The Secret to Business Success

By Janet Falkenberg

Editor’s Note: This is a guest post from my friend and colleague Janet Falkenberg.

Let me share a secret with you that many successful entrepreneurs already know – you have to manage your business effectively to reach the levels of success you desire.

So, if you can answer YES to ANY of these questions then you know you are not effectively managing your business:

• Feeling overwhelmed at the start of each day – you don’t know what to do first?
• You’ve been busy all day but don’t feel like you’ve achieved anything?
• Are projects/clients are falling through the cracks or you’re “forgetting” appointments?
• These are only the symptoms of LACK of systems. You don’t have core systems in place and your business is running you when it should be you running your business!

Do you strategically look at why and how you are busy?  Time is your most valuable asset and cannot be replaced.  Engaging in activity that has little value will not produce the revenue you desire.

A virtual assistant is an expert who focuses on business processes and can provide entrepreneurs with advice and guidance on setting up business processes, analyzing workflows, streamlining and improving operations.

For a business to be successful, all the areas of the business need to work together.   Creating systems will help you realize big results in increased efficiency, more profits, increased customer/client satisfaction and retention, just to name a few.   Here are some core areas that would be helpful to have a system for:

• Project Management
• Current Client Care
• Client Retention
• Tracking Sales
• Marketing and Advertising
• Business Owner Time Management

There are five ways a virtual assistant can set up systems to manage your business so that you can effectively market and grow your business.

1. Set up systems for the core areas of your business. You can use the above list as a guide. Review the systems you have in place.
2. Systemize repetitive tasks.  Are clients asking the same questions? Create auto responders or template email answers to these questions.
3. Create a calendar to handle your appointments, project deadlines, etc.
4. Create your core business systems.  How do you handle new clients?
5. Create a long term plan. Use spreadsheets to schedule your annual marketing plan that shows month by month what programs to run.  This will take all the guesswork out of running the business.  You can easily see the available time slots for getting work done or scheduling appointments.

Working with a virtual assistant to develop these systems will increase your business, your income, and your productivity!

To your success!!

Janet Falkenberg