Are You Ready for a VA?

I’m A New Coach. How Would a VA Assist Me?

This is one of our most common questions and one of the biggest problems that new coaches have to face. Throughout coach training, you heard that you need a VA to help you with your new practice. However, you didn’t understand what that meant. Maybe the following questions crossed your mind:

1. How do I get my coaching business up and running with a VA? Or without?
2. What would a VA be looking for from me? Am I ready for a VA?
3. What do I want from my VA? What should I be looking for?
4. What other systems, applications, or processes do I need?
5. Will a VA be worth my money and time investment right now?

In this article, we will explore Question #2.

What Would a VA Be Looking For From Me? Am I Ready for a VA?

THINK ABOUT YOUR CURRENT RELATIONSHIPS: Look at your friends and family members that you cherish. What types of people are they? What about them is attractive to you? If you had to describe their qualities to someone else, what would you say? On the flip side, what do your friends and family say about your qualities that are attractive? If they had to say only one good thing about you what would it be? Remember that YOUR ideal VA will be attracted to you if presented correctly.

Have you ever watched the show “Bringing Home Baby”? Well, the new parents are chronicled as they make the transition into parenthood, bringing home their new baby. The first week of their life is shared across America from their joy down to their sleepless nights. Those of us who are mothers know that no one can truly be ‘ready’ for a new baby. Each one is slightly different. The same is true about being ready for a VA. You could have the funds to afford a VA and not be ready to handle the relationship. Or you could be ready for the relationship but not able to afford the commitment.

Another good way to get answers to these questions is to join us on August 18 from 5:00 – 6:00 PM Eastern for our next Keys to Success Call: Am I Ready for a VA. On this call, we will discuss some critical steps to take before you work with a VA.

Your facilitator will be Kim Gray, our Certified VA liaison. She has been piloting our newest program, the Inner Circle, with a select group of new and emerging coaches. This pilot group has produced some amazing results and given her some valuable feedback. By attending the call, you will learn about our next Inner Circles scheduled to start in September.

Next month, we will address Question #3: What do I want from my VA? What should I be looking for? So, take the time to reserve your seat on August 18 for our next Keys to Success Call and learn the answer to ”Am I Ready for a VA?”. Who knows? You might be one of our next Inner Circle participants in September!

Thursday’s @ 3: Thoughts of a Successful Business Owner

Join us for our next Thursday’s @ 3 call…

The Simple Secret to Writing a Book in 30 Days, at 1 Hour a Day!
with Joel Orr

“If you are a coach, you need a book! And I will show you just how easy it is for you to produce a good one,” says Joel.

Joel Orr has written 10 books, and has created a process for writing books that is simpler than anything you’ve encountered.

He shares his method in this teleseminar. After this talk, you will:

• Know how having your own book will help you get more clients
• Know exactly what it will take for you to produce your own book (It’s a lot easier than you think!)
• Understand how it can be that a book is cheaper than a color brochure
• Grasp the impact that writing a book can have on your life and career
• Know where to go to find inexpensive printing, cover design, editing, and more

“I want to strengthen your client-attraction by showing you how a book can help–and how easily you can produce one,” says Joel.

Date: Thursday, May 13
Time: 3:00 – 4:00pm EST (Noon Pacific)

It’s absolutely FREE to attend these. You can click here to register.

About Our Expert:

Dr. Joel N. Orr is a futurist, speaker, and writer, who became a book coach, to help people produce, publish, and promote their books. “You have a book inside you, and it wants to come out!” says Orr. “I want to help you set it free!”

His trademarked BookProgram Method™ is helping dozens of new authors write books in less time than they ever dreamed possible.

Before becoming a “book midwife,” Joel established himself as a world-renowned expert in engineering automation and computer technologies. Much in demand as a keynote speaker, Joel has addressed conferences, companies, and associations around the world, often sharing the platform with speakers such as Tom Peters, George Gilder, James Malinchak, Tom Antion, Milana Leshinsky, and others.

Among Joel’s book-writing clients are Alex Mandossian; Damon Miller, MD; Chandrama Anderson, PhD; and numerous others.

Learn more about Joel at JoelTrainsAuthors.com.

Coaches Console Announces Release of Version 2010 of Their Practice Management Software for Coaches

Press Release

Roanoke, Virginia, USA-March 1st 2010

The Coaches Console® announced today the release of version 2010 of their Practice Management software, for coaches and other helping professionals.

The new version is a result of over two years of gathering feedback from their member coaches, while also researching the needs of today’s small business owners.  The release follows a year in which The Coaches Console emphasized helping coaches and other professionals achieve greater “Business Success”. This includes launching a blog called “Business Success Hub”, that provides free business advice to coaches and other business professionals, in addition to offering other business success services such as, a VA program, & free teleclasses. The system upgrade contains many upgrades, the addition of new features and an overall face-lift that will compliment this “Business Success” focus.

While The Coaches Console has focused primarily in the past on the internal, practice management aspect of running a business, the major focus on the new version is to support its members in the areas of marketing, getting new clients and overall “Business Success”.  Being able to choose from multiple website templates enables members of The Coaches Console to implement better online marketing strategies, which build their brands and generate more interest.

Another focus of the release is the upgrade and enhancements to the on-line scheduling module. Members of The Coaches Console are now able to synchronize their calendar to third-party calendars (Outlook, iCal) in a streamlined, automated manner. And the auto-sync feature has been added, enabling members to integrate their Coaches Console calendar to their smart phones and mobile devices (such as the iPhone and Android).

There are other enhancements such as more extensive international capabilities, more capabilities for clients to upload documents, materials and information relevant to the client-coach relationship and greater overall flexibility and customization capabilities.

Co-Founder and President, Melinda Cohan emphasizes that the new version and Business Success Services focus on helping members “Get More Clients, Earn More Money and Make a Bigger Difference”.

You can learn more about The Coaches Console by visiting http://coachesconsole.com and their blog site: at www.businesssuccesshub.com,

Contact:

Dan Roberts

330-620-3044

dan@coachesconsole.com

15 Business Building Strategies for Coaches

During The Coaches’ Edge Extravaganza I had the pleasure of spending the day with 100 successful coaches and 18 industry leaders. Part of the day was devoted to small group networking in which we were grouped into 8-10 coaches per group.   Viki Winterton, co-founder of the Extravaganza and founder of The Coach Exchange, assigned each group to share the best business building strategies that had brought them the most success in their coaching business.

I share a few strategies for business building in this video.

Here is the collection of the Top 15 Best Business Building Strategies that were reported by each of the small groups during the Extravaganza.

1. Treat coaching like a business, not just a hobby.
2. Go with what life brings you rather than what you think it is “suppose” to look like.
3. Leverage your time and energy through creating strategic relationships.
4. Know your target market as well as your niche, they are two different things.
5. Integrate social media strategies, especially a Fan Page on Facebook.
6. Create value add products and tools that create additional revenue streams to compliment your primary services.
7. Always remember that you are not alone; you don’t have to do it all. Leverage the tools, people and resources around you to leverage your way to success.
8. Be true to yourself.
9. Create your “A-team” and use the technologies to help you do so; technologies such as e-lance.com; o-desk.com.
10. Networking. networking. networking. – get out of the house and get face-to-face with people every week.
11. Follow your passion, do what you love.
12. Create powerful conversations with prospect groups – workshops, seminars, retreats in which you can speak to many people in your target market at once.
13. Always do values driven work: values-based marketing, values-based promotions, etc.
14. Go for it!
15. Have fun!

Being one of the panel experts that was presenting later in the day on the topic of “Leveraging the Business Success Formula for Massive Success,” I was thrilled with this topic and actually a bit surprised by the results.  I had anticipated that the groups would share specific marketing strategies, specific types of networking groups, various promotions that were successful for them, or even listing the types of marketing that worked for them (print vs. word of mouth vs. public speaking, etc).  I was so thrilled to see that not only did some of the groups report on these types of tangible strategies, but the list included what I would consider to be part of the attitude or mindset of a business owner.  Creating a thriving business is not always about the strategy, the promotion or the event.  While those are vital and crucial, the mindset and attitude of the business owner is what is the fuel behind the success.

The common theme that permeated throughout the coaches and industry experts participating in The Coaches’ Edge Extravaganza was that in order to be successful doing coaching, you must treat it like a business.  This top 15 list gives a coach a hint at what that statement means.

So what have been your best business building ideas?  We’d love to hear from you. Leave a comment and let us know what has created success in your coaching business.