Thank you so much, Kelli! 😀 You and your smart daughter made my day!!!

Loved the part where you had your son scan the “doodles” for tonight, and how he earns money for video games, etc. A couple of my kids help me with certain tasks too, and earn from it!

It was the cutest thing ever when you took a brief time-out before you answered questions at the end, and we heard you to yell out to your mom you were almost finished. My daughter was listening with me and said, “Mom, I could see you doing the same thing if you ever did a webinar”. She told me you make learning fun (she’s 13 by the way).

Thank you for the fantastic free webinar 🙂

Thanks so much! That’s really good advice for when we find someone. Hopefully it will be someone as good as you (from what I hear from Susanne:-)

Here are a few of my ideas about how to keep a good VA/service provider, from the perspective of the VA/service provider:

1) Start slowly. We are anxious to please and may be tempted to take on more than we should simply to please you. I started out VERY slowly, learning and completing the simplest tasks as I went because I was so new to the whole thing. So, don’t get so excited to finally outsource a bunch of stuff and throw it all out there at once.

2) Add more similar tasks. Once we know our stuff, give us some more like it. That shows us that you are pleased with the results and want to see more like it. This works to build confidence and helps you unload even more stuff.

3) Communicate. This is a big umbrella. It means communicate on a “How’s your morning going” to “Can you use Tahoma to “Here’s a simple calendar of things I plan to promote over the next six months.” This makes us feel not only connected but prepared, which we love. Difficulties start when we’re guessing what our clients want.

4) Lose Control. This simply means Hand It Over. Once you have developed a relationship with us over time, you should know if you can trust us or not. (If you don’t know us enough to know if you can trust us, then go back to #3.) A VA loves to work on a product (creation?) that she (he) has some control over. If everything we work on is micro-managed, it takes the pride out of it, which is part of the fun, at least for me.

5) Kudos. Even if we aren’t looking for new clients, we like to hear our praises sung. You don’t need to promote us necessarily (unless we ask) but a pat on the back just feels good.

I can see why business owners can be reluctant to outsource; it takes work to build a relationship. But, once they do choose something to outsource and someone to outsource it to, I hope they will take a look at what they can do to help the service provider do a better job for them.

p.s. When I left my j-o-b to start doing this strange new thing (Thank you, Nicole) I was an EXTREME newbie. I’d worked on computers before, but not on any level like this. The reason I’m still here is because I have Nicole for constant support {{Nicole says sigh}}, baby-stepping me through every, single, solitary step {{Nicole again says sigh}}. I don’t think most clients would treat their service providers with as much patience, so I know how lucky I am. Thank you my dear one!

And a big Thank You to Susanne Myers, for all her help and faith in me – it means the world to me, and yes, Susanne also has the patience of a Saint. These years working with Susanne and Nicole have been incredible in so many ways. Thanks again!

I have one GREAT lady who does a tiny little bit for me – I need to give her more work before I lose her!

Yeah, we keep needing to do that. We just keep getting stuff that comes up that is “more” important. 🙂

LOL Tawra. Two of the best things I did for my business – I established a daily routine for me with built-in time to work on my own products/projects, time to work on client work and time to work ON my business establishing systems/processes and managing my Team. That tip was given to me by Mark Hendricks (one very wise man!). The second was to create an actual production schedule of work to do on a given day and who was assigned to do it.

That all might seem simple or logical to most; but when you are so busy to the point of overwhelm, you have to stop, take a step back and look at what you’re doing and how – then make adjustments to keep your time productive, and to keep yourself sane. 😉

If that’s not the truth!!! It sounds just like us! LOL We are so disorganized I can’t believe we are still in business after 12 years and making money at it. LOL

1. Control. Clients are just fearful of letting control of them doing it all themselves.
2. Disorganization. Clients are often disorganized to the point that they don’t get the work together to get it sent to the outsourcer, so it will get done in time (or at all!).
3. Communication. I’ve seen clients who are so busy, they don’t stop to communicate/reply to answer the issues presented so their work can get done and to their desired specifications. Outsourcers are not mind-readers (if they were, they’d charge more money! 😛 )

Outsourcing is a partnership. It takes effort and work on behalf of both parties to get the desired outcome. Looking forward to tonight’s call! 🙂

We will be listening in to get some pointers! Thanks! Tawra