One of my fellow DVVAA’s (Delaware Valley Virtual Assistants Association) colleagues posted a link to 10 Stupid Mistakes Made by the Newly Self-Employed on Steve Pavlina’s blog. When poking around this guy’s site, I found a post even more intriguing. How to Make $10,000 in One Hour. After reading this, it’s stuck in my mind and keeps popping back up periodically.
He brings up a point I’ve been thinking about a lot lately: you need to schedule unbillable time to raise your income. Sounds counter-intuitive, doesn’t it?
Up until about 2 months ago, I had all my available working hours filled with client work. But filling all your available hours with client work stunts your growth. It keeps you in the role of an employee earning $x/hour instead of an entrepreneur. You need time to think, try new projects, and grow. I spend some of my time working on projects that pay quite handsomely, some that have the potential to pay handsomely in the future (planning a writers’ retreat, writing my new co-authored VA book, Entrepreneurial Freedom, promoting my book Write It Right: The Ground Rules for Self-Editing Like the Pros. I don’t get paid for the time I’m spending writing this blog post either.
When will you develop the idea that earns you $10,000 in one hour? Don’t fall in to the trap of thinking an hour of your time is worth $30, $50, $75 or $100 an hour. Sure, you may have some hours that are worth $0, but you may also have some that are worth $250, $1,000 or even $10,000. Spend time researching ideas, thinking and relaxing. Being too busy with client work may just stunt your long-term growth.
One of my Bloglines favorites is Bob Bly’s blog. Today I posted a comment to his post: “Is paying referral fees wrong?” . Basically, the question was whether being promised referral fees compromises a person’s integrity. If clients come to you for objective, unbiased advice and you are getting a kick-back from the vendor you refer to, how objective will you be? You can read my response here, but to expand on my answer on his blog, this is a topic that has been on my mind quite a bit. I’m still struggling to figure out the best course of action. I recently had a client that send a very good client my way. I thanked him profusely and offered him a finders fee for the first project. He accepted and I’m fine with that. However, that was not a condition of the referral. My CPA specializes in doing taxes for independent contractors and has saved me lots and lots of money for the past two years he’s been doing our taxes. I refer other people to him because he’s so good. He has a program that gives you a $25 discount off your taxes for each new client you bring to him. I guess the point here is you have to have the mindset that you’d give the referral even if you got nothing in return. Let’s face it, your reputation is way more important than a $25, $50, or even $100 check. I try to be flexible. Some people send me business and tell me upfront they’d like a referral fee. As long as it’s reasonable, that’s fine. Others refuse any offers of payment and just want their client to be happy. I have to admit that I respect that more.
There is a wide range of strong opinions on this matter. Do you offer some cold, hard, cash; do you send a gift; simply thank them, give them a discount on your bill? What works best? Has anyone been really unhappy with your “thank you” program, no matter what it is? When you give others a referral, which would you like to receive? (Be honest)!
I’ve been blogging for the last almost year and a half and in that time, advancements and opportunities that have arisen from blogging have grown substantially. Blogs have been on my mind quite a bit lately, due to a project I’m working on, and I thought that since it was on my mind, I’d share some tips with you.
Consider adding audio to your blog: We all have 5 senses- sight, hearing, taste, touch, and smell. A day may come when you can experience a website with all 5 senses (I can’t wait for that day to come!), but until then, there is sight and hearing. Clean, simple, designs with easy-to read colors and appealing graphics are important for a blog, but what about sound? Something I will be adding to my website/blog soon will be audio. The service I’m checking out is Gabcast.com. Though I have an audio recording setup at home that my husband uses for his blogs, Gabcast allows you to record audio through your VOIP line. I can’t wait to try it out.
Post regularly: This is a challenge for most bloggers. Ideally, posting daily or 5 days a week is best, but if you can’t post that often, then decide how often you can and stick to it. Your readers and the search engines will love you for it.
Edit your posts: After you write your post, read it again. Ask yourself, is this really what I wanted to say? If a potential employer looks at this 10 years from now, will I lose out on a job? Then read for grammar, punctuation, etc. No one will stop reading your blog if you forget one comma, but if your posts are riddled with errors and misspellings, it will turn off your readers. If you need help with your writing, my book can teach you to self edit effectively.
Be conversational: One of the biggest challenges with bloggers is sounding conversational. Inject some of your personality and opinions, pretend you’re talking to a friend and try to connect with your reader.
More blogging tips to come!
Why is it harder to come up with a great tag line for yourself than someone else?
I’ve had a few taglines over the years:
Enhancing your productivity: Too generic and boring
Helping A-level entrepreneurs and authors meet their writing deadlines: Not very compelling
Your thoughts plus our words equals your success : Just not thrilled with that one either.
You would think that it would be easy for a writer to come up with her own tagline. People expect you to have a good one. I know someday I’ll come up with a great tagline, but in the meantime I’ll just keep thinking.
Maybe my new logo will inspire me. It’s being worked on right now to reflect the growth and change in my company. My tagline needs to do the same thing. I need something that combines one or more of these elements: I work for A-level entrepreneurs and small, progressive companies, whether it’s content editing a manuscript, ghostwriting an article, writing a blog or writing promotional materials, I enjoy getting to the heart of the matter and writing effective content. The next thing is my company has grown into The Hidden Helpers, and I want my clients to know I have a virtual workforce, and it’s not just me, so I need to start presenting myself that way.
If anyone has a great idea for a tagline for me, please post it here. If I choose your submission, I’ll send you a free gift!