Today’s Quote: New frameworks are like climbing a mountain …the larger view encompasses rather than reject the more restricted view. – Albert Einstein
Welcome to another episode of the podcast that teaches you how to be a ridiculously good virtual assistant.
Today I am going to talk about the importance of having frameworks set up in your VA business that foster growth and profit. When you follow a system or strategy, you will see more success.
Click the play button above to tune in, or choose your favourite podcast player below:
Connect with Tracey D’Aviero, VA Coach and Trainer
Episode Notes:
If you Google the word framework in relation to business, you are going to see a whole bunch of colored images and matrices that come up.
There are many, many official or famous frameworks that you can use in business.
Porters, Hamrick and Frederickson’s etc.
But you know me by now … I don’t want to confuse and complicate things for you.
I want you to consider your business, but find you simple solutions that you can easily implement.
Because if you don’t implement what I teach you in your business, then you will not be any further ahead next week than you are today.
The most important thing for me is that you get better at what you do. That’s why I teach you!
So let’s talk about really simple frameworks … three of them, that I think will be pretty easy for you to implement, that will make real differences in your business.
There are so many structures you can set up in your business, and I think when you start to strategize in that way, things get simpler. Things get clearer.
Here are the three that I think are pretty important for Virtual Assistants.
Framework 1 – Organization
Framework 2 – Pricing and Rates
Framework 3 – Connections
Organization
When we talk about being organized as a VA, it impacts both our clients and our own business.
We need to create processes, workflows, best practices, terms, policies,and those all fit under the framework of organization.
The more decisions we make around how things need to work, the better we can plan for the flow of everything through our business.
From business foundations to revenue and expenses to promotions and marketing to client acquisition and retention and more.
Begin at the beginning. Business plan. Do one. Answer all the questions. If you don’t know the answer to a question, it’s time to make a decision on it.
Know how you will earn revenue. Choose what you need to run in expenses to run your business well. Determine how your will market your business and where you will find clients. Repeat this process daily or weekly or monthly to get new clients regularly.
I’m not going to teach you how to do that today. You can learn to do that by taking my Getting Started as a VA Self Study, or in The Virtual Vault training membership.
Put plans in place to nurture clients and work well. Keep your training up to grow with them.
It is really simple to set up systems and make decisions around how all of it runs when you see it as a framework.
Pricing and Rates
The second framework needs to be how you charge clients for your services.
Your revenue is one of the most important things you can decide upon in your business. The amount of money you bring in has to support absolutely everything else you do.
It’s about your value and expertise of course but it is also about really knowing why your services are priced the way they are.
How do we do that? By creating processes and a framework for costing our services, and setting all of our rates based on that framework.
You need to create deliverable pricing. I’m not going to teach you how to do that, you can check that out in The Virtual Vault training membership.
When you are quoting your rates to clients, the more confident you are, the more confident they are. And having a framework to do the math is essential to give you that confidence.
No more discounting rates for larger clients, no more billing by the hour, or minute, no more negotiating or bartering.
Set your rates. Do the math. Confidently quote clients. Sign clients.
Connections
The last framework you need to set up is your connections.
In order to build your business, whether it is from day one or day one thousand, you need to be making connections.
Talking to business people every single day is an important part of growing your business, but it’s going to be much more effective if you are following a structure.
It will also take you less time when you are focused on a particular strategy.
Figure out where your people are. Spend time with them.
Figure out what to say to them. Say it often.
Figure out who can refer clients to you, and who you can refer clients to. Do that as often as you can.
I’m not going to teach you how to talk to people today. You can learn to do that in my mastermind group The Virtual Circle.
Follow up. With everyone. All the time.
These are general rules of course. Your framework will be built around deciding what your steps are for your VA business.
Even if you don’t want to have 100 clients, you want all of your clients to be the best clients you can have.
Strive for excellence with all of your frameworks.
Organization: onboarding, planning, work flows, client care. Do the actual best you can do at all of this and you will excel, stand out, and get noticed.
Pricing and Rates: get crystal clear on what to charge and how many clients you need to earn what you need to earn. Do the actual best you can do at this and you will already be doing better than at least 70% of all of the other VAs out there.
Connections: get crystal clear on who your people areand where you can connect with them every day. Do the actual best you can do at this and you will get clients.
Are these frameworks simple? Yes.
They are complex, but as I always say, if you were tasked with doing this setup for a client, you would hit the ground running and get it done.
So do yourself the same courtesy and so it for yourself too.
Start with the most important one #1 – it is the simplest one, Organization – Do you have room for improvement? Do you have any of it done yet? Be ready to make decisions. Fast. And move on to the next thing. You can always update the details later, but get it done now.
Then go to the #2 Pricing – set or change your rates immediately to start making a profit today. Start documenting your task processes right now. Every time you do something, document it. It does not have to be fancy, just done, and timed. This may take a little while longer but doing it every time you do a task makes time for it. Then start to set your deliverable pricing.
Finally do #3 – Connections – when you have the other two frameworks set up, the third is easy. You in fact need to have made all of those other decisions before you can explode your connections and networking.
So get at it!
Create your framework, use it, and watch your VA business explode!
Need Some Help?
This is exactly what I help VAs do. As a VA coach and trainer, I help you set yourself up for success, helping you fix whatever is going wrong in your business. When we work together either privately or in a group we talk specifically about your business and you – there is no one stop solution for everyone when it comes to service businesses like VA businesses.
I’ll help you get clarity around your issues, and cheer you on as you walk through the steps to fix them.
I’ve helped hundreds of VAs through their challenges and got them on their way to growing their business and the lifestyle that they dream of.
I’d love to do the same for you.
You can work with me privately, or you can join The Virtual Circle, my mastermind group for Virtual Assistants. Check it out at www.YourVAMentor.com/TVC (the virtual circle) – I bet it’s exactly what you need to start running the VA business you dreamed of.
Reach out to me if you are interested.
That’s all I’ve got for you this week, see you next time!