Are you finding your business brain is foggin’ up? Are you sitting down at your office desk and wondering where do I start today? Do you ever stop to wonder if this brain foggin’ is directly

related to your business office space? Working from your home productively without interruptions is hard for many but its a major part of successfully working from home. Distractions like children, laundry, unexpected visits from friends during the day, twitter beeps or the phone ringing may have you running in circles accomplishing nothing in your business.

If this sounds like you, here are a few tips to get you more focused:

1. Decide on hours you will be working on your business. If it’s 9-5, then post that on your door and shut it.

2. Sit down and talk with your husband/children about your business hours and educate them on how important they are to you and how they need to learn to respect same. If you worked in

a office downtown, your child couldn’t be phoning, texting or knocking on your door every other second. They’d need to learn to deal with their situation at hand and/or find another resource to help them. If you have small children, consider a babysitter, nanny or day-school for them a few days a week.

3. Learn how to screen your phone calls. 50% of my calls are just telemarketers and once you get on the phone with them, you’ve lost another 15 minutes of your day not to mention most times they can put you into an irritated state of mind

4. Set up designated times for your social networking like Twitter, Facebook or Linkedin. And stick to those times! For me I do 45 minutes in the morning and again in the afternoon during my business hours. Decide how much time you need to network and block it into your schedule.

5. Leave housekeeping and laundry to the weekend to deal with. Nothing distracts you more than jumping up to fold that last load and next thing you know you are watching your favourite soap while you fold it and now another hour has gone by. Better yet, hire a housekeeper. They are cheaper than your hourly rate so you could be making money while they are cleaning your house for you.

These are just 5 basic tips to help you focus in on your work in 2012. Try incorporating these into your daily schedule and you’ll find you are more productive and organized.

Share your thoughts and other tips you have here:

Join in and share your thoughts on the this Mastermind discussion

VAinsiders are Virtual Assistants (VAs) that strategically seek ways to help their client’s business grow because of an invested interest in their business.

~ Tawnya Sutherland, VAnetworking.com ~

VAinsider Tips

Make the most of your VAinsider membership by attending your monthly educational workshops to help grow your VA business.  Don’t forget that we keep the last two months of training

webinars in the archives incase you can’t make the webinars on Tuesdays which you can watch whenever you like.

http://vainsiders.com/proactive-vas/

Network With New VAinsider Club Members

Connect with new members to learn from, utilize for business support services, network with like-minded business entrepreneurs or to do joint ventures with.

If you are NEW to the VAinsider Club, please introduce yourself.

While you are there, say hi to member Heidi Ross of http://www.heidimross.com who just introduced herself.

Why not pull up your thread and re-introduce yourself and tell us how things are going for you and your business at our VAinsider Club Members intro area

Accountability – Something to do for your VA Business this week

Content marketing is a large part – or even a small part – of your business marketing strategy, it pays to learn to write articles fast. This week I’m going to hold you accountable by having your write an article and write it fast to help further market your VA business.

With this five-step process you can write educational, value driven, and informative content quickly and easily.

Step #1 – Choose your article topic or keywords and form it into a question. So for example, let’s say your keywords are “hiring a Virtual Assistant” and you want to write an article about hiring a virtual assistant to increase business success. These keywords formatted as a question might look like this: “What are the benefits of hiring a Virtual Assistant?” or “What are the top three benefits to a business hiring a Virtual Assistant?”

This is an extremely writer-friendly technique because it’s much easier to answer a question quickly and succinctly. And when you perform your keywords search, you’ll often find the phrases are already formatted as questions.

Step #2 – From that question, add three additional questions that relate to your main topic. For example,

* What are the benefits of hiring a VA?
* Where can you find a Virtual Assistant?
* How do you choose the right Virtual Assistant for your business?

Step #3 – Answer each question with a four or five sentence answer. This is where the true writing begins and you’ll find that writing a paragraph, or two, to answer your question is quite easy. The best online content is easy to understand and written conversationally. This question and answer technique facilitates conversational writing. The question and answer format also helps create articles that are easy to read online. Short paragraphs with subheadings are easy to scan and absorb the value quickly.

Step #4 - Write a quick introduction. Once you’ve answered the three main questions in your article, it’s time to go back and write the introduction. Again, this will be a four to five sentence paragraph, only this time you want to introduce the problem you’re addressing in your article and provide a benefit for reading the article. You want to motivate people to continue reading.

Step #5 – Write your conclusion. Your conclusion is merely a re-emphasis of the benefit in your article and a quick summary of your key points. You’ll also want to include a call to action here, like “Visit my website for more information.” (Be sure to include a link.)

By formulating your article as a series of questions, you’re able to write the answers quickly and provide valuable information to your prospects. It’s a useful technique for just about any article type or subject matter. Give it a try; chances are you can cut your article writing time in half with this simple five-step technique.

Stay accountable and share your article this week in our VAinsider Club forum area

Mastermind Discussions – What you Missed at the Forum

New Business Year Resolutions

Upcoming Seminars – VAinsiders only

Date: Tuesday, January 10th, 2012

Time: 4PM PDT

Presented by: Tawnya Sutherland

Membership Level: Getting Clients and Supercharge ONLY

Topic: Dare to be Different/or Even Corny

Description: Sometimes the best marketing strategies can stem from the strangest and most unique ideas. In this class we will provide you with some marketing ideas that will hopefully start your own unique ideas forming. We will also discuss brand, marketing hooks and some other inexpensive ideas for attracting clients.

Go here for login area & to retrieve password:

http://vainsiders.com/proactive-vas/

Please use your full name [first and last name] as username and the password which you can find by clicking on the links on the same page above.

RFPs Submitted this past week

Please visit our forum area to view all the new requests for virtual assistance at:

http://www.vanetworking.com/forum/rfp

Be sure to follow us on Twitter #VAinsiders as we tweet these RFPs immediately after they are posted. Hashtag #VAinsiders

Make sure that you are putting your best foot forward when responding to RFPs. A quick email with “I am interested in your RFP” just won’t cut it in today’s competitive market. Make sure your response lets the potential client know exactly what you can do for them and why you are the best person for the contract!!

Here are some great references from our own VAnetworking forum on answering RFPs:

How to get email from RFP

How to respond to RFPs

Also, remember that we have a resource book on responding to RFPs available for free in the NEW VAinsider area.

Finally, for a daily listing, be sure to subscribe to this link.

To your success,

Tawnya Sutherland

VAinsider President

A new business year is upon us and I have heard many on Facebook talking about what their New Year’s resolutions will be this year. Personally, I don’t set business resolutions at the beginning of each year. Instead, I am continuously putting into place resolutions throughout the year for my business and sharing them with my accountability partner to help them come to fruition for me.

Resolutions are more sustainable when shared with someone else, be it a formal post on Facebook to your friends or better yet, to a business accountabity partner. This is a well studied fact.

Today, I challenge all of you to write down at least one resolution to attain within the next 3 month period and share it. Putting your resolution into writing guarantees a higher success rate you’ll achieve it.

If you don’t have an accountability partner yet, why not befriend another VAinsider and see if they would like to do this with you. Or at the very least, post it in our VAinsider accountability area and let the group as a whole cheer you on. Being held accountable will ensure you stick to your resolution.

Join in and share your thoughts on the this Mastermind discussion

VAinsiders are Virtual Assistants (VAs) that strategically seek ways to help their client’s business grow because of an invested interest in their business.

~ Tawnya Sutherland, VAnetworking.com ~

VAinsider Tips

Did you know we have a Virtual Assistant Directory that gets high traffic from clients looking to hire a local VA? And if you are a Supercharge VAinsider club member, you get a free upgraded banner ad too!!

Add your website to it today at http://www.vasearchengine.com

Network With New VAinsider Club Members

Connect with new members to learn from, utilize for business support services, network with like-minded business entrepreneurs or to do joint ventures with.

If you are NEW to the VAinsider Club, please introduce yourself.

While you are there, say hi to new member Sharon McMillian of http://writetotype.com

Why not pull up your thread and re-introduce yourself and tell us how things are going for you and your business at our VAinsider Club Members intro area

Accountability – Something to do for your VA Business this week

Are you building a list to market to in 2012 yet? If not, you are not the first to miss a valuable untapped market via your website. Connecting with your market regularly through your list builds trust and credibility in your brand and services. You’ll be remembered easier by potential clients and spoken about by current clients. Building a list is fairly easy to do and I’m going to give you all a few simple steps here to start this project this week.

1. Sign up to a mailing list provider. I recommend getting a paid mailing list provider and not using the free ones because when your list gets over 10,000 people on it, you’ll be glad you had. Here are a few I suggest:
Aweber – http://www.vanetworking.com/aweber (paid)
1shoppingcart – http://www.vashoppingcart.com (paid)
Constant Contact – http://www.vanetworking.com/constantcontact (paid)
Mailchimp – http://www.mailchimp.com (free)

2. Develop an ebook, special report tipsheet or something that your market would love to download for free. Think about what they’d enjoy, be it 100 ways to utilize the services of a VA, 15 practical tips to decluttering your office, etc.

3. Set up an autoresponder campaign in your mailing list provider with the first email including a link to download their free gift you created in #2 above. Then do a series of 7 more emails spaced out every 3-4 days that gives them valuable content that will make their business life easier and more successful. Maybe you came across a cool tip about Facebook’s new timeline or found a free program online that helps you be more productive like Evernote. At this point, don’t sell to them yet in any of these emails. Right now you are just planting a seed with them, a seed that will grow into a memorable flower by the time they’ve received all 8 emails in total over the course of the next few weeks.

4. Next step is to take the HTML code from your autoresponder campaign in #3 above and place it above the fold in a highly visible area of your website so people can signup and download their free gift.

5. Lastly, tell the world about this free gift you have for them. Post it on all your social networks, put in your email signature, etc.

So take the time this week and start to build a list that you can market to in 2012.

Let us know how you did by leaving your feedback at our forum post

Mastermind Discussions – What you Missed at the Forum

Rid of the Office Clutter!

Upcoming Seminars – VAinsiders only

Date: Tuesday, January 3, 2012

Time: 4PM PDT

Presented by: Tawnya Sutherland

Membership Level: Supercharge ONLY

Topic: Internet Marketing Q & A – LIVE Website Critiques

Description: Bring your mic, your URL and your internet marketing questions to our LIVE open-air webinar Q & A with Tawnya Sutherland, a Certified Internet Marketing Business Strategist. She will help, guide, advise and find you the resources you’ll need for success with your online marketing plan. Each week Tawnya will bring to light your most darkest issues surrounding how to be seen online by your market and how to strategically entice your market to easily buy from your website. Who would have known making money online was this easy? Tawnya is a usability expert with a long-term goal of helping Virtual Assistants worldwide turn their website clicks into cash for their business. She will also be available to give LIVE Website Critiques as time permits (submit your website at our VAinsider forum area ahead of time if possible).

PLEASE NOTE: These Q & A sessions are not recorded nor archived so we highly recommend you do your best to attend these webinars monthly for your company to most benefit.

Go here for login area & to retrieve password:

http://vainsiders.com/proactive-vas/

Please use your full name [first and last name] as username and the password which you can find by clicking on the links on the same page above.

RFPs Submitted this past week

Please visit our forum area to view all the new requests for virtual assistance at:

http://www.vanetworking.com/forum/rfp

Be sure to follow us on Twitter #VAinsiders as we tweet these RFPs immediately after they are posted. Hashtag #VAinsiders

Make sure that you are putting your best foot forward when responding to RFPs. A quick email with “I am interested in your RFP” just won’t cut it in today’s competitive market. Make sure your response lets the potential client know exactly what you can do for them and why you are the best person for the contract!!

Here are some great references from our own VAnetworking forum on answering RFPs:

How to get email from RFP

How to respond to RFPs

Also, remember that we have a resource book on responding to RFPs available for free in the NEW VAinsider area.

Finally, for a daily listing, be sure to subscribe to this link.

To your success,

Tawnya Sutherland

VAinsider President

Do you struggle with time management? I’d like to suggest that you start using the “timer method” for time management. How the timer method works is that you pick one item on your “to do” list and set the timer for exactly 15 minutes. During those 15 minutes you do nothing but that task and avoid all distractions such as the telephone and email. You will be amazed how quickly the 15 minute blocks of time will tick by and how much work you will get done in a day. Try doing this 3-4 times a day this week and give us your feedback on how it went.

Join in and share your thoughts on the this Mastermind discussion

VAinsiders are Virtual Assistants (VAs) that strategically seek ways to help their client’s business grow because of an invested interest in their business.

~ Tawnya Sutherland, VAnetworking.com ~

VAinsider Tips!

Here’s a holiday gift from VAnetworking.com… Our eBook entitled: Expert Advice For Your VA Business eBook (valued at $19). Over 4 years of virtual business-related articles from the ever popular VAnetworking Newsletter. Experts share their wisdom to YOU through short, easy to understand articles to help your virtual business succeed! !

Download here

Happy Holidays everyone and to your VA success in 2012!

Network With New VAinsider Club Members

Connect with new members to learn from, utilize for business support services, network with like-minded business entrepreneurs or to do joint ventures with.

If you are NEW to the VAinsider Club, please introduce yourself.

While you are there, say hi to members Natalie of www.YourVirtualConcierge.biz who just uploaded her questionnaire.

Why not pull up your thread and re-introduce yourself and tell us how things are going for you and your business at our VAinsider Club Members intro area

Accountability – Something to do for your VA Business this week

What is the equation for selling your services online to potential clients?

TRUST = NEW CLIENTS

Build trust online buy building your credibility. Here are some ways you can build credibility online this week:

1. Become an expert and start blogging about your niche.
2. Get VAcertified.com > Clients asked us for this certification so they could hire qualified VAs and we created it. Make sure your are certified.
3. Sprinkle testimonials from your clients on your website.
4. If you belong to paid VA organizations, make sure you proudly display their banner online. You can pick up your VAinsider Club member logo here: http://vainsiders.com/benefits/vainsider-logos/
5. Make sure all your contact information is easily found on your website.

Let us know how you did by leaving your feedback at our VAinsider forum post here

Mastermind Discussions – What you Missed at the Forum

Rid of the Office Clutter!

Upcoming Seminars – VAinsiders only

Date: Tuesday, December 13th, 2011

Time: 4PM PDT

Presented by: Tawnya Sutherland

Membership Level: Get Clients & Supercharge ONLY

Topic: Getting Clients – Getting Clients by Marketing at Tradeshows

Description: Many Virtual Assistants have never tried this marketing method because they do not realize the success they can have. This class will allow you to determine what type of “boother” you are and which “boothers” experience the greatest success. We will also discuss how to identify attendees, effectively communicate with them and also provide you with some ideas for follow up.

Go here for login area & to retrieve password:

http://vainsiders.com/proactive-vas/

Please use your full name [first and last name] as username and the password which you can find by clicking on the links on the same page above.

RFPs Submitted this past week

Please visit our forum area to view all the new requests for virtual assistance at:

http://www.vanetworking.com/forum/rfp

Be sure to follow us on Twitter #VAinsiders as we tweet these RFPs immediately after they are posted. Hashtag #VAinsiders

Make sure that you are putting your best foot forward when responding to RFPs. A quick email with “I am interested in your RFP” just won’t cut it in today’s competitive market. Make sure your response lets the potential client know exactly what you can do for them and why you are the best person for the contract!!

Here are some great references from our own VAnetworking forum on answering RFPs:

How to get email from RFP

How to respond to RFPs

Also, remember that we have a resource book on responding to RFPs available for free in the NEW VAinsider area.

Finally, for a daily listing, be sure to subscribe to this link.

To your success,

Tawnya Sutherland

VAinsider President

It is a proven fact that we are more likely to complete a task or goal if there is accountability involved.

For tasks, the accountability comes from keeping our clients happy, but when it comes to accountability in goal setting, it can be a little trickier. This is where an accountability partner is the key to your success. Simply put an accountability partner is someone that you share your goals with and they check in with you to make sure that you are actually working to achieve that goal. Your accountability partner can be anyone such as a spouse, a friend or a colleague. Find yourself an accountability partner and watch where your business will go!!

Your VAinsider Club members can be a huge resource for you in finding an accountability partner. Check out the VAinsider Club members introductions and who knows, maybe you’ll find one for you today.

Join in and share your thoughts on the this Mastermind discussion

VAinsiders are Virtual Assistants (VAs) that strategically seek ways to help their client’s business grow because of an invested interest in their business.

~ Tawnya Sutherland, VAnetworking.com ~

VAinsider Tips!!

All VAinsiders have access to our webinar archives. I recommend watching one each and every week as a way to continually educate yourself and your business. There are many topics from marketing to business sense. Find one that interests you today and watch/listen to it.

www.vainsiders.com/benefits/seminar-archives/

Network With New VAinsider Club Members

Connect with new members to learn from, utilize for business support services, network with like-minded business entrepreneurs or to do joint ventures with.

If you are NEW to the VAinsider Club, please introduce yourself.

While you are there, say hi to members Natalie of www.YourVirtualConcierge.biz who just uploaded her questionnaire.

Why not pull up your thread and re-introduce yourself and tell us how things are going for you and your business at our VAinsider Club Members intro area

Accountability – Something to do for your VA Business this week

Have you got a vice or bad habit that may be affecting your business success that you’d like to rid of? Today marks my quitting smoking date. I’ve been 8 years now smoke free. Was it hard to quit? You betcha! Was it worth it to my business? You betcha! My health is better now and I’m hardly ever sick plus I don’t waste time having a smoke, instead I spend that time marketing my business or other things I love doing.

I challenge you this week if you have a vice that may be affecting your business, be it smoking, being over overweight or maybe your office is cluttered to the roof because you are a pack rat. Whatever vice you have, share with the group, be accountable for it and let it go this week.

Be accountable and share in our VAinsider Club Forum Area.

Mastermind Discussions – What you Missed at the Forum

Procrastination DOES Affect Your Business

Upcoming Seminars – VAinsiders only

Date: Tuesday, November 22nd, 2011

Time: 4PM PDT

Presented by: Tawnya Sutherland

Membership Level: Supercharge Members ONLY

Topic: Contingency Planning – Technology

Description: In the fourth of our contingency planning series we will talk about the technological aspects of contingency planning. We will look at how technology can affect your business and provide you with the tools to prepare some solid contingency plans to ensure your business can stay ahead of technological advances.

Go here for login area & to retrieve password:

http://vainsiders.com/proactive-vas/

Please use your full name [first and last name] as username and the password which you can find by clicking on the links on the same page above.

RFPs Submitted this past week

Please visit our forum area to view all the new requests for virtual assistance at:

http://www.vanetworking.com/forum/rfp

Be sure to follow us on Twitter #VAinsiders as we tweet these RFPs immediately after they are posted. Hashtag #VAinsiders

Make sure that you are putting your best foot forward when responding to RFPs. A quick email with “I am interested in your RFP” just won’t cut it in today’s competitive market. Make sure your response lets the potential client know exactly what you can do for them and why you are the best person for the contract!!

Here are some great references from our own VAnetworking forum on answering RFPs:

How to get email from RFP

How to respond to RFPs

Also, remember that we have a resource book on responding to RFPs available for free in the NEW VAinsider area.

Finally, for a daily listing, be sure to subscribe to this link.

To your success,

Tawnya Sutherland

VAinsider President

I have to admit something today that I’m not proud of, I’m guilty of putting off packing for my big move this month because it seems so overwhelming downsizing from a five bedroom home to a two bedroom apartment. I must move by month’s end and I have yet to pack one box! And if I don’t start tomorrow, I’ll never be moved by the end of the month.

Procrastinating is one of the biggest roadblocks in your quest for success. When a task is unmanageable or undesirable, it is best to just dig in and get it done; even if that means tackling it in smaller chunks of time until the task is done. It is amazing how great you will feel when you can finally check that item off your to do list. By leaving a task undone it remains constantly in the back of your mind cluttering your thoughts and not allowing you to be able to concentrate on being productive.

My solution???  I have a friend coming over Monday morning to inspire me to crack that whip and start packing up! Thereafter, each day, I’m going to pack one box for the big move at the end of the month.

What have you been procrastinating at doing in your business (or personal life that may affect your business) and what actions will you take today to trudge on through it and “get er done”?

Join in and share your thoughts on the this Mastermind discussion

VAinsiders are Virtual Assistants (VAs) that strategically seek ways to help their client’s business grow because of an invested interest in their business.

~ Tawnya Sutherland, VAnetworking.com ~

VAinsider Tips!!

Don’t Forget to register for uur VAvirtuosos Seminar Series (VAVS4) this week. Only a few seats left!

NOTE: VAinsiders, get 25% all our training by using coupon code: HAPPYVA

This is our 4th season and once again we have some fantastic Virtual Assistants willing to share their knowledge with you to help you overcome hurdles in your service business. These VAs have been there and done it! After all: who better to learn trade secrets from than VAs who are slugging it out in the trenches and succeeding?

Our VAVS4 online conference (From one Virtual Assistant to Another) will be LIVE November 14th-18th and we hope to see you there.

You know from past years it is an event no Virtual Assistant should ever miss and it’s still priced at an affordable amount as always. Only $19 for 20 seminars!

Don’t wait, register today at the link below:

http://www.VAvirtuosos.com

NOTE: VAinsiders, get 25% all our training by using coupon code: HAPPYVA

Network With New VAinsider Club Members

Connect with new members to learn from, utilize for business support services, network with like-minded business entrepreneurs or to do joint ventures with.

If you are NEW to the VAinsider Club, please introduce yourself.

While you are there, say hi to members Natalie of www.YourVirtualConcierge.biz who just uploaded her questionnaire.

Why not pull up your thread and re-introduce yourself and tell us how things are going for you and your business at our VAinsider Club Members intro area

Accountability – Something to do for your VA Business this week

I’d like to challenge each and every VAinsider this week to write an article or a blog post about what a Virtual Assistant can do to help small businesses.  Not only will it get you in touch with your current clients but it may pull you in some leads as well.  You can post it at your blog and at our VA Article Directory here:  http://www.VAnetworking.com/articles/

Once you are done putting it online, put a link to it here so we can all tweet about it and help each other be seen by potential prospective clients worldwide.

Mastermind Discussions – What you Missed at the Forum

BOOO!!! Treating You!

Upcoming Seminars – VAinsiders only

Date: Tuesday, November 8th, 2011 (Typically 2nd Tuesday of every month)

Time: 4PM PDT

Presented by: Tawnya Sutherland

Membership Level: Getting Clients and Supercharge Members ONLY

Topic: The Sales Process

Description: In this class we will talk about the steps of a sales process and how to define your own sales process to get the results you are looking for. In completing this class you will have the confidence and the tools required to conduct more successful sales interviews. Most importantly we will talk about how to close the sale, a step most people forget.

Go here for login area & to retrieve password:

http://vainsiders.com/proactive-vas/

Please use your full name [first and last name] as username and the password which you can find by clicking on the links on the same page above.

RFPs Submitted this past week

Please visit our forum area to view all the new requests for virtual assistance at:

http://www.vanetworking.com/forum/rfp

Be sure to follow us on Twitter #VAinsiders as we tweet these RFPs immediately after they are posted. Hashtag #VAinsiders

Make sure that you are putting your best foot forward when responding to RFPs. A quick email with “I am interested in your RFP” just won’t cut it in today’s competitive market. Make sure your response lets the potential client know exactly what you can do for them and why you are the best person for the contract!!

Here are some great references from our own VAnetworking forum on answering RFPs:

How to get email from RFP

How to respond to RFPs

Also, remember that we have a resource book on responding to RFPs available for free in the NEW VAinsider area.

Finally, for a daily listing, be sure to subscribe to this link.

To your success,

Tawnya Sutherland

VAinsider President