In this interview Pat discussed:

• Why an online business is one of the best means to create truly passive income
• How to use deadlines and milestones to your advantage
• How to Mindmap and draw out your entire business model
• How to cultivate the mindset needed to create smart passive income
• What realistic time frame to expect to get to smart passive income
• How to invest the time upfront to create systems that work on autopilot
• How to turn your knowledge and business expertise into a product that serves a need
• Why you need to build several passive income streams
• How to standout from your competitors
• How to get your community to trust you and buy your products and/or service
• When to automate processes and when to outsource

In his own word:

Every action you take must have a reason behind it. If you’re doing mundane work that won’t get you anywhere, what’s the point? Don’t just take action – take action that will advance yourself and your business.

Connect with Pat Flynn:

Pat is someone I have found to be genuine and teaches entrepreneurs how to create Smart Passive Income by being a resource and also someone who is willing to show you in detail how he does it!

On his website www.SmartPassiveIncome.com

On Twitter @PatFlynn

On Facebook www.FaceBook.com/smartpassiveincome

Questions for you:

• Besides creating smart passive income online what other ways this be done?
• Do you think that you can turn your business expertise into a product that meets a need? What have you done to find out that the need exists?

Visitors who read this post also read:

• Interview: Ken Robbins on Why Search Marketing is important for marketing a business online and increasing sales
• Celia Milton on Why you need to get to know your ideal clients and what makes them tick!
• Sarah Evans on How to use Public Relations and Social Media to promote your small business

So I’ll ask again: Do you trust your virtual assistants….how much do you trust them….and do they trust you? Let’s look at each one of these questions.

Do you trust your virtual assistants? Maybe you think this is an irrelevant question. After all, it’s not like virtual assistants can steal office supplies or inventory. But they can “steal” from you in other ways. For instance, if you pay your VA by the hour, he could be dishonest with the number of hours that he reports that he worked. Or if you’re hiring someone to do some writing or graphic design for you, she could demonstrate dishonesty by outsourcing this to someone else, and then turn the work, all while insisting she did it herself. Incredibly, some VA’s have even gone so far as to pad their qualifications by either lying about their previous experience or even turning in someone else’s samples and claimed that they were their own. So how about it: Do you trust your virtual assistant?

How much do you trust your virtual assistants? There are degrees of trust that matter. It’s one thing to trust a VA enough to allow them to tell you how many hours they worked. It’s quite another to trust them with the business’s confidential information. You must be very careful about giving company account information, client contact details, and trade secrets, to a VA. Never gamble; only entrust such things to someone that you know is trustworthy.

Can your virtual assistants trust you? This is just as important as whether or not you trust them. After all, you’ll never get maximum performance from a virtual assistant who doesn’t trust you. If they can’t trust you to be concerned for their interests, and to always pay what they are worth, without taking advantage of them, their motivation will wane. They’ll spend much time meditating on how you abuse them—and they might even make this public to others. The successful entrepreneur discovers early in his career the value of building loyalty among his team members, including his virtual assistants.  When a person feels like he is being rewarded for his hard work, he spends time trying to figure out how to benefit the business—and you, the owner. As soon as you shatter the trust he has in you, you shut off that flow of creativity.

Now that I’ve presented to you the challenge of building trust, let’s look at some solutions. First, of all, you need to realize that you build trust with for your virtual assistant over time and here are three strategies that you can incorporate that will allow you to begin the process of trusting your virtual assistants:

• Screen them well before hiring them. This prevents a whole host of problems. Part of this screening process should be having a conversation with the VA and asking what their policies are about keeping your sensitive material confidential. Also in this conversation, try to get references so that you can find out from former clients if the person has ever betrayed someone’s trust.
• Include a confidentiality clause in their contract. Make it crystal clear that if they divulge sensitive materials to someone outside of the company, they will be terminated, and possibly face a civil lawsuit.
• Set up an online time-clock and project management program. While you don’t necessarily have to dictate their hours, this will at least call their attention to the fact that you are monitoring how much they’re working on your project. Do a Google or Bing search on “online time-clock.” You can also make use of project management software (preferably an online one) so that they can enter in details of what tasks they are working on for you and each milestone they have completed. This is help to build trust with your virtual assistant and also gives you a means to verify their work; hence “Trust but Verify.”

So how can your Virtual Assistant trust you? Again trust is a two way street and I won’t be finished with this blog post until I talk about how you can get your virtual assistant to trust you more. One of the best ways to do this is to ask them questions about your business and really listen; their opinion is valuable. They are the ones who get the work done and they might just have a better way to complete the tasks, hence allow them to use their initiative. Try being less formal; call them by their first name instead of last. Send an email occasionally just to check up on them personally, with no work-related discussion. Be generous with your praise; everyone like to be encouraged, so whenever they do an outstanding job tell them that you like it and why. As they see you taking an interest in them, they will start to trust you more.

Questions for you:

• What is the one thing that would make you not trust a virtual assistant?
• How have you built trust for those whom you currently have working for you?

Visitors who read this post also read:

• How to Maintain Privacy and Security on projects that you Outsource to a Virtual Assistant
• How the iPhone 4, combined with Skype and Virtual Assistants just made business Video Conferencing mobile, easier and awesome!
• Great News! Here is a new Video Testimonial from Mark Shandrow on Hiring Virtual Assistants from us

Marketing online also presents its own unique set of challenges because it seems something new pops up every minute and you have to always play “catch up with new technology”. To me one of the time tested means of marketing on the internet is Search Based Marketing hence I interviewed Ken Robbins from Response Mine Interactive because I wanted to learn from the expert why online search marketing is still a viable means for getting the word out about a business.

In this interview Ken discussed:

• How to use search marketing to get your desired results
• Why you need to build a sales funnel for handling the leads that you get from search based marketing
• The various types of search marketing companies and why those who use the “pay for performance” model are best to work with
• The different way of Marketing on the internet and how to use them for your business
• The difference between marketing to consumers and marketing to businesses
• How to build relationships with businesses when marketing B2B
• Why you need pay attention to research data and how to make use of it when implementing search marketing

In his own words:

Internet/search marketing is more cost effective than branding or other forms of traditional marketing. Most of today’s leads are found on the internet and online lead generation offers small businesses the opportunity to create powerful customer acquisition channels that position them for success. Internet marketing helps small businesses convert their web traffic to qualified leads and sales which is the real leverage in their marketing model. Online marketing increases customers, sales and the efficiency of small businesses’ marketing over time, thus increasing their profits.

Connect with Ken Robbins:

Ken is the president of Response Mine Interactive a company that specializes in helping small business owners acquire more customers

On his website www.ResponseMine.com

On Twitter @kenrobbins

Questions for you:

• What are you currently doing to market your business online using search based marketing?
• What issues do small business owners need to be aware of when looking for a company to implement search marketing on their behalf?

Visitors who read this post also read:

• Interview: Pat Flynn on How to create Smart Passive Income for your business
• Celia Milton on Why you need to get to know your ideal clients and what makes them tick!
• Sarah Evans on How to use Public Relations and Social Media to promote your small business

The need for privacy and protection of intellectual property is a big deal to all businesses regardless of their size and it becomes even more pronounced once you make the decision to outsource. If you are not careful, you might run the risk of jeopardizing your clients’ and customers’ privacy. Already, there have a been a few high-profile cases in the past few years of this happening. You must see this as an excuse not to outsource but instead put in place systems that ensure that your clients and customers’ data is secure. Even as you hire virtual assistants to help with your business, you must never compromise these records and confidential data.

The following are some minimal standards that should be followed with any customer / client data that you hand off to virtual assistants:

• Stamp or otherwise mark documents as “Confidential”. This at least serves as notice that you consider it an extreme breach of professional protocol for one of your virtual assistants to be careless with the information.
• Provide clear directives to every virtual assistant regarding confidential business information and trade secrets through confidentiality agreements, as well as printing them in your company handbook.
• Limit knowledge of sensitive information to virtual assistant on a “need to know” basis.
• Create and institute password entry for computer files which contain sensitive information. Change these passwords frequently. For instance, if a virtual assistant only needs to work on a confidential file for one day, give her a password for that day only, and then change the pass code.
• Make use of non-disclosures. Only share information with virtual assistants, business associates and vendors through well-designed non-disclosure contracts.
• Keep all data backups secure from external manipulation. Unless you know of a specific reason why a virtual assistant must have access to that backup, do not grant it to him.
• Track user access to sensitive data so that you always know when a virtual assistant accesses it.
• Set up a firewall for your virtual assistant. Before your virtual assistant ever works with your company data, make sure that they are protecting it with their own computer firewall.

Protect & Secure. Seriously!

So what’s the reason for this blog post? Even though I know I have not fully exhausted all the ways you can ensure privacy and security when you outsource, my goal with this blog post is to start the conversation in your mind because almost every business has confidential information; even the mom-and-pop diner down the street does. They likely have credit card information, and even if they don’t take credit cards, they probably have addresses and phone numbers of customers from their checks. Hence, it’s hard to imagine a situation where you will outsource any kind of work to anyone without informing them of your confidentiality policies. In fact, a detailed confidentiality and non-disclosure agreement should be a part of the paperwork that you require them to sign before beginning your working relationship with them. Contained in this agreement should be a description of what information is considered sensitive, policies regarding how they should deal with that information, and, just as important, the penalty if they should be careless with that information. And normally, that penalty should be a termination of their relationship with the virtual assistant or outsourcing provider company.

One last ugly point to mention: If you ever find out that a customer’s or client’s information has been divulged to someone who should not have it, you owe it to that person to tell them immediately. Imagine if it were you, I am sure you will want to know as soon as it happens (I know I will!). Do it so that they can then take the necessary measures to minimize any damages. You owe them that much!

Questions for you:

• Who should suffer the consequences if a virtual assistant compromises customer information: the business or the VA?
• Why does it seem businesses are so careless with customer information?

Visitors who read this post also read:

• Trust is a Two-Way Street; Why you need trust to work successfully with Virtual Assistants
• 7 Tips on How to Mind Map your Business Ideas and Create Systems
• The IRS says “No Blurring Allowed Between Employee and Virtual Assistant”

During the interview I learned how important it is to become crystal clear on the personality of your business and how to communicate to your potential clients the benefits of your products and/or services to them – bearing in mind that what you do is not for everyone, hence it’s of utmost importance that you know who your ideal clients are and why you are the best person to provide them with the solutions that they are looking for.

In her own words:

I owned a catering business with my ex husband/business partner, and we had a tremendous business for 18 years. When he passed, in 2008, I knew I couldn’t continue that business. I became a wedding Officiant, and less than two years later, I have the practice I always dreamed about! I officiate for over 100 couples a year, I work from my home office, and I love about 98% of my work life.

Tips for overcoming business challenges

Decide who you are; become crystal clear on what personality your business will take on and how you will communicate that to your potential clients.

Be unique, be special, be niche; Try something completely silly, get noticed for being unique.

Profile your ideal client; know who they are, what they want, how they search, why they buy. You cannot be everything to everyone. You need to be everything to that target client. Have fun with it. If you don’t love your business, no one else will either.

Network enthusiastically with the other person’s needs in mind; Always ask yourself what you can do for them, not what they can do for you.

Follow up on your networking; don’t just take a card and hope. Genuinely take an interest in that person’s business and talents.

Deliver as close to perfection as you can; more if that’s possible. Become a partner with your client. Be on the same side of the table.

Connect with Celia Milton:

Celia officiate weddings mostly for people who do not have a particular church affiliation and want their wedding to be fun and upbeat!

On her website www.CeliaMilton.com

Call her @ (201) 563-5544

Question for you:

What steps have you taken to get to know your ideal clients and how have you gotten them to understand the benefits of your products and/or services even though your price might be higher than your competition?

Visitors who read this post also read:

• Interview: Pat Flynn on How to create Smart Passive Income for your business
• Interview: Ken Robbins on Why Search Marketing is important for marketing a business online and increasing sales
• Sarah Evans on How to use Public Relations and Social Media to promote your small business