your speaking engagements, social media marketing, blog writing, networking and everything else.

Your marketing efforts will be focused, consistent and effective when you follow this sound piece of advice.

• Set Up Systems:  Installing systems in your business will allow you to dramatically build your business.  It will save you time, energy and resources.  Why?  It is because you will know exactly what steps to take when you perform any task in your business.  This includes billing and receiving payments, enrolling new clients, dumping less than ideal clients, working with sub-contractor VAs, managing business cards that you collect when networking, knowing what to say when following up with prospects, closing new deals and the list goes on and on.  All repetitive activity in your business deserves to have a system set up to make your life and that of your clients much more enjoyable.
• Upgrade Your Skill Set:  What got you HERE, won’t get you THERE.  No doubt you were a sharp corporate employee.  The skills you possessed are what allowed you to create your business in the first place.  Now that you are growing your business, your fee structure should be commensurate with your skill set and the solutions you offer to your clients.  When you worked as an EA, you likely had a yearly review. Your manager expressed to you whether you met the expectations for the position or not.  That meeting likely determined if you received a raise or not.

In your own business, you will need to keep growing in knowledge and skill.  One of your clients may want to sell products from their website.  One skill you may want to develop is setting up and managing a shopping cart.  Some of your clients may need help with managing the distribution of their weekly email newsletter.  Therefore, you will want to learn how to utilize a database such as iContact. Make it a priority to look at what services will make your client's lives easier and then invest in learning the necessary skills to offer those services so that you can increase your value (and your fees).

• Build Momentum: There are so many different services that you can provide as a Virtual Assistant.  That is why this industry is exploding with opportunity.  You have started your business and that is EXCELLENT. Great job!  Now is the time to turn up the heat and make your mark as an entrepreneur.  If you market your business consistently, set up systems and learn new skills, you will be poised for phenomenal growth.  All of this is based on what your level of Success Status means for you.  Set your course and shoot for the stars!

We cover these topics in depth in the Successful VA 2.0 Mentoring Program.  It is quite a hit with an excited, brand new group of 53 students. If you would like to join us, you still can, just visit www.SuccessfulVA.com  to secure your spot and get instant access to the program materials. We look forward to welcoming you!

What is your response to those first two questions?

Your response could very we be the determining factor as to how quickly and easily you accomplish your goal of becoming a successful VA.  Entrepreneurs are pioneers!  We are willing to travel in unchartered territory.  We blast through walls and fight against the odds.

This article is for the aspiring Successful Virtual Assistant.  Let me define the word “aspiring."  If you would like to start your own Virtual Assistance company, that is an aspiration.  If you are already a Virtual Assistant, but have not reached the success that you desire, that is an aspiration.

Might your mindset be holding you back? What type of conversations do you have with yourself?  Every person goes through the process of convincing herself of success or failure, victory or defeat.  The self-talk of some people will even tell them, “you don’t have to push too hard, we can coast right here in the middle."

Mindset for Success

To be successful as an entrepreneur, you need to train your mind to speak in a positive way.  When I started my company, I would not imagine anything but my version of success.  My success meant the following:

• Time freedom
• Financial freedom
• Working with ideal clients of my choice
• Going on vacations when I wanted to

There was nothing that could prevent me from reaching that goal and continuing that journey.  More than six years later, I’m still building the life of my dreams with two of my own companies.  When I was a child, my parents told my brother and me to expunge the word “CAN’T” from our vocabularies.  That lifelong lesson continues to serve me well.

What are you telling yourself? It is imperative that you analyze your internal conversations. That is the key to what is on your mind and how you feel about accomplishing your goals in life.  You must train your mind to believe that you can accomplish whatever it is that you WANT in life.  (In case you haven’t noticed by now, this topic is much bigger than running your own business – it’s about LIFE).

So, I ask again, do you want to build a successful Virtual Assistance company?  Do you have the fortitude to overcome all obstacles and trials?  If your answer is “YES”, then you are already on the right track.  But, remember that your resilience will be tested constantly.

I do not know what type of mindset you already possess. I do know, however, the mindset that you need to develop and maintain in order to start and grow a sustainable business.  You do not just want to “be in business”, but you want to THRIVE in business.  You want the type of business that will allow you to create the lifestyle that reflects your definition of success.

Remember the words of Henry Ford:

“Whether you think you CAN or you can’t, YOU ARE RIGHT!