The end of 2009 is approaching very quickly. If you are like most small business owners, you have started to create or already created a plan for 2010.  Here are few suggestions on how to best finish out 2009  in order to start 2010 a step ahead of your competition.

Taxes are Coming!  Does the thought of dealing with the IRS overwhelm you?  If you are like a lot of small business owners, the answer is a resounding YES.  Below are a few steps you can follow to make you feel you are in control of the process:

INVOICES – Make Sure All Invoices have been Sent

TRANSACTIIONS – Have you recorded all of your transactions including:       

1. Credit Card Charges
2. Cash, Check or Debit Payments
3. Receipts
4. eBay, PayPal Receipts and Payments

BANK ACCOUNTS– Reconcile Your Bank Accounts even if you utilize Online banking, this is a good time of year  review your accounts.   Be sure to check bank fees and records, banks aren’t always as accurate as you might hope.

MILEAGE- Can you deduct Mileage?  You need to know the answer to this question.  In most cases, you can deduct $0.55 per mile for trips to clients or meetings.  A daily commute doesn’t qualify but, for a lot of people, this deduction can add up.

EXPENSES – Make Sure all Expenses and/or Income is categorizes is important.  Taking the time to categorize Expenses, in particular, can make a distinctive difference in your allowable deductions.  If you have questions about how to categorize an Expense so it can be used as a deductible expense on your Schedule C, ask a professional or hire a bookkeeper.

W-9’s – Be sure to obtain all W-9 information for any contractor’s you’ve paid in 2009.  1099’s are due January 31^st.

PROFIT AND LOSS – Review, Review and Review.  Make sure everything is recorded accurately.  Try to remember all of the details and make sure they are included.   Do you have receipts in your car?  Did you have a friend do some consulting for you business?  What about a services swap?  All of these need to be included.  Again, ask a professional or hire a bookkeeper to answer any questions about what needs to be included.

ESTIMATED TAXES – Make sure your 4^th Quarter (and, if necessary, all other quarters) payment is submitted by January 15^th.  The IRS expects that your 4^th quarter payment will bring you current with at least 90% of your taxes due for the year.

BUDGET– Create a realistic budget based on 2009’s actual numbers and your goals for 2010.

What about growing your business in 2010?  Do you have a marketing plan in place for next year?  What about finishing up 2009?  Here are a few simple Online Marketing Tools to increase your visibility:\

SOCIAL MEDIA NAME/PROFILE - Reserve your chosen Social Media Name/Profile on the most popular sites.  Even if you are not utilizing social media at this time, it is a good idea to create a basic profile on each of the most popular sites.  You can check your name availability at:  http://knowem.com/

1. Twitter – http://twitter.com
2. Facebook – http://Facebook.com
3. YouTube – http://YouTube.com
4. Delicious – http://delicious.com
5. Digg – http://Digg.com

LISTED – Make sure you are listed on:

1. Yahoo Directory – http://dir.yahoo.com/
2. Open Directory – http://www.dmoz.org/
3. Business.com – http://www.business.com/
4. Best of the Web – http://botw.org/

GOOGLE ALERTS – Setup Google Alerts to manage your online reputation.  http://www.google.com/alerts/

MAP LISTINGS – Claim your Map Listing –              

1. Google:  http://maps.google.com/ – If you aren’t listed, setup a listing at: https://www.google.com/accounts/
2. Yahoo:  http://local.yahoo.com/ – If you aren’t listed, setup a listing at:  http://listings.local.yahoo.com/
3. Bing:  http://www.bing.com/maps/ – If you aren’t listed, setup a listing at: https://ssl.bing.com/listings/ListingCenter.aspx

WEBSITE/BLOG – Clean Up any Broken Links on your own website or blog

Obviously, these are not comprehensive lists but I hope I’ve provided a good beginning to start you on the process of growing your business in 2010.

No related posts.

http://sophiezo.com/twitter-really-is-about-building-relationships-and-i%e2%80%99m-thankful-for-all-my-followers

Related posts:

1. Are you ignoring the potential of a Facebook Page? – Guest Blog Post on SophieZo’s Blog

http://www.socialtechzone.com/wordpress/social-networks/virtual_assistant/

Related posts:

1. Could you be growing your business with a Virtual Assistant?
2. Could you be growing your business with a Virtual Assistant? Part Two.
3. Are you ignoring the potential of a Facebook Page? – Guest Blog Post on SophieZo’s Blog

http://www.sophiezo.com/guest-blogger-jodi-crosby-smartvaforu-are-you-ignoring-the-potential-of-a-facebook-page

1. What Can Hiring a Social Media Virtual Assistant Do For Your Business? – Guest Post on The Social Techzone
2. Friends Lists on Facebook
3. Twitter Really Is About Building Relationships and I’m Thankful for All My Followers

This morning I was on a training call with @Janice_Clark of Business Mom.Net and Team Double Click and other small business owners talking about creating content to promote our businesses. Some of the questions we discussed were:

A) What is content?
B) What do you need to know before you start creating content?
C) Who are you?
D) What you are all about?
E) Who are your competitors?
F) What are they all about?
G) What differentiates you from your competitors?
H) Who are you customers/clients/partners?
I) Where do they spend their time?
And Last, but not least!
J) What can you do to make that customer say, “WOW, you can do that?”

I’ll get back to those questions in a bit. Later in the day, I was online doing some reading and ran across this Set of Design Guidelines for Homepage Usability. At first I thought I was reading about a different subject entirely. However, as I read the guidelines, I realized that they had a lot in common with what we discussed earlier in the day. I’d like to provide you with what I took out of both situations as the truly important information.

1) Know Who You Are and What You Want to Provide – This is critical to success. Understanding your strengths and weaknesses and likes and dislikes is key to being happy and making your business flourish. Define exactly what services you want to offer. Recognize what sets you apart from your competition and make sure this is communicated in your content. Most of all, find something that you can do to make your clients understand that difference.

2) Provide Value – In order to provide value, you must understand your audience.

• Who do you want as partners in business? You must be specific about your target audience. Specifying a niche is a great start but what about digging deeper? Do you want to work with Small Businesses? Great, where to from here? Narrow it down even further. Solo-Entrepreneurs, Women, Men, Technology, Work At Home Moms, Online Retail, Marketing Consultants. I know this is hard to do when you are first starting out. You might even take jobs outside of this target market.  However, if you keep the goal in mind when creating content, the people you are trying to reach will hear you.
• How do you provide value? Think about what your target audience needs? What is creating their pain? Can you help? If so, show them what you can do to alleviate their troubles. If you can’t help directly, provide them with information that could help them find a solution. Think about what makes you read what other people write. Offering helpful ideas will allow you to stay connected while you figure out how to best help them with their needs.

Make it Easy for your target audience to find what they need –

• Once you have a clear understanding of who is your target audience, find out where you can “talk” to them. Are you interested in the small business owners who already have an online presence and understand technology? Then you need to be on the social networking sites. What about if you are targeting authors? Then you need to be at book signings, online at the many bibliophile forums and sites. ]
• When creating content make sure to include contact information, offer different ways to open communications lines. Include other options to “follow” you or find out more information about you and your business.

I learned a lot today and I will be using it all towards bettering myself and helping others be successful.

Here are ways you can contact me:

Smart Virtual Assistant For You
Woodburn, OR 97071
email: jodicrosby@smartvaforu.com
Phone: 503-597-VA4U (8248)

http://www.twitter.com/SmartVAForU
http://www.smartvaforu.com/Blog/
http://www.linkedin.com/in/jodicrosby
http://www.facebook.com/SmartVAforU
http://www.gist.com/SmartVAforU

Related posts:

1. Working Through Mental Blocks

A few months ago I decided to make the changes needed to take Smart Virtual Assistant For You to the next level.  It has been a roller coaster ride.  I’m sure any small business owner understands this feeling.  Over the months since this decision was made, I’ve been doing everything an entrepreneur is told to do to make their business successful.  My previous marketing experience has become a key component to growing my business.  One thing I’ve been doing is utilizing Social Media to connect with friends, colleagues and even acquaintances from my past.  It’s a fun experience connecting with people that you’ve lost touch with from your past.  I’m amazed how many people are excited to re-connect.   Since my business is a service business almost everyone has an idea of what I’m offering.  However, once you get into the details, they are astounded at all of the services that can be offered through a virtual partnership.  The social media connections I’ve made have lead to many exciting leads.  However, I’ve learned a few lessons from the social media experience. 

1. Connecting is about finding people you can help and people who can help you.  A lot of businesses are using social media to connect to as many people as possible.  This has not been my intent when utilizing social media.  My goal is to find a few influential people whom I can partner with towards a common goal.  The goal could be marketing our businesses together.  It could be finding a way to make a client’s business run smoother and more efficiently.  It could even be to create something that makes this world a better place.  There are so many opportunities to make connections with other people and in the process grow your business.  During this progression, almost everybody learns a few lessons along the way.
2. Blogging is a wonderful opportunity for educating.  The main reason I started a blog was to provide a resource for potential partners to gain education about small businesses.  My hope is to explain how a virtual assistant can help them get back to doing what they love.  The most important aspect of a good blog is credibility and/or trustworthiness.   Selling in every post will not build these ideas.  A blog needs to be personal and find a way to connect with its readers.   Once a reader understands exactly what you are trying to provide and believes that you are trying to help them, they will keep coming back to see what information you are providing.
3. Growing a business by utilizing social media is about embracing change while thinking long term.  Listening to your audience and adjusting is critical.  It is critical to understand that ultimate success depends on building a successful strategy for participation and support.  A strong strategy includes resisting the urge to react to a situation and instead strive for focused clarity.  Quick responses are sometimes necessary in the social media world.   Try to make sure even your quickest reply takes into account your long term goals.
4. Try new tactics and analyze the results so you can be sure you understand what works and what doesn’t.   Opportunities abound right now for experimentation with social media tactics.  There are new tools being introduced every day.   Not long after each new tool appears a way to measure it usefulness is developed.   After you write your blog, do you track your activity through Google analytics?  What about impact?  Each business needs to find a way to measure and communicate their effectiveness in creating the right message.

The basic premise of what I’ve learned is:  Social Media and any marketing program shouldn’t be about selling but about making connections.  Listening to your potential and current partners in business is critical.  Interact with your connections to see if a strong partnership can be formed from this connection.

Related posts:

1. What Can Hiring a Social Media Virtual Assistant Do For Your Business? – Guest Post on The Social Techzone
2. Could you be growing your business with a Virtual Assistant?
3. Could you be growing your business with a Virtual Assistant? Part Two.

In the last post we defined a virtual assistant and asked the question “Could you be growing your business with a virtual assistant?”.   Entrepreneurs’ understand the value and importance of working on growing their business but sometimes the day to day tasks involved in running a business get in the way.  Also, small business owners feel like they must handle it “ALL” themselves, when an expert could complete the project more efficiently and with advanced skill and knowledge. 

Let’s talk about exactly what a virtual assistant can do for you.  What can you delegate to someone else?  The tasks that are most often delegated are:

• Tasks that do not require a lot of thought involvement
• Repetitive Tasks
• Tasks that do NOT require your Expertise to complete
• Tasks you may not like to do
• Scheduled items

As you can see, a Virtual Assistant can help you with just about any aspect of your daily business process. 

Virtual Assistants usually choose an area of focus, such as:

• Customer Support
• Reception
• Marketing
• Topic/Information Research
• Cold Calling
• Warm Calling
• Writing
• Bookkeeping
• Accounting
• Web Design
• Graphic Design
• General Administrative Assistant
• Executive Administrative Assistant
• Real Estate Administrative Assistant
• Medical Administrative Assistant
• Legal Administrative Assistant
• Administrative Assistant for Authors
• Administrative Assistant for Coaches

So, what do you do that could be delegated to an assistant.  Here are a few suggestions of items your virtual assistant could be doing for you:

• General word processing and transcription, including mail merges from printing  and mailing to dictation, meeting minutes, agendas, proofreading and business correspondence, proposals, manuscripts, manuals, catalogues, forms, speeches, handouts, surveys
• Create, proof & prepare documents, manuals and employee handbooks
• Create PowerPoint presentations
• Convert PDF documents to Word version
• Coordinate and facilitate logistics for travel & teleconferences, including agendas, handouts, and presentation materials
• Creating electronic v-cards from hard copy business cards
• Filing labels, binder cover/spine labels, etc.
• Scan printed and color documents into PDF, Word or picture-supported formats
• Web Research and internet data collection, including marketing research
• Calendar management; appointment scheduling, set up conference calls
• Updating Contact Databases 
• Email Management 
• Customer Service/Order Processing

 Financial

• Provide QuickBooks data entries for bills, invoices, etc.
• Process all international and domestic expense reports
• Build efficient and effective spreadsheets
• Excel data entry
• Financial Report Generation
• Bank Reconciliation
• Notary Public in Oregon

Desktop Publishing

• Desktop publishing (newsletters, flyers, brochures, business cards, coupons)
• Create visually-friendly restaurant menus and flyers
• Produce eye-catching salon coupons and brochures to attract clients
• Personalized CD/DVD labels
• Business card design and creation

 Online Presence

• Keyword Research
• Online Ad Posting
• Website Maintenance
• Blog Posting & Maintenance
• Set Up, Customization and Maintenance of Social Media Networking Profiles
• Recommendations for use of Social Media for Marketing
• Linkedin
• Facebook
• Twitter
• MySpace
• YouTube
• Flickr
• Biznik
• Delicious
• Stumbleupon
• Set Up and maintain a presence on Industry Specific Forums

The next question is, of course, do I have the budget for an assistant?  

When hiring a Virtual Assistant there is no such thing as down time because a virtual assistant only bills for the exact time spent working on your project.  You don’t pay for lunch hours, sick leave, or vacation.  There’s no need to supply a virtual assistant with a computer or other expensive office equipment because a professional virtual assistant operates a fully functional home office. As an independent contractor, a virtual assistant handles their own taxes and benefits. There is no additional cost to you beyond the actual rate at which you contract your virtual service provider.

When you partner with a virtual assistant, you’re cutting overhead and increasing productivity because a VA works for you only if and when you require it. And, because a virtual assistant is skilled in providing virtual administrative services there is no training period, so you have more time for your own clients

 In most cases, the real question is Can you afford Not to partner with a Virtual Assistant? 

The next step is finding a virtual assistant that matches your style, understands your requirements and has the skills to fulfill your needs.  As your relationship with any virtual assistant will be “virtual” by definition, it is important to have a phone conversation to discuss your styles, your needs and for your to find out how the virtual typically works.  This discussion should include:

How you like to communicate – email, phone, instant message, Skype, text

• When is a good time to communicate?
• How often you desire communication?
• Do you want daily reports? 
• What a report should include.

Making the decision to partner with a virtual assistant is an efficient use of your dollar.  A virtual assistant can help you get back to doing what you got into business to do in the first place.  The goal is to catapult your business to the next level.

Please let Smart Virtual Assistant for You help you get back to doing what you love.  If you have questions about our services and pricing, please see our Services page.
Smart Virtual Assistant for You
1278 Mayanna Drive
Woodburn, OR 97071
email: jodicrosby@smartvaforu.com
Phone: 503-597-VA4U (8248)

http://smartvaforu.com

http://companies.to/smartvaforuv

http://www.twitter.com/SmartVAForU

http://www.linkedin.com/in/jodicrosby

Related posts:

1. Could you be growing your business with a Virtual Assistant?
2. What Can Hiring a Social Media Virtual Assistant Do For Your Business? – Guest Post on The Social Techzone
3. Lessons from a Growing Small Business-Social Media Connections

Do you need to be doing everything yourself? 

Or could you grow your business and get back to doing what you love?  One of the discoveries I find when talking with an entrepreneur about their business is that they are having a tough time spending enough time marketing and growing their business.  They understand the value of marketing and want to make the time.  However, they are simply trying to do it “ALL”  by themselves.  They are busy running their business and are not working ON their business.

Do you spend all of your time on the little stuff? 

I understand owning your own business requires wearing a lot of hats.  When leaving behind the “job” working for someone else, most small business entrepreneurs think they must work completely solo.  The business owner feels they must do everything, including the tasks they aren’t really good at completing.

How much time does it take a professional to design a website?  How much time does it take a small business owner who has no experience with website design?  What about designing brochures, writing sales copy, processing orders, managing mailing lists, responding to every email and phone call and so much more.  Before they know it, they are spending all of their time taking care of daily tasks and not out pursuing new business or talking with current customers to get additional business. 

What eventually happens is their love for their work, the reason they started their own business in the first place, drowns in a flood of administrative tasks.  One morning they wake up and they have lost that passion and positive creative energy. 

When this happens a true entrepreneur looks for someone to take care of all that “busy work” so they can get back to doing what they love!    This is where a Virtual Assistant can come to the rescue! 

The official description of a Virtual Assistant is:

“Virtual Assistants (VAs) are independent entrepreneurs providing professional administrative, creative, managerial, technical, business office and/or personal support services. Virtual office assistants use the most advanced means of communication, and the newest and most efficient and time-saving office products and work delivery, regardless of geographic boundaries. Virtual Assistants work from their own offices, on a contractual basis, and abide by an established Code of Ethics requiring integrity, honesty and due diligence.”
~The Alliance for Virtual Business

In our next blog post, we will explain:

1)  What Can Be Delegated to a VA?

2)  Are you worried you don’t have the budget for VA?  A description of how a VA works for you and only get’s paid for their actual time.

3)  How to find a VA that matches your needs and style.

Here is a suggestion for the next few days:  Keep a log of all of your activities.  After our next blog post, you can review the list and determine what truly needs to be done by you and what tasks you can delegate.

Thank you for following the blog!  Here are ways you can contact me directly:

Email: jodicrosby@smartvaforu.com
Phone: 503-597-VA4U (8248)
http://companies.to/smartvaforu
http://smartvaforu.com/Blog/

Related posts:

1. Could you be growing your business with a Virtual Assistant? Part Two.
2. What Can Hiring a Social Media Virtual Assistant Do For Your Business? – Guest Post on The Social Techzone
3. Working Through Mental Blocks

TAXES:  If you have not filed your taxes, Oh no, you are late.  What? Didn’t we do that back in April? Not so if you got an extension.  Your return was due on Wednesday, October 15.  If you are self employed you need to get this done. 

FSA:  Use remaining flexible spending account money.  Spend it now instead of waiting until the end of the year.  It is one less thing you’ll need to do around the end of the year. 

RETIREMENT:   Increase retirement contributions.  We are all seeing our retirements take a dip.  Why not add some more money while the market is on sale?  Increase your savings rate by 1% and it will help offset some of the losses. 

HOLIDAY GIFTS:  Make your gift giving list now.  Get a jump start on your holiday shopping.  Watch for items on sale. 

HOLIDAY BUDGET:  Make a budget for the holidays.  Enjoy a simple Holiday with a well planned budget.  You’ll save yourself money and stress. 

VEHICLES:   Winterize your motors.  Take care of any motors that won’t be used… boats, cycles, etc.  Look into insurance savings options if the vehicle will not be driven and placed in storage for the winter.

FRUGAL FUN:  Enjoy frugal activities for fall.  Apple orchards, pumpkin patches, corn mazes and harvest festivals at farms are fun, frugal, fall activities for the family. 

YARD & GARDEN SALES:   Hit the lawn sales.  Not actual yard sales, but end of season sales on stuff for your yard: lawn equipment, patio furniture, pool toys, and other summer merchandise on deep discount.

PLAN FOR 2010: Plan ahead for the new year.  Will you be one of millions to sign up for a gym membership or weight-loss plan in January?  See if you can get a cheaper price to sign up now.  In addition, the exercise will help you with holiday stress.

Thank you for following the blog!  Here are ways you can contact me directly:

Email: jodicrosby@smartvaforu.com
Phone: 503-597-VA4U (8248)
http://companies.to/smartvaforu
http://smartvaforu.com/Blog/

No related posts.

Are you trying to start a business? Find the best way to market your small business? Figure out how to get your daily tasks completed while still have time for marketing your business, time for family, time for yourself? All of these problems/tasks can be solved. How do you make the changes necessary to accomplish all of these tasks? It all comes down to a different perspective.

The hardest thing for all of us to realize is that we can be creative all the time. We set up the blocks ourselves by creating imaginary limits for ourselves. How do you break out of this type of thinking? I use a list I found from Brian Clark @ copyblogger. It helps me remember that the barriers to a new idea are all in my head and I can break through them.

List of ways we create blocks to suppress our creativity:
1) Trying to find the “Right” answer: We are taught in school that there is one right answer for a question. In real life issues are ambiguous. There is often more than one “correct” answer to any question. Sometimes, the second or third solution you come up with is better than the first. Try to ask the question in several different ways. Every new question can provide you with a different answer to the question.

2) Destroying the rules can help you find a solution. When following others “Rules” ask yourself “why” or “why not”. This is difficult because most people defend their “Rules” even if it is obvious those “Rules” are making them successful.  Quit worshipping rule breakers and start breaking some rules.

3) Utilize Play to help you think of a creative solution to that nagging problem.   Play doesn’t have to happen only when you are away from work.  Try to use the mindset of “play” when thinking through how to market your business.

4) Is everything Black and White?  Believing it is can lead to disaster.  Embracing ambiguity is the way to differentiate yourself from most of the crowd.

5) What if I’m Wrong? We all hate to be wrong. We all know of stories where people who were wrong again and again finally succeed beyond their wildest dreams. What is different about these individuals? They keep trying and they give themselves the “ok” to be wrong.

“Acknowledge that you’re inherently creative, and then start tearing down the other barriers you’ve allowed to be created in your mind.” Brian Clark

If you need help breaking down these blocks, give me a call. We can work together to come up with creative ways to accomplish your tasks, so you can get back to doing what you love.

Thank you for following the blog! Here are ways you can contact me directly:

Email: jodicrosby@smartvaforu.com
Phone: 503-597-VA4U (8248)
http://companies.to/smartvaforu
http://smartvaforu.com/Blog/

Related posts:

1. Could you be growing your business with a Virtual Assistant?
2. Could you be growing your business with a Virtual Assistant? Part Two.
3. Creating Content with Purpose and for Usability