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Virtual events allow you and your business to present your message and brand, easily and effectively, providing your audience with the information they require.

Your virtual event needs to be easy to use and without the requirement to download, leaving you free to run your business. You can then concentrate on what message you want to get across rather than how to use the programmes.

With the recent rise in the cost of travel and transportation, the virtual event, can reduce your expenses in getting your message to your audience, by removing the need for people to travel.

With the requisite travel removed, so too, the overnight accommodation and extended time away from your audiences’ employment. All these, in any business, will be costed against a real world conference or trade show producing a substantial cost to a company.

Reports say that you may well have 4 times more sales leads from a virtual event than a physical one. Together with a database of attendees to use again and again, which will lead to more sales.

There are 2 basic types of virtual events:

The virtual show – This would ordinarily occur in a large conference hall or similar and brings a large physical production, that may have taken months to plan and augment, to your computer-using audience, wherever they may be. They can listen and watch your presentation, digest your information and immediately put it into action.
Your ability to showcase your latest products so easily and inexpensively will reduce your costs and benefit your audience by removing the hassle factor of travelling to a physical event.

Your presentation can avoid boring slides and using the tools available can be turned into a very interesting and flash production.

Just as your audience can be anywhere in the world, likewise your expert speakers can do their presentations from their own offices or wherever they can receive a signal for the Internet connection (even in the nearest Wi-Fi zone when the internet is down). Without the problem of time and travel, which is factored into a physical event, you will be able to provide quality content and speakers who will be able to concentrate on their presentation without the drain on energy of hours spent travelling.

Although you may have a list of attendees for your ‘live’ event, or a boxful of business cards, attendees of virtual events will have logged in with an email that ‘exists’ and provides you with a ready made database of visitors to your event.

The webcast

Revolving around either a single person or a group, no matter where they are located, the use of several different technologies can be used to deliver your message.

Webcasts work on different browsers and platforms, enabling all of your audience to view and take part without the need to download programmes.

Your webcast can also be recorded and distributed after the event, with an ability to reach an even larger audience.

Recording of your event removes the need to take notes and allows reviewing of content at an attendee’s convenience. Removing the hassle for attendees to attend a live event allows you to supply a consistent and engaging message.

Your webcast can be a two-way thing with attendees able to ask questions (or instant message), which lets them learn more and add to your presentation. Your audience can be allowed to communicate with each other also. The extra interaction adds to the value of the webcast for people viewing the presentation after the event.

See next week’s blog for more on virtual events.

1. Increase the number of clients
2. Increase the average purchase value
3. Increase the frequency of the purchase

Many business owners focus their time and energy on the first strategy – attracting more leads and converting them into sales. They embark on costly PPC campaigns, network like mad at all possible events, send 1000s of leaflets or direct mail letters.

But the easy money in your business rests in the other 2 strategies. You are simply asking people who have previously bought from you to buy more or to buy again.

Getting that elusive first purchase is the hardest deal to close for any business, whether you are B2B or B2C.  Your prospects are terrified of making a mistake, of picking the wrong product and wasting money. Fear of getting it wrong is the main reason that stops them trying something new – you.

So why would you then put all your sales and marketing energy into developing new clients? Of course every business needs a stream of new clients but you will see stronger, more predictable revenues by encouraging existing and past clients to buy more from you more often.

How to achieve this? You will need to put in place a process to encourage customers to come back to you, and this process needs to be as formal as any processes in your business. Here are the key steps we use in TJConsulting:

1. Make regular clients feel part of something special. Set something up to reward them for their business and make them feel special. For example, you might give extra products or services to your best clients. If they believe they are getting something free that other people have to pay for, that gives your business an enormous psychological advantage. And that’s very good for retention. Our VIP clients receive a wide of range of discounts and freebies as a thank you for staying with us.
2. Set realistic expectations and plan to beat them. If you know you can deliver within 24 hours, then say it will be delivered within 48 hours. Not only can you delight your clients by appearing to deliver early, but also when things go wrong (as they do sometimes), you have an extra 24 hours in which to fix the problem. And if that fails – apologise and explain what happened. Most people will understand as long as you are honest and upfront.
3. Remember the little things. Do you know when you clients’ birthdays are? Where they are going on holiday this year? It’s easy to send a Christmas card – we all know it’s Christmas time well in advance! But it’s the little things that will make you truly stand out. You can get an automated marketing system or CRM (client relationship management) to do the remembering and reminding for you. If many of your customers use social media then services like FlowTown or MailChimp Faces can pull a lot of their personal details from the public information displayed on social networks.
4. Give things away! Clients already trust your expertise – that’s why they use your business – so when you give them valuable information for free it will be highly appreciated. Don’t be scared: clients are not going to steal your ideas or set up in competition with you but they will feel as though you are adding immense value to their business. That’s why in TJConsulting we run monthly free webinars covering various subjects related to online marketing and offer regular Business Healthchecks to all current customers.
5. Make your business memorable. If you took two businesses selling the same things at the same prices, something fun and memorable, that’s unique to your business, can seriously affect the buying decision.

And if that fails – remember at least to get a full testimonial from each past customer to help you attract new leads. High quantity of quality testimonials will significantly improve your conversion rates.

What’s your way of getting your clients to come back and buy more and often? Please share here with us and other readers.

Secondly, it’s all about the process and self-discipline. Keep your books up to date and avoid piles of receipts and invoices stacking up in the corner. Tackling books a little and often would reduce your fear and overwhelm when dealing with it. You can also employ an accountant to keep an eye on your records. This will be much cheaper than getting them to do it all for you, but you won’t have to fear making a mistake and being fined by the “tax people”.

Finally, realise why you are doing it. Bookkeeping is a wonderful practice helping you as a business owner understand where you need to reduce the expenses and how you can gain more profit. Bookkeeping is a core area of your business, it’s the blood pressure measurements of your cash flow lifeblood. If you don’t do it regularly you may miss the warning signals of your business running out of cash. As a solopreneur coach or consultant you would really want to avoid that at all costs!

Here are our useful tips on how to deal with your business bookkeeping:

• Your bookkeeping will be more effective if you have a system that can quickly analyse the financial transaction of your company. You will then see the “large picture” behind the numbers and reconciliation.
• Keep your offline books and registers in either invoice number or date order, rather than entering some in invoice number and some in date order. Try to keep your personal expenses separate from your business expenses at all times. Be consistent with the way you decide to do your bookkeeping.
• Follow a check-off list whether you employ payroll services or you are preparing payroll tax returns by yourself. Keeping a good due date reminders will be the best idea in order to file and pay the taxes on time.
• Keep good records. If your records are poorly maintained, you will not be able to understand the expenses and the income in the past and in the future. You will be unable to decide on important decisions like investment, marketing or hiring staff. This creates massive chaos in your business planning!
• Request bank statement with month end cut off date. This will save your time while reconciling your records with the bank statement every month.
• Establish a systematic practice of monitoring transactions on a regular basis (daily or weekly). This will avoid the small mistakes, lost receipts or the unwanted purchases.
• Depositing the cash immediately at the bank once it’s received. Check how the bank charges you for over the counter services. It may make more sense to receive payments and pay your suppliers via online transfers (direct debit, standing order or direct deposit).

But if all fails and you just don’t want to do it any more – hire a bookkeeper. Online bookkeeping is straightforward and will let you just view the reports and summaries, while someone else, like a virtual assistant, can deal with entering all transactions.

So how can we keep our businesses profitable in tough economic times?

Sell more to your existing customers – you have already created rapport, trust and proved your credibility to them. Use bundles when selling: as your customers decide to buy one product you can offer them another. You can also add low cost bonuses to your offer that have high perceived value – ebooks, member-only sites, consulting, e-reports, etc. And never forget about viral marketing on the Internet!

Create joint venture deals with other businesses and cross promote your products or services. You will reach a wider audience at less cost. Trade advertising with other businesses, find complementary products or services through networking. Start an affiliate program for your business. Less money on advertising, yet more guaranteed sales!

Outsource part of your workload. Outsourcing to a freelancer can be a great alternative compared with hiring someone full or part time. This will save on employee costs, taxes, equipment and office space, expansion, recruitment. Furthermore you will get the flexibility of only using as much or as little of the service as you need – catering for idle periods over holidays and busy times when you have a lot of orders. Why do you need someone helping in your business? Well we can’t all be equally good at everything or equally love all parts of the business. Tasks like book-keeping, call handling, setting up sales pages, marketing, telesales – can all be handled by experienced and able professionals.

Follow up with all prospects. You will need a good Customer Relationship Management (CRM) system to enter any leads as you find them and keep track of any communications between you by phone, email, fax or in person. Set yourself reminders to chase leads regularly and see if their needs change thus creating you an opportunity to offer your products or services.

Traditionally, company phone systems have been a costly, but necessary means of keeping in touch with employees and customers. PBX phone systems were originally credited with helping to lower overhead costs as they eliminated the need for separate phone lines. Yet, costs for maintaining these systems have remained high. Much like the Internet telephony systems available to consumers in their homes, business VoIP services are springing up to serve small and medium sized businesses everywhere. Business VoIP calls are routed through Internet wiring for a much cheaper alternative than the traditional phone system. Gone is the need for a receptionist to screen and redirect calls, the VoIP PBX system can be set up to do that for you. You can implement a VoIP system as little as one line and as large as a call centre. Some can work with your existing equipment and phone/broadband. And many will offer extra benefits like call diversion rules, custom greetings, group pickup for many agents, e-fax and e-conference centre, call waiting, voice mail forwarding to email account, etc. Our Pro-iPBX VoIP system has been a lifesaver here in TJConsulting on many occasions! And you can always use your favourite call answering service with your VoIP system too.

Work out what you’re best at and express it clearly on all marketing material – niche marketing is a simpler and more profitable way to grow your business, rather than trying to be everything for everyone. The more detailed your customer avatar is – the simpler it will be for you to find them, connect with them and offer something of value. To start creating your customer avatar think of the following questions:

• Who is my ideal customer? Who would I like to work with?
• Are they able to pay my fees? Will they be willing to pay my fees?
• What problem do they have in life, that my offering will help them solve?
• Why is it important to get it solved?
• How many of those customers are out there in the marketplace?
• WHERE… (do they work? Where do they study? Where do they live?)
• WHAT… (do they eat, drink, read, listen to, are interested in?)
• HOW… (do they look for new products or services, do they choose their suppliers, do they pay the bills?)

Talk to current and former clients to understand if they want the services you offer - there is no better way to find out if people want what you set out to deliver than actually asking them!  Talk to your ex-colleagues, people you know in business, create a survey and email it to your contacts. At the end you will have a statistics to hand to show whether your business proposition is viable.

Keep marketing even when you’re snowed under with work – many solopreneurs go through the same business cycle of  ”no work – marketing – lots of work – no marketing – no work”. It may be hard to find time when you are already busy. But by carefully managing your time and finding a few chunks of 60-90min per week to do your marketing will help you smooth the flow of work and ensure that you don’t end up with too many of those “no work” periods. Many marketing strategies are designed for ongoing marketing based on building relationships. Such strategies work best when you regularly commit to doing something over and over again, regardless of the amount of time/work you have at the moment: Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, other social media, networking, blogging, etc.

Invoice promptly and chase for payment as soon as its due – if you have done your job well you should get paid for it. And being late with your invoice can show your business as unorganised. Plus it means you are giving your customers a free credit, instead of earning interest on their payment in your own bank account. If you are really late with your invoice – the customer may forget about the benefits of your product or service, may ask for changes or extra work before the invoice gets paid or simply go out of business in the current climate. Can you really afford to lose your income like that?

Keep careful records of expenses for tax purposes – trying to do a year’s worth of accounts actually at the end of the year is more expensive, more stressful and there is a deadline which you can’t miss. Much better way is to keep track of your income and expenses throughout the year and keep your book-keeping system up-to-date. Losing claimable business expenses (especially if paid by cash) could mean that you will have to pay more tax than you should. So speak now to your accountant to see if they offer a book-keeping service, set up your system to do it yourself and get your virtual assistant to help with book-keeping on the regular basis (TJConsulting can offer great deals for our book-keeping customers using Xero or KashFlow systems).

Always use a contract or send clients your terms and conditions, however small the job – make sure your contract has been checked by a solicitor before you start using it. Not sending your contract through for a “small job” can potentially leave you open to payment disputes, invalidation of your business and/or professional indemnity insurance, claims against your business. Better being safe in the knowledge and both parties have clear expectations and know the rules – so spend that 15-30min to draft your contract and get it signed before starting any assignment. Finally, if the client wants you to sign their own agreement – get it checked first by a solicitor to ensure that there will be no unpleasant surprises later.

Put at least 30% of what you earn aside to cover tax and unexpected gaps in income – August and Christmas time are traditionally quiet in the UK. In any country there will be periods when a lot of people take time off to go on holidays. So cover yourself for such gaps you need to ensure there is enough cash in the business. Another issue to consider is tax. Unlike being employed, when your tax is taken off the salary before it’s transferred to your bank account, when you are running a business you need to remember that taxes are due quarterly or yearly in most cases and prepare for it. Your accountant can give you an estimate of how much tax will be due to ensure that you have enough cash set aside to cover those bills when the time comes.

BONUS TIP: Being a solopreneur doesn’t mean you are alone – although you won’t have a water cooler where you can chat to your colleagues, you can find people in similar position to buddy up with. LinkedIn has a large number of groups specific for industries, interests or locations where you can talk to other professionals, exchange tips and experience. Online and offline networking can offer a sense of community and interaction. Finally, having a business coach or a mentor can offer guidance, support and a sounding board for your ideas. Some of our clients regularly have a business briefing sessions when we help them to sort out their ideas and projects, create a structured system of what needs to get done when, offer a sympathetic ear for their business problems – one of the reasons to hire a virtual assistant.

What’s your top business tip? Please share with other readers!

Over the past year we have been searching high and low for a super-efficient business system we can use in TJConsulting and offer to our clients. And finally, after trying and testing, reading 100s of reviews – it’s here.

It consists of 3 parts, but don’t despair – they all work as One, efficient, online, affordable solution. And they are…. Xero, Capsule and MailChimp.

Xero is the accounting system of the 21st century. If you are not an accountant and dread “reconciliation” or “P&L” – this is the system for you. It’s very simple to use, you can access it from anywhere with an Internet connection and it’s secure.

Capsule is an online Contact Relationship Management (CRM) tool that will integrate with Xero – so you only have to enter your data once. You can track leads and conversion, manage information, analyse sales and productivity, and (yet again) it’s very simple to use!

MailChimp is used to send your newsletters, mailshots and autoresponders. Without being repetitive – it’s simple, clean, straightforward. It can send regular newsletters and schedule a series of messages. MailChimp can integrate with a large number of social media networks, Eventbrite (for event bookings) and is a top-rated social media tool (according to mashable.com).

So what does it mean for you?

Exclusive Xero benefits

Xero provides a view of financial information in real-time. There’s no need to buy expensive software and install upgrades. Xero is available on your PC or Mac in the office, at home or on popular mobile devices – anywhere, anytime. The beauty of Xero is you can invite a number of trusted people such as us, your accountants, to collaborate online. No more cumbersome transfer of data that can be corrupted or is out-of-date!

As a Xero Certified Partner we can introduce you to Xero and have you up and running in no time. The following services are exclusive to Xero Partners:

Interested? Contact us now to arrange a demonstration.

Biz Cards Buster, now with Capsule CRM!

You think you’ve seen it last month? Our popular Business Cards Buster offer is back, AND it’s even better this time round! As an exclusive partner of Capsule CRM we are now offering the setup to you as part of this AMAZING DEAL!

Why not consider passing over the responsibility to your virtual assistant TJConsulting. Here’s what we offer:

You will get ALL of the above for just £85+VAT. BOOK NOW to secure this amazing limited offer!

While it is still weak compared with the figures two years ago, it reflects slightly more people feeling positive about job prospects and their own finances.Justin Sargent, managing director at Nielsen, said that when confidence picked up between April and June there was a tangible change in the UK’s mood.

While concerns about the economy and job security are easing, concerns over debt and work/life balance are increasing. Debt is currently the biggest worry for 15% of people, up from 10% a year ago. And, as the pressure over job prospects remains very real and people in employment work harder, there has been a big increase in the number of people feeling that their work/life balance is their biggest concern (from 4% in October 2008 to 9% in October 2009).

There is evidence to suggest that lifestyles and habits have changed for many people, with 70% claiming that they have changed their spending in order to save on household cost.

Our behaviours are partly inherited and partly based on past experiences. We can’t change the past but we can change our attitude towards it. Successful people change their behaviour more often than those around them – and that’s what makes them outstanding. It’s especially important in the current climate to ensure that you change your attitude towards selling to gain more business. According to the recent statistics 95% of new businesses, set up this year, will fail before the end of the recession. And 30,000 closed down last year. If we fail to change and to adapt we could follow their fate.

You also need to account for the natural annual client loss which is estimated to be at 10-15%. So to ensure your income stays the same every year you need to find 10-15% new clients. Calculate yourself how many that would be for your business.

Here are simple ways to increase sales without selling:

• You can increase the number of your customers by asking your existing customers for introductions or referrals. You already know them and they know you. They do business with you and they think you are great. Why don’t they recommend you then to their friends and business colleagues? Following up on such “warm leads” is so much easier!
• You can increase the average invoice value. First you need to work out your current average invoice value. To do this divide your gross profit for the last 6-12 months by the total number of invoices issued. You can break it down even further by client and see who is your most profitable client. To increase the average value you can try bulk sales (3 for the price of X), special offers if buying extra products, small price increase for the most popular products.
• Small price increase for the most popular products. You may say that during the recession you can’t afford to increase prices as you will lose customers. That’s not entirely true. You may not be able to increase prices by more than 25% however small increase of 5-10% would be acceptable. Your customers understand that the cost of living and running the business increases even during the recession. It’s better to do a number of small price changes rather than one large one. Even if it’s only £1 but you sell 1000 of those items per month – you will get £1000 extra without any extra selling.
• Increase the frequency of re-purchasing. Look at your business statistics – which of your customers haven’t purchased from you recently (the meaning of recently could vary depending on your business)? Are they still in business? When did you last speak to them? It’s time to follow up! They are already your customers, so when you are calling – you are not selling. You just want to find out how they are, what they are up to, if anything’s changed as you haven’t heard from them for a while. Would they be able to recommend you? Or maybe provide a written testimonial? Is there anything you can adjust in your sales process to have them on board again?

It’s very important that you have your management statistics available and up to date in order to take such steps. If you don’t know how to produce the reports you need using your book-keeping system or if you would like to put a better system in place contact TJConsulting Virtual PA for a free consultation.

For more similar tips and articles check our website and subscribe to the regular newsletter.

Good luck!