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JERPAT's Monthly Tips
January 1, 2006
Issue 3
Sponsored by JERPAT
Patty Benton, Editor
Missed one of our past issue? Click here
to view our archive.
In this issue:
Note from Patty
Tip of the Month-Backing Up Your System
Outlook Tips by Andrea Kalli
Putting Your VA to Work for You!
Article-Marketing Resolutions for the New Year
Special Offer
Note from Patty
I hope that everyone had a great New Year! I am excited to see
2006 arrive, as I see a lot of wonderful things happening. Many
wonderful changes will be taking place for JERPAT and for our
clients. We will be expanding our team this year to offer an
even wider variety of talent and skills for our clients. We are
looking forward to working with our past, present, and future clients
to expand their businesses.
As always, please send us your questions and
suggestions for this newsletter, as we want it to benefit you all.
Have a great start to 2006!
God
bless,
Patty Benton
JERPAT
Virtual Assistants and Web Designs
Tip of the Month
This month I want to encourage you to
get a back-up system. Last year, my hard drive crashed. I
was blessed that I was able to recover the data, but not everyone is
always as lucky. After having my hard drive crash and fearing
the loss of a lot of data, we purchased an external hard drive that
automatically back-ups. They can be inexpensive and will save
you a lot of stress.
Recently, a client called me very stressed because
she had lost her contacts in her Outlook folder. We spent 2 1/2
hours looking for her data and could not find it. We even
called in Andrea Kalli of Virtual Trainer and Assistant, LLC, who is
a trainer on Microsoft Outlook. After much searching, it became
apparent that the client's Outlook file was not being backed up.
Many of us think we are protecting ourselves by backing up, but few
of us recognize that our Outlook file is not being backed up.
Thanks to Andrea, she has found a way for this not to happen again.
Outlook 2003 has a free add-in that will
back up all your Outlook files (Contacts and Calendars also)
automatically. I suggest you download this and start ensuring
that you are backing up everything and don't lose any important
data
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyId=8B081F3A-B7D0-4B16-B8AF-5A6322F4FD01&displaylang=en.
To your success this year!
Outlook Tips
by Andrea Kalli
by Andrea Kalli
akalli@virtualassist.net
Tip #1
Want a quick way to include an email you received from a client to
their contact record? Open the contact record, go up to the Insert
menu >> Item. Outlook will automatically access your inbox, locate
and select the email, make sure it will insert as Attachment (mine is
default, yours might be too), click OK. If you receive faxes via your
inbox, this feature becomes twice as powerful. Now might be a great
time for you to try one of the many internet fax services for
incoming and outgoing faxes. If your client faxes you contracts, job
items, etc. and you receive them in your inbox, you can very easily
tie them to the contact record. This method is handy if you are going
to attach several items to a contact. However, if you want the same
results for a lot of attachments over a long period of time, you may
want to use Journal items. See the next tip...
Tip #2
Here's how: from your contact record go up to Actions >> New Journal
entry for contact >> make sure you change the entry type on the
journal to what it's supposed to be (email, fax, etc.), on the
Journal form use Insert >> Item and follow the same process as above
to create the attachment (multiple attachments can also be done in
the same Journal item, perhaps a way to centralize all items related
to a particular project), click Save and Close. To view this journal
item simply go to the Activities tab. Not seeing all the information
you want on the Activities tab? Customize it! On the Activities tab,
right click on the field headers (ask me to clarify further if
needed), select Field Chooser >> change the drop down to All Journal
Fields, then drag and drop the fields you want, such as Entry Type,
to the field header area taking note of the red arrows for placement.
Once you have a field like Entry Type available you can sort on the
field or group on the field, etc. for better organization. Grouping
on the fly is a fantastic way to see your data the way you want it
whenever you want. Want to group by a field? Here's how: right click
on the field headers >> select Group By Box, notice the new area
above the fields, drag and drop the desired field (such as Entry
Type) and voila! You can now see all Phone calls in a group, Faxes in
a group, Emails in a group, Documents in a group, etc. Play around
with this feature to suit your business needs. If you are going to
use Actions >> Link >> Items directly from the contact record
instead, you have to remember that these are only links and when you
delete the emails from your inbox and deleted items folder they will
no longer be associated with your contact.
I know it's a lot of information, but take your time and explore how
this feature can help you in your everyday work.
The Convenience of Virtual Training and
Assistance
Andrea Kalli Virtual Trainer and Assistant, LLC provides remote,
interactive Outlook 2003 training for small groups and one-on-one
sessions, as well as online support services for all versions of
Outlook, all at the comfort of your own desk or home PC. We offer
Outlook usability support for you or for all your employees. It's
like having an in-house Outlook expert! Empower your employees to use
the powerful collaboration features of Outlook with Exchange Server.
We focus on training users to get the most out of Outlook in the
business world. Onsite group Outlook training is available for the
Denver metro area of Colorado. Think about the immediate benefits to
virtual training...no more time spent driving, using valuable gas,
and looking or paying for parking. All this at a cost that is lower
than most traditional training classes. To learn more about this
unique way of learning please visit www.virtualassist.net
Putting Your VA to Work for You!
(adapted from 101 Plus Ways to Use a
Virtual Assistant (VA) from coachville.com)
You need a completion certificate
for the participants in your seminar/workshop. You fax or email
your participant list to your Virtual Assistant (VA). Your VA
can design and get your certificates printed. Your VA can then
ensure the certificates get to you or make sure the certificates get
mailed to your participants upon completion of the seminar.
Marketing Resolutions for the
New Year
By Patty Benton
www.moretime4u.org
© 2005 JERPAT Virtual Assistants
Everyone knows that with the New Year comes the big New Year’s
resolutions. Many of us make personal goals, such as losing weight,
being nice to our mother-in-law, not eating out so much, etc. etc.
Oddly enough, many of us do not set New Year’s resolutions for our
business. This is very important to do. The beginning of the year is
a great time to look over the past year and look at our successes,
and yes, our failures. What went well last year? What needs changed
from last year? This information will help us set our resolutions. On
top of this, we need to look at how to help our business grow. In
this article, I am going to help you get started on your “marketing
resolutions for the new year.”
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Look at your past marketing plan.
What worked, what didn’t?
-
Create a new marketing plan for
this new year. Be sure to include the following:
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Successful marketing from last
year-Don’t try anything new until you are sure you have implemented
what has worked for you in the past!
-
Monthly plans. Create a plan.
Don’t just haphazardly advertise; what a waste! What will be your
goal each month? Will you put together a mailing list and send
letters to the same businesses each month for 6 months? Will you add
your link to 5 sites each month? Will you start a company newsletter?
Will you advertise in 5 newsletters each month? Will you apply or
call 5 positions posted each day in your local newspaper?
-
Target clientele- It is very
important in marketing to establish who you want to sell your service
or product to, and market to that group. Don’t just market somewhere
because it’s cheap, market because it is going to reach your target
clientele. If I am selling computers, why would I advertise in a
garden magazine? Wouldn’t it be smarter to advertise in an IT
magazine or newsletter even if it costs more?
-
Budget marketing allowance. How
much are you going to budget each month for marketing? What will you
spend that allowance on? Be specific!! How much will you spend on
postage, to advertise in newsletters, etc.?
-
Track your budget-Pay attention to
where you are spending your marketing budget. Make an excel
spreadsheet, create your budget in it, and then track your budget by
noting besides each allowance where you spent it. You can even add a
column to document how many leads you received from each advertising.
This will allow you to better track what is working and what is not
(helpful for monthly marketing and your next new year plan)!
-
Plan your follow-up. Have a plan
in place for when the phone rings from your marketing and it is the
first client. I have an initial contact form in place. I fill out all
the information I need to do follow up calls/emails. Make sure you
get name, number and email (at the least)! I once had a potential
client call and in the middle of the call my daughter felt that was
the best time to give me back her lunch (if you know what I mean).
While trying to talk with the new potential client, and clean her up
(without letting him know I was distracted), I forgot to get his
email. This cut off any future follow-up that I could do with him. If
I had my form, this would not have happened! Have something in
place!!!!
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Continually check your marketing
plan. Check frequently the success of all of your marketing-that
spreadsheet will be a big help. If you aren’t receiving any calls or
sales from your marketing letters, evaluate why. Try to use a
different marketing letter, or is it that you didn’t create your
follow-up plan. Check the responses your getting from each newsletter
advertisement (track the responses) and evaluate if you are spending
your money on the right newsletter.
Make this year your most
successful year yet! Let’s all grow our businesses and become even
more prosperous than last year! In order to do this, let the world
know (okay, your neighborhood for now, and the world next year) that
your business is there and what you can do for your neighborhood.
Create your target, and go for it!
Patty Benton is the owner of JERPAT Virtual
Assistants and JERPAT Web Design, www.moretime4u.org, which provides
affordable administrative and web design support to coaches, small
businesses, religious organizations, and realtors. Additionally,
Patty is a coach for new entrepreneurs interested in venturing into
the virtual assistance industry. She has developed a program that is
affordable for all. Visit her coaching site at www.virtualvacoach.com
for program details and great business resources. If you would like
to receive Patty's articles and other tips in your mailbox every
month, you can sign up at www.mortime4u.org/home.html.
© 2005 JERPAT Virtual Assistants
You have permission to reprint this article electronically or in
print, as long as the text and byline remain unedited. A courtesy
copy of your publication would be appreciated.
Special Offer
With the New Year here, let us help you
kick it off by assisting you with your New Year marketing. Get
a 10% discount on Press Releases and Article submissions.
Contact us by the January 15th and get an extra 5% off your final
marketing bill!
Contact Patty today for more information on this
special.
(Good only for the month of January,
2006)
Contact
Patty Benton
va@jerpat.org
www.moretime4u.org
www.virtualvacoach.com
303.766.3051 9
am-5 pm MST Monday-Friday
© 2005 JERPAT
No part of this
newsletter may be reproduced unless specified in the authors byline.
Please respect all guidelines provided in this newsletter. If there are
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jerpattips@moretime4u.org.
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