Date: 27 January 2009

Click here to find out more and register today! Limited seats

You need to think about the goals you have for your newsletter AND your business. Are you likely to add a shopping cart to your website if you don’t have one already? Will you be promoting an Affiliate program so others can sell your products/services for you? Do you need to use autoresponders?

You may be tempted to think “I don’t need to think about that now, I’ll think about it when the time comes..” but I’m going to burst that bubble of yours. You need to think about it now because if you don’t, you may have issues that could have easily been avoided. If you don’t ever intend to integrate a shopping cart into your website then this too changes what system you should/could/possibly use.

The basics of any system is that you have your subscribers who sign up through your website or some other means, this information is sent to the e-newsletter system, the user is sent the “please click here to confirm” email and then the user is added. Simple right?

Well what happens when you have 100, 1000, or 10,000 users and you would like to integrate your cart with your e-newsletter? How are you going to move those users without losing a great deal of them? What if you want to set up an Affiliate program? How can you email all these people without doubling up or missing groups of subscribers. When you move your database your subscribers will need to re-opt in. This is where you’ll lose subscribers that have been previously happy to receive your newsletters. Selecting a service based on your current and future needs is imperative to maintaining your e-newsletter database and your return on the investment.

You will also need to think about your budget and what you’d like to pay for a service. There are some services out there that will allow you to upgrade your account as you need to or to only pay for the contacts you have. Either way it needs to be affordable and provide a return on the investment.

What about a template? We all know that your e-newsletter falls under your branding identity but not all systems allow you to import your own template or make it difficult to add your content, edit and format.

Still have that coffee? Good because here is the good news. There ARE e-newsletter systems out there that can do all this and more. You just need to take into account your own situation and how the potential system will assist you. The goal is to automate the e-newsletter as much as possible and if a potential system can do this, then good for you! If you don’t need all the bells and whistles, then good for you too!

As a Virtual Assistant who works with a variety of businesses and industries I often don’t get a choice and must use what the client tells me to use and that’s ok. That’s their choice. But YOUR choice needs to be informed and growth enabled.

Some services you should take a look at:

• 1Shoppingcart.com (This is my affiliate link!)
• Campaign Monitor
• Aweber
• Constant Contact

While each of these (and there are many many more out there - do a google!) have pros and cons to their use, only 1ShoppingCart.com allows you to manage your shopping cart, e-newsletters, autoresponders and affiliate program within the one system. It’s also the system we use here at Tilda Virtual Services and the one majority of my clients use too.

If you’d like assistance in selecting a system that is right for you, contact me.

Once you do find your perfect e-newsletter system, dive in, learn how to use it and remember to have fun! Code is only scary if you don’t play with it

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year from Kylie, Lincoln, Deirdre and the team at Tilda Virtual Services.

The office will be closed Friday 19th December 2008 and will reopen Monday 5th January 2009.

Thank you for all your support and we look forward to working with everyone in 2009!

If you’re looking for a Virtual Assistant then I highly recommend visiting www.asecretary.com fill in the request for proposal form and Kathie will help you to find someone.

It stuns me that I have reached this point in my business so quickly but to provide quality support to my current clients, I can no longer take on new clients. That’s how the dice rolls and I’m ok with that

While I’ve used a few now, the shopping cart system that stands out in my mind is 1ShoppingCart.com

This shopping cart system allows you to sign up for a fully functioning trial and as your business grows, it grows with you. All you do is upgrade your package as you need to.

It truely is a state of the art fully functional online marketing system.

Check it out today!

Customising invoices is something a lot of small business owners neglect to do, not realising the opportunity for what it is. Customised invoices are an excellent opportunity to brand your business. Just as you would have brand consistency between your business cards, letterheads, marketing materials, website and more, you also need to brand your invoices.

As a bookkeeper and small business owner, it has gotten to the point where I can tell you exactly what software that business is using to maintain their books. For me, I find this sad and boring too. Why not take the time to add your logo? Why not take the time to add your website details? Why not take the time to get rid of that ugly Times New Roman font and use the font from your logo or the style guide for your business?

Lets think about the purpose of an invoice. It’s to ensure you get paid promptly and on time. If your invoice stands out from the others and is easily recognisable, it stands to reason that you will be paid more promptly. I have a client who has designed her invoices to look like a utility bill. The idea behind her reasoning is that if it looks like a bill it will be paid more promptly to ensure services are not disconnected.

To customise your invoices you simply do the following:

MYOB
•    Click on Sales and then Print/Email Invoices
•    Click on Advance Filters and then on Customise
•    You can now edit the invoice and save with a new name

QuickBooks
•    Click on Lists and then templates
•    High light the form you wish to customise and then right click and edit
•    Make your changes and save

The bonus with each software package is that you can have multiple invoice templates for the same business. For example, Tilda Virtual Services is a sole trader. But I also own Tilda Hosting. I have a separate website, branding and domain for hosting to the virtual assistance website. For income tax purposes, my accountant will lump all my income together regardless of which trading name earned it and for that reason I also decided to keep the records for both in the same data-file in QuickBooks. Through using two invoicing templates and classes (talking about classes is a discussion for another day…) I’ve managed to cut down my bookkeeping time and have everything together for the accountant.

So think about your invoices and how they represent your business. Can they be modified to suit the brand you’ve built for your business or do they need a total makeover?

First published in the Business Mums Network Magazine. Click here for more details!

‘So people actually work from home huh’ was the response from my husband. And with his support I started my research.

Ask any newbie and they’ll tell you, ours is one of the most giving and nurturing industries out there in Internet land. Especially considering what normally happens when you have women working together (lots and lots of nastiness and/or competitiveness). I was so humbled to see veteran VAs sharing their knowledge and supporting the newbie’s in their quest to start their own businesses. For me, it was the deal clincher. I too wanted to be a Virtual Assistant when I grew up.

So with two young children and a newborn, my plan was to grow and market my business slowly but Internet land had other ideas for me. I soon became so busy that I decided to become a Multi-VA, started to build my team and I won the Janet Jordan Achievement Award for 2008. So why am I telling you all this? Well as a Virtual Assistant who lives in Australia and has no plans on moving countries, I had to interpret the information my poor brain had to assimilate. I had to ‘Aussiefy’ it. (Sorry to all the writers reading this – I made up my own word there)

Kylie’s tips for International VAs:

• Be aware that the rules and regulations are different between countries, states and local government areas. A lot of the advice on starting a business, registering a domain name didn’t apply to me because of where I lived. I still had to go out and research where to start on my own.
• Join forums in your own country as well as overseas. Who knows, maybe there is a get-together in your area that you are missing out on.
• Be aware of the differences in spelling, grammar and the meaning of words. For a long time there I was really careful about how and what I said in the webinars I attended. I wanted the communication channel to be as clear as possible so that there couldn’t be any miscommunication. I don’t anymore and even teach those who want to learn, how to speak ‘Aussie’. Crikey!
• Work your time-zone to your advantage. I have a Project Manager who is quite literally my right arm. She is able to log remotely into my server and is administrator on most of my accounts. We usually have a Skype chat (can’t really call it a meeting because of the other things we talk about) each day around 10pm my time to do a recap of anything that came up and what I absolutely need her to do or delegate that day for me. I wake up and the work is in my inbox for quality checking and sending to the client.
• Don’t just glance over your Professional Indemnity insurance policy (Errors and Omissions Insurance). Read it thoroughly. My policy doesn’t cover me for clients located in the United States but it does for all other countries. To increase my cover I need to pay an additional $3,000 AUD. As I don’t have clients in the US, this currently isn’t a problem for me and so I haven’t paid the additional fee.

With all the information I have assimilated in the last two and a half years, my business has grown beyond my wildest expectations. Part of my business plan is to now give back to my industry so the upcoming newbie’s receive the support and knowledge that I did. And it never surprises me to find newbie VAs from Australia, unaware of the VA industry in their country.

The Internet has truly made our industry a global one where teams are made across continents; clients are served by VAs in different time zones and the industry continues to grow day by day.

First published in IVAACast - the official VA Newsletter of the International Virtual Assistants Association!

The newsletter is now called Techno Update - and it will be a monthly cheat sheet on the latest technology for online businesses trying to market their services or products. Topics will include VoIP, Content Management Systems, Customer Relationship Management Software, Setting up and promoting Teleseminars and much more.

Techno Update will give you all the information you’ll need to decide if using particular software or technology is going to help you to achieve your goals.

I kind of can’t help myself and read a LOT of ’stuff’ on the Internet and I thought what better way to market my business and my services than to share this knowledge with the rest of the world.

To subscribe you can click on the home page and subscribe in the form there on the right or you can send a blank email to kylie-349256@autocontactor.com

Why not drop me a line and tell me what it is you are looking for, but don’t know what you need?

This is what my office looks like now and it always makes me laugh to hear “oh so it’s like a real office” from visitors.

Looking in from the door

My desk!

If you would like more information, please fill in the form and tell me why you are the best person to join my team.

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