2014: the Year of the Entrepreneur!

Time is really ticking by now and I'm starting to wind things down for this year.

I wanted to wish all of my lovely friends and followers a very Happy Christmas: I hope you use it well to relax with family and friends and recharge your batteries.

I'm not sure why but I'm very excited about 2014; I think it's going to be year when we see real growth in our economy after some pretty dire and dismal years since the Crash in 2008.  Thank goodness; we can all start to breathe a little now.

Elizabeth Assaf was visiting the Britsh Museum the other day where she attended a SME Summit hosted by The Times newspaper and Santander, the first summit of its kind which supports growing SMEs. 

In her article for the the Huffington Post a few days ago she spoke of Nick Wheeler, from Charles Tyrwhitt Shirts, who gave a very positive talk and urged businesses to forge ahead despite set-backs.  He ought to know; he lost £70,000 in his first year of business and went bust twice.  Despite this is now runs an incredibly successful business. 

Shaa Wasmund, founder of Smarta, believes that 2014 will see the rise and rise of VISUAL social media on platforms such as YouTube.  Personally I'm also thinking of Vimeo and those little Vine video clips I talked about a few months back in a blog post.

What was even more encouraging was that James Caan talked about 2014 as "a perfect opportunity to invest and grow". 

Although Sir Richard Branson wasn't in attendance at the Summit, he has nevertheless spoken of 2014 as being the "year of the entrepreneur" in a recent blog post on LinkedIn

Who am I to argue with the likes of Branson & Caan?

On that note I want to wish you all a very Happy Christmas and a fabulous start to the New Year.

We'll be back here on 2nd January 2014.

See you then! 

Nicky

New E-Zine for Small Businesses: Oxon & Berks

Did you start a new business this year?  Were you a freelancer or a solepreneur?  Did you find yourself searching the Internet looking for answers to a whole string of questions? 

I felt like this.  Some days I felt as though I'd taken myself off on a big fishing expedition only to net a Stickleback.

For this reason I've decided to start the New Year on a positive note by launching an e-zine for entrepreneurs and small business start-ups who are very much doing things on a shoestring budget.  I'm going to target the Berkshire & Oxfordshire regions initially and see where things take me. 

I have all sorts of ideas and plans, based upon what I felt I needed when I was starting up.  My aim is to provide you with one source of information where you can find links to HMRC for tax returns, VAT registration or what you can claim back as a small business.  I'd like to set out who offers an excellent but affordable web design service, the best networking groups relevant to your business in your area, articles to help you with social media & content marketing and lots more.

I shall be ringing up companies to see if I can talk them into giving me discounts for the things that matter to start-ups (you never know, it's worth a try!)

I'm also aiming to invite various 'gurus' to write regular articles or organise Google Hangouts on Air so that you can learn how to market your new business and reach out to your niche market, how to manage and optimise your social media profiles and how to start writing a business blog, for example.

For this I need your help!

Short Survey

If you live in Berkshire or Oxfordshire, you're considering starting up as an entrepreneur, freelancer, solepreneur, microbusiness, woman in business and you feel you'd benefit from a quarterly e-zine being sent directly into  your Inbox then please could I ask you to fill in a survey?

All research and work on the e-zine will remain entirely separate from my Virtuoso Assistant business and your emails will remain confidential and will not be used as part of any future marketing campaigns.


All you need to do now is click on the link below to complete the survey.  Thank you so much for your time.

"How to Blog like a Pro: Beginner's Guide"

Blogging really is becoming an essential key to any business; you need to consider starting one if you've not already done so

If you've not blogged before, don't be overwhelmed.  It really is quite easy if you bear in mind the following points:

1. Think about who you want to attract to your blog.  Who is your ideal follower? 
2. Once you've identified your niche market, ask yourself what they're likely to be looking for.  How can you be helpful to them?  What problems can you solve for them?
3. Don't blog to make money initially; concentrate on building up regular followers.

Once you've identified these key areas, I'd recommend that you do some background reading about blogging in general.  Have a look at online books or magazines and see what you can find. 

If there is only one book you read, I'd advise you to get your hands on a copy of Jeff Bullas, "Blogging the Smart Way". Personally I think he's the master blogger and his book will give you all sorts expert tips and advice.

Consider your Content

Don't write about subjects you're not familiar with as it will show.  Also, try not to write when you don't feel inspired.  I sometimes sit down to write a blog post but the ideas won't flow.   I was advised not to write on these occasions as my readers will recognise poor content when they see it and they'll start looking elsewhere.  However, try to be as consistent as you can and aim to post once or twice a week if you can to start with. 

Be passionate about your subject; it will shine through in your writing and will make your article so much more fluid and interesting.

Stephanie Frasco, from "Convert with Content", gave some very good advice when she said, "The best way to strengthen your personal brand is through a strong online presence backed by consistent blogging and social media ... blogging has been a key factor in growing my network and building my authority. With more authority comes more trust. And with more trust comes more clients. It's a simple equation".

Attention Grabbing Titles

Always try and think of a title that will grab your readers' attention and encourage them to read on.  If you don't they'll more than likely not read the rest of your post.  It's that important. 

Have a look at titles experienced bloggers use to introduce a subject.  Often you'll find variations of the same theme, such as, "10 Must-Read Tips to improve your Writing", "8 Days to Build a Money-Making Blog"; "How to ..."; "Tips about ..." etc. 

Social Sharing to Increase your Reach

Sharing your content on other social media platforms is really vital. There's really no point in writing a great article if nobody is going to see it so make sure you post your articles to as many social media platforms as you can, email them out to your clients if you have a good client list and have all the usual social media buttons available on your blog to encourage other people to read and share your content. 

Add a subscription widget to your blog and let people know that they can subscribe for regular updates, newsletters and any offers you may run.  This is an excellent way of capturing new clients and growing a client list. 

And don't forget, when you start out, blogging isn't just about you and your business; social media is all about getting 'sociable'.  So don't blog with pound or dollar signs in your eyes; don't be tempted to do the hard sell right from the beginning.  That will follow on naturally. 

Reach out to other bloggers, comment on their posts, answer questions for people on social media sites.  I'd really recommend that you build up a presence on Google+ and get sharing other people's content; they might reciprocate one day and start sharing your blog posts to people in their circles, so your followers will grow. 

Call to Action

Don't let your readers leave your blog without giving them some sort of instruction or "Call to Action".  Ask them to do something such as subscribe to your blog or newsletter, email you or schedule a telephone consultation.   When you become more experienced, ask your readers to sign up for a deal you're offering or a competition.  Make your CTAs really stand out so they can't be missed. If you have a look on HubSpot and subscribe to their own newsletter, they will often send you free images or CTA buttons you can put on your website.  When I started out I couldn't have done without these guys; they're wonderful. 

So, if I can help you any further please do get in touch with me at Virtuoso Assistant.  You can call me any time on 0118 328 3018 or email me at hello@virtuosoassistant.co.uk.

If there is a subject you would like advice about, please drop me a line in the Comments box below and I'll sort something out for you. 

If you've enjoyed reading my post please do give me a +1 in the box below and do share with your friends. 

Thanks!

4 Fabulous Time-Saving Apps for Small Business

Are you struggling to get everything done in a day?  Are your files in one place, your contacts in another and your invoices all over the place? 

Personally I'm always on the lookout for t for apps and software which will save me time and streamline all the essential jobs I have to do.  Happily I did a bit of research this weekend and wanted to share with you just a few of the best time-saving apps available for small businesses:

#1  Meetings for Management or HR Consultants

If you have a team of employees and you need to set up meetings, email your team, record accurate Minutes and so forth, I think you'll find the "Meetings App" incredibly useful.  It's had some very good reviews and seems to do an awful lot.

Here's what they say about themselves, "Write meeting minutes with ease, setup meeting agendas, manage action items, take attendance, set up reminders and quickly prepare meeting related emails ...  Everything is set up so that you can use the app with only basic set of features, or manage every aspect of running a meeting through it. Features get enabled only if you use them, otherwise they stay out of your way."

You can sync all your data with iCloud or DropBox so everything gets stored remotely and securely. 

The only obvious downside at the moment is that it's only available for Mac, iPad and iPhone users but most of us have at least one of these so it's fairly inclusive. 

The app costs £2.99 from the iTunes store.
URL: www.themeetingsapp.com

#2  Accounting

Do you dread dealing with your accounts?  If so, I think you'll find FreeAgent is probably one of the best online accounting apps available at the current time.  It's fantastic for small or home-based businesses and has some fabulous reviews.

I read some of the reviews and what people are mostly saying is that FreeAgent saves them a whole lot of time, which is what we want, and it's very user-friendly, which is always a big plus when it comes to accounting.  It also integrates with other financial apps and add-ons, such as PayPal, GoCardless, Google Apps, Quote Roller and lots more.  You'll need to read up about it on their website. 

There is a trial version available so you can test it out and see how you get on before your commit yourself to monthly fees, which range from £15.00 for a sole trader to £25.00 for a limited company.  I think that's very reasonable considering the pain and suffering they will save you!

You'll also find FreeAgent on Google+ where they provide you with even more help and assistance with Q&A sessions on Google Hangouts, for example.

#3  Customer Relationship Management 

Insightly is a fabulous app, which is available for laptops, iPad, Google Nexus, Amazon Kindle, iPhone and Android.  They consider themselves to be the "best customer and software management programme for small business". 

Here's what they say, "Insightly is a great tool to help small businesses deal with the vital task of managing your contacts, organisations, partners, vendors and suppliers."

Insightly integrates with email, Google Apps, Office and Mail Chimp.

It can search to see if a particular contact has social media profiles and will list every one.

Amazingly you can open a free account, which will allow up to 3 users and 2,500 contacts (very generous).  Paid accounts range from $29 per month - $99 dollars a month so they cater for the very small to the very large business.

There really is an awful lot it can do so I'd recommend that you click over to their website yourselves and have a look, or have a look at their Google+ profile for up-to-date information.

#4  Surveys

If your business involves having to send out client or product surveys, you might want to try Fluid Surveys.   You can create a professional looking survey in just minutes (always a bonus) using their 'drag & drop' editor.  I can see from their website that BMW and Coca Cola are listed as some of their clients so that's quite an endorsement.

Users are provided with a good choice of templates, a selection of themes so you can personalise the appearance of your survey.  There is also a bank of questions available which you might want to consider.  It really is very simple. 

Results can be read and analysed within minutes; reports are produced using attractive graphs and charts.

Again, there is a free version to use which is slightly limited but will suit a small business very well.  At the current time Fluid Surveys are offering a 25% discount on their Pro and Ultra packages for the entire year.  As always, click over to their website for full details.

These are just some of the apps which I felt were worth mentioning.  I mentioned a few others in a blog post a little while ago, such as Harvest (my personal favourite as a virtual assistant when it comes to really accurate time recording). 

I hope you found this post helpful - I'll be sending out a survey shortly!

As always please do add a +1 in the box below to show your support and feel free to share this information with your friends.

Thanks!

Are you Killing your Website and Driving Away Business Leads?

Is your website driving away business leads by poor design and bad implementation of social media? 

We may think that we all have fabulous websites but, in fact, if you try and look at your own as objectively as you can, you may find that you need to make some tweaks here and there.

Optimise your Website

I thought I'd share this presentation with you this morning as it's incredibly informative (unsurprisingly as it's from HubSpot!)

It's also a great example of just how you can use VISUAL social media to engage more with your followers and how effective images can be in getting a message across.

So I hope you enjoy the Slideshare presentation.  If so, please feel free to share with your friends and, if possible, please leave a little +1 in the box below.

Thanks!


10 Lethal Reasons Most Websites Fail from HubSpot All-in-one Marketing Software

3 Super-Deals for December!

At Virtuoso Assistant we're celebrating the start of December (which also coincides with Cyber Monday and the run-up to Small Business Saturday UK on 7th December) with the launch of 3 discounted retainer packages

Retainer packages give you the chance to hire one of our virtual assistants at discounted prices; your assistant will be available to support you at the drop of a hat.  Buying a retainer also allows you to budget in advance and plan exactly what you want to outsource.

Choose from the table below and simply click on the link at the end of this article to submit your details and the choice of package.

To kick off the New Year on a positive footing we're also extending our discounted retainers through until 31st January 2014.

Each retainer is valid for one month and are as follows:-

BUCKS FIZZ £200.00	CHARDONNAY £300.00	CHAMPAGNE £400.00
10 hours’ virtual assistance	15 hours’ virtual assistance	20 hours’ virtual assistance
1 update | posts on a social media platform of your choice	3 updates | posts on social media platforms	5 updates | posts on social media platforms
	Email management	Email & diary management
		FREE scheduled Christmas email to your clients with Mail Chimp (using your business logo/design)
		10% off a bundle of 10-hours’ work with Virtuoso Assistant for 2014

So all you need to do is click on the link which will take you to our booking form!