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Entrepreneurs who have small businesses and start-ups as well as solopreneurs and independent consultants often have one bad habit in common — we try to do everything ourselves. Yet, as one of my new Virtual Assistants recently told me, we need to know when to get out of our own way and focus our energies on the activities that make money. In my case, that focus is university marketing and communications, alumni and development communications and nonprofit and small business marketing.

Where to concentrate among all the things that come up each day is not always a simple equation — each of us must assess the tasks for maintaining or ramping up productivity in our business. However, as independents or entrepreneurs, we most juggle many things, aren’t particularly good at delegating, have a tendency to micro-manage and are reluctant to pay for something we know we can do even if it distracts our attention from what really matters.

Yet what I’ve come to learn as I study where I’m spending my time is that using VAs frees up my time to invest in my own knowledge work – the communications strategies I develop and implement for my university, nonprofit and small business clients. In other words, it takes a village!

What is a Virtual Assistant anyway? Technically a VA is an independent entrepreneur providing administrative, creative and/or technical services, according to the International Virtual Assistants Association. “Utilizing advanced technological modes of communication and data delivery, a professional VA assists clients in his/her area of expertise from his/her own office on a contractual basis” is how the IVAA describes the role.

Some of the most popular categories of VAs are those skilled at organization and maintenance (a host of clerical duties), project/meeting/event coordination, customer service and relationship building and personal assistance.  Others may have very specific expertise, such as graphic design, online research, webinar oversight, newsletters and press releases, website updates, marketing and growth management activities and social media management.

In this economy, professionals whose businesses have tanked or who have lost their jobs are becoming VAs pay the bills, stay busy and market themselves for new and more sustainable work. They are also entrepreneurs who are augmenting their own small businesses, professionals desirous of only part-time work and others otherwise known as “freelancers” or “consultants.”

Daria Steigman, whose Independent Thinking blog I follow, recently wrote about VAs for the International Association of Business Communicators. I also consulted Katie Gutierrez, founder of Assistant Match, which specializes in small businesses that are experiencing rapid growth and workload bottlenecks. Assistant Match finds the VAs and prescreens them, that in itself a major time-saver.

Here are some tips for expanding your team with VAs:

• Start with your own self-assessment. What are the priorities for your time? What are the things you can do but could delegate? What are the time-eaters that aren’t making you money but are part of doing business?
• Try out one or more people. Your VA has to be a good match with your temperament, processes (such as meeting your deadlines) and bring enough value that she/he is invaluable to maintaining and/or growing your business. It may take a few tries to find the right relationships so be prepared for that.
• Set up a time-limited test assignment to analyze the VA’s work and your investment.
• Don’t try to force fit all your needs into one VA — hire two or more for specific tasks if that makes sense to your needs, the specialties required and your operating style.
• Create a budget for your VA support, understand the parameters clearly and reevaluate the arrangement monthly. VAs typically are paid hourly, and if they are managed by an agency, billing will likely occur in 15-minute increments. Administrative support tends to be less than specialized skills such as graphic design and social media management.
• Establish performance expectations at the outset, just as you would with any professional providing a business service.

And communicate often! Out of sight does not mean out of mind in the virtual office. Employee development expert Marla Rosner has some very wise recommendations about long-distance delegation. Managing a VA is no different from managing any other assistant and requires professional courtesy, input and support, collaboration and feedback.

With fewer distractions and more efficiency, using VAs allows you to right-size your business and refocus creativity and time on what you should be doing to be successful.

Blogging fatigue set in during the second half of the summer. There’s something ancient, seasonal and even spiritual about this contemporary phenomenon, which has been amplified this year by the recession. The sages of Chinese medicine identified late summer’s heat as a real drag on activity and dispositions. In the modern era, Europeans in droves vacate their homes and countries for somewhere else in August. Here at home, Congress acknowledges its lethargy, gives up and disappears for a few weeks, or tries to… 

But it’s difficult to be purely philosophical about such cycles in 2009 when the Internet seems to have become everyone’s professional and personal salvation — and there is today no escape from the online heat, whatever the season.

Experiencing blogging and social media angst, I turned to the masters of the craft for guidance and found it, happily rather quickly, from Beth Kanter, the high-octane blogger who always says something worth reading. Sure enough, in the dog days of August, she counseled about Information Overload Awareness Day. The bullet point that really hit home was the New York Times’ article, Blogging at a Snail’s Pace.

I’ve been doing quite a bit of research lately on changes in the workforce due to the recession — facts like these, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics’ report this week:

• 14.9 million people out of work in the U.S. since the recession began in December 2007 (and still growing)
• A tripling of temporary workers since 1990 — from 1 to 3 million — and a pattern expected to reach 12 million in the next decade

It’s not hard to do the math through simple observation. People have more time on their hands, and the Internet, as we all know, has given everyone a vehicle for business and personal marketing. Yet the statistics are even more startling, as listed in a few mind-blowing nuggets: there are more than 133 million indexed blogs in Technorati, and Twitter has grown 1000% in the past year. Want more data?

Which leads back to the question at hand: What’s your Internet voice? It’s an age-old marketing challenge, traditional, social, or otherwise — what do you have to say, what’s distinctive about it, and, what’s more, when, how and to what audiences are you going to say it?

So as we regroup for the post-recession and perhaps apply some useful marketing lessons from today’s online frenzy, let’s refocus on strategy.

Why are you online? Know your strategy so you can choose the best tactics from the abundance of Internet tools:

• To engage customers? Build a relationship by listening and acting.
• Be a thought leader? Have something to say that sets you apart.
• Express yourself? Enjoy and create. (I’ve had a travel blog, www.womantraveler.info, for years and post entries only when I’ve had a terrific trip, discovered a fabulous tip, or need to register an opinion that might be helpful to helping others “travel on their own terms.” Nonetheless, I have regular unsolicited followers of my current as well as archived articles.)
• Fill up time? Use the Internet to learn something new and inform yourself.
• See and be seen? Go work out at the health club (another scene that is busier than ever these days)…

I’ve used this pause from blogging to get my business ready for the post-recession. Stay tuned.

“Marketing Your Consulting Business” was a hot topic at the discussion I facilitated today at the Center for Volunteer and Nonprofit Leadership of Marin County. As a marketing consultant working with nonprofits and small and emerging businesses, I find that it’s a smart idea for nonprofit consultants to put the notion of “business” before “nonprofit” in their own positioning. That doesn’t always happen among experts passionate about service to others.

Using the fundamentals that I put before a Vistage International small business group a few weeks ago, I framed the discussion with this big picture strategy — “begin with the end in mind: where do you want to be in 1, 5, 10 years?” A few themes really resonated among the independent consultants, who included specialists in strategic planning, human resources, organizational development, facilitation, fundraising, board development, fundraising communications, grantwriting and leadership development as well as interim executive directors. Chief among them were these: (1) the bottom has not dropped out of the nonprofit market but it’s more essential than ever to leverage one’s niche expertise and (2) consultants with experience can help potential clients understand that skilled consultants are solutions, not problems, in today’s topsy-turvy economy.

The following Small Business Marketing Checklist that I typically use launched a lively discussion:

ü  Develop a plan that answers these questions:

§  Who are my buyers?

§  How do I reach them?

§  What are their motivations? 

§  What problems can I help them solve?

§  What content will compel them to purchase what I have to offer?

ü  Use your website or blog as the foundation of your marketing outreach:

§  A blog is easier, faster, cheaper and more search-engine friendly.

§  “About Us” is one of most important jobs of a business website or blog – explaining your purpose, introducing you to those who don’t know you and providing credibility.

ü  Choose your social media wisely and stick with what works for your niche, style, schedule, interests and business goals:

§  Research where your customers “live” and be visible where they congregate online.

ü  Create a  45-second elevator speech (and practice saying it) as your summary “mantra” that answers these questions in one sentence each. It should stress the benefits of working with you:

§  Name of business and focus

§  Description of ideal customers

§  Value-added or distinctive niche

§  Types of services

ü  Network like crazy:

§  Stay in touch with previous as well as current and prospective clients.

§  Join local and online groups to advance your knowledge, contacts and visibility.

§  Form strategic partnerships for projects and/or marketing.

ü  Monitor your competitors. What works for them?

ü  Focus on 2-3 techniques (traditional and new media) and build on them. Know why you are choosing each one and measure its progress. Reassess and recalibrate.

 ü  Recognize that the market for 2009 and beyond has changed and you may need to repackage your services. Be agile, revise your offering without losing your core strengths – and don’t be afraid to try something new!