2010 North Fulton Business Expo

On March 19, I attended the 2010 North Fulton Business Expo in Alpharetta. I got up that morning with a different agenda then I realized that I had signed up for presentations during this expo. I signed up months in advance so I had forgotten about it.

It has been a while since I attended one of these events so I was little excited to get back into it. One thing that I noticed was that several of the exhibitors were spending most of their time talking to each other. At several booths I’d walk up and they would be deep in conversation not acknowledging my presence. At one booth, three of us walked up and even commented that no one was interested in talking to us and though we didn’t know each other we all walked off at the same time.

I wonder if this is the new “low pressure” tactics. I get it, no one wants to feel like they are being sold to but isn’t the point of these expos to engage your visitors? Perhaps these exhibitors took one look at me and decided that I didn’t need or couldn’t afford their services. What’s funny is that one of the exhibitors I visited was a financial institution. I have been looking for a place to open a savings account for my son. When I walked up to this particular booth, I was once again completely ignored. Weird, because when I looked at their information it seemed like a good place to open a savings account for my son, but clearly they weren’t interested in my business.

I cannot got without mentioning that my company, Indispensable Assistants, offers a trade show/expo/seminar assistant service. For companies that are too busy to attend these expos or who wish to have a break so that their employees can use this opportunity to connect with other exhibitors we can provide breaks or even manage the booth during the entire event. Our assistants will engage all visitors and explain your company’s products or services. I didn’t, but I almost left my card with these companies and suggested that in the future they hire an expo/trade show assistant so that they don’t miss a valuable opportunity to put their best foot forward.

All in all I can say I enjoyed my time at the 2010 North Fulton Business Expo. I made a few connections while waiting for the shuttle to get to the expo. I enjoyed the presentations that I attended and look forward to putting some of my new tips into practice.

If you get a chance to attend the expo next year, I would definitely suggest it.

Follow Up

Recently I joined a group for women whose goal is to aid people in marketing their services or products to women. The owner seems professional and I look forward to networking with her. While on her site, I saw a cross marketing partnership she shares with someone who specializes in membership websites.

Interested, I submitted a form for more information. I received a response requesting the information that had been submitted on the form. I stated that I thought I had sent this but sent again. I never heard from her again.

A few years ago I met a man while networking at an event at the Gwinnett Chamber of Commerce. He started telling me about his career experience as a financial advisor. Next thing I know he asks me how much money I was making. This was in front of other people I had just met. I walked off. On my way home he calls me to set up a meeting so that he can take over my financial planning. Wait. I never said I wanted him as my financial advisor. I don’t know what I said to him to make him think that within 5 minutes he had met his new client.

Now I look at how people are following up. I’ve submitted “contact us” forms and never received a response. I’ve received responses that show the person never read my comments nor did they read their comments. I’ve requested email follow-up but gotten follow-up phone calls, requests for calls before 3:00 pm but received calls at 5:00 pm. Why don’t people know how to follow-up? It’s as if these people think they’re doing you a favor by taking you on as a customer/client.

I know that following up can be tricky when you’re a solopreneur, but it’s essential to the success of your business. Here is your opportunity to make a good impression. If you can’t follow-up when requested, then why should a potential client trust you’ll be able to handle other requests?

Now is the Time

Now is the time to start doing things differently. To look at your life and your business and make changes. If we did as well as we expected last year, then we have something to celebrate. If not, we need to investigate what went wrong. It’s difficult to accept that something we’ve done isn’t working.

I was watching a clip from a show where Bill Rancic would go into a business and show them how to turn it around. In the clip I watched he was talking to the camera and said “it’s difficult for people to accept that an idea or concept that they love isn’t working.” While I never watched the show, I know what he means. I’ve met people who’ve been upset because people didn’t come in droves to accept their new business venture. One woman became upset with a publisher where she was advertising her dog party planning business, because no one called to hire her. Perhaps, there aren’t as many people in metro Atlanta ready to hire a planner to plan a party for their dog. She didn’t believe that it was her concept that kept people from coming to her, but the publication she chose to advertise her business.

While it is important to choose the right advertising avenue, it’s also important to create something that people need or want. So, now is the time. It’s time to make those tough decisions. What’s working for us. What isn’t. Are we ready to admit that we need to make changes or will we be looking for someone or something to blame? Now is the time to be honest with ourselves. Now is the time to make the most of everything that’s available. Now is the time to succeed.

On the hunt for the elephant

In business “the elephant” usually refers to a big client or customer. It’s the one who would not only bring in major dollars but also clout and possibly other elephants.

Today,  while most companies would love to get that elephant there may also be some hesitation. Corporations are seeing a lot of cut backs. A deal today might mean not be there later if the company needs to trim the budget. Years ago my partner and I would make a list of our elephants. These were our dream clients. We never put forth an effort to get these companies they were just on our wish list.

We created a detailed list of smaller companies or industries we’d like to dominate that would assist us in capturing our elephants. We don’t focus so much now on these elephants. We’re focused now on going back to the basics and that’s assisting small business owners and then entrepeneurs. That doesn’t mean we’re no longer interested in getting our elephants but we know that it comes a time when we have to look back and redefine our business.

We still have our sights set on capturing a least one elephant. We even have our celebration planned out. We know how we’ll celebrate and how our lives will change once we move into this new era for our business. As for now, we’re sharpening our tools so we’ll be ready for the hunt.

The Economy and the Virtual Assistant

As companies start to tighten their spending belts, it may seem an unlikely time to be a virtual assistant. However, for a budget watching business owner, a virtual assistant maybe the solution they’ve been searching for.

With a virtual assistant, a small business owner gets the benefit of administrative staff without the paying taxes, providing benefits, healthcare, or vacation. In addition a virtual assistant has her own office and office equipment saving them money almost immediately.

The fees for virtual assistants vary and oftentimes when a small business owner sees a $25 or more an hour fee they hesitate thinking they can hire someone for half that amount in this economy. When considering whether or not this wage is cost-saving, business owners consider the actual costs of hiring an employee. Once an employer adds the cost of office space, equipment, taxes, benefits, and vacation time he’ll find that in addition to their hourly rate, an onsite employee adds an additional 35% to their hourly rate.

In addition to these additional costs, you also pay for downtime. With a virtual assistant you only pay for work actually completed. If you only need someone for a few hours a month, you can control your costs by contracting for these hours. You don’t pay for someone to converse with other employees, surf the Internet, or make personal phone calls. In addition, with a virtual assistant you’re partnering with a business owner instead of someone who working for a paycheck. For virtual assistants, a happy client is a referring client so its imperative for the success of their business to provide their clients with quality service.

So, as companies of all sizes consider how to do more work with less employees they should definitely consider the services of a virtual assistant.

Planning for 2010

I don’t believe in New Year’s Resolutions. It’s like going on a diet. It changes how you feel about things. I believe in transformations and goals. What’s the difference, well, I work on goals all year long. I started my 2010 planning in November. It makes sense that to make a success of next year I need to start making changes this year. Hopefully, by next year, my changes will have become a habit.

So, what are my goals for 2010? One is to make the most of networking, especially social networking. I’ve joined groups on LinkedIn and even created one for administrative professionals. The past few weeks I’ve started sending connection requests to the members. After I received a confirmation, I email the person to find out how I could identify good leads for that person. My next step is to read their blogs, status updates, and follow them on Twitter. All in an effort to expand my network. Now what?

Coffee or lunch meeting of course. But this won’t be like the ones suggested in closed networking groups or leads groups. This meeting will include at least one other person. This will give the two people I’ve met an opportunity to meet someone new. With one meeting, I’ve already helped my new connection. This meeting is officially called “Sip and Build”. It’s a service of Indispensable Assistants that we did when we first started our business but didn’t have the time to continue planning.

I look forward to restarting Sip and Build and connecting with as many people as possible.

To Volunteer We Shall Go

Recently my sister and I decided to re-evaluate our business plan. When we started our business, we wanted to devote volunteer hours to assisting non profit organizations. When we first tried doing this in 2005 and 2006 we sent emails and letters and followed up with phone calls. No one responded. I continued to call one homeless shelter and finally got a call from the Director. She was very busy and said she would call me back. It never happened.

Since then, we’ve volunteered with one organization but that was it. As we reviewed our orginal plan, we decided it was time to revisit this goal. My sister contacted Dress for Success Atlanta. She received an auto email that said for us to call them to schedule an interview. This auto response would probably have deterred me as I would have had the opinion that they obviously didn’t want our help. My sister followed up and scheduled an interview. She met with Christina, Director of Operations, and was excited when we discussed how we could help. Finally, we had found an organization that needed our help and was ready to receive it.

Dress For Success Atlanta does a lot of wonderful things. Like many non profit organizations, they have experienced financial difficulties due to the declining economy. Christina is currently fulfilling the role of three people. I understand now why she can’t respond to every request for volunteering; she simply doesn’t have the time.

My company, Indispensable Assistants, will continue to look for organizations that need some assistance. We’re returning to our roots. With this weak economy many non profit organizations have experienced an increase in the number of people who need help, but have experienced a decrease in donations and volunteers. I think that if you’re a member of a group, or have a group of friends, it would be great to see if you can carve out one day a month to give back to those who give so much. At Dress For Success, they’re behind on their clerical work, they need people to help sort their inventory, and a new system to capture their clients’ information. If we’re too swamped to help in their office we can always write a check to help with their declining donations.

Be Known

I met a man at the park on Saturday evening.  We were watching our children play.  I didn’t recognize him at first, but once we began to talk I remembered him. He recognized me from registration day at the school.  His daughter and my oldest daughter are in the same class.  He is a photographer and asked me about doing the school pictures.  He knew about I was on the executive board at school’s PTA and wanted to know how to get the PTA to hire him as the photographer.  My advice to him was to join the PTA,  get involved, take candid shots for the yearbook .   By building a rapport with the PTA he would be in a much better position to become the school photographer next year.  When we talked on registration day he mentioned the school principal had given him the same advice. Surely he had to know the decision had already been made for this year.  I was incorrect.  During the course of our brief conversation he mentioned that the PTA didn’t hire him.  I asked, ‘did u join the PTA? Are you involved, have you shown them your work, or did you just expect them to give you a check because you said you’re a photographer?  He responded with a no, and walked away laughing.  Sadly, he walked away thinking that what I suggested was too much work.  If I were given advice from someone who makes decisions for a client I want to work with, I would follow it.   I guess when he calculated the pros and cons he decided it wasn’t worth it.  He may be correct.  Regardless, he will be as unknown next year as he is this year.  As a business professional it is imperative to be as known to as many people as possible.  Join organizations, network, volunteer, create social networking profiles, just get out there.

 

Hear It Don’t Say It

Entrepreneurship runs in my family.  My grandfather owned his own business for many years.  He was a mechanic, living in a small town in the south, and well known.  I remember seeing him come home dirty and dead tired.  However, when customers would knock on the door well past 9:00 pm he would drag himself outside to take a look under the hood.  My grandfather didn’t read or write, partly due to strokes and lack of education but he could count money.  My family would handle written documents for him.  Working for someone else was never an option for him.  The odds were against him, he was uneducated, had been a victim of strokes which affected his memory and he was an African-American man living in a small town in the south.  He didn’t allow these things to deter him from owing his own auto repair shop.  He was a very skilled mechanic, fair, honest and personable. He taught his daughters basic automotive skills, hardly any were passed down to me.  My males cousins were expected to learn how to repair cars.  Most of them were too lazy to pick up this skill.  For some reason they didn’t comprehend the significance of what my grandfather had done.  I find him inspirational.  He didn’t wait for someone to tell him he couldn’t do it.  He wasn’t looking for someone to tell him ‘no’, he was seeking those who said ‘yes’ and he found them.

A few years ago, right after I relocated to Atlanta and before my sister and I decided to start Indispensable Assistants, my cousin had a small bite of entrepreneurship.  Well not really a bite, it was a knee-jerk reaction.  He was upset with my sister and me because we wouldn’t lend him money to get back home.  Imagine our surprise when he announced he couldn’t leave Atlanta and go back home because he had too many customers.  My lazy cousin with absolutely no ambition or work ethic had started a makeshift mowing business.  He only needed a little money to finance his trip back.  He reasoned if he could mow a few lawns he would have enough.  In the process he inadvertently started a short-lived business.  The biggest shock of all is that he had no lawn mower.  He, out of desperation, knocked on doors of the neighbors and offered to mow their grass with their lawn mower.  It was a bold move.  He asked people to use their equipment to mow their lawn and shockingly he found several people to agree.  If he hadn’t felt so desperate I’m sure he could have easily talked himself out of even asking, as most of us would.  However, because he had to hear the ‘no’ rather than assume it he was able to generate revenue.  Whenever I think about this, I remind myself that I don’t know how people will respond to a new business idea.  Instead of assuming that they will say no, or worst saying ‘no’ for them, I wait for the results. Ultimately just like my grandfather and even my cousin, my goal isn’t to find people to say ‘no’ but to seek those that will say ‘yes’.

Enough is enough

I’m a member of a group for my industry and one of the members has decided to get out of the business.  He noted that his business never really took off.  He expressed that it was clearly evident that this was the next step.  The economy, timing, and the city in which he lived, contributed to the failure of his business.  I’ve never met this person but I sympathized with his situation.  I also understand it.  When one decides to become a business owner, visions of happy clients and independence flood your mind.  The very thought of your business not becoming the success you know it can be, doesn’t enter your mind.  A realistic person knows that if things don’t go well adjustments must be made.  I’m not suggesting that the decision to get out of business was unwise.  I’m not privy to the details and that’s not my place to judge.  I’m sure he considered all his options and decided that getting out was the right thing to do.  There have been many occasions that my partner and I considered getting out and returning to the workforce fulltime but decided against it.   For us the thought of giving up is not an option especially in this economy, there’s nowhere to go.  The job market in our area is horrible.  Instead, we do our research find out what is needed in our market and tailor our business accordingly.  During the drought years in Georgia we lost our landscape clients because they lost their business.  At that time we had to make adjustments.  Now that businesses are tightening their wallets we look for offer other services.  Through layoffs and downsizing virtual assistants can step in to complete tasks.  We have partnered with other business to enter into a partnership that benefits all involved.  We’ve joined groups, organizations and associations.  There are many different options available to small business owners.  We must think outside the box and be creative helps to sustain our small business.  We have a saying when things look grim, ‘we must hear our no, don’t say it’.  Basically, we don’t want to get into the habit of talking ourselves out of trying something.  If we want to offer a new service and are unsure if it will generate revenue we let our clients decide. 

When we first started Indispensable Assistants tasks such as delivery and errand services were not on our list.  We weighed the pros/cons of running errands and at that time it wasn’t feasible. However, after carefully consideration and a more flexible schedule we are now able to offer holiday meal delivery for specific locations in Metro Atlanta.  Our clients order their prepaid holiday meal from their local favorite grocer, make arrangements with Indispensable Assistants to pick up the meal, and we deliver it to their home or office.  We’ve partnered with local grocers to offer the service to their customers.  This service provides options for the store that aids in customer loyalty.  The holiday season is rapidly upon us, time is a luxury most can’t afford, for an additional $7,  our clients can have their prepaid holiday meal delivered to their location of choice.  This service is offered to both residential and business clients.  Our business clients can have an end of year celebration for their employees without worry.  We handle everything for them.  We are more comfortable with making these types of adjustments rather than to end our dream of being entrepreneurs.

If you’re interested in having your prepaid holiday meal delivered, feel free to contact us via email or mobile phone.  The delivery cost is $7 and is only offered in select areas in Metro Atlanta.

Visit our website www.IndispensableAssistants.com, become a fan on Face Book, follow us on Twitter @TheAssistant4u, link with us on LinkedIn http://www.linkedin.com/in/indispensable.