It’s also a place where Virtual Assistants themselves can find support, guidance and clients!

Visit Virtually Yours

Rosie,  what was the idea that first got the ball rolling?

Five years ago I got the idea that some businesses would not always want to hire full time administrative staff, and other businesses have admin staff who are limited in their formatting and researching skills. So I explored the idea of running a virtual venture. I quickly realised that there was an entire industry of Virtual Assistants growing throughout the world, which utilised these concepts.

What got you excited enough about the idea to put it into motion?

I think I gained confidence once I realised that there were other people out there doing this very same thing. I was lucky enough to be able to start whilst working part time, which took away some of the fear factor. After about 12 months I realised that I would need to take the plunge and leap head first into this fulltime if I wanted my business to grow, so I did what a friend of mine recommended, which was ‘feel the fear… and do it anyway!’

Where did the name for your business spring from?

Naming your business is not easy! So many names are already taken and it’s not always easy to think of something which really captures the message you want to give. I had a brainstorming session and asked a few friends, and then out of the blue I came up with Virtually Yours, which was still available in Australia, and not used for any high profile companies overseas. I was very pleased!

How is Virtually Yours unique?

Virtually Yours is unique in that it is a business that thrives on the success of other businesses within the same field. I have my own clients whom I provide web and desktop publishing support to, but my Network, Virtually Yours Virtual Assistants, is something I really enjoy running, and in it, I can see like-minded, passionate, business women (all women at this stage) working hard to achieve their business goals. It’s very inspiring.

What was the most difficult part in getting your business off the ground?

Initially I didn’t have anywhere to set up my ‘office’, but a half enclosed spare room was put to the task, and was painted, (including the concrete floors), sealed, had power brought into, phone line added and then my equipment. It was great to have a new space created especially for me and my business.

Has any part of your business gone down a different path than you first anticipated?

Absolutely. I never thought that I would end up predominantly working in web design and desktop publishing. Nor did I think that my Network would attract members from overseas. I have international clients, international members and new areas of expertise. Almost every part  of the original idea has been expanded upon.

What do you enjoy most about running your business?

I actually love being able to work with other business owners. Both my clients and my network members bring me a lot of joy and a sense of accomplishment, as they grow and succeed. The flexibility to work when I am at my most productive is also a great bonus.

Do you belong to any networks that have helped you grow your business?

Yes, I have informal networks which I utilise along with BNI, my local Chamber of Commerce and I am a Rotarian. Rotary is a great resource where successful business owners come together to work on community projects. The wealth of experience and knowledge that can be tapped into at Rotary is incredible. Plus it’s fun!

What are your future goals for Virtually Yours?

I am working on growing the Network further and developing partnerships with complimentary organisations, for example CoachNetwork, who can benefit my members further. I am looking forward to having over 100 Virtual Assistants on my network.

What advice would you give another woman wanting to start a business of her own?

Feel the fear…. And do it anyway!

]]> http://herbusinesslife.com.au/virtual-assistance-for-you-rosie-shilo/feed/ 2 http://herbusinesslife.com.au/best-wordpress-theme-ever/ http://herbusinesslife.com.au/best-wordpress-theme-ever/#comments Tue, 17 Nov 2009 11:57:22 +0000 admin http://herbusinesslife.com.au/?p=977 Calling a theme the best WordPress theme ever is high praise indeed. If you want a theme that can be anything you want it to be, without having to touch a line of code - this is definitely for you! ]]>

Calling a theme the best WordPress theme ever is high praise indeed.

 
 
If you want a theme that can be anything you want it to be, without having to touch a line of code – this is definitely for you!

I’ve been busy changing all my sites over to this theme – PageLines Platform Pro. That’s how impressed I am!

If you’re a WordPress user, you’ll know that many business sites, including the sites of many top companies, are built on WordPress.

It is quite simply, an amazing content management system.
 
 

You can change page layouts and colours with a few clicks!

Anyone who has spent hours chasing their tail in theme files even just to change simple things such as colours and header size is going to love this.
 
 

Custom Post Types

Platform Pro uses Custom Post Types.

This means Features, Boxes, Banners, Callouts, Carousels and more – are all integrated into the theme and ready for you to use in any way you wish.

Create stunning business layouts or creative personal sites.
 
 

Freedom to build any layout you want – on different pages

You are not restricted to columns. Some do-it-yourself WordPress themes allow you to have a one, two or three column layout – but that’s it. (Everything has to remain within the columns.)

With Platform Pro , you can create any combination of layouts. You are not restricted to keeping elements within columns.

Create different layouts for your home page, your blog pages, your About page – or any page.

You want to create a magazine theme? No problem? You can have as many content areas pulling in posts from different categories as you like!

Whether the site you want is an online magazine, business website, business blog, photographers gallery or personal wesbite– this theme can do it all.

 
Easy to implement

I put together a brand new website in an hour. It’s up and running, and open for business. It still needs some more content entered – but it’s complete enough to send clients to.

Creating a new site is one thing. Changing over established sites is a bit more fiddly. But I know that when I’m done – my WordPress theme will be able to change and flex with me.

I’ve looked at hundreds of themes – there are many beautiful ones, but none had the exact layout I wanted.

Also, each of my sites has very different needs– and finding a different theme for each (and then finding yet another new theme each time the website changes or expands)– drives me crazy!
 
 

One last word

If you’re a beginner to WordPress and WordPress themes, you are likely to have  to spend some time learning before getting a handle on how everything works.

And Platform Pro uses  some amazing features on top on the fantastic capabilities of WordPress. – so there’s much to learn.

It’s also not possible for a theme to do absolutely everything. Some things may require customisation. If you wanted to place animation in your background for example, you would require some custom code.

But for the majority of layouts, even highly creative layouts, this theme is all you need.

 All Platform Pro links on this page are sponsored (not paid) links.

If these blogs were on a menu at a restaurant, the restaurant would soon be out of business.

The meals would be bland in flavour and unsatisfying, and there would be no dessert on offer. The seating arrangements would be set up to suit the restaurant, with no thought to your comfort or needs.

If you were a diner at this restaurant, you wouldn’t return!

What kind of blogs are we talking about?

We’ve all seen business blogs with five or six posts that were written a year ago.

Or blogs with a trickle of half-hearted posts that read as though the owner has little interest in their blog.

Worse, those same posts were all promoting the business itself.

There’s nothing to keep visitors reading or engaged, and there’s nothing to there to help them in any way.

How can I make my blog more appealing?

Good design

A well-designed blog will have clear navigation and an appealing, fresh look.

But you don’t have to have the shiniest blog on the block. Your content is far more important.

Good incentives

Free stuff always works well  :)  You could offer people a free e-book, a sample or a discount that is only available through your blog.

Having your best content easily accessible on the homepage helps. (You might be able to do this through a ‘Most popular articles’ plugin or widget for example.)

Having a lot of good content also helps– people won’t be able to read it all at one sitting, but they will bookmark and return at a later point.

Solve a problem

If a visitor arrived at your blog from a search engine, they might be looking for something very specific.

If you can provide the information the visitor is seeking, the visitor will be interested in your blog.

You could even offer a set of tutorials or simple how-to’s.

Entertain

Keeping people entertained is difficult. People are incredibly busy. And if the content at your blog just talks about your business, a visitor will not hang around for long!

If your blog concerns certain products, beautiful photographs of them are helpful and are infinitely better than just talking about a product.

It’s best to keep your blog focused on a topic (even if loosely) – but it’s a good idea to break out every so often and entertain with something amusing.

At the blog of EP Designs, owner Elena Perotta posts gorgeous photos of her timeless ‘recreated treasures’, business tips, and also posts her wonderful ‘Chocolate moments’ regularly.

Many of us can relate to a love of all things chocolate:

• I  don’t understand why so many “so called” chocolate lovers complain about the calories in chocolate, when all true chocoholics know that it is a vegetable. It comes from the cocoa bean, beans are veggies, ’nuff said.

 

• Put “eat chocolate” at the top of your list of things to do today. That way, at least you’ll get one thing done

EP Designs chocolate moments

The Business Mums Network Blog Awards last month also shows examples of business blogs that offer extra value for readers.

Jazzing up your business blog shouldn’t take time away from your business. Start by adding just one thing a week.

It won’t be long before you’ve built up something tasty!

Photo credit 

 
All of these blogs help promote the businesses of their owners, but they have also become destination websites in their own right.

They provide great information and points of interest to their readers. Well done!

Parenting category:

Your Cheeky Monkey

Business category:

WAHM Biz builder

Environment category:

Twinkle Lily

Women category:

Inside Out Style

For more information head to Business Mums Network!

I chanced upon a mention of a free marketing course today at the Your Cheeky Monkey blog.  It’s called the Brain Alchemy Masterclass at psychotactics.com.

This course is being sold on the site for $2500, but for the moment is free – by invitation only.

(If you’re a subscriber to this site and received this via email or RSS – consider yourself invited! )

Once filling out your name and email address, you are asked to invite others via email – and at completion of the course you asked to post a public review.

For the moment – here is a little review of the actual marketing strategy behind the course!

The Brain Alchemy Masterclass is interesting because it is a marketing business marketing their business.

Sean D’Souza, the owner of Psychotactics, is a New Zealand marketing consultant who conducts workshops and seminars.

He hopes to build a non-profit university in New Zealand to help people in business, and his goal is to ‘make most Psychotactics products and workshops free by the year 2020.’

But what we are focusing on today are the strategies that are being used to publicise the Brain Alchemy Masterclass.

About the course, Sean says:

The Brain Alchemy Masterclass is the structure that you need to build your business upon.

It’s about tactics and strategy that will form the very core of your business, no matter whether you’re just starting up, or have been in business ‘forever.’

With the Brain Alchemy Masterclass, Sean has created a product that:

• is valuable
• can help your business
• is available for a limited time
• is available only via invitation
• has no up-sell or cross-sell attached to it
• is free

These are compelling reasons to sign up, wouldn’t you agree?

Additionally:

• the invitation might well have come from a friend or someone you trust.
• You are put on a ‘waiting list’ before you recieve the information

Social persuasion is known for its power, and having someone you know invite you makes you at least stop and take a look.

(For a marketer, it’s also a way of getting your message into people’s inboxes, without spamming. Clever?)

And knowing that there is a ‘waiting list’ creates a sense that this product is in demand– other people want this product and are willing to go a waiting list to receive it.

Again, social persuasion.

After signing up, Sean asks that you:

• invite others
• write a review (good, bad or ugly) at the end of the course.

This achieves a few different things. You’ll now have promotion of your product appearing on websites around the web.

Positive reviews, of course, are the best possible scenario.

But even not-so-positive reviews are still providing valuable links to your website.

(And if your product is good, the possibility of negative reviews is limited.)

A lesson in itself

The Brain Alchemy Masterclass strategy to gain subscribers is a lesson in itself.

Because of the way the campaign is set up, the amount of subscribers to the course will grow exponentially.

If Sean D’Souza had just advertised his marketing course on his website, without a promotion strategy – many people may well sign up, but the chance of the whole thing going ‘viral’ is practically non-existent.

A campaign that just sits on your website and doesn’t work for you isn’t much of a campaign.

It might be worth it to you and your business to take a leaf from Sean’s marketing strategy.

Was I invited into the course? No, actually I just crashed the party.

The chance to chat about a great internet marketing strategy was too good to pass up.   

‘Ideas Culture’  provides a global team of ‘Ideas Agents’ to deliver up to 100 fresh ideas to a business – overnight!

As ‘Ms Megabyte’, Yvonne Adele made technology accessible. Now she’s promoting creativity to expand business horizons, with clients such as NAB, LJ Hooker and Microsoft.

Yvonne, what was the idea that first got the ball rolling?

Starting Ideas Culture two years ago was through necessity. Ms Megabyte was fading in popularity because technology became easier to use.

I knew I wanted to continue being a Professional Speaker so asked myself : What is the second most common thing people come to me for help with? (The first being tech!)

It was Ideas. So I researched everything I could about the idea generation / creative thinking process and realised I had a unique way of getting ideas.

But most recently, we had a boost in the business, and it was due to this idea:

Ideas While You Sleep – an overnight brainstorming service for stretched businesses that taps into a team of Ideas Agents globally.

What got you excited enough about the idea to put it into motion?

I floated the idea of ‘Ideas while you sleep’ to my Twitter network (then approx 2000, now over 4000) to see if I could get enough people registering as Ideas Agents.

I had hundreds within days. Then floated the idea with a cross section of clients who all said they would try it.

Where did the name for your business spring from?

Ideas Culture was created in 2007 after I’d been Ms Megabyte for 12 years.

I wanted a business name that encapsulated exactly what we offered. We assist businesses to build a culture of ideas.

What sets Ideas Culture apart?

We offer a fully supported foundation for idea generation via three services.

Ideas While You Sleep – we do the thinking for you. Overnight.

Ideas With You – we facilitate a brainstorm with your own team, at your office or off-site.

Ideas Via You – we act as a ‘secret weapon’, feeding you team building and brainstorming activities so you can facilitate your own team.

These are best purchased as a site license – companies pay a monthly fee and get a certain combination that works for them. Eg: 1 x Ideas While You Sleep a week; 1 x Ideas With you a month; unlimited Ideas Via You.

We lead businesses down the Path to Innovation (see graphic). You bring your business challenge and we’ll show you how to use creative thinking techniques to generate ideas, then how to find the best ones and set a plan to implement them.

What was the most difficult part in getting your business off the ground?

Transitioning from what my clients and the marketplace knew of me – Ms Megabyte, the technology whizz.

Has any part of your business gone down a different path than you first anticipated?

a) leaving Ms Megabyte behind (because people just didn’t need as much help with technology as they had done previously–  the answers are easy to find on Google these days and technology isn’t as annoying)

b) With Ideas Culture, we initially started out running sessions to teach people how to run their own sessions in the workplace. But we found people just were not doing it after we left. We discovered people felt it was out of their comfort zone, so we had to come up with some less expensive ways they could use us more regularly.

What do you enjoy most about running your business?

My own hours. Working from home which I don’t think I’ll ever give up.. although I do daydream about whizzing into my office, throwing my coat in one direction, taking a clipboard from an assistant and signing something, ordering coffee, sitting down behind a huge desk in a gorgeous corner New York office… (think: Devil Wears Prada)

Do you belong to any networks that have helped you grow your business?

National Speakers Association – my colleagues there have been extremely helpful and supportive during my topic change from technology to ideas.

Twitter is an endless source of support, answers and enrichment.

What are your future goals for Ideas Culture?

Continue our social media strategy to build the brand internationally. To publish a book. To systemise the Ideas While You Sleep process so it can run with as little hands-on as possible. To create regular webinars and e-learning content.

What advice would you give another woman wanting to start a business of her own?

You have brains in your head,

You have feet in your shoes,

You can steer yourself in any direction you choose.

Out there, things can happen,

And frequently do!

To people as brainy, and footsy as you.

(Dr Suess from Oh The Places You’ll Go)

Just start slowly – you’ll soon prove to yourself that you can do it. Once you build up that confidence a tiny bit, the world is your oyster.

Readers of Her Business Life can gain a 50% discount at Ideas Culture!

Just use the promotion code 50off to discover amazing new directions for your business.

Every business should have a unique selling proposition (USP) but it doesn’t have to come down to a single product or service that no one else has.

For a micro-business, unless you have a never-before-seen product or service, your uniqueness comes from the blend of YOU and the way in which you package, present or position your business.

It’s not enough to simply offer ‘great customer service’ or ‘commitment to quality products’.

These things are great (and essential) but because almost everyone offers these things (or claims to offer these things) they don’t stand out in the consumer’s mind.

Of course, it’s best if your USP is concretely different – such as Domino’s Pizza’s, “You get fresh, hot pizza delivered to your door in 30 minutes or less – or it’s free”.